One of my favourite things about "my" current country,  The United States of America ,is that "everyone" is from another place.

The value of being a Scot in Scotland is , whips out the pocket calculator, (-1)   EEEEEEEE  less than zero apparently . Which is a fitting result  given the song that's inspiring this post " A land fit for Zeros" by "The Proclaimer's"  a folk/country music duo from Auchtermuchty, Fife with a songbook that often mirrors the bitter sweet relationship I have with the mitherland.

How to rectify that faults we have with that nation seems to be  a pipedream for both of us given the apathy of the people happy with the faults.  We're so not Braveheart, we're so very Trainspotting,  "I don't hate the English.. " speech sums it up nicely,  we're a nation conquered by a bunch of effete wankers which , as a state of affair is,  pardon my French, is  merde :)

Like certain world views  I think we enjoy the oppression, it excuses so much and spills out into the dire diet, alcohol abuse and casual violence.  Only New Orleans had worse stats for early death but let's not compare a manky mutton pie an chips with cajun cuisine.  You have to be a pretty rich "po" boy to get passable cajun food back home.  ( based on 5 years ago) We need a nanny, we have the state the effects of which you can see in a  verse from "land fit for zeros"

" Don't smoke, don't smack
Don't eat red meat
This is a tolerant land fit for zeros
And if you're lost just hear my call
"Mediocrity is all. Mediocrity is all"

That England , and Scotland, are modernising themselves into the "Everyone's a victim"  society that we used to point across the Atlantic to and giggle continues to amuse me.  

 It's  no accident that the Scottish artists that I brought with me Fish ( ex Marillion )  and "the Proclaimers" have a realistic handle  on the fate that befalls  those that turn their hand to anything other than sporting heroism which is to be derided by the popular culture. ( Fish is just way to smart to be from the same place I grew up;)  yet he  manages to unite the jocks ( and that's damn funny for you anglophiles) and the Scots equivalent of a geek.  (Role players that probably could take you out with a sword prior to rolling a D anything," ye wannie dee pal? keep that shite up an yer gaun the right way fer a malkie" )  He also wrote "Internal Exile" which was oddly portentous to my peripatetic phase. You know it's going to take more than a post, posts,  month to work out  what the Scot's up :) 

Like our fathers before us,
We've eyes for America.
Dream of a new life on foreign shores.
But wherever we go, we'll always know,
That the land we stand on, is never our own.