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Oddly enough, I haven't noticed any problems. ???

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Strange that I was only aware of this series because of media concerns about anorexia and competition between actresses to be the thinnest. ::)

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Nice! 8)

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It's funny that we don't have as long a history to fall back on our government is one of the longest lasting.
I think in the U.S. our self absorption has lead to many misconceptions. We talked about France not standing behind us but they and Germany only stepped back when we went after Iraq and not Afghanistan's Taliban. Both have worked with NATO there.
I think that a lot of the US's misconception about the rest of the world results from our ignorance of that outside world. The media feeds us hours of reports on pseudo-celebrities and 30 second blurbs about a riot in France or a train crash in Japan. Rarely do we get in-depth reporting on other countries unless it has something to do directly with the U.S.

Interesting to hear a US citizen confirming my suspicions.  The whole "freedom fries" affair was, IMO, an extreme example of this.

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I know it's a bit late to mention this, but with reference to Lingster mentioning the National Front in the UK – they are pretty much dead and buried.  The BNP keep trying to reinvent themselves – they even stole a policy from the Tories a while back and passed it-off as their own, but they keep shooting themselves in the foot by having their party leader and other figures being arrested by the police for violent or inflammatory behaviour.  They do, however, have a worrying level of support in northern towns like Bolton where liberal ideas of muticulturalism have produced segragation and ghettoisation, although that support is stll limited to natural right-wingers – more reasonable people realise that an integrationist approach is needed to end the "them and us" culture, but the thinly-disguised "send them home" attitude of the BNP isn't the answer. 

Oddly, Lingster's description of the US as a country that cannot be nationalistic because of its diversity could equally apply here.  Successive invasions, influxes and migrations mean that our population is a combination of Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Danish/Viking (especially in the North-East), Flemish (in my part of the country particularly), Norman French, German Jewish, Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistant, West Indian, Sub-Saharan African and several more besides, yet nationalism is too often prevalent here because the myth of an homogenous, white British ethnicity which really doesn't exist.

As for free-market vs. Governmental control, I feel that UK experience shows that, whilst a "slippery slope" does exist between Socialist and Communist, it only starts towards the left edge of Socialism; i.e. there is space within a left-of-centre viewpoint for people that keeps them well short of loosing their metaphorical footing.  During the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher's administration privatised so many industries and services, some of which flowered, however, most are worse now than before.  Our rail network (an area in which I have interest and knowledge) is a joke, our utilities have had bad times since privatisation, and the NHS is still struggling to recover from being starved of resources and funds during the Thatcher years.  If Lingster and others wish to use the modern NHS as an example of the evils of nationally-run healthcare, then so be it, but I'd argue that its ills are more an example of what happens when a Government inherits a nationalised service in which it does not believe, and therefore neglects.  If one looks at the NHS during the 1950s and 1960s, we can see that it represented Attlee and Bevan's vision of "cradle to grave" care much more than it does now.  As with everything, extremes either way are dangerous – the far-left policies of 1980s Labour party leader-wannabee Tony Benn which would have led to national control of huge segments of business would have been just as much of a disaster as New Labour's introduction of schools run by businesses whose heads sometimes have odd religious or political beliefs has been, with some British schoolchildren being taught an almost purely creationist view of the world in science classes whilst the majority of their peers are being taught a Government-approved evolutionary model.

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I'm going to have to watch my Olbas Oil too, although I usually only use it as an inhalant decongestant (it can also be used as a muscle rub, although it's only part oil of wintergreen).

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Kulli's a bit goth – perhaps you should get her opinion.

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Impressive, thanks Mike. 😉

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I'm not much of a fan of her globe-like implants, but otherwise her physique is to be admired.

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I'm not much of a soccer fan…

Neither am I, but Mr Rooney (who by the way is a total numbskull, to use an American English term) is so omnipresent in football-mad England that even non-fans like myself find it near impossible to escape.  The irony is that our team has been pretty useless for several years now, but still English men (and many women) obsess about "footie", as it's known, to the exclusion of other sports (e.g. cricket) where England is more successful. ::)

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