> if you have travelled (as some of you have) you have to admit it is great to see "CUSTOMS: US CITIZENS" and walk through.

yes, i'm sure it is much nicer than facing dehumanisingly conducted strip searches and involountary detainment...

(i'm semi kinda sorta joking but it is considered no joke at all to people considering travelling into the US from abroad)

i always thought the french had a bad reputation... 'french moral laxity' i thought it was called (with respect to the sleeping around thing).

Katherine Mansfield (a New Zealand author who emigrated to England so I expect they will claim her too) had this to say about the French:

(I'm having to paraphrase as I don't have the txt)

People wonder why there is French moral laxity. to see why, you only need to take a look in their homes. the electic man comes to look at the lights and you could stand there, gesturing and pointing. or you could attempt to explain the situation sitting on four square knobs and a bit of cane. How much easier and more pleasant to simply give oneself up to it. Theres simply nothing to be done but to go to bed.

I really should apologise again for not being able to quote directly... I can't even remember precisely where she said this... I'm sure she was much more eloquent than me.

Or the passion of the spanish...

But yeah... Racial / cultural / religious / nationalistic stereotypes... Interesting claims about them are likely to be false.