Apparently, British police (on a local level, not Home Office on down) are going to libraries and demanding records on patrons' book and Internet use in an effort to track down terrorists.

Article is here (from theBookseller.com)

I know Americans and Britons have different attitudes towards their civil liberties and what they do and do not expect from their government. A lot of Americans (at least the ones who were paying attention) were angry at the passage of the PATRIOT Act and what amounts to unlawful search and seizure of personal records without a warrant. Would Brits feel the same way? Would you feel your rights and civil liberties had been infringed upon if you found out that your local police were demanding records from your local library or would you consider it for the greater good? Would you even care one way or another?

I'm genuinely curious because I'm one of those "radical, militant librarians" who are outraged at the very idea of the PATRIOT Act and would like to see repealed. I'm not worried about what anyone would find by searching through my library record but I still believe it's unlawful for the government to be able to do so, especially without a warrant and under a gag order.

(Mods, I didn't really know how else to tag this. Feel free to retag if you feel something is more apropriate.)

According to the BBC's top story immigrants who want to become British and settle permanently in the UK will soon need to pass more tests to "prove their worth" to the country.
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Is anyone else bugged by Americans who pretend/want to be British?

I can give a perfect example. My friend moved to England in 2004 and she's been living there nearly four years.

Then there was this girl I knew on some website. She was just...yeah.

Why can't people just be proud of where they're from? It's not like being British is better than being American or the other way around. Just be glad to be who you are, because if you weren't you, you wouldn't exist. I'm happy to be American, I know I'm not one of the shitty ignorant stupid ones, and I think other people should be too.

Not sure how many of you read the separatedbyacommonlanguage blog, but here's an entry (with subsequent relevant comments) on the use of "Brit" and what the best word is (if there is in fact such a thing, because there seem to be problems with most options) to call residents of the UK and its constituent countries. A lot of the attitudes seem to be very similar to those on here. In my own personal experience, most of my overseas friends are in the "neutral, but foreign" camp, with a few "I don't like it all" mixed in.
Anyhoots, thought I'd post it in order to spark more discussion/reactions on what seems to be a hot topic here lately.

So, today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Little Rock Nine. They were the first black students in an all-white school in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA in 1957. My question for you guys is whether any blacks (or other minorities for that matter) in the UK went through anything similar? Especially in the 60's & 70's which was such a turbulent and dynamic time in American history. Were there any parallels?


If you feel this post is inappropriate for this comm feel free to delete, I will not be offended. :)

So I watched the first episode of Nip/Tuck a few weeks ago, hoping for a slickly-made US drama (like CSI or ER) to pass away an hour. As it happened, we sat laughing at it because it was so wooden and dire.

However, there was one bit where the cute young lad is in bed with his girlfriend for the first time. She sees his penis and recoils. He asks what's up and she says "It looks like a slug." Turns out he's uncircumsized, and this is a Big Deal. Rather than dump the girlfriend for being such a rude bint, he tries to get a circumsision but his parents won't sign the consent forms. Then his dad's friend tries to get him over the hangup by taking him to a brothel and paying for him to have a session with a prostitute...

So... is it that rare for a teenager in the US to not have his foreskin chopped off? In the UK the practice has pretty much died out, apart from Jews and Muslims. It's not paid for on the NHS.

Also, given that the kid is presumably 17, how likely is it that he'd ever get let into a bar offering naked women and back rooms?