On the wind up to the World Cup, there are already huge problems in the U.K. and it doesn’t have anything to do with Germany …for once. Sure, footie fans going to Germany have been told to watch their language, but now an equality watchdog (whatever that is!) has told Scots they better watch theirs toward the English.

This watchdog, which is officially called The Commission for Racial Equality Scotland, says it has already received complaints about some perceived anti-English sentiment. Doh. I’m an American and I could have told you that existed without the World Cup!

I just read a USA Today article regarding a meeting which took place last week in Washington between our Attorney General,the FBI and Google, Microsoft, Verizon, Comcast and other ISPs regarding a new direction in internet data retention.

I knew that a lot was now being retained in Alberto Gonzales fight against child predators but our government now wants the ISPs to hold onto our searches and emails for 2 years. The article says they don't want the contents of our emails but they want all the traffic details along with all our internet searches. After my initial reaction, which probably looked like someone hit by a stun gun, I started thinking about the logistics and legalities of what he's ordering up.

There was an adsense ad yesterday on my Whiskey Diaries, which prompted some research and a few emails. There’s a remake coming of the film “Whiskey Galore

Okay ….I know you’ve been patiently awaiting the lesson on how to pronounce ‘Bruichladdich’. Your wait is over. Pronounce it ‘brook laddie’. No one expects you to try to roll the ‘r’ so don’t try as you’ll sound like a fool unless you’re a Scot.

The reason I stress the importance of the word is that Bruichladdich is a distillery on the Isle of Islay that recently came back from the dead. It was a distillery built during Victorian times and it produced some great whiskey, but was closed down in 1994 and just left to sit there …including a lot of barrels of whiskey! In 2000, a band of intrepid whiskey lovers bought …lock, stock and smoky barrels included. Since then, they’ve restored the whole shebang, are beginning to distill again, and are bottling and selling what was in the casks. And boy is it good …I can personally attest!

I love single-malt whiskeys! The peatier and smokier the better for me, but since I’m living the ex-pat life in Scotland, I decided I’d broaden my horizons and do a more thorough study of a subject which is very near at hand here.

My love of single-malts probably stems from my first taste of whiskey. Age 8 and sitting in a freezing cold duck blind in Oklahoma with my father, I was trying very hard not to whine but I couldn’t control the shivers. He pulled out a bottle, handed it to me, and told me to take a big swig. I did and after my eyes stopped burning and my throat unconstricted, I liked the after taste of it. No, it didn’t start me toward alcoholism at an early age, but it sure tweaked an interest.