Show Me The Money!

From now on, this is going to be Kid Various' (annoying) catch-phrase.

SHOW ME THE MONEY!

To all those Europeans, Canadians, Japanese, Russians, Iranians, Chinese, Indians, Africans and Latin Americans who are e-mailing their American friends about their joy at having “America back,” now that Obama is in, I just have one thing to say: “Show me the money!”

Don’t just show me the love. Don’t just give me the smiles. Your love is fickle and, as I said, it will last about as long as the first Obama airstrike against an Al Qaeda position in Pakistan. No, no, no, show me the money. Show me that you are ready to be Obama stakeholders, not free-riders — stakeholders in what will be expensive and difficult initiatives by the Obama administration to keep the world stable and free at a time when we have fewer resources.

Sadly, Friedman is in for a hell of a disappointment. All that love for America will have a similar shelf life to the sympathy for America after September 11th. (Although the Kid has to admit, it did last a good 10 minutes or so.)

Kid Various doesn't care whether our allies like us or not. He cares what they can do to help us. The answer is, not much. Besides the UK, most of our allies are not even capable of assisting us in any meaningful way. Hell, the Georgians did better for us in Iraq than the Germans are doing in Afghanistan. And that's pretty pathetic. But one thing you gotta say for the Georgians, and the Poles, and the Romanians - is that they got heart. And that counts for a lot.

No, sadly, Kid Various thinks that the world shall go on like it has before. Just like in the halcyon days of the 60's and 70's (and Vietnam, Watergate, Pinochet and the Shah) or the venerated 80's under Reagan when Europe loved oh so very much, or even when the world put the "hyperpower" on a pedestal during the Clinton years.

You know. Before George W. Bush came along and just ruined everything!

SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!