In America, Walt Disney opened an amusement park.And in Florence, someone was savaging the remnants of a Tuscan nobleman’s family.

I am a child of the American Century, and I feel a genetic commitment to understanding why it happened, and why I take it so personally.

ab Americo Inventore ...quasi Americi terram sive AmericamFrom Amerigo the discoverer ...as if it were the land of Americus, thus America.

The mainstream media in America has become an insidious device of ignorance. They not only shape the story, but now participate. For what?

There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong.

I wonder if she’s infatuated enough to let me lock her in a box with me on a cool fall day and make love like America depends on us.

My shoes I got to pick. I chose worn-out red flats. I figured I should make it clear from the start that I wasn’t princess material.

I thought about the cameras following me in the terminal and pictured my family watching my entrance on TV. I hoped they’d be proud.

American culture enforces such rigid gender roles for male friendships that they are gay unless they materially resemble a beer commercial.

America is not a place, America is an idea—an idea that died along with my grandpa. And I’m sad to say I shot them both.


Brave Americans in past wars didn't die for the actual flag--they died for the freedom it represents, including the freedom to burn it.

America. The enemy. The rival. The land of jeans and rock and roll, of crime and capitalism, of poverty and oppression. Of home and freedom.

If Americans simply choose to vote for the person who has a D or an R by their name, we will get what we deserve, which is what we have now.

This won't stop her from getting elected...Stupider people get elected all the time. It's America. We love the sleazy. And the crazy.

But Moby-Dick is the explanation of America. It’s not just a novel. It is a book of prophecy. It is the book. It is the book of America.