Being home is nice. Especially because it is hot, and I live on a beach. As usual, my main vacation activities have been eating, shopping, and rollerblading
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5. Not in Minnesota. Definitely not in Minnesota. Places like Chicago, yes.
6. Most definitely true. I think I heard last night that the American people donate more money per capita to charity than any other country.
9. Consider also the fact that there are countries in the world where owning real property is literally impossible...where everything is owned by the government and only leased to landholders...we might be slouching in this direction in some respect, but we're not quite there yet.
10. As much as we might rag on it, the 24-hour Wal-Mart does have its utility if you run out of something in the middle of the night. We don't need to do things like make sure all our grocery shopping is done on Friday or we're stuck without for the entire weekend. Granted, there are places that have moderately annoying Sunday closing laws in the States as well (the no buying beer over 3.2% and no buying cars ones in this place are my two examples...I can't understand why you are allowed to sell someone a horse on Sunday but not a car when you can use either to get around), but those are not nearly as bad as places like Germany (which you know all about) or even England (shops over a certain size are restricted to being open 12-6 on Sunday).
By the same token, it's important to point out that the culture of convenience permeates more aspects of American society than it does those of other cultures. I use a bank that is open 12-7 on Saturdays and 10-4 on Sundays, something that would be unheard of in most other countries, and we always have access to funds via an ATM, which is not the case in, e.g., Japan, where they close at certain times of day.
I would add:
11. NO ANNOYING TV LICENSING FEES. Seriously. Knowing that the PBS police are not going to come around to try to wring money out of me is a good thing.
6. Most definitely true. I think I heard last night that the American people donate more money per capita to charity than any other country.
9. Consider also the fact that there are countries in the world where owning real property is literally impossible...where everything is owned by the government and only leased to landholders...we might be slouching in this direction in some respect, but we're not quite there yet.
10. As much as we might rag on it, the 24-hour Wal-Mart does have its utility if you run out of something in the middle of the night. We don't need to do things like make sure all our grocery shopping is done on Friday or we're stuck without for the entire weekend. Granted, there are places that have moderately annoying Sunday closing laws in the States as well (the no buying beer over 3.2% and no buying cars ones in this place are my two examples...I can't understand why you are allowed to sell someone a horse on Sunday but not a car when you can use either to get around), but those are not nearly as bad as places like Germany (which you know all about) or even England (shops over a certain size are restricted to being open 12-6 on Sunday).
By the same token, it's important to point out that the culture of convenience permeates more aspects of American society than it does those of other cultures. I use a bank that is open 12-7 on Saturdays and 10-4 on Sundays, something that would be unheard of in most other countries, and we always have access to funds via an ATM, which is not the case in, e.g., Japan, where they close at certain times of day.
I would add:
11. NO ANNOYING TV LICENSING FEES. Seriously. Knowing that the PBS police are not going to come around to try to wring money out of me is a good thing.
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