> When I think "France" and "Muslim" I think "banning the hijab" and "race riots." When I think "Denmark" and "Muslim" I think "cartoons of Muhammad." But when I think "United States" and "Muslim" I think about the molotov cocktail some shithead threw through the window of the mosque in my old neighborhood. And I think of the immediate vigil every old white man and old white lady launched around that building. And I think of the flowers and potted plants that occupied the stoop for the next six months, and I think of the rotating watch of old codgers playing checkers on the steps so that the muslims could go to prayers without worrying about some fuckin' inarticulate redneck who thinks "Islam=hate" because he can't think past generalizations. And I think about the fund raiser the neighborhood did to pay for an expanded parking lot rather than bitching about the mosque in city council meetings, and I think about the vigil the mosque held five years later when some other shithead shot up a synagogue.

As an Aussie who's previously lived for a couple of years in Europe and recently spent several weeks in your fine country, I believe this this paragraph sums up your country more aptly than anything else on here.

I reside, allegedly, in the world’s most liveable city. And let me be clear: I know that I live in one of the world’s most liveable cities. That said, I could move to the north east of the United States tomorrow.

You’ve got an optimism and a can-do attitude, a positive sense of entitlement, that seems to be damn near universal amongst your population - an attitude that is not only taken for granted, but is fucking expected of you as a citizen – that just isn’t there in a lot of other countries. It’s a bizarre thing, and a paradox, that I found these attributes as frequently among the obnoxious, flag waving, marine-loving crowd as I did among the vegan, latte sipping crowd to which I belong. Even when you’re at odds with each other I feel as though there are these basic principles you agree on that underpin your success as a country. And you’re all as friendly as fuck.

Sure, you’ve got a lot of problems. Holy shit there’s so much wrong with your police and your prison system and your drug laws. I’d hate to be born a minority in the US. But there’s a lot wrong with every country, and the only reason that you think there’s more wrong with you guys is because you spend more time in the centre of the world’s attention. Look at the treatment of indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory and northern Queensland, or domestic violence and alcoholism in regional NZ, or the eternally alienated welfare class in north east England. We’re all of us rooted to some degree, and these are all countries at the top of the spectrum, as far as standards of development go.

You do need to do something about your health care system, though.