The Global Mission (7th Day Adventist)
The Global Mission (Lutheran Evangelical)
Global Missions (Church of God Ministeries)
Global Ministries (United Church of Christ)
Global Missions Center (New Orleans Baptist)
(and so on goes the endless list)
This list unfairly represents American culture as overly religious. It is, of course, but a more balanced accounting should include American Idol, Survivor and Cage Fighting.
I'm a Yank, by the way, from Idaho, no less, and I "just gotta say one thing": For every successful seller of trash, there is a buyer of trash.
On the other hand, the Pacific Northwest, where I live, brews superb beer, the best of it the equal of the best of Europe IMHO; a little creamery in California right now is making a blue cheese like non other, wrapped in grape leaves and un-pasturized, caved near the sea; Hagerman, Idaho is home to a burgeoning, sustainable, sturgeon caviar production; WA. and OR are producing world class wine, and there are few enough people here for me to hunt and have an elk in the freezer that I shot last fall.
I swear we have good writers here. Jim Harrison may be my favorite. Unlike Hemmingway, (a beloved sometime-local who shot himslf in the Sun Valley lodge) he always seems to find time for food and sex in his fishing stories.
We still make some good music, although mostly we outsource this job to Britain and Japan.
We make ****** cars, but they're getting better. One day before I die, if they keep improving I might even buy one. (but the clock is ticking)
If one were to flush Hollywood into the Pacific what the rest of the world thought of us would be vastly improved.
. . . but for the politics and the politicians. And the religious right. Those things are probably far worse than they seem from afar. This is an Oil Oligarchy now. **** freedom, screw stem cells and art, we just want a cheap tank of petrol and a leader who will lie convincingly and remind us that, just like the Nazis, God is on our side, and make sure that the bill for our current lifestyle is paid for by someone else. Our children no doubt.
In the mean time, the pendulum of progress has swung back to the Continent (E.U.!!!!!) Gay marriage legal in Spain. Did you guys forget to expect the Spainish Inquisition? Nobody expects the . . . . . sorry. Python fan.
On the other, other hand, we got rid of a layer of scum once, a long time back, re-inventing ourlves in the process. Who's to say we won't do it again?
Call me a skeptical optimist.