Saved from runaway misanthropy

I was all ready to snark off about the dorks camping out for the iPhone, until I read Rich's note and thankfully checked myself:

It's important that it's true that such a thing could only be produced by means of some significant degree of human freedom of thought, action, and disposition of capital. Something like this will never be produced in a Castro's Cuba, a Chavalian Venezuela, anywhere in a kleptocratic Africa, or indeed in any of thousands of lesser places around the globe.

America has its problems but just about anyplace else you can think of is worse.

[nod] Amen. To each their own - whether it's standing in line for the latest gadget or gearing up for the spectacle of cars racing around in circles, other people's value hierarchy may be obscure and difficult to comprehend (you spent how much on a phone? - on NASCAR tickets?), but the important thing is the freedom available to act on them.
# 3:36 PM