Ten reasons why Americans should be seriously concerned about the future of their civilization:

1. Sarah Palin;
2. “All men are created equal” seems increasingly to be a vestige of the past as governments rush to take both salary and benefits away from public employees while carefully protecting every penny of the wealthy class;
3. Rush Limbaugh;
4. Parents do everything possible to undercut their children’s education, refusing to encourage their efforts and threatening lawsuits whenever schools dare to punish their little darlings, no matter how deserved those punishments might be;
5. The Tea Party;
6. The rapid erosion of civility and its widespread replacement by rudeness;
7. America’s willingness to erode its citizens' rights as guaranteed by the Constitution under the mistaken belief that fighting terrorism requires the beginnings of a police state (Benjamin Franklin said it best: They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety);
8. Andrew Weiner (does the nation really need to spend two weeks obsessed with a whacky Congressman’s penis?)
9. How many more people recognize the name of a self-centered athlete (pick one: LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods) than the chief justice of the Supreme Court?
10. Pick one: Glenn Beck, Michelle Bachman, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker.