i wouldn't be able to have my pearl handled revolver
in the UK there is strict gun control

and the police would have night sticks instead of guns

no columbines
just debtors prison where all of the college students would be

There wouldn't be two different English-language versions of the Harry Potter books ;)

Actually - I think American English, with all its varying regional accents, might still have developed, but probably wouldn't have diverged quite so far from the Queen's English.

American baseball and football might still have been created, but I suspect there'd be a lot more emphasis on professional cricket, soccer, and rugby.

I'd like to think that little English pubs would be more prevalent, as opposed to sports bars.

I'd be driving an Aston Martin instead of a beat-up old Acura (a gal can dream, can't she? ;) )

And DeltAlum - right you are, about the WMDs :D

How about ...

no Louisiana purchase... (midwest and Northwest speaking French)
no Gasden purchase ... (I'd be living in Mexico!)
no Civil war (excuse me War between the States)
no Spanish-American war
no Mexican-American war (no Texas)
no Seward's folly (Alaska would still speak Russian)

Different words for "My Country Tis of Thee"

Long live our gracious Queen,
long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her vic-to-rious,
happy and glo-rious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen!

:D

Speaking of alternate history...
 

... might I recommend reading some of the alternate history book series by Harry Turtledove?

http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/turtledove.html

What if the South was armed with AK-47 rifles instead of single-shot rifles? The Guns of the South involves a pair of far-right-wing South African arms traders that travel back in time to 1862, where they offer to arm the Army of Northern Virginia wit weapons nearly 100 years ahead of their time. Needless to say, the Union gets the living sh*t kicked out of them with the South's new technological advancement.

Now for a continuing series, read both The Great War and American Empire series of books. Lots of good what-if possibilities.

You need to start off with the 'prequel' How Few Remain which documents a victorious South going for a second Civil War against the Union.

The Great War series details a radically different World War One and a third Civil War. The three books in the series:

American Front
Walk In Hell
Breakthroughs

You'll notice a curiously familiar character that will take center stage in the next series of books. Confederate artillery sergeant Jake Featherston is essentially a Hitler in another setting. This time, the South does lose the Great War, and begins to suffer the postwar economic and military punishment that Germany got in real life at the end of WWI.

The American Empire series deals with life in the USA and the CSA in the period after the war. We see the rise of Jake Featherstone and his Freedom Party (shades of the Nazis in real life) and the crippling devaluation of the CSA economic system due to punitive reparations by the victors. The three books (so far in this series:

Blood and Iron
The Center Cannot Hold
The Victorious Opposition - just published

Ordinarily, I'm not a big fan of science fiction, but I do enjoy reading about alternate history.

Re: Speaking of alternate history...
 

"We'd be staying at the NotaHilton!"

Seriously, if British dental care reflects what National Health Care provides, I could never get behind it.

As for the government, I honestly think that, by now, we would have teamed up with Canada and held a second War of Independence.

An interesting bit that I learned in college was that, in the Spanish-held New World, any colonists originally had to be of pure Spanish noble stock, Roman Catholic, and male. For the English-held New World, one originally had to be a religious dissident, a felon, an adventurer, or a debtor.

With that type of stock, we still would have broken away sooner or later, and still maintained the kinship-type ties that we currently have.

Aah, the Austin Powers stereotype. Ah well perhaps it's true. I want Alicia Silverstone's teeth. Actually, come to that I think I want Alicia Silverstone too.

Crunchie bars would be cheaper! :)

Crunchie bars are expensive? Don't like them myself personally. It's uh the honeycomb thing. But they cost the same as Mars and Snickers and whatever where I am anyway.

(edited for spelling/typo)

I live in a super-small town, and the only place to get them are British specialty shops that cater to the English wives of American GIs. There they are about 2.50 a piece. When I lived in Europe, they were 75 Euro cents (at that time, roughly 70 American cents).

$2.50? Ouch. I'd offer to ship some if you sent the bucks for them but it'd be pointless I mean not really worth it unless you wanted a whole box of them and you wouldn't want that many of them. At the current rate of exchange they'd be about 70 cents still.

Crunchies are also sold at Cost Plus imports...or at least the one near my house...the ones at the British Import shop are like 2 bucks...I mean they are good but 2 bucks a pop? YIKES..

If we were still a british colony we'd be having "tea" not "dinner or supper"(depending on where in the US you are).

Dessert would be called pudding and we'd be eating desserts called spotted dick...I dunno about this...sounds like VD to me.

Somehow, I think we'd still have Texas develop. It'd just have a different twang to it. Actually Texas would have probably been able to achieve it's goal of being a full fledged seperate country.

Yup. Those are the ones! Will probably change "Queen" to "King" within the next few years.