You know how the Battle of Jutland would have been reported in the NRYRB — “The German North Sea Fleet: an exchange.” In a similar spirit, here’s an exchange about the news that Downing Street, not MI5, made up the stuff about Weapons of Mass Destruction.
“Of course it’s humiliating, but telling lies is one of the humiliations proper to a courtier. The real question is whether we want to be the vassals of the Americans or the Europeans. If the Americans rule the world, then it’s a bit silly sucking up to the people who don’t.”
“Oh, the Europeans. I’m a European. We’re civilised. They’re not.”
“But they stopped Kossovo and we didn’t.”
“Well, we helped.”
Civilisation grows out of the barrel of a gun.
Nothing in the above should be construed to mean that Texas is in fact civilised: only that a continent which couldn’t stop Srebrenica because our soldiers couldn’t see the point of dying is missing something important about civilisation, that Texans understand.