From Bill Maher's "New Rules"

Now that Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy have done what George Bush and Henry Paulson couldn't, maybe it's time conservatives accepted that there's more to Europe than just castles and accordion music. Sarah Palin recently explained proudly that she wasn't one of those kids who graduates college and their parents get them a passport and a backpack and say, "Go off and travel the world." Oh, God, no, that's the kind of thing that could open up your mind.

No, Sarah stayed right here in America and learned about foreign cultures the proper way: by standing on the shore with a pair of binoculars.

You know, the specter of becoming a little more European doesn't frighten me so much because, in the recent crisis, it was the wiser, less swaggering leaders of Europe who came through with a financial plan that might actually work; the plan that George Bush is now doing; the plan he didn't want to do because, a) if it did work, it might threaten his perfect record of monstrous, retarded disasters - that make Armageddon look like a flesh wound - and, b) it was socialism, which he equates with poor black folks getting cheese for free.

But, maybe things have gotten so bad here, the public is finally receptive to the notion that we could learn something from other nations. Europe's currency happens to be kicking our currency's ass. And they cover everyone with health care at far less cost, and beat us in life expectancies. We're 38th in the world in that category, behind Colombia, Morocco and Costa Rica. "USA! USA! USA!"

Europeans are leading the "green" revolution, and their infrastructure is gleaming and efficient, with thousands of miles of high-speed rail track. We have the trolley at the mall that takes you from Pottery Barn to the Gap.

— 10/17/08 New Rules