Given the current idiot in charge, and the wanton refusal to engage in any form of international diplomacy that doesn’t serve an extremist right-wing agenda, it’s easy to forget about the many good points of American life. Today’s Observer has an opinion piece outlining the less visible side (at present) of American life:

God-bothering is, of course, a pain. But at least it is kept out of state schools so no parental piety – real or otherwise – may snaffle a choicer education from a more deserving child. And speaking of children: we only hear of the one who runs amok in West Virginia; from the other 58 million, we have lessons to learn. Even in deprived, no-go-after-dark downtown, teenage boys stand to look you in the eye, call you ma’am and have no familiarity with the language of the monosyllabic grunt – if only because their mamas, white and black, will have it no other way, not because the government is sponsoring ‘initiatives’ on ‘respect’