For what it's worth, I think that a 35 hr working week and longish leave entitlements are pretty good ideas but, yes, if they are not coupled with similar adjustments to salaries, and combined with other burdens on employers – depending on the extent to which labour markets…

Moore also enthuses on the French system's 35-hour working week and lavish holiday entitlements, among other things.

Will doesn't really mean jack if your life looks more like this festering boil than the photogenically scruffy bits of Provence where emotionally constipated Englishmen get in touch with their inner child.

Anyhow, back to my original point to Russell: none of this has anything to do with their health care system – so it may be a bit unfair to pin this particular criticism on Michael Moore.

Sorry Terence, meant to get back to you on this. Moore also enthuses on…

Hell no. Airport screening is a sop by the US Administration to show the American people they are doing something (and keep the percieved threat level up). And yes, they've made it extremely possible to blow up a plane.…

For the most part I agree – France's economy is most certainly not in a death spiral. Nevertheless there are, as I understand it, problems with its labour markets. Like I said they are not across the board, but they exist – particularly for new job seekers.…

The crack about following security dictates refers to both the reason for our presence in Afghanistan and the ridiculous screening process one goes thru at the airport even when not flying to the US.

I think we get a lot out of presence in someone else's war zone. It's real…

That's why I don't resile from commenting on American controversies — there's a sense in which I'm a stakeholder too.

Well, sure... just as I have an enormous debt to British culture, which is why I kinda feel invested in (and hellishly depressed by) folks who still think Salman Rushdie…

Also, does anyone else find the food on American shows on Food TV a bit scary looking? It always looks soft focus and mucusy to me. Bluk.

Gastro-porn creeps me out, period and full stop. Anything that looks that luscious on screen – or in the pages of a glossy…

They are welcome to their ridiculous country and war.

Maybe it's because I'm reading this amazing Peter Guralnick biography of Sam Cooke right now, but these kinds of sentiments really do make me sad. That whole century of incredible popular culture, amongst other cool things, is now just... pfffft!... because…

find a tower block, in the basement will be a good cheap food mall.

And large bottles of cold Tiger at a fraction of the price paid in the typical touristy bars

I haven't had to do the same since I moved back to NZ but I hear it's just the same, except you wait at different places in the process.

I think that's it's on the same, or I'd argue, largely the same with some differences, because of a lack of…

Thanks, Professor Schama – and in my not so humble opinion, both the United Kingdom and little old New Zealand have a lot of shit to clean up in our own backyards before going anywhere else and sniffing at the natives.

For once, Craig, on this point, I agree with…

France isn't anything like the collapsing economy of right-wing myth. A short visit will show you that. There is localised poverty and social exclusion, true, but in general people live pretty well.

I confess, I was pretty staggered by the lifestyle of the French family featured in the film, on…

It isn't France's high level of social spending (with the possible exception of benefits) that are causing its economic malaise. The most likely cause is labour market rigidities combined with over aggressive European Central Bank inflation targeting and downwards wage presures associated with Globalisation. Even then the problem doesn't appear…

On the other hand my company would often shop around and change insurance providers every year – when my first was born that meant that a month before…

Thanks, Professor Schama – and in my not so humble opinion, both the United Kingdom and little old New Zealand have a lot of shit to clean up in our own backyards before going anywhere else and sniffing at the natives.

Now Craig, what's the world coming to if we…

watch their movies

Correct.

listen to their music

Correct

wear their jeans/shoes/t-shirts/brands

Correct

buy their fast food

Pffft, I don't think so. Can't even stand Subway to be honest, with it's strange unnatural bread smells and sweet syrupy sauces.

Also, does anyone else find the food on American shows…

Really! I have seen some peculiar unearthly 'star wars' type beasts lurking in some of the Mall's Food Halls, but I'm not that game to try them.

Oh, in that case, there is a Starbucks on Orange Road. I hear it does coffee in a mug and muffins.

The new-born baby with a stroke is pretty irrelevant not only for the reasons someone subsequently gave but because insurance companies don't cover new-born babies anyway. In the US – or here – you'd be…

I’d wager Stupid White Men must be one of the most popular political books coming out of the US (or English speaking area) for a decade

Ben, once upon a time, you'd have said the same thing about William F. Buckley or (a few decades later) Alan Bloom. Now, what…

going anywhere else and sniffing at the natives.

oh no, we woudn't want to criticize the US, no, no, no. I mean, it would be so...hypocritical, you know, because we're...well, we're not perfect. In fact, we're totally... f***ed up. So you just quieten down, you antipodean rabble...otherwise we might get…

Agreed – case in point being last night's episode of Top Gear on Prime – it's a mad, mad, mad world over there.

To which my only response is to quote Simon Schama from the latest Listener, on what he's not trying to do with the series he's currently working…

the big decision is really "how long do you want the average wait to be?"

Personally? 0 days, 0 hours, 0 mins, 0 seconds. Which is exactly what happened last year when my newborn son had a stroke shortly after birth and nearly died. There was no pissing around with…

-You got me on the movies. There's so many on Sky it's hard to avoid.
-'Listening' is stretching it. Hearing is even possibly taking it too far. It's amazing what the brain can learn to filter.
-I've got nothing against employing Chinese textile workers
-What's "their" about something I…

Yeah, we just:
watch their movies
listen to their music
wear their jeans/shoes/t-shirts/brands
buy their fast food
drink their coffee
and
accept their dictates on security

======

Agreed – case in point…

I await for the usual suspects in our own little country to start discrediting the film before they view it.

Really? Well, I'd have been quite keen to see Manufacturing Dissent at the Film Fest this year, but sadly working around my work schedule isn't much of a priority for the…

Sigh. Not everyone lives in the US, or even gives a shit about the place.

Fair cop. Although since the thread is partially about the US public's response to Sicko, it's not like it's totally out of left field or anything.

(Tangentially, I've always found the 'not giving a shit'…

His loving depiction of the French social system ignores the social and economic slough the system has helped produce there.

I haven't seen the movie, but – unless he starts drifting well beyond health care you are mistaken, I think

It isn't France's high level of social spending (with the…

They can't really get their heads around the concept of socialised health care to start with

The problem is with the use of the word "socialised".…

I am still in Singapore and still don't know where the best food halls are. This means even more to me than commenting on Michael Moores new film...blimmin hot here.

They're all pretty good, and I thought the ones in the basements of malls and department stores were less challenging…

Does anyone know of other places to get real ale in NZ?

Check out Real Beer NZ for good coverage of proper beer. And can I just put a small plug in for the Nelson area. With Founders, Harringtons, Light House, Mussel Inn and the Renaissance Brewery over the hill…

Sigh. Which is why the left will keep on losing in the US – they keep trying to patronise people into submission. 'You should listen to me, dumbass!' doesn't really work that well, oddly enough.

Sigh. Not everyone lives in the US, or even gives a shit about the place.

habanero peppers in Auckland

The guy at the desk next to me grows 'em. I had a couple dozen in my fridge a few weeks ago til I slowly cooked my way through them. He grows Habaneros, Jalapenos, Scotch Bonnets, Gringo Killers and some other ones whose names I forget…

Can somebody hook a brother up with habanero peppers in Auckland?

I am married to someone from Texas, who requires unholy amounts of chiles in everything. I buy hot stuff by mail-order from Mexifoods in Christchurch. You can get habanero peppers in a jar from their horribly unintuitive shopping site.…

try this search habanero peppers+Auckland you may even find the chocolate dipped ones

...and Galbraith's in Auckland do a highly authentic best bitter.

Heh, I sure felt authentically bitter after tasting it, remembering exactly why I don't like beer! Must try it warm and flat, just to see if can get any more disgusting.

I have a friend in Vegas who was forced to file for bankruptcy because of the bills from two caesarians. Not too posh to push caesarians, but life-saving 'my husband is sixteen inches taller than me' ones. She wouldn't change a thing.

They can't really get their heads around the…

Does anyone know of other places to get real ale in NZ?

There's a bar in Newtown with Emerson's on tap, and Galbraith's in Auckland do a highly authentic best bitter.

In the end, SiCKO doesn't really rate for me (except for the Cuban hospital and fire station sequences), but it has to be considered in the light of the effect it will have on American viewers/consumers.

Or you could ignore American viewers/consumers as the modern enigma they have become. Guessing…

ooooheerrr! Double Entenres anyone

I suppose we can talk about food if you want...

And then, well, there's got to be some catch. I'm constantly astounded by the way the Greatest Nation on Earth can stick some pretty basic stuff in the too-hard basket.

There's some very good backgound to this in Malcolm Gladwell's piece –

America’s health-care mess is, in part, simply…

The British Empire had, I think, the same problem (although they did pick a few things up from others). The technology that marked the Brits losing the plot was industrial chemistry. Maybe mobile phones are the aniline of the 21st century

It’s still happening …
In May 2006, Heinz announced…

Then again, maybe even the sick and shat on still think it would have been worse elsewhere.

I have a friend in Vegas who was forced to file for bankruptcy because of the bills from two caesarians. Not too posh to push caesarians, but life-saving 'my husband is sixteen inches…

"What country shares the longest border with the US?"

"What is the name of the…

All part of a failure to engage with and learn from the rest of the world. Like mobile phones – everyone else in the world got the idea of cellphones straight away.

They don't text either – those American teenagers seem too busy thinking about the health system to learn…

Who but American teenagers isn't already well aware of how crap the US health system is?

American adults, probably.

Healthy ones, anyway. Then again, maybe even the sick and shat on still think it would have been worse elsewhere.

Moore's smart enough to realise that, in an era where it's…

Thing's I do miss:
– Pret a Manger sandwiches – especially the crayfish flavour
– Marks and Spencer ready meals
– English Chinese food. Yes, I know that ours is closer to the authentic food you'd get at a greasy spoon in Beijing, but I miss the Szechuan-style king prawns…

I am in the same boat, and then my friends who do not give a rats arse about politics, the enivironment, the war on terror all of a sudden start talking about climate change…

All part of a failure to engage with and learn from the rest of the world. Like mobile phones – everyone else in the world got the idea…

Alternantively, you could just pretend that you are a middle-class Londoner and dismiss them as crappy junk food, and instead extoll the virtues of organic vege boxes.

It's funny how…

That's an indictment on the state of US political documentaries.

Amen to that.
Hard to see Moore's films as something you can rate according to their artistic merit – the early stuff, like Canadian Bacon and Roger & Me were built of great moments, but since then these have become subordinated…

You hear that sort of…

Thing's I do miss:
– Pret a Manger sandwiches – especially the crayfish flavour
– Marks and Spencer ready meals
– English Chinese food. Yes, I know that ours is closer to the…

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1275151,00.html

Isn’t the teenager angle Moore’s strength though? You can have all the earnest , ground-breaking Panorama style documentaries you like, and they’re likely to sail over the average US –MTV person’s head.

But I think it's the best film Moore has made

It helps that he sets himself such a low bar.

Not just himself

For all the criticism – Moore still hist the targets like no one else.

That's an indictment on the state of US political documentaries.

I find myself…

I can’t find a supermarket that sells it, and the Wishbone product is a pretty weak imitation.

Re insurance and autism – you may be interested in this.

Useful, but only in Oregon, only because a rep. with an autistic son was prepared to sponsor it, and only until the child is 18. So at that age the autistic spectrum adult – who will have enough to…

ooooheerrr! Double Entenres anyone?

My girlfriend asked me for a double-entendre once.

So I gave her one.

Also, I'm the person who paid 5 quid in that Kiwi shop by Trafalgar Sq…

Thanks also to Neil for the link to Malcolm Gladwells piece on the Moral Hazard-Myth. Even though it…

If you haven't smothered your black pudding in brown sauce in Northern greasy spoon (well any greasy spoon) , then you haven't lived...

ooooheerrr! Double Entenres anyone?

Promise me none of you picked up the Brown Sauce habit?

So you haven’t succumbed to the joys of HP then. No traditional British breakfast is complete without it.

Check out http://russelldavies.typepad.com/eggbaconchipsandbeans/

But I think it's the best film Moore has made

It helps that he sets himself such a low bar.

I thought Malcolm Gladwell's The Moral-Hazard Myth was a quite refreshing and insightful analysis of the problems with the US heath system

I await for the usual suspects in our own little country to start discrediting the film before they view it.

I have not eaten Twiglets for years – they are Worcester Sauce on a stick. Yum.

But I think it's the best film Moore has made

Um ... Canadian Bacon. Hands down.