The baggage we bring with us is considerable. American popular culture has long been globalised. For much of my time here, America felt like a giant movie set. And sometimes, it felt like being in the middle of a television sitcom. It is so easy and so tempting to describe and report on an America of gun madness, violence, junk-food fed obesity, scary religious fundamentalism, sickly sentimental patriotism and swaggeringly stupid politicians such as the President, George Bush.