What IS it with those Brits? No SHOPPING like rabbits on speed?

[Bouncy Ball]

No cowering in fear????? No country singers writing songs about boots up asses?

:sarcasm:

With a big thanks to Jon Stewart!

[xray s]

1. No DisneyWorld?

How do they survive?

[rwenos]

3. London Sex Clubs, and Gin

I once heard London was the only capital in the world with legal gambling.

Only for the right sort of public school bloke, of course. The blue collars have to go home when the pubs close, better to be at work on time in the morning.

(gag)

[SweetLeftFoot]

8. Ummmm ...

I once heard London was the only capital in the world with legal gambling.

Dunno where you heard that ...

[rwenos]

12. A Prof in Grad School, Decades Ago

But think about it . . . legalized gambling? Name a capital city with legal gambling. (Monte Carlo doesn't count.)

[SweetLeftFoot]

14. Canberra

[rwenos]

18. Congrats

I would never have guessed. Have never visited there either. But it stands to reason the Aussies would be the ones! (They seem to be having such FUN with life, don't they?)

[SweetLeftFoot]

26. Canberra

Is also famed for its porno and firework industry. You can actually gamble (in any almost form imaginable) in nearly all the major Australian cities. And pot is decriminalised.

But we don't have guns. Which makes us slaves. Subjects not citizens ---- sorry, channeling a freeper there.

[baby_mouse]

19. Canberra's not a capital city!?

Is it?

????

Unless Oz has capitals of the territories.

[SweetLeftFoot]

25. Yeah

It's the capital. My lovely city Melbourne used to be the capital but then those dirty, thieving sons and daughters of convicts and pirates in Sydney complained so they built Canberra halfway in between.

We also have capitals of states and territories much like in America. But unlike America, we have the biggest city in the state as capital, not some tin pot cornpone town that nobodies ever heard of.

[baby_mouse]

32. 'K

...shows you how much I know...

[SweetLeftFoot]

34. Canberra

They police there are bastards. If you are riding your kangaroo in town without a helmet (for you, not the kangaroo), they'll give you a $AUD100 fine. But that's only about 50 cents in American money so you'd be OK.

[justinsb]

2. Yeah, no visible signs of panic at all

What? do they hate freedom?

[noamnety]

4. I am working diligently

on printing british flags on my home computer/printer to mail to them. I figure they can tape them inside their car windows to ward off evil terrorists.

I'm not normally superstitious, but sometimes you're better safe than sorry. Like garlic and vampires.

[Bouncy Ball]

6. Yeah no huge bumper stickers???

No nationalistic jingo???

WTF?

Again :sarcasm:

[Hardrada]

9. Do British Walmarts have those obnoxious

yellow ribbons about supporting troops? Should they get some?

[Kurt Remarque]

10. or those goofy car window flags

[SweetLeftFoot]

15. The best bit is

THEY DON'T HAVE WALMARTS!

But they do have Tesco which is just as evil ... and Walmart owns Asda, another of the big supermarket chains.

[Prism]

20. Ayep, Asda is their foot in

Asda even has the lil dancing smiley face guy in their advertising and on the shopping bags.

While I was living there recently, the Asda stores were slowly but surely becoming Walmarts. Still mainly a grocery chain, but throwing in more and more products. I imagine in 5-10 years, they'll be indistinguishable from the American stores.

Wasn't Wal-Mart/Asda trying to buy out another chain last year? I seem to remember reading something about it.

[SweetLeftFoot]

27. Asda

Seeing as there isn't an Asda near me - and I don't have a car - it's Tesco all the way for me. FWIW - I think Tesco is more dangerous in the Brit context.

[tenshi816]

21. Yes, there ARE now Wal-Marts in Britain.

Not too many, and I've not been into one, but there's one about a 20-minute drive from where I live. It's very disconcerting to see, too, because it looks all wrong sitting there. I mean, here. In the UK. See what I mean? Even reading "UK" and "Wal-Mart" together is jarring and just plain wrong!

[SweetLeftFoot]

28. Where are they?

Google disnae show them

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. Google adsa walmart supercentre

I don't know how many there are, but Google shows them in Bristol, Swindon and Manchester.

[SweetLeftFoot]

31. Yuck

Don't like the look of that. I imagine the Glazers are looking for a Man U tie in too.

[musette_sf]

33. no wonder the Swindon lot

weren't too upset about moving to Slough after Wernham-Hogg downsized. :-)

http://www.swindonweb.com/guid/connoffice.htm

[muriel_volestrangler]

39. Excellent! (n/t)

[tenshi816]

36. Google "Asda" along with "Wal-mart"

A few years ago Wal-Mart bought the British supermarket chain Asda. The Wal-mart stores here say "Asda" with "Wal-mart" underneath (or is it the other way around? - I'm not sure because I don't shop there), anyway same colours and lettering on the signs and all.

There's one near Leeds and another in Bristol (it was the first to open here in 2000), Swansea, and a couple more but I don't remember where.

Try this link: http://www.union-network.org/unisite/sectors/commerce/Multinationals/Wal-Mart_Asda_to_open_supercentres.htm

This one too - it's a forum posting about a very funny Wal-mart/Asda incident that I remember hearing about when it happened: http://ehermit.conforums3.com/index.cgi?board=andfinally&action=display&num=1116624529

Asda's website says it's part of the Wal-mart family: http://www.asda.co.uk/asda_corp/scripts/homePage.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0180609980.1121235266@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccfaddemijjmmfcfkfcfkjdgoodglo.0&referer=http%3A//www.google.com/search%3Fq%3DWal-mart%2C+Asda%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGBSA%2CGBSA%3A2005-10%2CGBSA%3Aen%26start%3D10%26sa%3DN

A link about another one opening in Wiltshire: http://www.swindonweb.com/life/asda.htm

[eleny]

5. That contrast really shows how young a country we really are

[Bouncy Ball]

7. That strikes me a lot, too.

[SweetLeftFoot]

16. 9/11

Was the first time the US mainland had been attacked since what ... 1812?

Throw "IRA bombings London" into google and you'll see why this isn't such a big deal for them.

It's less than ten years since the IRA blew up half their financial district with one bomb.

[Kurt Remarque]

11. freedom fish 'n chips

[bigtree]

13. I fear

My fear wouldn't lead me where Bush and Blair led us after 9-11, though. Invading an Arab state as a 'show of force' was the policy Blair was defending in the week before the recent attack.

Why shouldn't folks be afraid? They are at the mercy of swagger and bluster that will certainly lead to more reprisals on all sides, more innocents killed, unless we change course.

I would separate the natural instinct to fear from the instinct to aggression. We can act responsibly out of fear.

[Endangered Specie]

17. Well, for one thing, England has been through alot more than us...

WWI, WWII considerably more deadly, for military and especially civilian , for them than US.

Then theres the ol IRA

list goes on.

[Tsiyu]

22. And their televangelists aren't blaming pagans and feminists

and homosexuals. Have they no bigotry to offer the world? No misplaced, pious rage?

Hmmmph......


:sarcasm:

[KayLaw]

23. IMO

The media have a lot to do with it.

[jmowreader]

24. They've been hit before, and much worse than this

If London could survive the Nazis and they could survive the 1970s-1980s terrorism wave--and they did--they'll survive this one too.

Besides, in Britain the "boot" is the trunk of a car. Try putting one of those up someone's arse.

[1932]

29. It's the difference between having rightwingers in power and having

liberals in power during crisis.

WWI and WWII would have been like the War on Terror had Wilson and FDR not been president and some Republican had been president.

[Lisa]

35. yes, and why isn't Tony Blair wearing multiple Union Jack lapel pins?

(another nod to Jon Stewart)

[Lannes]

37. a good article from the Nation I read at "Common Dreams"

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0712-04.htm

An exerpt:

"Conservative radio and television personalities in the United States were unsettled after last week's bombings in London -- not because of the terrorist attack on a major western city, but because too few Londoners were willing to serve as props to support the right-wing ranting of the Americans. After one stoic Brit, who had blood on the side of his face, calmly described climbing out of a smoke-filled subway station, a Fox anchor exclaimed, "That man's obviously in shock."."

[anarchy1999]

38. You are just amazing, Bouncy!.

:yourock: and :woohoo: