I'm exactly where I like to be July 4th to celebrate the birthplace of liberty and the rights of man.
France.
I don't give a damn what Rush and O'Reilly spew, I am an unrepentant Francophile. (If you've ever been loved by and in love with a French woman you'll have a soft spot for that country for the rest of your days.) I'm ashamed to say they could invade Upstate New York and re-annex Louisiana and all I could say to the gendarmes would be, "Est-ce que vous avez vu Alexandra? Et est-ce qu'elle á parlé de moi?" ("Have you seen Alexandra? And did she ask about me?")
When those genius congressmen tried to pass a bill re-labeling French fries, "Freedom Fries," because Chirac thought preemptively invading Iraq was perhaps unwise, I wanted to ask those morons who they thought actually gave us the Statue of Liberty.
However what strikes me most on this July 4th in Europe is how far America has fallen. I'm not talking this time about how this shameful war will be seen by history as our tar baby, the beginning of the end of American global hegemony.
I'm talking about the almighty dollar being not mighty at all anymore.
The greenback is starting to make the peso look downright robust. What kind of imperial superpower did the neocons envision where our dollars are tossed around by Brits and other Europeans like the plastic trinkets tossed off Mardi Gras floats?
Speaking of Britain, where I was last week, the only good thing about hemorrhaging dollars in France is no longer hemorrhaging them in London. I spent 105 pounds, over 210 bucks, on a cab ride between London airports! And I still missed my damn connecting flight.
I remember my school year abroad in Florence in the late 80s. I was nineteen and bestowing dollar bill tips on grateful Florentines like WWII GIs doling out stockings and chocolates. Now dollars are scoffed at in Europe like the plastic coins and tiny candies the Italians used to give out as change after buying a hunk of gorgonzola with a 1000 lira note.
Economists tell us not to worry. Besides crushing the summer dreams of Europhiles like myself a weak dollar is good for trade they tell us. But what exactly are we making that anyone is wanting to buy? The GMC Yukon? I do understand how weak monies help China and Malaysia, they actually manufacture things that people buy and use.
Damnit, Wolfowitz et al., what kind of "New American Century" is this? We used to swagger. What happened to the Ugly Americans buying up every artifact of old Europe they could get their mits on? It just seems unseemly that the greatest military power the planet has ever known now has a currency that makes its citizenry globetrot with our tails between our legs. For years we were the ones kicking sand in everybody else's faces. Now we're the skinny guy on the beach.
Payback is a bitch.