Finally, for overall freedom, the Freedom House rankings place the US at #61 and China, if it's any consolation, at #184. Our neighbor to the north is ranked #5 leaving us in the dust. If Japan conveys the impression of a closed, restricted society, it is apparently not for its rank at #13 belies it. All the US allies in Western Europe are clearly ahead of the US also. Freedom House used 25 indicators derived from the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights to compute each country's overall score.
"Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defense," noted Mark Twain. If nothing else, it helps to endure the niggling rulers of bureaucracy we must encounter far too often in our lives.
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