"That says everything about your country," Attila yelled. "America is falling!"

Separated by a dark Szeged street and about five 26-year-olds all leaving Kata and István's birthday party, I could still make out the smile on his face. It assured me that his words were tongue-in-cheek; the "Haha ... seriously, though" type of statement that simultaneously ribs and states what one genuinely believes to be true.

I gave him the bird, because you know what Attila was referring to.

The extremely "civil" behavior in Iraq, right?

Wrong.

The painfully slow pace of reconstruction on the Gulf Coast, right?

Wrong.

The fact that our citizenry votes more often for American Idol than who they want as the next American president, right?

Wrong.

It was something way more important than that. Attila was talking about the fact that Team USA lost to Greece at the World Championships.

In basketball.

A sport we freaking invented.

Who would have ever thought Jerry Colangelo would have more responsibility for pulling our nation back from the brink of a Carter-era type malaise than anyone working inside the Beltway?

If we don't bring home gold from Beijing, history may judge such a cataclysmic failure as the lead that slowly poisoned the water supply of the American Empire.