If you’re not familiar with Emily Grace, who basically runs our PR department these days, you should be.

On her own site, she compares Americans to the rioters in the UK and makes some astonishing points.

She states she is not an exceptional person, but an ordinary American who values hard work and taking care of things for herself. The irony there is deep: she is correct that this does not make her exceptional, but it very much makes Americans exceptional. And that is why, panicky guys to the contrary, we probably will never see rioting like we see overseas except for a couple of well-staged and well-funded events. Believe the Czar for his memory is deep, but every couple of years the Leftists try that here and they usually wrap themselves up in a few hours and couple hundreds arrests.

Because, as she observes, Americans have no incentive to do dumb things, and would rather pull themselves up than ask for a hand out. And by God, only a few Americans would seek to live off handouts. Very few.

But, you might ask either Emily G or ourselves, why then do so many people skip out on paying taxes? Hey, the Czar joins the growing chorus of conservatives who wish that fewer people had to pay taxes. Too many pay too much as it is. But being able to avoid paying federal income tax is not the same thing as being some Eurotrash skinhead who is born, lives, and grows old and fat at the pub without anything more than a government paycheck.

And Emily notes how the founding fathers would shake their heads…not in surprise, but in a lack of surprise. Who didn’t see this coming? Aside from the European snob intellectuals, that is? Emily reasons thus:

The great danger in enabling people to live life without pain or effort is that everything around them becomes worthless.

And that is modern European government in a single sentence. Don’t let it happen here.

Her essay is short and intensely worth your time.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.