Thanks for this thread. I had a similar issue when I migrated a database to a new 2008 server. A pre-existing login had the wrong language causing the issues above, this thread made me check and realise the problem.

BTW much as I respect you Mr Celko, you are overly harsh above - I am fully cognisant of the correct way to do dates, unfortunately many of us have to deal with non-ideal code we cannot change and that we need to keep working, much against our preferences.