I just read a nifty little letter to Powerline from a military guy who is stationed in Djobouti, a small country in the horn of Africa. Despite the UN having given them tons of money, the country is still destitute, because throwing money at poor countries doesn't help anyone. This guy, working for the US military, visited an orphanage and realized that most of the girls there don't have shoes. He's also an assistant scoutmaster back home, so he sent back to his scout troop asking them to collect shoes. They managed to send over 100 pairs of shoes for these girls, which is far more than they ever got from either the UN, or the ACLU (which is currently in the midst of a vendetta against the Boy Scouts. I may not the the Boy Scouts anti-gay and anti-athiest stance, but to see them as anything other than an organization for good, with motives much more pure than many "charitable" organizations, is nuts). Then he asked the girls what else they wanted, and their answer was not food, or candy, but to learn english! That's english, the language of the evil Americans. Why? Because, whatever groups like the ACLU or moveon.org or whomever continue to say, the rest of the world realizes that we are the most free and most giving country on Earth, and there's nowhere else in the world where so many people have so many opportunities to better themselves. Some of my liberal friends would deny this, but the facts speak for themselves. Anyone can come here and succeed. If you aren't Arab, you typically can't do well in an Arab country, if you aren't Japanese, you can't do well in Japan, if you aren't French, it's tought to do well in France, and it's tough to do well in South America no matter who you are, but if you come to the US, you can be any color you want with any background you want (besides criminal), and hard work can get you to the top. Obviously there are other factors involved, and just working hard won't necessarily get you up the ladder, but it's far more likely to than in any other country.