The mythology is that the US is a special place of freedom where the elite rise to the surface so anyone on top must, therefore, be elite. This elite, the ‘job producers’ in GOP-speak, don’t owe anyone anything. Mythology being that any outside interference in this rarefied system will ruin it and the monied elite, shy woodland creatures that they are, will will run away, hide, and the blooms of prosperity that sprout where they defecate will not grow.

The idea that they might have to pay taxes and conform to rules conflicts with their vision of themselves as free agents chosen by God to both plunder and lead this special nation as they see fit. It isn’t that a rule that says that they can’t lie outright would impose any great cost or burden. Odds are that their army of minions and lobbyists, using human-wave tactics and sacks of money as cudgels, will be able to modify any legislation to make it both meaningless and toothless. Even if it came through intact they certainly have enough lawyers saddled and ready to go to find a way around this sort of rule.

But all that is besides the point. It isn’t the legislation and rules themselves that they object to. What chafes and binds their hides is the simple objective reality that there are people out there who have both the right and authority to impose a rule on them and demand compliance from them. It ruins the illusion that they are Masters of the Universe.

Readers might be familiar with the Biblical accounts of how the ancient Jews did pretty well under Persian rule.

I know that some of the detail is now horrible to contemplate but the trans-continental railroad was not built by half a dozen blokes going off into the wilderness with a theodolite each and building exactly what they wanted where they wanted and never mind how we’ll join up two sections of track at different gauges along contour lines 200 metres apart vertically. You know it did not happen like that.

In other situations you’d be the first to say that what the rethugs say is inherent in the American psyche is 98% bollocks. Hell, you guys used to be good at large and complex projects requiring all the common purpose / tight adherence to standards / efficiency which seems to have become impossible since the fog of Fox News descended.

With reading matter in short supply at the time I grew up on the technical drawings of the Hoover dam! More importantly, do you think Eisenhower and Montgomery would have made as much of a mess of Iraq?

It is too easy to assume that by the time the Roman Empire collapsed we Europeans were permanently programmed to accept any and every rule imposed upon us. In truth, we have tended to use the very American virtues of courage and vision to deal with each major change as it came along – usually, after a short bout of fisticuffs, agreeing upon a means of coping with the new reality. Realists not wimps!

Caveat emptor – more now than ever!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with saying something like, “I used Gimp to photoshop my ex out of all out Christmas photos.” Well, maybe the last part of the sentence has something wrong with it, but “using Gimp to photoshop” is perfectly acceptable IMHO.

If you don’t like it, here’s a kleenex you can use while you cry me a river. I’ll snap a polaroid and xerox a hundred copies to hand out to all your neighbors.

Have a look at what our ASA gets up to – http://www.asa.org.uk/

Your problem in the US may be that your captains of industry are coming rather late to the idea of honesty but all the big marketing companies work internationally and if they can cope with restrictions on straight-out lying in one place then they can cope with it in another, surely.

(This message comes to you from one of a team which had the complaint against it rejected but still got its wrist slapped for lack of good taste – in a charity fundraising ad!)