[url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25419761/]Buckingham Palace: Royal family a bargain
Accountants say monarchy cost each subject less than $2 last year[/url]

LONDON - Buckingham Palace accountants insisted Friday that the cost of maintaining Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family is a bargain for taxpayers, despite a price tag of $80 million, while a prominent anti-monarchist group said many of the true costs are hidden.

The Republic group also complained that the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, spent more than $44,000 of public money to take a helicopter to the Kentucky Derby during a prolonged official visit to the United States.

"She took a day off and went to the horse races and it cost the taxpayers a lot of money," said Republic spokesman Graham Smith. "We're going to raise serious questions about that. Why are we paying for a day at the races?"

Why indeed?

I don't know, I think the whole Royal Family thingie is kind of cool.

As opposed to the least cool imaginable...lurking somewhere...somehow.

It's very ironic...over two hundred years ago, our ancestors fought a Revolution to rid themselves of a king and all the royal trappings that went with him.

Now, we've got our so-called 'reps' in all three branches of our government behaving more like Kings, Queens, and their courtiers than anything the Brits have to offer!