On a more serious note
When James and I went back to the airshow the second day we started talking about the military. He has a fascination with the hardware and accouterments -- the jeeps, the camouflage, the airplanes -- but the soldiers themselves, and their guns and serious demeanor, intimidate him quite a bit.
He asked me questions about the war in Iraq -- why we're there, why we're still fighting. He knows I'm against it, and he can't quite wrap his head around the conundrum of not supporting the war but wanting to support the troops.
A lot of the people we saw on the way into the airshow were obviously "red stater" types -- people who festoon their (mostly oversized, domestic) automobiles with American flags hanging from antennas, "support our troops" magnetic ribbons, "terrorist permit," "united we stand (against terrorism)" stickers and all other manners of pro-American propaganda.
I find such paraphernalia offensive, to be frank -- especially the American flag bit, because these are, by and large, the same people who think others that burn the flag are traitors and would support an amendment making flag-burning illegal, but think nothing of letting a flag hang it off of a car aerial and watching it flap in the wind until it tears itself to ribbons.
Apparently James doesn't like the propaganda overload, either. After staring at it for a while, he remarked, "I don't think America's the greatest country in the world, you know."
He didn't have a greatest country picked out yet, but at least he's wise enough to recognize that America is not the center of the Universe. Amazing, a seven year old entering second grade can figure it out. Too bad the people running the country can't.