Walsingham

You are channeling the spirit of Georges Clemenceau again. Please report to the chapel for exorcism.

The quicker commercialised gangsta dies the better as far as I'm concerned. LOL check out my expert dissing behaviour. I'm sure if 50 cent reads this he'll go cry when he sees my yucky emoticon.

You've made my day. Actually, you've made my last two days, the time I've spent listening to the albums Thimar and Barzakh by Mr Brahem. Absolutely spellbinding work. I love how it's not fake exotice with "omg we gots ethnic instruments over a crappy synth track!111", but the real deal. A native playing native music. And he plays so well. What's not to love? I got introduced to him while staying with a friend in Switzerland. I don't know how he discovered Brahem, but he'd been a doctor with Medecins Sans Frontiers in Afghanistan for several years. Very pleased everyone's enjoying him. You probably already know the other artist I was introduced to on that trip: Manu Chao

Caught our parents twice, tho.

I appreciate greatly your dismissive tone, mate. But I think if you concentrate you'll see what I mean. 1. I never said we should treat the Red Cross as a sacred cow. Unexamined organisations tend inevitably towards corruption. I'm not saying that they haven't made mistakes. 2. The anecdotal example I gave was represented as just that. My point was to illustrate that it would be wrong to represent the Red Cross as an organisation that is just about lining their pockets. I would not want them to lose out on funding because they go places and have a history of compassion, professionalism and morality that stands above competing organisations. 3. It's nonsense to suggest that a corporation is unaffected by public perception. Johnson and Johnson do not make anything which is unique to them. There are innumerable other ways one can buy bandaids and skin lotion. 4. The fact that the Red Cross has paid employees is not a bad thing. I know some charities where the employees become more concerned about staying in a job than serving the organisation's purpose. But I also know charities run by volunteers where everything is a complete muddle and vast sums of money are wasted due to inefficiency and general lack of time. 4.1 A certain degree of flashness can be excused on grounds of providing a good working environment, and as a means of retaining high calibre employees. Running the Red Cross out of a shack in the bayou is an option, but see how fast the best brains scuttle off to six figure salaries in coporations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6939549.stm Pictures of the robots. Gave me the willies.

Ours were made with string, tin cans, and piles of stuffed animals.

*points at picture with stem of pipe for emphasis* Look what he's done there with that pear. Marvellous. *re-inserts pipe* Pipes - pacifiers for the pompous.

*Attention focussed on pictures, lips pursed around pipe.* Mmm...

Yes. My sister and I used to make elaborate traps for him on Christmas eve. Although he never got stuck I think this just proves he is a 'Nam vet.

It's aneat idea. However, in about five to ten years most of that pre-processing will be done using computer algorithms rather than rentacops. It's already starting with things like firearms.

Rosemary. You'll want fresh rosemary with a giant talking rabbit.

I just generally respect the fact that their ground 'troops' consistently put themselves in harm's way, and that they manage to transcend conflict boundaries on many occasions. What they do isn't always good, but it is often crucial to saving lives. I just picked a book more or less randomly off the shelf, and here's a quote: [uNAMIR driving into a refugee camp in Rwanda] "When we stopped and got out of our vehicles, we were swarmed by a thick cloud of flies, which stuck to our eyes and mouths and crawled into our ears and noses. It was hard not to gag with the smell, but breathing through the mouth was difficult with the flies. A young Belgian Red Cross worker spotted us and interrupted her rounds to guide us through the camp. The refugees huddled around small open fires, a silent, ghost-like throng that followed us listlessly with their eyes as we picked our way gingerly through the filth of the camp. I was deply impressed by the young Belgian woman's calm compassion as she gently administered what aid she could to these desperate souls. It was obvious she could see through tehir dirt and despair to their humanity." Lt.Gen. Romeo Dallaire - Shake Hands with the Devil. But irrespective of how good or bad the Red Cross are, they are certainly seen as good, and picking a fight with them? Sure, and why not punch a few nuns whle you're at it? Genius! *Edited to add emphasis*

I love the hotdog and hotdog bun.

I'd say that's a good thing: spending more money on things we enjoy than on ways to engage in war. What if we enjoy waging war? Ever thought about that, Mr. smarty cat? One of these days it'll be awesome. We'll get fully bipedal and dextrous robots we can control from our homes after we get home from work that we'll use to conquer foreign nations as if we were playing a video game. I thought that's what I WAS doing! Lousy stupid Dawn of War. I want my money back!

Ditto.

No *sulks* shan't.

I think that's some fantastic art.

Would Gromnir mind backing that up? I know there are organisations that are crappy about getting donations to teh stricken, but I thought the Red Cross were good. Up there with Medicins Sans Frontiers.

The Simpsons Movie. I was extra hard on it, and I still laughed a lot. Not so much in the last third, but still miles better than any other comedy film I've watched recently. Newly re-awakened ambition: own a pig.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6938364.stm I am utterly amazed that anyone in their right mind could be so totally ignorant as to think that the money Johnson and Johnson can get from the lawsuit will counteract the negative publicity. Seriously bad management.

There's only one argument to answer yours: Pshaw! *Puff puff*

Given the self-harm in the context I'd argue it was more like owning a camel.

I would guess the universe is going to be pretty damned if we're the best there is. My point is that we're always fantasising about some super-race coing from teh stars to save us. But what if that is our allotted destiny, so to speak? What if we have the seeds of greatness, and we squander it on spening 100s of times more money on cosmetics than on space exploration? Because we do. In Europe we spend more money on cosmetics than on defence!

I think it's important to recognise that while the Jifascist plan may seem implausible as a threat it relies quite simply on standard Maoist revolutionary war principles. 1. Discredit existing order through acts of revolutionary violence, leading to counter-revolutionary repression. 2. Weaken target system through acts of violence aginst infrastructure and institutions. 3. Radicalisation of populace by elimination of moderates. 4. Escalation from terrorism to guerrilla warfare and thence to conventional warfare. The most important point is, as I say, that stages 1-3 as we're witnessing in Iraq and Afghanistan entail the wholesale impoverishment and brutalisation of the community. The danger from Al Qaeda and their allies stems from their willingness to engage in what are called mass casualty attacks. The use of nerve toxins, disease, radiological and nuclear warfare to kill and cripple. Our mistake is in assuming because we are big we are invulnerable, whereas we are in fact very vulnerable precisely because of our size. It's also important to recognise that as part of their strategy the Jifascists intend an intellectual assault on our sensibilities. For an excellent description of how the communist KGB intended to actuate just such an assault I found this clip on Youtube. I'm sad to say that while I have no problem per se with the Stop the War coalition, and have friends who are members, there are threads in their organisation who are committed to building the perceived legitimacy of jifascism and the adoption of a policy of appeasement and strategic retreat.