http://www.boston.com/dailynews/247/region/Audience_boos_as_Bush_offers_bP.shtml"What are the signs of a sick culture?
[snip bunch of stuff]
"I think you have missed the most alarming symptom of all. This one I shall tell you. But go back and search for it. Examine it. Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms as you have named... But a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than a riot."
"This symptom is especially serious in that an individual displaying it never thinks of it as a sign of ill health but as proof of his/her strength. Look for it. Study it. It is too late to save this culture - this worldwide culture, not just the freak show here in California. Therefore we must now prepare the monasteries for the coming Dark Age. Electronic records are too fragile; we must again have books, of stable inks and resistant paper."
--- Friday and Dr. Baldwin in Friday, Robert Heinlein
Not that I'm a Clinton fan, but we sure have become a bunch of rude {bleep}s. When else in American history would this have ever happened? Now it's acceptable, and seems pretty common.