Welcome to the political orphanage, a home for plucky problem solvers who think clearly.

I'm your host Andrew Heaton and sit back because Lord Uncle Heaton is going to regale you with a folksy anecdote from his youth about

geopolitics.

When I graduated college, I left my native state and journeyed to the distant exotic land of Oxford, England,

which is basically the planet Vulcan with wool hats.

I had even less relevant skills there than I do now,

so when I got to Oxford I linked up with a temp agency and I wound up working as a bus boy at the conference center

Setting up plates schlepping chairs and tables bus boy stuff

My first day on the job my my boss introduced himself to me, an Iraqi gentleman named

Saad who had fled his native land during the Iraq War. Mind you, this is 2007, so the war is fresh in everybody's mind and particularly fresh for anybody who got their house bombed and had to flee the country like Saad

So this respectable man in a suit and tie shakes my hand and says,

Andrew, what part of England are you from?

Well actually I'm not from England, I'm from Oklahoma

in the United States and his face fell.

I hate you and I hate your country.

If there were a flag of America here I would trample it. I would trample it and then afterwards I

would throw my shoes away. Please set up a coffee service in the conference room

for 10 people. Now I was surprised but not personally offended by this.

The way I looked at it, Saud was pretty clearly worked up about the Iraq war and just kind of felt

animated about it, what with this house getting bombed and his friends

neighbors getting shot and whatnot. And so I, as I said, I didn't take it personally. And I think my

assessment was right because despite how often Saad would criticize me as an American while I worked there,

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