GUNS 'N' ROSES.

When Europeans call George Bush a cowboy, they mean that he's reckless and arrogant and a bully. Cowboys swagger through foreign landscapes, causing trouble. They carry guns and shoot people. But cowboys have really sexy gear, as has been acknowledged for at least a hundred years, and every decade or so cowboy boots and fringed-leather outfits and silver conchos find their way onto runways in Paris and Milan, no matter what the French and the Italians and the Germans think of American foreign policy. The stuff is based on clothing worn by cattle drovers in Texas and Kansas in the years immediately following the Civil War, but show business is the most important source of inspiration. The original cowboys wore broad-brimmed hats to shield their faces from the sun, and pointy-toed boots with high, underslung heels that kept their feet from slipping through stirrups. This was ...