You can only ask so much of a Viking
| One of the best things about America is our general willingness to bully our hyper-commercial, lowest common denominator culture on the rest of the world. We've happily watched as precious morsels like the Whopper, CosmoGIRL, or Hasselhoff (who's BACK! AGAIN!) have been stuffed down the collective global throat. The whole c'mon-you-know-you-want-it frat boy approach to globalization extends beyond K-Fed's latest hit to things like geomilitary politics and multinational economics, most recently seen in the Iraq war and the sheer number of U.S.-based multinational corporations. Some countries suffer our hubris better than others, but those shifty Scandinavians have always been the most sangfroid of the lot.  Until now, that is. Becuase there are some things you just don't do - lines in the sand that must not be crossed. So when the U.S. recently joined efforts to stop a coalition of countries from restarting large scale commercial whaling programs, Norway lost its shit and started blowing whales up left and right, while horrified American tourists viewed helplessly from whale-watching boats.If you ask me, we had it coming. Norway needs lamp oil and corsets just as much as we need coffee and reality TV. And do you think the U.S. would sit idly by and watch if Norway tried to outlaw things near and dear to our national heart, like NASCAR or |
