And the American Word for "Wanker" Is?

Mark Steyn has an article in the National Review of November 7 explaining why European-style nanny statism is dooming western civilization. It ends,

". . . there seem to be no American equivalents of the uglier phenomena of European multiculturalism-the Muslim gang-rapists in France or the Muslim yobs in Yorkshire, who on the night of September 11 rampaged through the streets banging on the hoods of cars and demanding the drivers join them in cheering Osama bin Laden. The reason seems obvious: If you tried to do that to a pick-up truck in Texas, you'd get your head blown off. The bullying, intimidating side of Muslim immigration in Europe seems to be wholly absent herein part at least because the assertiveness of the individual American citizen makes it a riskier proposition.

That's also the lesson of 9/l1. The first three planes were effectively an airborne European Union, where the rights of the citizens had been appropriated by the FAA's flying nanny state. On the fourth, Flight 93, Todd Beamer and others reclaimed those rights, and demonstrated that they could exercise them more efficiently than government.

The modern social-democratic state is so corrosive of its citizens' will and so enervating in its elevation of secondary priorities (welfare, paid vacation) over primary ones (family, national defense) that most of them will not survive this great existential struggle. In America, a wartime president should understand that this is no time to increase his own citizenry's addiction to entitlement. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have, starting with your sense of self-reliance."

Makes me shiver.

Reminds me of that bloke in the movie Airplane who says, "They knew the risks when they got on the plane. I say let them crash."