I disagree with you, Eric! I think that criticism is the highest form of patriotism! Do not mistake patriotism, for nationalism. To blindly salute our flag and blab about how we are "the greatest country in the world" is Nationalism. Not to mention, just stupid. America DOES have some problems and it is high time we start accepting that, because in order to make things better we must first acknowledge that we have problems in the first place!

Just yesterday some idiot American made a "joke" to me about how "people are standing in line in Moscow to buy bread." When I corrected him and told him that actually Moscow has a higher standard of living than New York City, he got angry and called me a commie! These kinds of ignorant attitudes are really not helping our image.