If blonds on billboards are an indication of racism, the US is the most racist nation on Earth. Or it could be that one man's merchandising tool is another man's ...merchandising tool.

It could very well be that Europe is full of racists. We should then be wary of our inherited attitudes toward non-whites. White man's burden and all that.

If length of residence is the best authority for judging national or regional behavior, I guess Phil is the only official spokesman for the conservative take on New England, as he is the only one with the chops. I, of course, will be the authority on New York (having lived there for 22 years and still having realtives there), and I will happily share Pennsylvania with Fox and Tony. We will all defer to Raoul and Tony on European matters.

I did an entire independent study on the period between the two World Wars with the head of my department (a PhD and a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondolet, so no Communist mouthpiece) while I was an undergrad. The Treaty of Versailles contributed to German bitterness, and was certainly cited by Hitler as a justification for his behavior, but was far, far from the sole or even the founding cause of World War II. To get to there, you have to examine Weimar, the Great Depression, the rise of Fascism in Italy, and the rise of the Soviet Union. Many things went wrong. French revenge for the treaty that ended the Franco-Prussian War (1871) -- which Versailles was, chapter and verse -- was not even the half of it.

Regards--
Mary Anne