Mencken

Mencken was prophetic: the Fox ranters are proof positive that a malingering boobisie is haunting American life. Palin as Weep? How low can you go? Obama's a Muslim, born outside the US of A? The Zillionaires who are financing the TeePeeWeeWee Parties will go down in our Hysteria as the dumbest Nuts who ever corrupted a democracy.

The current Der Spiegel's Halloween issue is truly scary: The Americans have given up on their Dream. I used to tell my AmLit students AL was the greatest unread lit in the history of mankind, and that a people who didn't read their great writers eventually lost their minds.

Alas, it came quicker than I feared. We "Exceptionally Blessed" Ams turn out to be exceptionally schitzy, veering too facilely between too much idealism (the Peace Corps) and a flabby materialism (making Iraq safe for demogoguery).

Maybe if they had taken Mencken more seriously. Oh well, it was frustrating while lasted--to Amerinds, black and white slaves, not to forget unemployed works whose bosses made 300 times what they used to make, after Reagan began his reign of error by breaking one union and advising the brass to break the rest by outsourcing.