Living in this country with lots of flaws, seems I still have not enough experience. Shall we keep this topic stictly in job interview, it is hard to argue with personal experience in the main street, and I believe everything you said is true. Have you ever had been asked such questions in a job interview, in the US? It's not only bad taste but also illegal. I guess my argument is, preparing pick-a-side-in-an-imaginary-war question in a job interview in the U.S. is like spending your time on learning how to kill a dragon.
Speaking of nice eld lady, I did have to deal with one of such kind when I sign my first appartment lease in US. She asked "where are you from", and I thought she wants to check my credit history, so I gave the I-am-from-Scotland kind of answer. Then she asked the exact questions in the job interview forbidden list, totally irrelevant to the business. I told the story to my local colleague in a lunch time chit chat. I was astonished by his strong response:"I feel ashamed of that woman, she's not American, I would say she is a freagan French." So I learned two things:
1, the Americans were really really mad for France not joining the war in Iraq;
2, those forbidden questions are not cool.
Wish you got better luck in your next trip to America.
