It's not often in our country when transfers of power produce serious policy changes. The Obama honeymoon period significantly improved the nation's general foreign relations, but that was more of a product of our neighbors' thankfulness that they didn't have to put up with Bush, rather than a result of American pressure.
It's been a marathon week for shouting, paranoid lunatics. Just in case global warming, nuclear proliferation, H1N1, drug-resistant bacteria and the inevitable extinction of our sun weren't all scary enough, there's a new global nemesis to face off with: gang rape.
I never assumed that the stereotypical Republican would like Sweden. Let's face it, the country is European, socialist and largely atheistic, all qualities that American right-wing politicians abhor.
According to the American social conscience, child molesters are the elite of all felons. Their crime is about the most evil thing one person can do, and the law dictates that these criminals be permanently removed from society with strict regulations of where they're allowed to walk, whom they're allowed to talk to and who must know about their dark past.