A Climate Like Nuns

I have always thought that Catholic schoolkids got along relatively well with one another because of the common adversary of the nuns. They were the commies in our cold war.

Now I wonder if Scandinavians aren't relatively civilized because of the adversity of the cold weather and the long winter nights and attendant ass-freezing. Theirs really is a cold war.

Sadly, I think the only thing that can unite Americans again is real, non-invented adversity--not the silly, made-up stuff of the Republicans, spats with this-and-that and whomever.