I'm not sure I agree with Mr. Gingrich on this one. His stipulation is that the exportation of American culture through movies, TV, and radio, has given the rest of the world a bad impression of us. I'm not going to defend popular culture (except comic books). It doesn't need defending--people like it. If they think the travails of four slutty New York women or a bunch of people in the "waste management" business is Metaphorical America, chances are we aren't going to convince them otherwise. If they can't handle Britney Spears, there's not much we can do for them.

The fact is the US isn't the only country peddling a vision of the US. This is true for just about any country. I'm not just railing on pissy little Reuters putting scare quotes around our issues or France calling us vulgar bullies--if that formula sells, more power to them. No, the countries with the populations that despise us the most are fed base lies by their governments and any attempt at deviation from that norm is met with a dark room with a big drain in the floor. Maybe that's the real issue. And a lot of these places... we give them money no matter what they say about us!

And I don't want to get mean here, but perhaps Mr. Gingrich isn't the best individual to chide us on our sexual immorality trade. I was a big fan back in '94, but he turned out to be another in the long line of Republicans sent to make us look like hypocrites. Way to fight the good fight, Newton.

Ruminate on that.