I heard those DVDs have become the Royal drink coasters.

Yeah but... it's Al Franken(!)...aw heck, I guess you're right...nuts.

"if you ran a bar, would you allow a rowdy bunch in that will start greif and piss off the locals?"
"...scum like you..." , "...right-wing idiots..." , "...conservative fascists..."

By the tone of your post I'd say you're one of those rowdies.

Sucks to be you, doesn't it?

"...English accent...to fool people into believing they're smart..."

I always thought it was amusing that here in the middle of coal and corn country our local PBS affiliate hired someone with an English accent as an on air announcer.

This country became "official" in 1776 when the original thirteen colonies unified against Britain and created a "deed"-- the legal document we call the Declaration of Independence. The US Constitution didn't become reality until 1787. The Bill of Rights wasn't ratified until 1791, 15 years after the Declaration. But make no mistake, while the colonists were technically British they were "Americans" long before those were written.

Many of the first colonists came here to escape persecution of their religious beliefs. Their descendants wrote the Declaration, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These documents codified the way they had already been livingfor several previous generations.

From the Declaration (the "founding" document that made us, officially, a separate nation and no longer colonists):
"...the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them.."
"...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator..."
"...with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence..."

While it does not specifically use the words "God, Jesus or Jehova", neither does it use the names Allah, Buddah or Kali. The reference to "God" is clearly there. All three references are in the monotheistic sense. Christianity, Judaism and Islam are (and were then) the three major monotheistic religions. Many of the original settlers were Dutch who were predominately Christian. The Puritans were Christian people who were trying to reform the Church of England from inside its organization. The Pilgrims were Puritans who separated from the Church of England and came to North America. In the 17th and 18 Centuries Judaism and various branches of Christianity existed widely In Western Europe including Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists, Anglicans and Calvinists. Islam, however, had little or no presence of consequence there at the time. Atheism was rare. Deism itself was not an organized religion but was belief in God without miracles and without interaction with man (contrast that with "protection of Divine Providence" above). It became popular as the above mentioned peoples came here. It was not a widespread belief before the 17th century.

The fact is it was the monotheistic Western Europeans (i.e Christians and Jews) that settled what came to be known as America, not the Shinto Japanese, not Hindus, not the Islamists of Africa, not the Aboriginal tribes of Australia nor the Taoists of East Asia. What's more is they came here so they could practice their religions without persecution and those are the people upon whom our country was founded. The Constitution, as great a document as it is, is NOT "the deed" declaring us a nation, it's the foundation of our laws setting up government and spelling out how it should be limited.

"I know I'm being conned, but I admire the style."

You just described a lot of people who voted Obama (and Clinton before him).

The culture changing 60s (and 1970s) generation have become the people they were protesting. Except they are the political mirror (Left) of the establishment of the pre-1960s generation. The protesters are now "the Man".

I thought the 1978 Superman was done pretty well and bought into the "You'll believe a man can fly" tag. (I saw it on the big screen when it first came out). There hadn't been a superhero movie like it before. I liked the chemistry between Supes/Clark and Lois. Lex Luthor on the other hand was a letdown. I never read him in the comics as anything but serious and he would have never surrounded himself with buffoons. He probably would have treated his henchmen as such, but certainly they would have never been "Otis".

A porcelain throne trimmed in 14K gold.

Then they can stay there. "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" after all.