I wasn’t sure if he was trying to be funny or clever with a back-handed insult about America’s Mickey Mouse, hamburgers, and chewing gum culture or if he was merely showing his admiration and appreciation towards a country that prevailed during the darkest hour only to resurrect a shattered society in partnership with the promised land. Where we were once foes, we’re now friends. Where there was once hatred, fear, and loathing, there’s now a begrudging submission underscored by repressed anxiety, envy, and resentment. Except, perhaps, in the beer halls late at night, when the talk is cheap, loud, and boisterous, and rhetoric is unimpeded and true.