What Stood Out This Week - End of Year Scotland Edition

I gotta tell ya, dear B&E readers, it's a breath of fresh air here in Scotland: literally fresh air in the Highlands and, of course, breathing free of our political discourse in the U.S. I have little sense of what's going on in our all-important primaries, and there's only four days before voting begins in Iowa. I haven't been this relaxed in months.

So What's Stood Out while in the Land of the Scot?

First of all I should mention that the missus comes from a long line of Scottish nationalists. Indeed, her grandfather was a founding member of the Scottish Nationalist Party (which I know I've mentioned before). Scottish nationalists tend to dislike the English on principle, even though well-educated Scottish nationalists tend to get good English educations. To my surprise, this dislike for the English doesn't necessarily translate to Americans. Or maybe they're just being polite because I was right there in the room. (And in fact one Scottish Lord in a kilt--a story for another time, perhaps--expressed his distaste for America even before I had a chance to introduce myself: "Hi, I'm American.")

Although the Scots I've been hobnobbing with have been mostly family, I was quite pleased to learn that they don't blame America and Americans for the world's problems. There's a clear separation in their minds between the Bush administration and America (and Tony Blair holds a special place of disgust in their hearts). Even a fifteen-year-old expressed her love for America, quite vociferously. And when I sang The Star-Spangled Banner at a party (again, a story for another time, perhaps), everyone stood (even the man in the room with multiple sclerosis), hummed along, and placed hands over their hearts while I belted out a particularly loud and obnoxious (read: American) version of the tune.

As for their opinions of the upcoming election, well, mostly they asked us what we thought. The missus' father has decided he likes Mike Huckabee, although I'm sure that if I asked him if he knew anything other than that the Huckster is an anti-abortion Baptist minister, he probably wouldn't have much of an answer. But let's face it: neither would most Americans. The fifteen-year-old mentioned previously offered her vociferous support of Barack Obama. Most of what she did or said, she did or said so vociferously.

The missus and I still don't have a good answer for the voting question. I think this is the first time I've been undecided this late in the game. But really, officially the game hasn't even started yet.

And that's What Stood Out. From Scotland.

Happy New Year, dear B&E readers. That's Hogmanay over here.