I liked your post too bad I could not post a response. I like to read "The Economist"...interesting articles..dry at times but always fascinating.

Thanks Katherine. I just found the thread. Apparently it has been frozen, which is really too bad (and unnecessary). But there were some great posts while it lasted. I learned a few things and it pointed me to some topics that I'll need to explore further.

We could always restart it. It'd be hours before the grownups find out

Anyone else find it a bit ironic that after Flanneruk made the salient point about danger of political correctness -- i.e. the need to discuss things, not just call people names -- the thread gets frozen so we can't discuss them. I know, I know, this may not be the right forum, but the issues raised by Dumas were not irrelevant to the Europe's social-political environment. Sure some of his/her facts may have been wrong, but discussing those issues would help him/her understand where he is wrong. Meanwhile, s/he might have convinced some of us that his points were valid.

Bitter, dear, don't look to deeply for any irony. I'm currently being educated on web forum design and I can assure you the fodors eds aren't working 24/7. Somebody gets to it when they get to it and that's that.

Flanneruk - ssshhh! Keep your voice down!: - )

In fairness to Fodors, it seems they are but being consistent with the content of their travel guides, which doesn't generally include political analyses. Maybe if you retitled the thread, 'effects of European government policy on consumption of gelato and/or hotel occupancy rates' you might get away with it....