So Alan Cumming, the fourth most famous export from Scotland (behind haggis, red hair and Groundskeeper Willie) writes at the Huffington Post that America is "comforted by mediocrity."
This coming from someone who -- as Defamer points out -- starred in the Tin Man and Son of the Mask.
Now, a vaguely familiar actor bashing America in the Huffington Post isn't earth shattering. I mean, if I reacted to every post like that, I'd never have time for Pilates, or heroin. But after doing his perfunctory preamble about how great America is - before, of course, trashing it to bits - he also claims that our country "lets its poor die."
Hold on, fella. I mean, I can understand all the Bush-hating, the ragging on the right and other predictable forms of Arianna ingratiation - but saying an entire country kills poor people?
I must have missed this on my shortwave radio.
But maybe Alan got confused. Maybe he meant to say that "America hangs gay people."
No, wait -- that's Iran. But hey: You don't earn brownie points standing up to that place around here.
Anyway, it might help to remind Alan, that America does more for the poor than ANY country in the world - past, present, and most likely, future. I mean, we help the poor to the point that it really hurts (see the housing crisis).
America remains the only place in the world where the line to get in could snake a thousand times around this volatile planet. If America was as evil as our man Alan reports, there would be a line of similar or any length to leave. But there is no such line, similar to the nonexistent one at the box office for "Josie and the Pussy Cats."
I don't know why Alan overlooks the pain and suffering in other horrible places in the world - instead to focus all his energy on the country that greeted him with open arms. I mean, true: America is no Scotland, but maybe that's why he came here.
But maybe Alan's too busy for a nuanced debate. After all, those cartoon cats aren't going to voice themselves.
"He helmed Maxim Magazine in the UK from 2004 to 2006.[2] However, Gutfeld's contract expired without renewal after losses in readership under his tenure. His final year at Maxim saw a loss of about 40,000 readers."
And this shocks......
????????
And he was also the editor of Stuff magazine. A real class act!
Hilarious.
"America is no Scotland, but maybe that's why he came here"
I really hope writing isn't your day job. That's the kind of bratty comment my 6 year old niece would say and she's never even been to gorgeous Scotland.
What I got from that article (which you must have misread) is that he does LOVE America. He wants it to be as great as can be. He wants to be a part of it. Alan Cumming would never overlook the good that America does and he wants American to wake up and see smell the greatness. He seems frustrated that so many Americans just settle.
I don't blame America for Abu Ghraib, or Katrina, or Guantanamo, or illegal wiretaps, or any other crap handed to us by our president (and people who were afraid to oppose him). That isn't my fault, or America's fault. But we won't be as great as we should be until we fix those things, and many others.
America can be great. But we have committed a few fouls, too.
I got it right off the bat. I don't know why it's confusing to you that this is actually the state of America at present. Poor people are dying who don't have to, and we're OK with that. 'Cuz we're Amercans.
http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/newsletter/2008/oct_01.html
In 2007, just over 500,000 people immigrated to the US. DOWN from over 1 million per year since 2000.
In response to the question, if America is so great, why AREN'T they coming here?
Exceptionalism is a word not a fact, deal with it.