It's been a VERY long time since I posted anything…. Sorry. I've been sick and busy, and I've been gone, etc… I will post pictures of Paris one day. When I get to it. Really! I promise!!

So, I am finally getting to it because I am watching a show called "BNP Wives". For Americans who aren't familiar the British National Party – imagine the KKK with actual real political power and people with these beliefs actually holding office. As in – these are Aryans. These are Blood and Honour (yes, with an extra "u" because it is the British arm of the same racist group). These are people that think the holocaust was a lie. Ummm… WTF? I mean, sure, it's sensationalist media, and sure they are probably taking the very worst sound bytes, but that doesn't change the fact that the women they are following ARE racists. I guess I just have this image in my head of the majority of the outspoken racists in the US as being on the lower rung of society. I mean - if you can't work well with others, and ignore all those things like race and sex and religion and sexual orientation and blah blah blah, then you will never be able to succeed because prejudices will keep you from recognizing potential. It's an obvious statement. But here, these people are winning elections and stuff.

I guess this really grates on me, too, because the other day, Ray walked down to the station to meet me, as he always does, and he brought Dingo with him. By his account: A fat lady with her fat kid and an old guy were standing on the platform waiting for the train. Dingo sniffed the kid, the lady yelled at Ray to keep Dingo on a shorter leash. He started to be apologetic, then she kept on. So he was Ray-like to her, ending with telling her off. The old guy had to point out that he was American and that started yet another argument. "Why don’t you go back and stop taking our jobs?" Well – to be fair – Ray does NOT have a UK job. He pays UK taxes, but doesn't actually take a job from the UK. He still has his US job, gets paid in US dollars, etc. He contributes more to the economy than the fat housewife and more than what the pensioner currently contributes. (Whether that was an assumption on his part that she was a house wife, or whether she said something, I can't tell you.) Then, of course, he goes into the "If there were enough qualified and motivated people in this almost third world country, it wouldn't be an issue, but here I am stuck in this place…" (If you've talked to Ray in the last couple of years, you've heard this rant enough times that you probably know it quite well.) Anyway – the point of the Ray-rant story is that while some of these folks will yell about immigrants to the UK and how they are losing jobs because of the European Union, they don't have the qualified workers in this country to sustain their economy. They don't seem to be aware of this, though. I could go on here about the current state of their economy - their overwhelming dependency on the world (read US) economy, but....

Oh, well. Once again, I say – not my country!

Oh – Good news – Ray and I will get to come back to the US in October to see my folks, because my brother is coming up from Huntsville… Airfare was $1060!! (If I'd gone with the UK sites, it would have been £670 for the two of us…)

That's it for now. I am going to bed, though I am still not quite over the shock of seeing the Blood and Honour tattoo on that guy.