Apparently, the nation that shed blood in its gritty fight for independence, and did so again on foreign soil to protect and expand Democracy has become the laughing stock of the world.

The now retired late-night funny man David Letterman once led off his show featuring a Top Ten List. Now it seems that our neighbors to the north, Canada, have come up with a version of Letterman’s bit with a Top 10 of their own. However, their top 10 is a list of America’s stupidity. It’s left us looking liked a bunch of idiots, which, of course, we are.

Here is the list devised by Canadians:

#10 – Only in America… could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,0000 per plate campaign fund-raising event.

#9 – Only in America… could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when they have a black President, a black Attorney General and roughly 20 percent of the federal workforce is black while only 14 percent of the overall population is black. 40+percent of all federal entitlements goes to black Americans, which is three times the rate that go to whites, and five times the rate that go to Hispanics.

#8 – Only in America… could they have had the two people most responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner (the head of the Treasury Department) and Charles Rangel (who once ran the Ways and Means Committee), BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher taxes.

#7 – Only in America… can they have terrorists kill people in the name of Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash.

#6 – Only in America…would they make people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege, while they discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just ‘magically’ become American citizens. (This should probably be number one)

#5 – Only in America… could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by the country’s Constitution be called EXTREMISTS.

#4 – Only in America… could you be required to present a driver’s license to cash a check or buy alcohol, but not to vote.

#3 – Only in America… could people demand the government investigate whether oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when the return on equity invested in a major U.S. Oil company (Marathon Oil) is less than half of a company making tennis shoes (Nike).

#2 – Only in America… could you collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation in recorded history, still spend a trillion dollars more than it has per year – for total spending of $7 million PER MINUTE, and then complain that it doesn’t have nearly enough money.

#1 – Only in America…. could the rich people – who pay 86 percent of all income taxes – be accused of not paying their “fair share” by people who don’t pay any income taxes at all. This ranking needs to be shared with the fact that if you do not work and do not receive a dime in wages during the course of a year, you still get to fill out an income tax return and get thousands of dollars back.

I could personally add to this list. One in particular is how we develop anti-bullying campaigns to teach our children to steer clear of that vicious lifestyle, but yet it’s perfectly acceptable for company executives to threaten to pull their businesses out of North Carolina because our state legislators want to protect the privacy and physical/mental well-being of women and children in public bathrooms by not allowing transgender men to enter.

No wonder we look stupid to our global neighbors. That’s what happens when the inmates are running the asylum.

 

Cal Bryant is Editor of Roanoke-Chowan Publications. He can be contacted at cal.bryant@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7207.