Over the weekend my wife and I were discussing European attitudes toward Americans. (We have a friend who works in Salamanca, Spain.)

Anyway, still having this article and this post in mind, in the course of the conversation I dropped this pearl o’ wisdom on my wife:

“Freedom is an inheritance more valuable than money. And western europeans are a bunch of Paris Hiltons. They know how to spend it, but they have no idea how to acquire it, or keep it.”

I have to find a way to fit that into my little ‘handbook’ on diplomacy.