This is a bit off topic, but I think a lot of lefties have gotten a bit full of themselves after the victory in November.

The liberals/leftists in America will never win the battle of ideas. The numbers just aren't there. Poll after poll has proven it. America's just too conservative a country overall. And unless the UK really is going to become the 51st state, it's going to stay that way.

Leftism is dying in countries where it actually existed as a dominant political force. Sweden, Germany, Britain, Italy, France, you name it. Do you really think going back to old style 70's era Democratic politics is going to yield anything other than more republican landslides? As attractive as those ideas were/are, they're not going to be winning elections anywhere in the near future.

If you think Howard Dean's success is based on his idealism, then you've gone delusional. November was a victory of strategy and tactics, not ideas. And yeah, I think Emanuel should get a bit of credit. That doesn't mean you have to stop hating him tho.

I moved to Britain 5 years ago because I was lucky enough to have a mother who was born in the Cayman Islands. And it's just amazing. I still can't get over the absolutely free healthcare. Just ring up the doctor and set an appointment and you are sorted.

I have a condition that requires medication that costs over $100 per month. In America I could never afford it. Here it costs me less than $15 and if I really was in a bind I could get it for free.

So I've come to the conclusion that the Revolution was a massive mistake, (All the mythology surrounding it is BS anyway) and I've taken to wearing black on the 4th of July as a sign of mourning. People call Britain the 51st state, but I say we should reverse it, and resubmit ourselves to the enlightened rule of the British crown. Who's with me?

All the muddle headed accusations about oil or American empire were way off base. This war was about revenge, pure and simple.

Lots of Americans I know regard 9/11 as the worst thing to happen in the history of the world. For them (and I dare say most Americans) America is omnipotent, inviolate, the very centre of the world, society and everything. The fact that something like that could happen, and more importanly could happen again, was inconceivable.

Considering that attitude, Bush's war was remarkably restrained. I thank god we didn't have a schizo like John McCain in the White House. One gets the distinct impression that had he been in charge on 11 September 2001, he would have bombed the middle east into radioactive glass.

The penultimate paragraph in the article is what upset me more than anything. When the article asks, very rationally, what would be so wrong with a merger between the USA, Canada, and Mexico, the good Mr. Corsi spews forth a torrent of American exceptionalist b******t.

"Our institutions are unique"

"Our declaration of rights are unique"

"The structure of government is unique in preserving the liberties it was created to preserve"

and so forth.

Reading that you might think America was the only liberal democracy on Earth and the only country capable of having such a government. I think 400 million Europeans and several million Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, Japanese, and others would strenuously disagree.

In fact, if you're poor, or gay, or black, your rights would probably be better represented with a bit of Canadian influence, maybe even Mexican too, (not too sure about their political system).

America is NOT special. It's just a country with qualities and drawbacks like any other one. It is not the founder or safeguard or beacon of liberty. Precious few Americans realise this, and it just serves as a reminder of why I left. Were more Americans to accept this seemingly self-evident fact, I think relations with the rest of the world will be much improved...

Perchance to dream.

I don't know any transgendered people, or very much about what it means to be transgender, so this is really more of a question than a statement...

but I thought that being transgendered was about feeling a gender (psychological) identity different from sex (physiological) identity. A man being trapped in a woman's body for example.

So why can't we just identify a transgendered person as their psychological identity? Can't we just classify gender reassignment surgery and the things associated with it as part of a person's confidential medical history? Or is this the kind of thing that a person feels uncomfortable in keeping private?

The Republicans ritual suicide in California (are there any more beautiful words in the English language than Proposition 187) is going to be repeated on a national scale. Tom Tancredo is a gift from god that might be the only thing that keeps America from sinking into a reactionary medieval theocratic nightmare.

I say a prayer every night for that man. I've been thinking of volunteering for his campaign. Viva Tancredo!