RN> Aha!  That explains it.  I momentarily confused Sweden with Norway.  I

And how can you do that?   :-)
For me that would be to confuse Canada with USA.

 RN> used to date a girl from Norway when she lived in my home town of New
 RN> Orleans.  Her brother and I were good friends and her parents and I had a

It's good you have them over there. We don't like these stinking lutefisk makers
here.  :-)
There is a healty rivalry going on between Sweden and Norway and also with
Finland but strangly, not with the Danish.

 RN> more than amicable relationship.  I probably would have married her
 RN> (something her parents and I wanted very much), but it didn't turn out
 RN> that way.  I still like her, though.  Her brother used to tell me how
 RN> beautiful it is there and he wished they could go back for visits more
 RN> often than they did.

Yes, Norway is a very nice country and espceially Hurtigrutten. This is a trip by
boat from south of Norway, into fjords and then up to the north.

 BF>> There is a big issue here if we should join the Euro or not.

 RN> I have no opinion.  (-:

You have to get one, It's a big issue.

 BF>> If we do, it all will be ruled from the EU Parlianment in Belgium and
 BF>> that is not good.

 RN> I thought the French were trying to gain control of the EU?

The Parlianment is in Brussels, Belgium and I don't think any country can take
contol over it.
I just heard that the members in the Parlianment have decided to increase their
own salary with 80%. And then speek about mistrust of politicians......

 BF>> In Greece and Spain all became SO expensive when they did and they are
 BF>> still earning what they did before. So now when we go to Greece it is
 BF>> just as expensive for us as it it here but before they joined the Euro it
 BF>> was under 1/2 price.

 RN> That's a shame.  It could cost them money that they normally would get
 RN> from the tourist trade.

It is costing them much. There isn't many Scandinaves or Germans going there now
so even many travel agencys are having big economical trouble these days.

 RN> I blame them for making irresponsible statements.  The first thing I
 RN> drilled into the heads of my children, upon their reaching adulthood, was
 RN> that the only freedom they had to give up was the freedom to act
 RN> irresponsibly.

I agree but then the kids grow up and some will became politicians and then all
is forgotten. Only making money and gain power is whats counts and to do this
they can kill their parents.

 RN> None that we've found yet, but what were they doing with all those
 RN> biological suits?  Where have you been reading about the so-called secret
 RN> documents?  I haven't seen anything along those lines, but I read

That was on the radio news here and this was so secret so not even Bush knew
about it before he decided to go in Iraq.
And about the chemicals and biological stuff, you must have heard what the
Swedish UN inspector Hans Blix said. Either there isn't any or the Iraq's are
wery good at hiding them and he now didn't really believe that they are SO go
at hiding things.

 RN> selectively, so I may have missed those items.  A lot of people are going
 RN> to believe there never were any WMD even after they're found, and I have
 RN> no doubt we'll find them, given time.  Remember, they've had 12 years to
 RN> hide that stuff.

Someone inside Iraq, would by now, have said something and 12 years of sattelite
search should have reveald /something/.
And where is Saddam now? And Bin Laden? I mean, can't they find this guys, how
will they find any weapons.

 RN> It wasn't oil, believe me.  The oil there is for the Iraqis.  Have you
 RN> noticed how relative peaceful it's been since the coalition forces have
 RN> been in Iraq?

I'm not to sure about the oil. The only building in Baghdad that is totally intact
is the Oil Department.
It was rather peaceful even before the war......
I don't say that it was wrong to take out Saddam, but it was perhaps for the wrong
reason.

 RN> Welcome to the club!  (-:  A friend of mine in New Zealand says they don't
 RN> want any American warships there because they are nuclear powered.  Many
 RN> people here don't want that, either, but if it's keeping the peace, isn't
 RN> it a small price to pay?

Even here I think it's for the wrong reason.
They both want to have the cake and eat it at the same time and there are fanatics
all over the world.
There is a simular thing here. The Danish wants us to shut down our nuclear plant
that is placed just near to Copenhagen but they will gladly export electicity made
in their /very/ dirty coal power plant where the exhaust will contaminate Sweden.
It's all about politics and money.

 RN> last time I read the paper (a few days ago), a woman got on a bus in
 RN> Chechnya and blew herself up along with many other occupants of the bus.
 RN> Some escaped with injuries, and among those, some aren't expected to
 RN> survive.

And now they have killed at least 4 German peace soldiers.

 RN> Once the free world comes together and eradicates a culture that willfully
 RN> does that kind of harm to their fellow man, the better place this world
 RN> will be and then we can get back to the normal business of the day
 RN> (denouncing Americans). (-:  After all, if you know me and don't like me,
 RN> that's one thing.  If you don't know me and don't like me, that's
 RN> foolishness.

There will never be peace on this planet as long as there are different religions.
As long a person can kill his neighbour for not having the same belief, I dought it.
Just look at this suecid-bombers, how on earth can one load themself with TNT
and pull the trigger?
They are so religious brain-washed that it is coming out of the ears and this isn't
foolishness, it's fanatism and fanatics, in whatever shape, are always dangerous.

//Bj”rn

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