I like it better when there are fewer reasons to hate my country. Right now, there are strong reasons to dissatisfied. NUMBER ONE: What??!! Another intervention being planned of the most uncalled for kind in Panama!! What are these over-the-top deluded imperialists in D.C. thinking? Just because Teddy Roosevelt colonized the canal zone once before, we should do it again? I was in Nicaragua in the '80's, during the contra war, and I rather wanted to introduce myself as a Canadian...and not have the first name of one of President Ronnie's big supporters. To hear of the U.S.-funded contras killing innocent civilians, to hear of the U.S.-funded government in El Salvador being linked to the deaths of clergy, peasants, and union workers, etc., etc. And then there was the U.S. invasive extradition of Noriega, killing two or three thousand Panamanians. ALSO, NUMBER TWO: I like it better when DEMOCRATS have spine & stand up firmly for a better future. Both Nancy Pelosi & Bill Clinton knew how to play hardball against Republicans on funding issues, but not, oh no, Chuck Schumer. I was placed on federal furlough when Bill C was facing off against Gingrich, and yet as an "essential" fed worker, I had to come to work & wait a while for the paycheck to arrive. Bill C won that battle. There are a many links online riffing on theme of Gingrich stealing Christmas (in more than one year), but an image from a 1994 Newsweek cover captures how people like me felt then: SUMMING UP: How can we love our country if the Administration drastically cuts vital programs, at the same time that it plots just plain wrong aggression towards other nations? It's such reckless hubris and bad politics—no wonder those casinos that this hostility-driven president owned failed!