united states
"The United States is a bit like a 375-pound, middle-aged man with a heart condition walking down a city street at night eating a Big Mac. He's sweating profusely because he's afraid he might get mugged. But the thing that's going to kill him is the burger."
A symbol of America's postwar strength and pride,built in 1952, may be sold and scraped.
"Though, like the alcoholic who does not realize his condition until he is lying face down in the gutter, it may be a while before we get out of the empire business and start looking out again, as our fathers did, for the American republic first. But that day is coming."
In theory the Congress is elected to represent the interest of those who elected them. When looking district by district, this is often the case. But taken as a whole the people with the most power are open for business to whom ever has the most money and the most influence. Slowly but surely the whole of the US house and Senate are bought and paid for. They have to watched constantly because they have no ability or willingness to actually do the right thing. No one is watching, so they steal steal and steal even more and they do so with a smiling face and subservient attitude.
This is the vibe, the tone, the moral posture. The US preaches to the world about democracy and a variety of other issues. But what they preach as ideal for everyone else in the world is not in great order at home. This is one of the reasons for the rise of Donald Trump, as bad as he he sometimes, he is not much worse than many in power.
"We would call it the Bulimic method of studying. Binge all the material over hours and days of studying. Then puke it all up on the final and forget it forever."
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.