Walsingham

Boycotting only works if the people are willing to not buy a certain company's product. There are too many people willing to buy anything at the lowest price so they can save a buck to really do an effective boycott. That's the way it is around here anyway, I don't know about everywhere else. MLK believed in boycott power. His final speech talked about it. Me, I'm not so certain. People are so defined by corporate identity - Having a nike tattoo anyone? - that I think they find it fundamentallly disturbing to exercise choice.

*sigh* Yes yes, and Christianity is what the Michigan Militia make it out to be...

NO ONE DOES. That's rather the point.

Ah, OK GD. I see what you're driving at now. I apologise for not clarifying first. Yes, it is disturbing how many people view making money as evil. On the other hand, I do take the view that once you've made 100million then you've got enough, and any sane man would indulge his taste in art and philanthropy rather than keep pursuing money like an angry beaver. Incidentally, My new flame has to be Lewis Black, and here he is talking about greed.

Be fair. Iran is a theocratic paranoid festival of bizzareness. I hardly think they qualify as representatives of Islam.

The dog got hold of my underpants and had his head stuck through one of the legholes, running around. Humorousness just got pushed up a notch.

I think we are in a bubble of prosperity and peace which can't last. On the one hand the have nots are just as desperate as ever. on teh other hand the haves adopt poseur solutions to the problems while neglecting to prepare for teh conflict which will arise if those problems are not resolved. Overpopulation, an energy crisis, the clash of ideological power spheres will simply be the spark. However, for the moment I have a snug library with books, whisky, and a pipe. I can ring out for a hundred different dinners, and settle back to watch epics the likes of which my ancestors would have gone mad looking at. I live in a society which at least tries to be fair, and am largely free of venomous snakes. Times are good.

I agree with Gfted1 completely on this. I'm going to let him field it.

I think wiki serves an excellent role as starting point on most subjects. Andit's rarely impenatrable, even when it's insane. That then gives leads on where to go next.

What about if we, as a species, chased Sand around North America on foot waving bamboo sticks and hammering gongs? That would generate heat.

GD, what you're saying isn't upheld by facts. The British government used to build all sorts of stuff - bridges, buildings, harbours - using their own personnel. It's just a question of how they choose to define their capabilities. Of course they don't much any more, and the consequence is these godawful public-private things which are badly made. Also, corporations routinely abuse their political clout to have governments act on their behalf. And that's not to mention the hiring of private mercenaries. Nor aggressive punitive lawsuits. I'm no commie, but to assert that corporations are ALWAYS good and govts ALWAYS evil is just bonkers.

That really would confuse the bojangles out of people. They'd probably assume it was some blindingly clever tactic and start orienting on it.

I personally think cancelling shows on pure viewing figures seems dull and unimaginative. I thought most shows made three or four times as much on DVD sales than viewing. A cult show may make less dribbling dullards watch it on a daily basis, but sell bajillions over the next 20 years. Plus cult shows have superior merchandising potential. I'm not saying it definitely makes sense to keep dodgy shows, but I'd like to see some figures because my instinct tells me that the numbers would work out better. Actually, as an aside, I'd have thought network execs would prefer to have a more complex yardstick than figures, since it raises the uncomfortable question of why there isn't a simply box hooked up between the figures and the financing. Cut the execs entirely.

Regrettably I don't see any resolution other than the one you suggest, Harlequin. On pure theoretical grounds you can't have a state that is this unstable indefinitely. It has to resolve. And - again in theoretical terms - the only stable state is where both sides are either able to deliver on a peaceful compromise or one side is unable to deliver the fallback position of conflict. *thinks* However, on a brighter note, if you follow through on that logic, then what do we see? An arab world with ethnic cleansing on its conscience, or the Western world with total ethnic cleansing on its conscience. Either way it's not really going to bring peace, but simply store up more violence for the future. If that's true then the only solution is to engineer both parties so they can deliver peace. In my opinion for the Israelis it means forming a strong single party government which can see through at least eight years of peace, which would mean constitutional reform or societal cohesion on an improbable scale. In my opinion for the non-Israeli actors this means resolution of the strategic interests of Iran and Syria, coupled with a big societal change in the Palestinian population, coupled with a paradoxical counter-terrorist capability in whoever negotiates on their behalf. Unfortunately while the forer is at least workable using known techniques, the latter would be completely novel. Not sure if that makes it unworkable.

Man has a point.

I have almost complete certainty that the pirates have killed less mariners over their entire existence than the United States has killed civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past month. The pirates are the plucky underdog defending their people. Here come the mafia! Quick everyone! Throw flowers!

If by inspiring you mean stupid, then OK. Hmmm. You may have a point. But then I'm usually doing stupiod things, so being inspired by stupid makes sense.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/0...tunnel-14-years Indian chap digs tunnel using handtools for 14 years. Helps himself, and other villagers. Amazing what can be done with a lot of faith, hardwork, and total disdain for bureaucracy.

I'm not sure I blame them for trying but if you think this is a Robin Hood scenario then you're mental. You think they're moving millions by themselves? They have to have some serious backing to move their money, and I suspect syndicates in the mideast are giving them tipoffs on sailing times as well as profiteering on market instabilities. Nor do I approve of folks who are assaulting mariners and occasionally killing them.

Firstly those of us eating steak will be able to fight you vegenerds for the few remaining dry spots on Earth. Then eat you. Secondly, I got posted this article on sun activity today. I'm not sure but I think it means we may go into catastrophic cooling after 2015 due to sunspot trends bottoming out. I'm not necessarily saying it's true. But if it is we may be grateful for global warming.

Have you ever tried shouting near large angry men? I suggest you do. It's at least as good as amphetamine.

I am looking after my friend's dog for the week. He's a funny little feller. It's weird to have stopping work once an hour to chase something round the house or taking him on sniffing patrol of the neighbourhood. I also discovered that he's helpful for my singing practice in that he sits staring at me, and his ears move back or forth depending on whether I'm singing off key or not. It's hilarious.

1. I've seen TV shows on the BBC which didn't exactly say druids ritually murdered people, but they did show human remains from the pre-Roman period with some rather odd CSI-tastic injuries on them. All buried differently away from normal burial areas. 2. I'd forgotten about Harvest Festival! We used to do that in my village when I was a kid! People would stack corn, and bake huge loaves of bread, and stack up tins of food and jars of jam and whatnot/ Would be given to the poor of the parish. Takes me back...

Does it matter? No. They are going to let age old grudges and selfish attitudes dictacte policy not rational, logical thinking. I am all for sitting back and letting them go at it. Kill each other until the red sea IS red then perhaps after the attrition on both sides they will get it out of their system and be reasonable. Neither REALLY want peace so its NEVER going to happen. And I am not speaking about joe or sally on the street I am refering to their govt leaders. I think if joe or sally had a real say this would have been over with a while ago (generally speaking as some joes and sallys are just as ignorant, short sighted and bigoted as their leaders are). Yes your opinion matters, because your memes are swimming about in the meme pool. I agree that in general the people on the street probably want peace as they do everywhere. But they want it their own way, which is where the devil gets in. In negotiation terms the central problem is that the 'threatened' future is very credible (terrorism and military action) while the compromise future is not. I have yet to ehar a compromise future which might reasonable satisfy both sides, and even a low grade compromise of angry peace is undeliverable BY BOTH SIDES. Israel's election system - like all benighted proportional representation states - means centre moderate parties have to form coalitions with fringe extremists to attain majority. Meanwhile the 'Palestinians' (that is Palestinians, Jifascists, Syrians, and Iranians) only require a dissenting group of perhaps 100 men to bring the whole process to a halt by mounting a terror campaign. It's as unworkable as chocolate underpants.