So finally, at long last, America has joined the rest of the world in offering near-universal healthcare to its’ citizens, instead of relying on a hodgepodge of private health insurance coverage. And about bloody time too, if my brief peek into the world of American healthcare was anything to go by.

Last summer, shove-this-job and I were having breakfast with ( Read more... )

would they want to charge overseas tourists $10 to register for the privilege of visiting America. So they can fund a travel tourism promotion group aimed at … getting overseas tourists to come to America. And explain to tourists why they have to be fingerprinted and give away lots of their personal details.

Nothing like being scanned for ( Read more... )

I’ve been in Ohio for ten days now, give or take, and aside from the aforementioned so-called Asian doughnuts, I have been introduced to such culinary delights as:

- country fried steak for breakfast. This would be a pork steak covered in breadcrumbs, and then deep-fried - for breakfast. Even the Scottish with their deep-fried Mars bars wouldn’t ( Read more... )

I'd forgotten how simply fantastic this particular edition of Top Gear was. If you want to see what three middle-aged British men make of America (well, Florida and the Deep South) watch away:

Click to view

I've only been back in the States for a week, and despite my failure to indulge in things that I normally do in America (Best Buy and buffets), I get the feeling that their infectious sense of optimism has started to hit me. Which is amazing, given half of America is panicing over rising gas prices, a credit crunch - oh and global warming.

One of ( Read more... )

Last night, we were at a sports bar grabbing a bite to eat. A sports bar with about sixty thousand LCD screens showing various moments from American TV - including coverage of the Ultimate Fighting Championships - which just about has to be the most homoerotic thing to be screened on American television ( Read more... )

I've spent the last few days in Cleveland, Ohio visiting
( Read more... )