[jaxie]

Well playing devils advocate and all that, there are countries who would have been significantly better off if they'd stayed with the British Empire and the French and Dutch come to that! Some countries have been civil war torn since or ruled by home grown dictators far crueler than we would have been in this day and age. I like to think we've grown up some and have our big girl pants on now.

Our past does help to shape us and we can learn from it. There are things we can be proud of and things we should be ashamed of.

That pie looks tasty. I think it is PC correctness gone mad to imply anything about the name. The word Empire has been used in enough fantasies that it does't have to mean anything specific.