Yet china and india are in many ways rivals , not asian brothers , and their relationship is by any standard vexed - as recent quarrelling has made abundantly plain .
As the revisiting norman would swiftly discover , americans today are better at quarrelling about what marriage is and who should be allowed to enjoy its benefits than they are at the more demanding work of getting and staying married themselves .
When quarrelling politicians got into a deadlock in 2010 and again last year over how to close america 's gaping budget deficit , they picked the easy way out .