Pamela Hill Lappin

Rockefeller Republican looking for a home. Practitioner of the rejoinder. If it’s a 1950s black & white sci-fi movie I’m watching. Pro-choice is pro-life.

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@JonahDispatch Hubsam is Chinese for low quality husband.

[Ellen Carmichael @ellencarmichael]

The most interesting part of the red card saga isn't the ruling. It's how differently Americans and Europeans process the idea that they might have been wronged.

Europeans are fundamentally different from Americans in one particular way: they expect life to be aggravating and at times unfair. It's just a fact of moving through the world. I joke that in Europe, the customer is always wrong. You didn't read the fine print. The only pharmacy in town is closed every other Tuesday for three hours, and even if the times weren't posted, that's still your problem. Too bad if you want the bill, because the waiter's on his union-mandated half-hour smoke break, and you're just going to have to wait.

To quote the great Mark Knopfler: sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. There's something freeing in that. Things are less in your control, so there's less angst in managing your expectations.

In America, things couldn't be more different. We simply can't accept a wrong left unrighted.

The flight attendant sneezed handing you a drink on your one-hour flight? 15,000 frequent flyer miles. Didn't like your appetizer? A replacement is on the way, and the whole course comes off the bill. There's a reason our interstates are lined with trial lawyer billboards.

Europeans have turned complaining into a continental pastime with no expectation that the universe owes them a remedy for their grief. You gripe about the train being late, your friends nod solemnly and everyone goes back to their apéro. In America, we launch a full-blown investigation of the train system, sue the government (and its contractors) that allowed for the tardiness and hold a Congressional hearing on the state of national infrastructure.

So to an objective observer, the red card shouldn't have happened, and VAR was a travesty. To Americans, our star player shouldn't be unfairly banned from a match we couldn't afford to lose for a card he so obviously didn't deserve.

Who cares that FIFA used a little-used reversal to fix it. Who cares that other people are mad about it. We. Were. Wronged. It was unjust. It must be corrected. We would accept nothing less.

Europeans waxing poetic about the sanctity of the game are, of course, talking about a governing body whose last tournament host was decided via confirmed cash bribes — one that imposed dress codes on women, shrugged off widespread allegations of modern slavery and reconfigured the entire tournament calendar to suit the host country. Which is exactly the point. If you've made peace with all of that, at least enough to watch the tournament four years later, a probationary suspension isn't actually a scandal.

Maybe that's the real divide. Over millennia, Europeans have made peace with being the bug. Americans have never once considered it, and apparently, we're not about to start now.

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@Franklin_Graham I hate the kiosks. Mickey Ds is also very slow nowadays.

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@Mr_Husky1 Can they see colors?

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@JonahDispatch Nothing better than a post breakfast nap. Except maybe a pre breakfast nap.

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@thehill I believe Congress can do something about that.

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@mazemoore @LarryBill1971 So have the Republicans

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@BobbyJindal @EWErickson I interesting he still calls himself governor.

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@RonFilipkowski As much as I dislike Trump, the weather is not his fault.

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@CollinsworthPFF This World Cup is the best gift for our 250th.

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@TomSmith996 @whignewtons So, since it's an EO, we create a subclass of non-citizens every four to eight years based on who the president is and whether he has canceled or renewed this EO?

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@StellaH07773809 Stella, how is she going to do in the excessive heat this week?

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@ZaidJilani Jackson didn’t build this mansion. Bought it out of a foreclosure.

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@JonahDispatch Looks like it was riveting

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@EWErickson Could not possibly be worse.

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@JeffSBrayAuthor A rabid squirrel. Not kidding.

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@asymmetricinfo Canned La Choy chow mein and Hormel chili. Sometimes we’d throw caution to the wind and put grated cheese on the chili.

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@Kristinartz Avis

[Pamela Hill Lappin @PamLappin]

@AdamKinzinger This one may be the best so far!