Not a bad idea. If I had to listen to that crazy cackle on loop, it would certainly drive me into a literal berserker rage.

Hey, come on now, Mr. Kipling makes great pastries! ))

Yeah, Valentine's Day is a pain in the ass. And for me, at least, today has been one GIGANTIC headache.

Good song.

ABC — "Valentine's Day"

The heat turns up a bit around 2m15s and gets cranked full-on around 2m30s, so do listen carefully. 🙂

Yes, they baked your cake in little slices
Kept your eye on rising prices
Wound up winning booby prizes
I'm sure you'd like to think you know what life is

…

Enjoy. 🙂

4. The Cold War and the Soviets influence. The Defense of Europe after WW2 turn to NATO led by the USA. This should of meant that defence spending is shared but it didn’t. Most of Europe cut down their spending on defence since you can’t fight atomic weapons and the Americans will bail us out anyway, so why bother you can use this money for social programs.

The Soviet influences cannot be underestimated. They sent agents everywhere and paid media, politicians and educators to come to see the paradise of the USSR. Their mission was less about stealing information (it did happen) but weakening nations. Finland lasted the longest in the Nordic countries probably because of the winter war but Leftism is like a disease it infects and spreads. Sweden influences Finland more than any other nation (probably because most of the Finish media is run by Swedish people). What Sweden does, Finland will follow about 20 years later.

I imagine this will change as their society become more chaotic, the winter becomes cold, trade get cut and the food runs short. At this point the people who are not Scandinavian will be wishing for the Viking of the old instead of the new monsters that will come. Who knows.
I have grown more to prefer Southern Europe since historical they don't go racial on either side as often (at least not since the Romans unless you count the French) so the pendulum swings are not so big.
Anyway 4 more reasons (I include England in some part even know they have Anglo-Saxon dnd and the history is different)

1. The structural of the family is different to the rest of Europe. The more you go up North in Europe the more smaller the family unit. This is not to say they have smaller number of offspring but more often they don't include extended families as often in functions, more nuclear families. Kids at 18 are expected to leave home, and the society reflect a more individualist model rather than Collectivist or Tribal one as oppose to the South or even that matter the east.

2. the Catholic Church with all of its failures changed in the 7th to 8th centuries from that of the more traditional Christianity to a Crusader force in the 9th century until it change again between the 11 and 12 centuries (becoming more corrupt and traditional). The thrid last change (so far) in the 15th century cause by the revolutions in Europe brought on by the reformation. I bring this up because if you look at the areas of the catholic protestant lines in Europe you will notice a North-West, South-East divide. This is no accident. Silly people (or liars) would argue only for genetics and/or cultural as the reason while ignoring the position of the Southern and Eastern Countries to that of Islam geographic place. Minus Russia (Orthodoxy) who was for the most part in the early history isolated from Western Europe and Greece (Byzantine empire). Is this important?

I think the fact that Catholic (And Orthodox) is different to traditional Christianity that the Protestant Reformation wanted is in part due that it did not have the luxury of peaceful Neighbors, and ones with the beliefs that allows them to lie to strangers, back stab and force conversions. First follow by 400 years of attack by the Arabs and then later another 400 year attack by the Turks, closing the Mediterranean seas and attacking the coast lines, and invasions. Only stop once the European powers surpass them in technology, sea power and industrial might. The north west Europe for the most part had more to worry about other Christian kingdoms attacking them especially after the Vikings converted. Which means that the wars could be fought more with civility (expect for the 30 years War which mainly in Germany) or until WW1. This affected all the Northern European states including England and how they view religion, the world, the state.