US of A: Impressions

Walking through Central Station, two elder women and a man - one woman to the other "He is a socialist, we don't want a socialist, I'm not voting for him"

"He is a Marxist, he wants to take money, and redistribute wealth - he wants to tell you what to do with your money. Obama, Reid, Pelosi - the gang of three - they are all Marxists"
(A commentator on "Liberal" CNN, in need of what could be called a little "political re-education" this guy actually hosts a program on CNN. One can only wonder what the real wackos on talkback radio are saying... Luke ?)

Funnily enough the conservative/Republicans seems to despise the "liberal media" more that the Democrats/liberals themselves. Take Sarah Palin's convention speech where she spends a few bit of time wacking the liberal media/elites in Washington. However the tactic (as adopted by J Howard) of applying massive pressure on the media, means that people self correct or get on guests who may have a few screws loose but are Republican. All in the name of fair and balanced !! I think in Australia , though we have seen it a little in the history wars we are relatively free of the rabid conservatism in the US where conservatives are willing to forcefully argue every point, and demand that they recieve equal attention. Thus books like "48 Lies Liberals Taught You in School" get on the main tables at bookshops.


Central Park has to take the cake for parks in big cities. I spent nearly two weeks in NY and got lost about 5 times in Central Park, it is bloody huge. There are ponds, hills, forests, walking, running and riding tracks, a zoo, a musuem and pretty much anything else you can imagine. And apparently the land is estimated to be worth 530 billion smakcers.