So what you are saying is that no matter which way the Euro goes this discussion goes in the direction of you being right?

There's probably a constitution about that...

here to stay?

Look at one half, then the other... horrible horrible Truth... sweet sweet LIES!..

Serious thought:

Should we wear shades, just in case?

> Einstein wrote:
> Russia also taught us about oil.

When we get free from the environmentalists yokes we will sell oil down to 1 Euro a barrel. <

Ten batches of sweet! (>o<)/
What? At this price the ozone layer can go plug itself...

I'd make a Darwin comment but I never look where I'm going either and would rather not tempt fate...

> They even tried to regulate the ingredients of British "bangers" - the sausages that serve as a national symbol - but were forced to back down. <

Yeah... thanks for giving up on that... I love 50% bread-based wadding in my sandwich...
....
It's always the way, isn't it? The one thing I wanted them to really do, and they fail...

Land of Ho-ope and Glory,
Processed food and Coke,
Land of Ho-ope and Glory,
This is why-y I smoke!

> Einstein wrote:
> Because if one State fails, no businesses will go there. <

Define state failure. How is this result any different than from country failure.

> If one nation fails, the businesses cannot as easily change location. <

MG Rover, now made all over Europe, not in UK.
Been watching Pontiac Coil slowly die since 2001, their European site is in Administration, all thanks to one Chinese company kicking their arse at seemingly every turn. Why is the european site still there? Cannot easily change location.

> Take Rolls Royce for example. If they quit manufacturing in England to goto Spain... it destroys them. <

See above, switch MG for RR.

> If Ford closes a plant in Tennessee but opens one in Texas... no harm is done. <

Oh I'm sure YOU could find a mistake.

> But if they move all production to Mexico then they are fried. <

So like when we're screwed if things leave the EU, you're screwed if things leave the US?

> National identification is a huge factor. <

Only the UK has an ID crisis, and that is mostly to do with our kids getting all of their behaviours, everything theyn know, from American TV shows (the effects of which even Americans worry about).
Not that the USA has an identity: Large groups of immigrants funnelled into ghettoes all silently agreeing to practice voluntary apartheid for 200 years, causing them to be more like the "olde country" than the olde country.

> Not for some, admittedly, but you are faced with national identity. <

Meh... I blame the movie industry...

> The Germans will speak German 200 years from now, the Italians will speak Italian, and the Spainards will speak Spanish. The Eiffel Tower will be a French national treasure, the Vatican will be known to be an Italian thing, and then Greece will have their columns. <

Ohh I know where this is going...

> It will not be a single nation, it will not be a single language, it will not be able to keep a single currency. <

  Just because you somehow managed to warp your Union into one bloated mass of a nation that resembles none of its origins it does not follow that we want to do the same. In fact your disaffected "Union" serves as a lesson to us in that respect.
  Just because you somehow managed to force your union to only use one language it does not follow that we will do the same. Actually we don't want to, none of us, not even me; I speak both French and English (badly) and because of this I can "communicate" anywhere west of Berlin.
"Defense de fumer? C'est un taverne! Encoul

Explain, in simple terms, why a single currency can work in the USA and not the EU.

> V.Kemp wrote:

> I just pointed out that there are cultural factors surrounding the practice of circumcision--not hygiene concerns--primarily motivating its practice today, Fokker. [...] <

  No you did not.
If you  had  said "Hey, I think you should think about wether they circumcise for a cultural reasons rather than because they can't be arsed to wash" then I would have quite politely said "So reason your private healthcare system figures look like crap is not because of national hygiene standards, or lack thereof, but because of the jews?" Because I'd have no understanding of why being Jewish (or Muslim) would skew the healthcare figures.

So if I had continued watching Lost past episode 2 I'd have been treated to 5 series of vague daytime-TV sci-fi dotted around intense personal drama, followed by a series of "you're stuck here because you forgot to embrace jesus, and we're devils out to bum your souls" or something, yeah?

Damn it! Why do I keep using old links X(
....
oh wait, null point anyway, apparently the new scan has it angled 35ish degrees from us, so even though it's only got around 1000 years left it won't bother us when it does go.
And it is 8000Ly... god knows how I missed that

[edit]now they're worried about it's cosmic ray output when it goes bang, apparently, radiation-wise, it'd be like half of Earth being hit in the face by an atomic wind.[/edit]