Bernard Henri-Levy is more digestable in his series of articles prepared for the Atlantic Monthly concerning the European's view of America.

But, in all honesty, attempting to describe the United States in any long-term philosophical context simply isn't workable. This country changes so muich over short period of time whereas the European mindset is one seasoned over centuries of strife and culture-sharpening that America has yet to endure.

A major problem with Europeans, especially the French, is to not have any grasp of the nature of competition and how it can improve both business and society in general. On a recent appearance on Fox Network's O'Reilly Factor, Henri-Levy was quick to scorn the recent riots in which youing Frenchmen were screaming about long-term job security when many of them would simply be lucky to hold any kind of job in the U.S.

But that's because he's trying to impress a market that will resoundly reject his book and his largely negative thesis on America. Maybe some former Europeans who live in the U.S. might appreciate the view, but not the rest of us.