Sciguy, I must say, I laughed at that simply because you said more or less what I've always thought. :P Needless to say, you're 100% correct in both your comments and my criticism of Airbus/EADS.
My comment was sarcastic in light of the huge irony surrounding the fact that Boeing gets called out with favorable government deals, something EADS and Airbus gets all the time. Airbus criticizes Boeing for lucrative NASA and DoD contracts yet EADS is a major cornerstone of the European Space Agency and builds the majority of the European military air inventory through Airbus, Eurocopter, and its Eurofighter consortiums. Airbus gets tremendous help from the launch aid they recieve that helps recover the costs involved in ramping up a new aircraft. American contractors typically don't recieve direct launch aid.
Simple facts: there are about 3,850 Airbus jets in service vs. over 4,000 737s. Even the 2005 'outperformace' by Airbus is misleading has Boeing still had more firm orders that year (825 vs 687). Many, many airlines operate all-Boeing fleets and they are highly regarded as being superior aircraft by airline captains.
Interestingly, Japan is Boeing-dominated with over 90% of the nation's jetliner fleet being Boeing aircraft. Airbus has an extrodinarily difficult time in that market (in 2005, they recieved one firm order for one freighter) and Japan's two major airlines (JAL and ANA) operate a handful of older Airbus jets. In fact, ANA is transitioning to an all-Boeing fleet. Also, in a nation dominated by shorter-range, high capacity jets (747SPs), its very odd that not one order or option has been placed by any Japanese air carrier for the A380.
In any case, my loyalty is with Boeing. To clarify any misconceptions. ;)