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Listed below are comments made by endorfin between Wednesday, 5th November 2008 and Wednesday, 19th November 2008.

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The Mormon backlash 4:00pm on 19 Nov 2008 #45, 48

I'm almost literally speechless with rage over your comments.

Gay people do not, in the main, make a lifestyle choice to be gay. They're just gay.

One of my friends - best man at my wedding - is 100% gay. He's never had sex with a woman for the same reason as I've never done so with a man; it just doesn't interest me.

No doubt a century ago he'd have bowed to societal pressure, got married, fathered children (he'd absolutely love children, and dotes on mine) and been resolutely miserable in his marriage; hardly fair to wither husband or wife, wouldn't you agree?

It's not possible to control who you're attracted to. My friend Mark has as much interest in "acceptable forms of social protest" as a weasel has in knitting ...... it's just that he likes men rather than women.

Not all gay people want to be married. Many gay couples, however, would like to be taken seriously by society and to demonstrate their commitment to each other. They want to be seen by society as being EXACTLY THE SAME as any other couple - no better, no worse - and reject absolutely the rather patronising idea that 'civil union' is somehow good enough for them, whereas marriage is especially reserved for straight folks.

After all, Rosa Parks was still on the same bus, going to the same place, right? And standing's not so much worse than sitting?
Morphing America? 5:22pm on 06 Nov 2008 #258

MV Agusta - one of the modern ones. Lots of fun, but just hilarious trying to get spare parts...........

As a day-to-day bike I can safely say it's appalling, as pretty much all Italian bikes are.
Morphing America? 4:35pm on 06 Nov 2008 #248

DARPA may well have created the Internet, but T B-L invented the Web. All that HTTP stuff, it seems, sprang from his very British mind.

#250

Well, we ALL have lots of stuff, don't we? But I think we had more American goods some years back, when we all used Hoover, drove a Ford, or wore a Timex. And even Americans seems to be abandoning Dodge, GM, Ford, Cadillac et al. The Big Three are looking more and more like they'll become The Smaller Two, and eventually (unless they're quick) the Not Very Big At All One.
Morphing America? 3:56pm on 06 Nov 2008 #245

"By the way, has anyone noticed how Rahm Emanual looks a lot like Justin Webb?"

And they've never been seen in the same room together......it must all be true about the conspiracy theories.......look out for black helicopters.......tinfoil helmets all round.....send out the call for SuperMooseMom and MaverickMan to save the day!
Morphing America? 3:08pm on 06 Nov 2008 #232

OK, I'll bite and take the "are you really an American" test.

For myself we have the following:

Formal clothes - typically British (shoes, shirts, ties, some suits), Italian (some suits).

Casual clothes - mostly British, though some American shoes. Oh, and Patagonia fleeces.

Cars - Swedish, British, German.

Bicycles - German x 2, American, British x2, Canadian, plus a lot of Swiss / Japanese cycling clothes. Oh, and some Fox gear as well.

Motorbikes - Italian bike, Japanese helmet, Dutch leathers. I'd rather walk than ride a Harley.

Electricals - overwhelmingly Japanese, with a Finnish phone. iPod and Blackberry are the sole American representatives.

Watches - Mainly Swiss.

Food - I'd rather go without than digest fast food, if I'm honest. Though I do frequest Starbucks.

Wine - French, Spanish, Australian. Almost never American!

Music - this changes regularly, but I concede that The Killers are as American as it gets. That said, although Neil Young is from North America, he might take grave exception to the view that he's from the USA.......

Entertainment - House is my favourite TV show (though Hugh Laurie - Eton & Cambridge - is most definitely British).

So yes, of course there are many American influences in my British life, as I'm sure there are for most people. And I'd guess that the reverse isn't true of the average American.

But which is better - a culture which borrows the best bits of another, or one which is rather more insular and believes itself to be better than the rest?

FYI, it was Sir Tim Berners-Lee who developed the very system we're using to communicate at the moment, but surely that would imply that America follows Britain, would it not? Or perhaps Switzerland, where he developed the Web?
Morphing America? 1:47pm on 06 Nov 2008 #210

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I found that sweeping statement rather offensive.

I'm sure there are British people who do act in exactly the way you describe, just as there are others (Madonna as a prime example) who do the opposite.
Morphing America? 12:31pm on 06 Nov 2008 #177

I tried to read that but I couldn't take more than a few pararaphs.

Is he always this .... I struggle for the right word, but the only one that comes to mind is ....vile.

Then again, he's preaching to the converted, and they like what he has to say, so I guess he'll just keep on saying it, and they'll keep believing it.

Thing is, the average age of the Republican voter is getting older. And, like the readership of the Daily Express in Britain, that means their base support is literally dying out.
Morphing America? 11:32am on 06 Nov 2008 #148

Re Viz:

Big Vern has popped up several times, to go on the posts from some of the more 'survivalist' types who've popped up from time to time on this blog.

Billy Britain has clearly made an appearance from time to time, as well as Ivan Jelical.

There's a fair number of Yankee Dougals as well.....
Morphing America? 11:22am on 06 Nov 2008 #132

Sam

It's true to say that the Brits are in not so well-travelled as we'd like to claim, and that two weeks in a British enclave in Spain does not make for an informed judgement. At the same time, we are, typically, a lot more aware of world events because we are so much smaller than the USA. What happens in Pakistan will be of just as much/little relevance to the average Liverpudlian as it is to an Iowan, yet the world knowledge would, I'd wager, be higher in the UK.

Part of this is size; people in the UK think it quite adventurous for me to drive 700 miles to my ski chalet in France, whereas a similar drive in the US wouldn't generate even the slightest of eyebrow raises. You simply have more stuff going on around you, and perhaps have less need to travel outside your national borders. Accordingly, less importance might be placed on information about other countries.

Regarding guns, you're being disingenous to imply that they are in the main owned for hunting in the USA. Of course there are hunting rifles in the States, with which I have no problem, but you can't seriously tell me that you want/need an assault weapon to hunt duck? Typically I shred duck *after* cooking rather than before......

We British simply don't have a desire for guns, and it would be considered odd in the extreme for me to own one unless I was a farmer. Even then, that would be a utility device, probably a standard shotgun for pest control. There are of course those in the hunting fraternity who have guns, but they're in the smallest of minorities. Certainly the guns you've mentioned that you possess would make you an object of some considerable curiosity/suspicion in Britain.
Election analysis 4:14pm on 05 Nov 2008 Can we believe it?

Yes we can!

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