What are you doing?

[CharlieD]

Whatever miniscule problem you might have multiple by the difference in population and you will get America, dollar per dollar. Guaranteed.

 

[CakePoet]

We do have problem, all countries do. We just have some weird big brother complex and well at least we stop starting wars against Denmark and that is at least something.

 

[GotGarlic]

Oh we just hit 10 million Swedes, not that many but still it works because we set our minds to it.

It works because you have a mostly homogeneous population. It's a lot easier to come to consensus that way.

 

[GotGarlic]

We do have problem, all countries do. We just have some weird big brother complex and well at least we stop starting wars against Denmark and that is at least something.

I chalk that up to a tradition of royalty taking care of their subjects. We deliberately broke away from that a long time ago.

 

[CakePoet]

Sweden is built on immigration and we are not homogeneous as people think. It just we are Swedes not our ancestors origin.

I would be a Sami, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Russian, German Swede, if I focused on my families past. My best friend is Moor ( 1655) African ( not sure where, his ancestor came her 1789), Turkish ( 1745 mother side) Sami, Norwegian, Danish Swede.

The main problem we have in Sweden, we dont have enough people, we need more, there is big chunk of our population that going to retire in the near 10, that started 15 years ago and we dont have big enough work force.

Oh when it comes to royalty, ha , we kicked their butts a few times, there is a reason they are only for good will. We have had a parliament for long time and since we have a multi party system and people can actually say no to the government and they have to listen. We trust our government because we feel we can be heard.

 

[GotGarlic]

I don't really think you can count other parts of northern Europe as ethnically different from Swedes. If I'm not mistaken, the percentage of your population that is not European is pretty small.

If not royalty, to what do you attribute the acceptance of a "big brother" idea?

 

[CakePoet]

How much do you know about Swedish history and Great Sweden?

 

[GotGarlic]

How much do you know about Swedish history and Great Sweden?

Very little [emoji2] That's why I'm asking.

 

[taxlady]

Most of the developed world has "socialized medicine" in some form. Trying to figure out why so many people in the US oppose it is a political discussion and that is not really allowed on DC.

 

[GotGarlic]

Most of the developed world has "socialized medicine" in some form. Trying to figure out why so many people in the US oppose it is a political discussion and that is not really allowed on DC.

I see it as more of a philosophy or cultural discussion, but it's not my call [emoji2]

 

[Addie]

Cleaned up the basement today. Am I the only one who mops thier furnace room and wipes down the water heater? I have a little bit of OCD. It shows up in the weirdest places when I least expect it.

I hear ya loud and clear. I find dirt where no one expects to look for it. One day at my daughters, the counter in front of her toaster was grimy. The rest of her counter top was shiny clean. I asked her if she ever cleaned out her toaster tray. Huh? She didn't know you had to. I showed her how to open the toaster on the bottom. With a great deal of effort. It was stuck shut. There was so much crumb residue, that they were burnt to a crisp. Her husband removed the tray and she had to soak it to get them loose. I am always after Pirate to please wipe off the top of the door frames along with the top of the window sash. You would be surprised how much dust can accumulate up there.

Living in the city, you get this gritty city dust when you open the windows. Either open the windows weather permitting or live with no fresh air unless you go outside.

 

[CakePoet]

Oki. First of all we had a form of riksdag (national legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden) since 1319 or 1435 ( it depends on what is a riksdag, which date should be used), even we had kings and queens. King where elected until 1545 when the elected King Gustaf Vasa put a new law in that crown should be in inherited. So Kings and queens never had full control over this country. We have had Danish kings and queens too. A Danish Queen, a very beloved one even by us Swedes , wrote in the peace treaty, that Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark are as brothers and shall always come to each others aid. So we are dysfunctional family, but the person who bullies our brothers get whole family at them. Anyway, Sweden grew big after the crusades into Finland, we ruled them, then Norway, Denmark , parts of Germany, Baltic states, Poland and bit of Russia was under our rule. We were the big cheese, while every one else was taking over the world we fought with Denmark, Russian and any one else over Europe. The decline of great Sweden happened when we lost Finland to Russia. Then we let Norway go and suddenly we were small and people started forget our greatness and when people listen to us. So we turned to fixing up the country, it wasnt always smooth, sane or moral but we got there in the end and since we have a culture of trusting the government, working together for common goal and trying to Big brother every one around us. Well this is what happened.

National figure is Mother Svea, we see our country as voluptuous caring mother with lions and a shield.

Due to the many hundreds of years of immigration, we have had culture exchanges and that has changed us. The last hundred years, we had first German immigrants, then Greek, Italian, Polish, Hungarian , people from former Yugoslavia, Africans, Arabs, Danish Jews and German jews. It is hard to find a person here who is genetically 100 % Swedish, most of us are mixed. We are famous for our inventors and our open society, you can find out every thing the government does and some countries dislikes us for it.

 

[CakePoet]

You can get all Eu parlament documents to read here in Sweden, so countries who are not open, well they have people here going and getting the document

 

[Addie]

How much do you know about Swedish history and Great Sweden?

Like GG, very little. I think Americans have the image of a cold country with lots of snow.

That said, in the fourth grade, (in the early 40's) the very first people we studied in geography, were the reindeer people way up north. No where do I remember Sweden being mentioned. Taxlady is the one who told us about the fact the right name that there are called today.

I still know very little about Denmark, Sweden, Norway or Finland. I always just called that area of the globe Nordic Country. "You know, one of those Nordic countries." I really became aware of the differences when I lived in Tacoma. There is a very large Nordic community living there. I used to type up papers for students (with some help on their English) at the Pacific Lutheran University. The U is actually owned jointly by Norway and Sweden. At commencement time, the two reigning rulers would alternate speaking to the outgoing class each year.

My mail lady came from Norway. I loved to hear her sing song accent. She would always tell me little tidbits about her childhood and how she missed the winters. Tacoma doesn't get much snow.

 

[CakePoet]

My mum has half a meter of snow and it snowed today , while I in the south has crocus , snow drops , Glory-of-the-snow in full bloom and the ground is bare and grass has just started gowning and we hit 12 C today.

Sweden is a very long and narrow country, which means we have a lot of different customs and even food.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Finishing up my goofing off here since my loaf of bread is almost done proofing and the oven is almost up to temp. Finally making a loaf of all whole wheat bread, so I got to use some of my vital wheat gluten. When I bought it at the Amish bulk store this winter I told Himself that someone has to love the gluten all the trendy people spurn. I'm talking about ONLY the trend-followers, not those with a real sensitivity to gluten.

 

[Farmer Jon]

I had to take my boss to the hospital this morning for a minor procedure so the morning was shot. After dinner I was going to swap out the seat in the payloader for an air ride one out of a semi. It wouldn't fit. So I decided to do a little fine tuning on an old mower I brought home from Ohio. It needed a new belt. Napa has to order it. About the time I called it a day the sun came out so got grandpas old tractor out and filled some pot holes in the driveway. Someone wanted to ride along. Then I took the John Deere mower for a spin. I just put a new transaxle in it and need to try it out anyway. Someone wanted to ride. Then Zane wanted to ride too. Hes too big and hes been bugging me to let him drive so I set the cruise very slow and turned him loose.

 

[blissful]

Packaged up 2 gallons of 2 types of mother cultures for cheese, to freeze. Making colby right now. I have 10 minutes and then the pressing begins. This is the second colby. DH will be happy. I press it for the next 12+ hours, then drying for a few days, then waxing. Tomorrow might be swiss cheese of some type, not sure yet.

 

[Addie]

Finishing up my goofing off here since my loaf of bread is almost done proofing and the oven is almost up to temp. Finally making a loaf of all whole wheat bread, so I got to use some of my vital wheat gluten. When I bought it at the Amish bulk store this winter I told Himself that someone has to love the gluten all the trendy people spurn. I'm talking about ONLY the trend-followers, not those with a real sensitivity to gluten.

I made what was supposed to be an Italian Rustic loaf in my bread maker. I thought the crust came out too hard. Pirate wrapped it up and let it sit for an hour or so. The crust was nice and soft. Certainly no like any Italian crust I ever came across. But the bread was right on. I am not a bread eater, but I could see myself making a sandwich out of it. Too late! Pirate ate it all.

 

[Cheryl J]

Oh hi stranger.Good to see you to.

Mr.Munky has been doing well.Still in PT/CT 3 times a week.They've taken away his sling and now wears a wrist type brace.It keeps his hand from freezing up into a ball.His fingers are tingling to the point they hurt.That's a good sign.Wakey, wakey pinkey..

Mr. Munky is able to drive now.Short trips.Just not with me in the truck with him.I'm not stupid!
Ran out of post it notes to stick on parked cars (just in case) that say "Sorry we hit your car, here's our contact info.Have a nice day!"

Honey Badger.

So glad to hear he's doing better! You two have overcome pretty big hurdles.