chuck kottke

Your English is Beautiful Ema!:) Welcome to the board, and enjoy the camaraderie!:flutterby::sunny:

OOPS! Looks like I, and a lot of others, got spoofed on the net.. Correction - Sarah Palin apparently did not try to ban those books I had mentioned; but she did approach the librarian in Wasilla, Alaska, and did ask to have some books removed if the need arose.. Which books, nobody knows just yet..:inquisitive: check out http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/bannedbooks.asp

I have to finish this estimate...:)

The Resturant at the End of the Universe.. And here I went and bought tickets to see The End of the Universe, Live and now I have to wait a full week?! That's a lot of time to spend at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, plus the enormous tab I'm stuck with from the 4 billion patrons from Zeta Minor who fled without paying on the last Heart of Gold.. Well, at any rate, it should be a blast!! All those implosions, and the acceleration of matter approaching light speed towards the core - plus the lights should dim when they start the thing up...:P

Wow! 17001!!:rolleyes::stunned::sunny:

Yes, a most excellent tunes' strip!:laugh3: But I'm still waiting for them to smoosh protons, and get the elusive Higgs-Boson captured and brought to justice.:P That should be in about a week, plus or minus 42 minutes, depending on the way in which they warp the fabric of space-time, and whether or not the Earth is swallowed up by a giant black hole, just before the Vogon ship destroys the Earth.

& Obama has them and a very large number of small contributions raised mostly from the internet. Hopefully the citizens will prevail, but there's the problem. With McCain's million dollar Buffet's I doubt the average American even stands a chance of getting in the door.

As I recall the tenor of the times were different than what we know today. Lies were being spread to sell the war, and I'm not sure what the Democrats in Congress knew, and when they knew it, when many of them voted for the measure. So, to call them largely culpable for voting for the war authorization is to forget the misinformation being spread by the administration about facts leading up to the war, and lest we forget that this administration was using the fear of terror attacks not long after those on September 11th to goad those who were uncertain into falling in line. "You're either with us, or you're with the enemy" was what I was hearing from Bush, and just like during McCarthy's times, so too many buckle under the pressures to conform. Obama did clarify what he voted for when he voted for the FISA act reauthorization, but my memory escapes me on that matter. But he had nothing to do with the power grab by Bush to crown himself King / Emperor. Executive signing statements were expended by the Executive branch, not by Congress, as I recall.

Watch you language, buster! I am not evil, and I have not let Obama slide on those issues; But Obama did not vote for the illegal and Unconstitutional war, and he did not expand the President's powerful and unconstitutional executive signing statement authority by a factor of 10 like Bush has. Yes, he's flawed - Obama was a proponent of Campaign Finance Reform and has since said nary a peep about it, but the game has lost both referee and controls, so to compete in politics today, unfortunately both candidates have had to lower themselves from higher moral ground. So the remedy is expanding the movement to reform the elections process in the US, and stop the buying of candidates by the highest bidders.

Book-s Yes, our Constitution is under attack; third parties can make a difference; but by saying both parties, and both candidates, are the same is a gross oversimplification. Saving our Constitution will require a massive grass-roots movement to reform the elections process, and perhaps write a well-worded amendment guaranteeing our Right to Fair Elections, seeing as that seems to be at the heart of the matter as well...

Well, have you seen the list of books Sarah Palin wanted banned by the public librarian in Wassila, Alaska?? Dangerous works like Little Red Riding Hood, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. How far her religious indoctrination has gone into this 'cult' I'm not sure of, but that's not such a good sign. If this is the case, she might just as well be wearing a bonnet & heavy wool frock, and sporting the tight-fitting shoes of a Puritan in 1631! Book burning was their trip; today, it's book banning. So much for Freedom of The Press! The whole problem with the cause of the Great Depression, let us not forget, was poor regulation by the US Government over investments and the markets. Without regulation, wild speculation and poor investments created enormous instability, and panics led to disaster. The result - those who had banked on stock for retirement lost almost everything instantly when the market crash occurred. Hence, Social Security was a blessing, born of the understanding that there needed to be some secure retirement safety net for Americans, where stocks might go up or down, at least the safety net would be there if all else failed. Social contracts to provide work, basic needs, and secure retirements helped alleviate the suffering of the Great Depression, and what got us out of the depression was a rebuilding of confidence in investments and businesses, backed by better market regulation, and an economic stimulus, in the form of the war economy. Now, we do not need wars to keep the economy strong, but there must be occasional stimuluses if there is capacity in the economy, and people need work. Whether it was the war or not, there was an impetus for production, and the government was the buyer, putting many people to work. But better to find more useful ways to produce things that better our lives, than building an even larger military sector - having too much emphasis on the military leads to the easy temptation of always seeking a military solution, which is often a poor path to take.

We are part of that which we ascribe to God, and can affect a better outcome; sometimes even in the simple acts of generosity or kindness. But life in our universe is governed by laws of physics, and when instruments of modern man's creation fail, sometimes the worst behaviors and the worst outcomes occur. Still, for as ghastly and horrible the atrocities of war are, they do not endure, as in the end totalitarian regimes fail, dictators are toppled, and the rightful rule by the will of the citizens is restored. But the ability to resist repression requires both an understanding of the forces that shape the conscience of society, and a concerted effort by all free peoples to maintain their rights against those who attempt to repress them. Did God forget the "chosen people", or did those who are enlightened by the sense of individual rights - the basic human rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, forget their common bonds? As I recall, the NAZIS were busy rounding up and exterminating anyone who did not fit their narrow-minded, ill-conceived, and plain-out wrong idea of who was fit to be human and live. They did away with vast numbers of Gypsies, Poles, Jews, Intellectuals, Slavs, Dissidents, Prisoners of War, peoples of African ancestry, and many other minorities in their insanity. What led to this was a failure of modern society to have intelligent economic relations and governance, and the bad ideas which surface when economies fail. A nation's history often sets a mold, and if the flaws of that mold are not realized by the open-eyed people of the world in time, we all face serious consequences for not seeing those dangers. But yet the mistakes made have made many of us aware of the risks and the need to value human life, and to respect mutually one-another. At that moment all looked hopeless, and for many it was, but the future wasn't so hopeless after all. I think the lesson is that we learn; if anything we ascribe to as being part of God is our collectively gained wisdom, so that we may reduce suffering in the world, and improve the ability of all men and women to prosper. In times of uncertainty, to stand together for Life & Liberty, and against fear and those who use fear to manipulate, is essential.

It's the money behind the scenes that calls the shots. Now, looking at the backers, I'm not a member of the "have mores" that Bush and McCain suck up to, and neither are 99% of most Americans. Obama's doing what the money says, or he did what the party demands for loyalty to get anywhere in the Senate, you've gotta play their version of ball, or just get nowhere, sad to say. But I'll take someone who works for Unions any day over the Multi-o-nationals and the extreme religious nuts anyday. Yes, we do need third parties, and major changes in election finance, but between these two options, I would choose Obama any day over McCain. McCain is nothing but a rubber stamp for Bush and his war-headed failed policies, his hobbling of Federal Agencies needed for such trivial things as disaster relief, his taking the National Guard, (a direct violation of the Constitution), to Iraq, and thereby putting us all at risk when disaster strikes the US. McCain thinks we should stay on forever in Iraq, and most Iraqis from what I gather want US out! Who wants to be occupied?? And how can they sort things out when we control their government from afar?? McCain is for eternal occupation and a policy of war, which is not what's called for - we need to disengage from this mess we're in, and use diplomacy and multilateral actions to affect change, plus global economic improvement to dry up the well that fuels extremists. And Palin is too young to be president if McCain is incapacitated in his first year - yet another violation of the US Constitution!

Think symbolically!:sunny: A wheel: The seasons are a cycle (wheel), wheels roll along the road, life has seasons, and a spinning wheel could be a prayer wheel, or the wheel of the solar system, the galaxy, or the earth. The base of a merry-go-round, or a Ferris-wheel. Even light is composed of a magnetic and an electric component, which oscillate like two offset points on a wheel traveling through time. & the Beatles' John Lennon said in a song, "life's a wheel.. let me roll it to you!":)

They are simply fantastic!! To sustain that level of enthusiasm is remarkable, and with great sincerity - perhaps the next album will perk more interest? Anyhow, they are the stuff of legend.

Time is like a wheel, so just roll with it!:sunny: You'll do fine - keep one eye on the horizon, and one on the waves. Chart a good course, and just do your best!!

Greetings Mia!! Keep the Ocean in your ear, and Coldplay in your heart!

Contemplating the mass denial of the truth by modern culture... Probably going to rest after listening to U2..

Please examine the following: http://www.sciencemag.org And search for the article: "BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change" Naomi Oreske

I'm all for preventing the hardened arteries and the weakened heart! Why wait for the 3rd heart attack to do something?? A pro-active approach seems prudent, and we'll all be better off in the end.

Yes, that's what I was thinking too! Why is it that when a couple has a normal, loving relationship, have children, & they spend quiet time together, and are stable, it's seen as "annoying"? I think it's just that - a lot of people want to see others fail, especially if they've achieved some level of success.. Not enough tabloid stories to raise the hair on your head, or something like that. It's sad to think that much of the public wants to see disasters come to those who have reached a certain level of success, but I think the same could be said of many Americans as well - I'm not sure if it's jealousy, or just a need to be "entertained" at the expense of the privacy of others.. But yes, there's a certain thing about prying excessively in people's lives - the total lack of empathy and respect for others, when those same people wouldn't want every aspect of their lives exposed for all to see in plain view..

Who or what is globen?? Is this what replaces Ticketmaster in Sweden?:rolleyes:

A Most Pleasant day here As Well!:)

I still hold fast to the belief that Switzerland will be turned into Swiss Cheese by this thing! (& I secretly suspect they've been using it all the time to create perfect Swiss Cheese, by causing the gas molecules to coalesce around particles that have arrived through quantum-mechanical tunneling:laugh3:) So, it's really just a bigger op, kinda the mother-lode of colliders.:P Higgs-Boson matter-antimatter pairs? Well, I'm betting that it works, but why isn't there more anti-matter already out there? Hmm...?:thinking: Could be the ultimate driver in the Universe is the random chance that every big-bang is like a bread mix; ingredients may vary. Perhaps anti-matter particles are less stable than matter particles, and don't stick together well.. Perfect symmetry is an illusion - this Universe is as asymmetrical as the number 42.:inquisitive:

:rolleyes:Justin, why so lonely? Hey, there's always us loonatics here on the board! :) The Time is now 9:20 PM, and I am finishing a piece of chocolate & peanut-butter cake.:P