hello

It's your attitude. I like it, but I would. I also like George and certainly Lustig and Farmer.
I like Iowa too. I was there in '59, the summer my parents were trying to keep me from becoming a postulant and sent me along on a film trip, my father and a small crew including me, making an industrial film for Armour and Co. I liked Sioux City and Omaha a lot, plus the land we drove through. Oh, my parents' plan worked, as I got a crush on one of the film crew guys, a magic convent defuser.

On politics, I'm interested, have been quite engaged in it in the past on a local level, but at this point my giant plan is to, y'know, vote.

After Obama's 2013 gun control debacle, the Republicans are going to take back the White House in 2016.

Quick comment re the Ottawa incident and Canadians.

Outside of the death of that soldier, this is a nothing incident. Canadians aren't freaking out (though of course this arse sitting as PM is going full on demagogue as we knew he would. He's that kind of dick (and has drawn many ideas on rule from the American right).

Obviously, more people will die in bathtub falls than from crack smokers who need a purpose in life and think jihad is cool.

Canada doesn't have to take a "They've offended our sacred soil!" posture as we aren't a hegemon and have no national emotional need to be that ******* stupid. But an interesting aspect there is that any hegemon has to maintain (or thinks it does) a reputation as invincible and as being powerful enough to move anywhere and do anything it wishes. That's why the boys at the Weekly Standard and other neoconservative hangouts constantly cry for war and scream about leaders with no testicles. I really don't like our species much.

In truth, I like people everywhere I go. And all places I've been have their own charms and warm-heartednesses. One of my few life regrets is that I've traveled not nearly enough. My daughter is filling in but somehow that doesn't really count.

I really am drawn to the study of American politics, far more than that of Canada, in fact.

If you were to rephrase that, I could perhaps get a bead on what you intend to communicate.

And here I had you pegged as a smart guy.

That our chosen leader works to grow the power of an organization that does its work poorly, and the fact that he does not seem to even notice how poorly it does its work, should scare the **** out of you re American politics. Smart people put power and resources into organizations that work well, not ones that work poorly. When they find organizations that work poorly they either reform them or they kill and replace them.

Are you catching my drift now? I could maybe dumb it down a bit more for ya if needed.

Yeah. I figured it must be something like that.

Where (what nations) do you consider an example of the sort of government scheme you admire?

I'd once thought that too, but I've begun to wonder.

Blatham does a good job of parroting what intelligent leftists write in books, but when he got confronted with original thinking on my part, instead of thinking for himself and addressing my ideas, he spouted ad hominems to bluff his way out of doing anything that required him to think.

Could be he is just an obnoxious twit. But I smell a potential fraud.

I think that the scheme of a globe made up of national governments is collapsing, for many reasons to include moralistic governments rubbing out governments they dont approve of by military force. The Elite cant claim to believe in something while their actions show that they dont (look for example how the USA elite claim to believe in market capitalism as they make repeated attempts to rule markets by fiat from the top, and how they refuse to let failed companies properly die through bankruptcy) . You might want to take a look at the work from the world justice project....you will notice that the USA does not do particularly well in the things that they measure.

http://worldjusticeproject.org/sites/default/files/wjproli2012-web.pdf

One of the guys on the golf course today asked me, "Do you know why the chicken crossed the road?"...

...and I have been pondering it ever since.

You guys all seem to know everything, so I wonder if any of yez can give me a hand with that.

I told the guy I'd get back to him...and he will never find out I went to youse for help with it.

Well ... a nice break for a refreshing workout; back to get ready to try a new restaurant for dinner and I open A2K and find my self ranked right beind Blatham, Lustig, and farmerman, but just ahead of Iowa.

It could be worse.

Hey, I've met Blatham, several times, quite a sparky guy.

The chicken prob'ly wanted to show his guts, Frank.

Bernie is okay...but the truth is, he's the kinda person who would kick a guy when he's down!

Hummmmm!

I knew a squirrel who fit that description...so maybe you are right.

Well Mr Harper appears to be doing well with the people in Canada who elected him. I don't know that the public reaction in Canada is materially different from what occurred here in analogous ciurcumstances ... your riff on the behaviors of "hegemons" notwithstanding.
In the 1050s we had attempts on President trumans life and a later shootout in the House of representatives by self styled Puerto Rican nationalists. In the 1990s we had two East African Embassies and a miulitary barracks in Saudi Arabia blown. an attempt to blow up the foundation oif the World Trade center; and a mine detonated against a U.S. warship in Yemen - all involved some loss of life, but no great furor. 9/11 involved the very dramatic destruction od landmark buildings in lower Manhattan and the loss of thousands of lives along with simultaneous attempts at the Pentagon and possibly the Capitol or White House. That one did cause quite a stir, but I think you would conceds it is in quite another category.

A moment's reflection on the history of the Islamic world and its misrule throught the last two centuries at the hands of the Russians, British, French and Dutch should give you a more serious view of the potential of jihad than you acknowledge in your dismissive rermarks. I believe the attitude you are expressing, though obviously derived from similar popular contemporary dismissals of other real dangers, is foolish in the extreme. The Western world is still dealing with the after effects of the European empires in the Middle world and the perfidy and greed of the Euopean powers in WWI. We likely face a generation of confrontation with an angry and dysfunctional Moslem world that is struggling to enter the modern world without ever experincing an Enlightenment or successful secular government, and burdened with the resentment of colonial misrule. I believe that is indeed a serious matter.

Well then. I think I'll leave you to your unique political universe. Best of luck.

On the other side of the road was Canada.

ps... never kicked when you were sprawled in the gutter like a drunk French whore. I just slapped you again and again and again...

Who can blame them? We go to their countries and start illegal wars that destroys their infrastructure, and kills tens of thousands of innocent people.
On top of all that, our country's support of Israel is seen as another slap in their face.

If I were in their shoes, I'd probably be pissed at the entire West based on past and current history.

I suspect we may be defining the word "chicken" differently, Bernie.




Oh, well if you were just bitch slapping me, then I take it back. (I won't speak unkindly of the dead, but I know someone did some kicking!)

By the way, "slapping" requires that the hand be in the open position rather than balled up into a fist. You do realize that, right?