As an aggregate, or individually? I think we have some prominent politicians that are here (Obama and Feingold spring immediately to mind), but I'm very skeptical of any national government being without its fair share of crooks and loonies.

Do you think there's any country where the politicians are actually nice people and not corrupt gobshites/bugfuck crazy?

Norway?

Do you think there's any country where the politicians are actually nice people and not corrupt gobshites/bugfuck crazy?

Liechtenstein?

Regarding Ron Paul and capital punishment, he's come to oppose the federal death penalty, but thinks it's just ducky if the states want to do it.

I did not know that. And here I was thinking, "My god, a Texan who doesn't think the execution chamber should have a popcorn vendor!"

At least the cognitive dissonance is fading.

Do you think there's any country where the politicians are actually nice people and not corrupt gobshites/bugfuck crazy?

Ooh. I know.

Freedonia!

Lets all move to Freedonia!

If it makes you feel better about your head of state, our Taoiseach was recently giving evidence in a tribunal investigating his finances a few years ago. His excuse for the discrepancies in his finances? He deposited a briefcase full of foreign currencies at one point.

Who uses that as an EXCUSE? What world would you have to be living in to think that carrying around a briefcase full of cash is the lesser of two evils?

What world would you have to be living in to think that carrying around a briefcase full of cash is the lesser of two evils?

Louisiana?

No, no you keep your cash in the freezer.

Norway?

Yes, I would say that the closest thing would be Norway and Finland. Small, open societies with strong cultures of communal responsibility.

It's difficult to study whole societies, but there was a fun study done a couple of years ago, looking at the parking tickets received by UN staff from different countries. It's a good variable because no one ever demands payment of tickets from foreign diplomats. You can get tickets forever without any consequences, so the usual sanctions have no influence over the behavior. It's kind of a measure of what people would do if they couldn't be caught. If you don't park illegally, it has to be due to something other than tickets.

Diplomats from most developing countries and those from eastern Europe got tickets almost every day. Diplomats from most western European countries got occasional tickets. Diplomats from the Scandiavian countries and Finland never got tickets. Don't they understand? They have a free pass!

No, they never learned. They just plodded along doing the right thing.

Someone just suggested to me that I should "get" Anita Roddick for an event. Anita Roddick who founded the Body Shop.

Anita Roddick who died in September.

Yeah, maybe not...