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Never been in a voting queue for more than five minutes in Norway. I have been voting in both the small districts and in the largest district.

Many experienced volunteer helpers makes it a effective event. We do not have any problems with election fraud either. Might be the Norwegian tradition of not let annyone push us around.

Norway is a nice country with no higher class and no lower class. A Norwegian is mostly happy as long as you stay away and give him space.

Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland figure among the top countries on the UN index because of their high levels of education, democracy, income and public health
http://www.scandinavica.com/culture/society/UNrepo rt.htm

I think you really, really don't understand how government works in Scandanavian countries if you think we've got Socialism down pat or that the Scandanavian countries aren't as Democratic as us. They do, after all, rate higher than us in press freedom, class mobility and equality of opportunity, and gender equality.

They even have as high of a rate of gun ownership as us without all the murder.

Why not say Finland, instead of "a European nation". Did you know that Linux Torvalds is Finnish, and that Nokia is a Finnish company? And that Santa Claus lives http://www.scandinavica.com/culture/tradition/sant a.htm in Finland?

You mean the rest of the Europeans who were sailing all over the place before any of those dorks? ( http://www.scandinavica.com/culture/history/vinlan d.htm )
Props to the polynesians tho, exploring the pacific in glorified rafts was quite a feat in 380AD.

Okay, fun fact: it's not toaster hot, but the current (?) sauna sitting record is 16 1/4 minutes at 110 C. Yeah, that's above the boiling point of water. Oh, just to make sure it's not a dry heat: "with half a liter of water thrown on the stove every 30 seconds to increase the steaming heat effect."

http://www.scandinavica.com/culture/sports/sauna.h tm
http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200503/fi nland-sauna-world-championships_1.html

Amazing what people will volunteer to do, isn't it?!

You'd better watch your comments. I hear the mother, Mrs. Torvalds, is a karate master.

Did you miss the part where I said "including being colonized"?

I don't doubt the Sami are people, but are they a distinct nation?

The Sami, in some places spelled "sammi" though with other variations of spelling, I wouldn't say are so much a distict nation as much as they are part of a group of interrelated peoples. They are related to the Lapps which is a derogitory term, Lapps call themselves Samek or Sambe, and range from northwestern Russia to Norway and Sweden. Also related are the Inuit of Iceland and northern Canada and Alaska. Because these people are spread over a broad area they have formed their own dialects and customs. Here's a link to a pdf on Artic languages from UNESCO, Artic Languages: An Awakening. It's quite large at 446 pages and more than 2MB. Here are more links:

• An introduction to the Sami people
• The Sami in Finland
• The Sami and Lapland
• The Kola Sami in Russia
• INUIT CIRCUMPOLAR CONFERENCE
• Eskimo (Yupik/Inupiat/Inuit)

And, besides, this will force European nations to develop methods and technologies that produce clean power and/or use less fossil fuels. Then, when the oil really starts to run dry they'll have the upper hand, and China, India, and the US will be buying technology from them.

It's already happening in the emerging wind generation technology, where Denmark is the leader.

Think of it this way: Imagine all the coffee in the world was going to run out eventually, maybe soon. Wouldn't you be better off inventing a better way to make tea instead of a better way to make coffee?

Wealth gap doesn't mean anything.

While it doesn't mean everything, it definitly means something.

If you're making $200,000 a year right now, does it matter to you that Bill Gates is worth billions? It shouldn't.

But it should if you are on minimum wage, making less than your counterparts in the 1970s did.

The fact is that all of society, like it or not, benefits from the acheivements of a very small minority.

Ah, "trickle down economics". Ha.

That minority is very well rewarded in the U.S.

No kidding. Just ask Halliburton.

which is why the country has the richest poor in the world.

No it doesn't. That honour goes to countries where the government is of and for the people, not of and for the rich.

Some places to try:
http://www.goinglobal.com/countries/sweden/profile . sp
http://www.americaninsweden.com/
http://www.scandinavica.com/sweden.htm
http://www.migrationsverket.se/english.html (This is where you go to get the application forms you may need)

Remember, Google is your friend in case you need more information.