Although right-wingers slam socialism and national health care, Norway is a great example of how national wealth can be used for the benefit of the people, and not just for the benefit of plutocrats. Norway has a high standard of living, and, despite the fears about the effects of overregulation common in the neo-liberal crowd, Norway has the highest number of millionaires per capita than any other country in the world.

Not to mention that in Oslo, you can take the subway and get to cross-country ski trails!

But keep in mind, though, that everything in Norway isn't necessarily roses. The idea that Norway is building its fortune on fossil fuels is a little distressing. They still have right-wing parties like Fremskrittspartiet that advocate free market economic policies and stoke xenophobic fears about foreigners and immigrants for their own political advantage. And, as much as they're trying to keep their population in the hinterlands, there is net immigration towards the big cities, mainly Oslo.

But still, I would live there in a heartbeat.

And don't forget to see the Lutefisk museum in Drøbak!

They might invade. Do they have WMDs in Norway? Are you sure? Maybe they are working on them?

Or! Just look at a map. Norway and Sweden together look like a fish or a snake about to gobble up Denmark. They will not allow that. Ever. They probably will invade to preempt any such gobble.

If we let them gobble Denmark, pretty soon they will want to gobble Texas and Minnesota.

My grandmother came from Norway as a four-year-old and settled on farmland in the middle of North Dakota on the Canadian border. I wished I could have asked her before she died about a theory I have of why settlers stopped in such God-forsaken country with such severe winters and the puny Turtle Mountains only 400 feet high. My theory is that the wives who were worn out traveling in wagons told the men who had just stopped for the night on the way west, that they were not going to ride one more damn day and that this is where they were going to set up a homestead or else the men could head west on their own.

I'm not a betting man, but something tells me GK has just paid a visit to Flåm, on the Sognefjord... I was one of the 250,000 tourists who passed through last year and unlike the "sweater weather" he's experiencing it was 75 degrees and sunny all week.

I didn't actually stay *in* Flåm, though... since it's really just a glorified bus stop. Instead I stayed a few km up the road in Aurland at this adorable little B&B and ate flatbread crackers with goat cheese and pickled herring for breakfast every day. They even have a beach where you can swim in the fjord, if you don't mind 50 degree water (the locals sure don't).

www.visitflam.com - "Heartily welcome to Flåm!"

Garrison Keillor and any other person of Norwegian ancestry may find the article linked here to be helpful in explaining why Norwegians are the way they are.

American oil for multi-billion dollar multi-nationals who then process it and sell it to the American people for more profits.

Socialism is bad.

Capitalism is good.

What a crock.

If every American Norweigan, even every Liberal American Norweigan had come out and voted for the past three elections ...

How many American Norweigans are just part of the problem? I can't even begin to have time to explain on how many levels this disturbs me. (And fills me with envy with Norweigan life.)

Norway's progressive economic, social and environmental stances are impressive, and recognised by fellow progressives around the world.

But what I cannot understand is how a society that considers itself progressive can continue to slaughter whales commercially.

Until they ban whaling, I cannot and will not concede Norway's status as the country with the world's best living standard. To continue to slaughter an animal that has reached critical levels of endangerment shows neither intelligence nor visionary thinking.

This is Norway's Achilles Heel, and the people need to put an end to this senseless practice.

Like many Norwegians, Mr. Keillor has conveniently forgotten the WWII occupation of Norway. Not a bad thing to miss.

And Norwegians whale because they are Norwegians. God willing, the whales will still be there when the oil is gone. The fish, too, because they only have fish, woods and some mines when the oil is gone. I think Lutefisk may qualify as a WMD. That stuff is just WRONG. The Norwegians in Norway don't eat it anymore.

I too immediately thought Keillor was visiting Flåm. I visited there in 1980, but not via the sea. I came on the "troll train" thru the mountains and many, many tunnels. It was high summer, and I stayed in the local hostel. I remember the local telephone numbers had 2 digits. Back then not many liners stopped there, so while the village was popular with European travelers, it was not an onslaught. I don't think the hostel was full that June. I am heartened to hear it is still small and hopefully pristine. There's a beautiful waterfall above the fjord, and in the surrounding forest which were taller than my head (5').

blah blah blah.

We're so bad.

Everyone else is so good.

blah blah.

They're welcome for what we did with that whole WWII thing.

Many wonder why the Norwegians still hunt whales, particularly when Norwegians have excellent standing as guardians of the environment.

Norwegians hunt the minke whale, which is NOT endangered. Many well-meaning people who have not done a serious study of whales, diverse whale species, and whale hunting assume that ALL whales are endangered.

This isn't the case, any more than that because some species of monkey are endangered, that ALL monkeys are endangered. Rest assured that Norwegians are very concerned with the environment and work very hard to keep natural surroundings as pristine as possible.

Unfortunately a lot of opposition to minke whale harvest is plain old anthropomorphism, or "Bambi Syndrome": a given animal is too "cute, smart or good" to hunt. This has disastrous consequences, as when the suspension of seal hunting led to thousands of seals starving to death or coming into contact with seals in other places which carried diseases the newcomers weren't immune to. Other species of sea life also suffered horribly through seal overpopulation, though there wasn't any international outrage since these other species of sea life really aren't very cute.

I'm a Chicagoan who's lived in Norway since 1990; I've often witnessed the bafflement of Norwegians who were being told by folks who knew nothing about whales, that all whales are smarter than Einstein, good-er than Mother Teresa, and Norwegians are no better than cannibals for eating food which had largely carried them through the postwar years.

Harvesting from nature--provided one doesn't disturb the precious balance--is preferable to eating miserably produced farm food; animals on farms often suffer horribly and we've all heard about chemical and genetic tampering. Before we condemn people for what they eat, let's first ask,

1)Is the given hunted animal endangered?

2)How much suffering does the hunted animal feel, relative to that farm animals feel when they're slaughtered?

3)How much does anthropomorphism factor into how I feel about this?

4)What resources are necessary to farm, as opposed to resources necessary for hunting?

Answering these questions takes time and research, but at least one can come to a more informed decision, than if they simply accept prevailing notions that may or may not be true.