.

[sapphon]

Whenever an American starts a sentence with "It's a free country...", I always get really disappointed.  I keep expecting "It's a free country, so I'm going to express my views reasonably and amiably in a public forum regardless of what they are" or "It's a free country, so I'm going to quit my job and marry my true love who is well above my station and become a freelance masseur" or "It's a free country, so if I want to make the world's tallest structure composed entirely of quail eggs, dammit, I can!"

It's never anything like that, though.  It's always "It's a free country, [so I'm going to continue being a dick to you]."