Parts of France especially are no go zones. Even the police don’t want to go there. As such, it is no surprise you would not be aware of it. Most Governments try to present a positive picture to the tourists, the residents, and the citizens.

Far from being at odds with reality my comments are spot on. To ignore them is to ignore reality. Unfortunately I think the views you hold are simillar to those held by Mr. Obama, Mr. Bush, and their inner circles. We can ignore reality because facing up to it is inconvenient. Unfortunately reality has a way of catching up to us. By the time it does I pray it is not to late.

Not only does our culture need defending but the lives of our citizens need to be vigorously defended as well. It makes no sense to invite people in here who wish to harm us and it seems clear the immigration system needs to be fixed. Also, there is the cost of social services for both legal and illegal residents that needs to be considered. A ten yeare moratorium on all immigration should give us sufficient time and breathing space to address these issues. If we need foreign laborers we can implement some type of guest worker program. It has worked well for other nations. I think it could work for us as well.

Europe is overrun by Islamists? Have you ever been to Europe? Netherlands is overrun by tall, blond beauties on bikes. France is overrun with — and this is a shock — Frenchmen. Italy is filled to the brim with Italians — I just spent 8 months living there and trust me: Italians. There are a lot of immigrants in the UK but the bulk are not “Islamists” they are rather “Shopkeepers.” No one has been overrun.

Your comments are simply at odds with reality. And too much at odds, in too many ways, for me to spend a long post in refutation.

Your initial point was that we need to defend our culture. You’ve said nothing to support that paranoid claim.

Rick, you must be kidding! We have Republican Scott Brown taking the seat once occupied by Ted Kennedy, and he got there by campaigning as the 41st vote against health care reform. This is in true blue Massachusetts for crying out loud. And you think Obama hasn’t misjudged the character of the country?

Zuckerman has nailed it. If Obama’s health care plan is passed it will undoubtedly be a fiscal disaster for the country. There is absolutely nothing in it that addresses the cost of health care.

There are two things advertised as intended to control costs. One is the threat of a public option, which does not attempt to control health care costs, only insurance costs, supposedly by providing competition. In reality it will reduce it by eliminating small insurers. The other is the threat to reduce the medicare budget by $400 billion which, again, doesn’t control costs. It’s only a refusal to pay the costs.

Will the plan allow competition across state lines? No. Will it address tort reform? No. Will it address the shortage of doctors and nurses? No.

Although the kind of vote buying that has gone into pushing this health care mess forward is most assuredly legal, it is thoroughly corrupt. Zuckerman is right on the money when he says, “It’s revolting.”

Obama, Reid, and Pelosi don’t know what will ultimately be in their health care plan and I don’t believe for a second that they actually care. For them the important thing is to make as much of the health care industry as possible, and as many people as possible, more beholden to government. The objective the health care plan is not to improve health care. The objective is to create conditions for an enduring progressive majority. It’s all politics. And as Zuckerman says, it’s revolting.

To imply that we are the OPEC of culture implies a power that does not exist for American culture. OPEC is able to dictate terms of trade. Countries don’t cooperate them and there are serious consequences for their economy. Failing to cooperate with American culture costs one nothing and in fact often results in net gain for the person or entity as they get a public relations boost or financial gain for “standing up to America” or something to that effect.

With the examples you bring up “OPEC of culture” is not the best description. A better description would be that “other nations have adopted those aspects of American culture that serve their interests and that work for them while categorically rejeting those aspects of American culture that don’t work for them. Furthermore it is costing them very little to reject those aspects of American culture they choose to reject.”

I’ll takke each of the regions you mention one at a time and discuss them briefly. Europe - It is being over run by Islamists and it is dependent upon Russian oil to make it go. It generally sees America as a strategic competitor and will stop at nothing to undermine America or its interests if it sees an opportunity to gain.

Japan - We’ve adopted many things from them as well. One is example has been just in time inventory systems to make manufacturinng more efficient. At least this is when we used to actually manufacture things. Those of us over thirty were taught in public schools to be as industrious as the Japanese.

Inida - We are increasingly dependent upon India for many back office functions within American business. They use this to their advantage in a number of ways. With our masive national debt, struggling economy, and worn down military we are going to be increasingly dependent upon countries like India in coming years.

South America - Venezuela is the dominant country there now. Venezuela is backed up by Russia. As such, Russia is essentially the dominant country in this region. China is increasingly active in places like Panama. They have had a large presence in the Panama Canal region. Russia and China are the dominant countries in South America not the United States.

China - This country has tremendous influence over America. As our countries largest bank, they are in a position to dictate terms to us any time they wish. As such, our political system and economic systems have drifted more towards them than they have drifted towards us.

If our political system is the most workable one, which one would that be? We’ve become more like the rest of the world than they’ve become like us.

“Worrying that we are not protecting our culture is like absurd.” No its not. When you invite vast hordes of people from other nations into your country who don’t hold your unique cultural values, you are inviting trouble. This is what has happened. As a result, our country and its unique heritage is being eaten up from within. Perhaps you don’t like our nation’s heritage that has been based to a degree on Judeo-Christian principles.

“we’re selling it to everyone on earth.” To an extent, this is true. Other nations are selling their cultures to us as well. Other nations will purchase the aspects that work for them and serve their interests while rejecting the parts that don’t work for them. Due to certain tenets of political correctness we end up accepting aspects of the foreign cultures that might not be in our interests to accept. As a result of this and other factors, our culture is losing ground while others are gaining ground.

To a large extent, we seem to lack the moral confidence in our culture to defend it. Unless this changes, we will continue to lose ground. Reversing this begins with realizing we have a culture that is worth defending and that we have at least as much a right to defend our culture as they have to defend their cultures.

Other countries protect their cultures. We should do the same. We have every right to do so. Also, by failing to protect your culture you lose respect.

We are far and away the world’s largest cultural exporter. Our culture is everywhere. Our movies, our TV, our books, our games, our software. We are the OPEC of culture.

Not only have we successfully sold our culture everywhere, we’ve convinced the entire developed world — Europe, Japan, India, South America, and, increasingly China, that our economic system and our political system is the only workable one.

Worrying that we aren’t protecting our culture is like absurd. We’re not only protecting it, we’re selling it to everyone on Earth.

It seems clear that we have no control over our borders and the immigration system is a mess. As I recall, at least two of the 911 hijackers were here on expired visas.

We have little to no coherent energy policy. The only ones we have are beg OPEC and suck up to enviro-whackos.

Our military is being worn down and is engaged in fruitless operations elsewhere that do virtually nothing to further American interests. Not only that but it risks unwinable conflicts with the two most powerful countries on earth which are Russia and China.

Our deficit is massive and getting bigger. Opening up our oil and gas reserves for domestic drilling and building more refineries should create a large number of high paying jobs. Whats more, they would all be high paying union jobs.

An additional step that I neglected to mention above, is to closely monitor the mosques. We know who the people most likely to be terrorists are. It makes perfect sense to watch the groups from where they are most likely to come more closely than say 60 year old Swedish women. It certainly makes more sense than positioning large numbers of troops and other equipment in the Middle East.

What I propose, while it may not be perfect, has a much better chance of solving the nation’s problems than any thing being currently proposed.

Rather than refer to draw bridges, what ever that is supposed to mean, it might be better to address the issues on their merits. Other countries protect their cultures. We should do the same. We have every right to do so. Also, by failing to protect your culture you lose respect. I think the policies I propose, in addition to considerably advancing our national security interests, would gain us considerable respect around the world.

Finally, we need to begin to rebuild our manufacturing base. Right now we don’t even have the capacity to manufacture some of our most basic goods. Doing this would result in large numbers of jobs being created and they would likely be high paying union jobs. At least we hope so. In any event, it beats depending on China. Again, every thing I suggest is far better than what any of our politicians are suggesting.

So pull up the drawbridge? What is this, the 1930’s?