[handlewanker]

Yes Warrenb, that company is in business to make money, lots of it, diamonds make lots of lovely money, and so do the people that are allowed to work there.

In case you also can't read, the barbed wire fence was to keep the WILD LIFE, as in animals, out of town, you know man, four legged kind with bleeding great 'orns on their 'eads. They're also protected wild life.

If you don't believe me, look up Gemsbok and you'll see what I mean.

Fizzwizz, polish the dribble off yo' specs mon, and read the last two lines of my post 3964, but perhaps you're frothing at the gills and can't quite make the keyboard work as fast as you want it to, too bad old age hasn't been kind to you.

I won't reply to the rest of the invective, some pass off as a post.

THK.....thebox, thanks again for the ref to Shock Doctrine by Naomi klein, watched the video, now I'm going to get the book.

I always thought Milton Friedman was an arrrsehole, now the world admits it to be so.

BTW all you Humanoids, I am quite happy being a fervent follower of Capitalism, and I fervently believe that what I make is partly mine to keep, partly that is because the relative government has a hand in my pocket by way of taxes etc.

BTW again, the company I worked for was in South West Africa, now Namibia, and is the Anglo American Corporation.

Is that a Marxist Socialistic Communistic set up, or are the Reds really under your corporate beds back home in good ole' US of A?

So you see, misinterpreting my motives just shows your senile mentality.
It is well documented that the Yanks go from infancy to senility without ever passing maturity, but then yo'all know that, and all in a space of only 200 years of your history, that's progress for you.

Ol' president Bush gonna sort you lot out man, he aint gonna hang around and solve your problems, no sirree, gonna let someone else do that, and while you vote for another born leader wannabe, remember the 500 billion dollar debt he's gonna have to get back from you'all.

Meanwhile back in OZ the Spring is coming which means down South in Melbourne town the weather will be improving from the cold 6 degree C at night and 16 degree C days to a more mellow 20 to 30 degrees C, which is why I came here.

But that's life.
Ian.

[warrenb]

Yes Warrenb, that company is in business to make money, lots of it, diamonds make lots of lovely money, and so do the people that are allowed to work there.

In case you also can't read, the barbed wire fence was to keep the WILD LIFE, as in animals, out of town, you know man, four legged kind with bleeding great 'orns on their 'eads. They're also protected wild life.

If you don't believe me, look up Gemsbok and you'll see what I mean.

Fizzwizz, polish the dribble off yo' specs mon, and read the last two lines of my post 3964, but perhaps you're frothing at the gills and can't quite make the keyboard work as fast as you want it to, too bad old age hasn't been kind to you.

I won't reply to the rest of the invective, some pass off as a post.

THK.....thebox, thanks again for the ref to Shock Doctrine by Naomi klein, watched the video, now I'm going to get the book.

I always thought Milton Friedman was an arrrsehole, now the world admits it to be so.

BTW all you Humanoids, I am quite happy being a fervent follower of Capitalism, and I fervently believe that what I make is partly mine to keep, partly that is because the relative government has a hand in my pocket by way of taxes etc.

BTW again, the company I worked for was in South West Africa, now Namibia, and is the Anglo American Corporation.

Is that a Marxist Socialistic Communistic set up, or are the Reds really under your corporate beds back home in good ole' US of A?

So you see, misinterpreting my motives just shows your senile mentality.
It is well documented that the Yanks go from infancy to senility without ever passing maturity, but then yo'all know that, and all in a space of only 200 years of your history, that's progress for you.

Ol' president Bush gonna sort you lot out man, he aint gonna hang around and solve your problems, no sirree, gonna let someone else do that, and while you vote for another born leader wannabe, remember the 500 billion dollar debt he's gonna have to get back from you'all.

Meanwhile back in OZ the Spring is coming which means down South in Melbourne town the weather will be improving from the cold 6 degree C at night and 16 degree C days to a more mellow 20 to 30 degrees C, which is why I came here.

But that's life.
Ian.

Wanker, you worked for that diamond company you despise? And you say I can't read? With a fence keeping out the wildlife? So you made lovely money being allowed to work there? geesh. i've made lovely money busting my own butt here in the USofA. And i made it NOT exploiting fenced in Africans working for arrogant Aussies living in a fence. I wish I would have known, I might have applied for a job but it seems you got there before me.

On a not sarcastic note.

Misanthropes can not debate. It is sad that you see humanity as nothing more then huminoid beings. Go on and keep believing your life is nothing more then an accidental occurance of DNA who exploited Namibian workers to dig lovely diamond profits for you. No wonder you hate yourself and humanity. Myself, I don't understand it. I profited from yanks who were willing to give me fair compensation for engineering services that I can provide.

Not only do you hate yourself for profiting from lovely Namibian diamond miners but you hate yourself and humanity for your carbon footprint warming the planet in unmeasurable immmaginary ways.

So my pledge. Wanker, you carry the guilt and shame of being a white capitalist that I should carry as a faithful yank and I will enjoy the life that you don't enjoy as a mere huminoid.

Yin and Yang. i'm happy, you're miserable. You're sad, I'm happy. You hate humanoids, I love being a humanoid.

By the way. I don't own a single diamond.

[handlewanker]

Hey Dufa, some perks what? we were rolling in the stuff......LOL, and wages too, LOL.
Ian.

[dufas]

Hey Dufa, some perks what? we were rolling in the stuff......LOL, and wages too, LOL.
Ian.

Hey idiot, perks are perks, If you gotte'm,.... use'm. It was you that equated you nice set up to socialism.....

You failed to mention that diamond workers are watched closely, thieves you know and that the fences around every diamond facility is used to control humans and non-humaniods as well. Again, you blather half-truths and crappy imagination...... You were probably watched a little more closely than the others, being a non-humaniod and all. Arrogant thingies are always under scrutiny....

[Otter1]

Back on the subject of the Thread title, has anyone here formulated a theory of just what is behind this sudden drastic increase in energy prices?

I have, and it kind of freaks me out that my conclusions make me sound like the conspiricy theory nuts that I abhore. Yes, I know that there are increasing demands (China, India, etc) and oil is a limited resource but none of this can really explain the past 18 months or so. There is a coherent plan behind it and it has to be more than just oil companies maximizing profits.

If this is too broad a topic to handle, did it not seem passing strange that Bush made not just one but TWO personal visits to Saudi Arabia in the past year to ask "would you please pump a bit more oil?" and got the same answer from the Family Saud both times, a simple "no". At least this is the story as published in the media.

Does anyone wonder what the real purpose of these visits was?

[dufas]

If this is too broad a topic to handle, did it not seem passing strange that Bush made not just one but TWO personal visits to Saudi Arabia in the past year to ask "would you please pump a bit more oil?" and got the same answer from the Family Saud both times, a simple "no". At least this is the story as published in the media.

Does anyone wonder what the real purpose of these visits was?

Since the media would be the first to jump on the anti-Bush bandwagon and the knowledge that the media IS anti-Bush. The media would be screaming from the mountain tops ad-nauseum with reports that Bush made some deal. Since the media has reported that the Saudis said 'no', the reports would have to be excepted at face value. The same speculation was made in the 70s during the 'gas' shortage then, only with a different president.

I don't think that the Saudis are dumb. If they are getting a high price for their product, they are not going to kill the goose that's laying the golden egg any more than a than one of your local energy suppliers is going to lower the price of their product because consumers are having trouble affording it. And besides, only around 10 percent of our oil comes from the near east, most of our oil comes from Canada, Mexico, and South America..........

Plus, if Bush were really just after oil, how come there are no American companies in Iraq pumping oil to the US, only foreign companies 'other' than the US are benefiting from the Iraqi oil........

Like Handlwankers says, "Would you take a cut in wages because your employer can't afford to keep you any longer".. ???

[Otter1]

Since the media would be the first to jump on the anti-Bush bandwagon and the knowledge that the media IS anti-Bush. The media would be screaming from the mountain tops ad-nauseum with reports that Bush made some deal. Since the media has reported that the Saudis said 'no', the reports would have to be excepted at face value. The same speculation was made in the 70s during the 'gas' shortage then, only with a different president.

I don't think that the Saudis are dumb. If they are getting a high price for their product, they are not going to kill the goose that's laying the golden egg any more than a than one of your local energy suppliers is going to lower the price of their product because consumers are having trouble affording it. And besides, only around 10 percent of our oil comes from the near east, most of our oil comes from Canada, Mexico, and South America..........

Plus, if Bush were really just after oil, how come there are no American companies in Iraq pumping oil to the US, only foreign companies 'other' than the US are benefiting from the Iraqi oil........

Like Handlwankers says, "Would you take a cut in wages because your employer can't afford to keep you any longer".. ???

\


I agree that the media is largely anti Bush, so the question is, why would Bush set himself up to look like some bumbling beggar groveling before the Saudis? I think it's obvious that he knew the answer long before he made the trip. Further more, I think he must have ASKED for that answer before he made the trip. But he did need to appear to be trying to help the situation (for Joe sixpack who read the media reports at face value).

To cut to the chase, after Bush bungled the war in Iraq, he decided to do something that truely needed to be done but has been politically impossible up until now (when he isn't up for election again).

We have always had the technical ability to find alternatives to oil energy but lacked the motivation. Even the mostly bogus "War on Terror" failed to motivate us. But $4.00 / gal gas, NOW you've got our attention! Suddenly, we are no longer scared to death of nuclear power, and hell YES drill off the coast and in ANWR for oil. And to hell with animal rights advocates who object to birds being whacked by wind power turbines. Same for the folks who thought they were too unsightly to be placed off the coast of New England. And now is the time for higher CAFE standards. In fact, we don't have to legislate them, the car companies (and car drivers) are reacting faster than Congress ever could. And all this dovetails nicely with 'doing something about climate change' too. It's simply brilliant!

Getting all this to happen in 2 short years required some bold moves that I won't pretend to know all about but it didn't happen because we suddenly ran short of oil.

The average American would probably want his head on a platter if this theory is right but If Bush is the one who did it, my hat's off to him.

[dufas]

I agree that the media is largely anti Bush, so the question is, why would Bush set himself up to look like some bumbling beggar groveling before the Saudis? I think it's obvious that he knew the answer long before he made the trip. Further more, I think he must have ASKED for that answer before he made the trip. But he did need to appear to be trying to help the situation (for Joe sixpack who read the media reports at face value).

To cut to the chase, after Bush bungled the war in Iraq, he decided to do something that truely needed to be done but has been politically impossible up until now (when he isn't up for election again).

We have always had the technical ability to find alternatives to oil energy but lacked the motivation. Even the mostly bogus "War on Terror" failed to motivate us. But $4.00 / gal gas, NOW you've got our attention! Suddenly, we are no longer scared to death of nuclear power, and hell YES drill off the coast and in ANWR for oil. And to hell with animal rights advocates who object to birds being whacked by wind power turbines. Same for the folks who thought they were too unsightly to be placed off the coast of New England. And now is the time for higher CAFE standards. In fact, we don't have to legislate them, the car companies (and car drivers) are reacting faster than Congress ever could. And all this dovetails nicely with 'doing something about climate change' too. It's simply brilliant!

Getting all this to happen in 2 short years required some bold moves that I won't pretend to know all about but it didn't happen because we suddenly ran short of oil.

The average American would probably want his head on a platter if this theory is right but If Bush is the one who did it, my hat's off to him.

There was only the very vocal groups and pandering politicians that didn't want drilling, animal rights, etc, etc... and when these people figured out that high fuel prices not only effected them when we, 'joe sixpacks' didn't spend our money on their products or companies where they worked....minds change very fast. We might go to one or two blockbuster movies but the other films are hurting to be profitable.... Starbucks is not only closing down many of their shops, they are cutting prices in the ones that stay open. My, 'liberal almost to the point of being socialist' neighbor is finally coming around since his job has started laying off people. He is scared... I asked him what is he scared of, he wanted a $5.00 fuel tax a few years ago and now he whimps out at $4.00 fuel. When we great unwashed cannot spend money, they, the elite, don't make money..Most of these people can't think past their nose.

What is really scary is a California constitutional amendment that is being pushed as I write this, in fact, it is being discussed on the radio right now. Handlewanker would be proud. Several politicians want to raise taxes high, high, high, but the scary part is that if anyone leaves the state, half of everything that a person is worth will be taxed. The state will also own large amounts of stock in public companies in order to control what each company does. Many times, as California goes, so does the rest of the nation, especially when it comes to money. As I have mentioned before, the US is going to look like old Russia and Russia is going to look like the old US

[dufas]

Back in the 70s during the oil crisis, small, fuel officiant vehicles were being built here, being brought in from overseas, and just about every small auto craft shop was building one. I was in the auto coach building business at that time and was part of the efficient vehicle movement then.

After fuel prices leveled off and seemed stable. All sorts of groups and individuals came out of the woodwork and complained about these little cars. Politicians joined the fray with the added complaint that the state wasn't getting as much revenue as before because not only did the little cars cost less, they used less fuel. The politicians enacted laws from outright banning certain vehicles to putting restrictions on their use to requiring features that negated the purpose of the vehicle. Small shops, such as mine, were put out of business by direct edict.

Much of what is going on now can be laid directly at the feet of our idiot politicians and those that supported them....

[Otter1]

There was only the very vocal groups and pandering politicians that didn't want drilling, animal rights, etc, etc... and when these people figured out that high fuel prices not only effected them when we, 'joe sixpacks' didn't spend our money on their products or companies where they worked....minds change very fast. We might go to one or two blockbuster movies but the other films are hurting to be profitable.... Starbucks is not only closing down many of their shops, they are cutting prices in the ones that stay open. My, 'liberal almost to the point of being socialist' neighbor is finally coming around since his job has started laying off people. He is scared... I asked him what is he scared of, he wanted a $5.00 fuel tax a few years ago and now he whimps out at $4.00 fuel. When we great unwashed cannot spend money, they, the elite, don't make money..Most of these people can't think past their nose.

What is really scary is a California constitutional amendment that is being pushed as I write this, in fact, it is being discussed on the radio right now. Handlewanker would be proud. Several politicians want to raise taxes high, high, high, but the scary part is that if anyone leaves the state, half of everything that a person is worth will be taxed. The state will also own large amounts of stock in public companies in order to control what each company does. Many times, as California goes, so does the rest of the nation, especially when it comes to money. As I have mentioned before, the US is going to look like old Russia and Russia is going to look like the old US

All true but I think you are underestimating the affect that those 'very vocal groups' have on majority opinion. Do you think that most people's opinion on climate change (or anything else for that matter) is based on objective research and science? Mostly their opinion comes from skimming headlines and TV news (who love to cover those very vocal groups). For example, all the polls showed that the majority of Americans were against nuclear power and more off-shore and ANWR drilling. Until recently that is.

Again I say, Brilliant move Bush (or whoever it was).

[handlewanker]

Dufa, while I applaud your insight and revelations as to the home scene you are doomed to live in, did it ever, I mean EVER, as in your wildest dreams ever, occur to yo'all that when you make a rod for your own back, how can you complain when you're beaten by it?

Which broadly speaking means, (I hope I'm not going too fast for you), you created the politicians, and if you haven't the gumption to examine their credentials before you give them carte blanche to root you, how can you now complain if they're sticking the sharp end of their sticks right up where it hurts, and you lot are bending over to assist them.

Isn't it about time you lot grew up and left home, to forge new links and go forward?

Interpreted for those that are thick between the ears, change the system before the system changes you forever.

It is a fact that a passiive tame society, groomed and cultivated by a cunning handler, can be sheared and led out to slaughter on a regular basis, without fundamentally affecting the system as a whole, purely by offering salvation in the form of relief from the very problems the handlers creats for them.

This is like hitting someone over the head in the dark and then giving them an Aspirin to help with the headache.

Yo'all try to solve your problems offshore, but the solutions are right in your own back yard, that is unless you're too blind to recognise a problem.

A shrink will tell you before you can fix a problem you have to admit to having one, and the politicians (shrinks in disguise) make sure you don't recognise the problems, well not during their term in office, and that's for sure.

Who said the global warming aint happening? Now I suppose the Artic ice is just evaporating, wake up, it's happening under your very noses.

BTW, bush is going out of office, so why would he want to go to the Middle East unless he had personal vested interests.

Now that's what I call putting Dracular in charge of the blood bank, carte Blanche to have a ball what? The no 1 man going for broke.

Like the previous post stated, there aren't many that would qualify for a job back where I came from.

Australia was a penal colony and went on to become a nation, but the USA just declined from becoming a nation to being a penal colony, true there are many skeletons in your closet, but "dem bones" gonna come back to haunt you boy.

If you think I'm being too damming with invective, know this then, one of your "SUPER HEROES" ole' Blue eyes Frank Sinatra, was so closely connected with the mob, that when the Kennedys scrabbled up the sh!t pile yo'all call politics, It was Franky boy and his connections that made it possible for big Daddy Kennedy to get his sons into the hot seat, I kid thee not, it's all well documented.

The no 1 man, the one person voted by you the taxpayer, (you wish), the best you've got, the born leader, the head of the greatest nation on Earth, (by some accounts not ratified), so corrupt he almost led the world to the brink of Nuclear war by using misinterpreted foreign intelligence.

To be seen as a creditable entity, yo'all better cover your clay feet up, cos the Chinese gonna sort you out if they spot them.

In the coming climate difficulties, it is going to take leaders that put the people they represent first, without the shades of vested interest clouding the scene.

Whisper now in my shell like ear if you would, who amongst you is capable of leading you to prosperity in the next six years?

This is your life, even if you are led by idiots, make your vote count, it's the only bit of freedom you were born with, and the only thing the politicians fear the most.

Come election day the politicians will be quoting the Duke of Wellington after the Battle of Waterloo, "They came on in the same old way, and we stopped them in the same old way", isn't that pathetic, your vote already precounted?
Ian.

[Mariss Freimanis]

It's not 'bush'. It's President Bush, Mr. Bush or just Bush if you happen to be lacking in common manners. A lower case 'bush' is a low growing tree-like plant or woody scrub vegetation. Kind of like what you have between your ears where most people have their brains. The English language is not that hard to learn; an upper case 'Bush' denotes a person's surname. That's how you can tell the two apart. I hope this explanation helps improve your much neglected education. Everything else you wrote was drivel. Maybe someday when I have a lot of time, I can help you with that as well.

Mariss

[fizzissist]

He who has ridden in on drivel, will ride out on it.

I'm telling you, it's like reading greeking.

Unfortunately, intentionally offensive greeking.

[NinerSevenTango]

Too bad the earth gave up all the warming that happened since the '80's all in the last year, and too bad the ice caps grew to embarrassing, historically large proportions and grew thicker as well. It's amusing to watch people predict a warming trend while ignoring the SUN, and try to ignore their own thermometers when the sun enters a quiet phase. It rather discredits the theories and assumptions based on the scenario.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The price of oil in terms of gold coins has remained remarkably steady, showing only a marginal increase commensurate with the increased demand from growing economies. This means that the actual cost to get it out of the ground is still in line with what is being charged for it. The difference is that the number of dollars floating around to purchase it with has been multiplied several times in the last few years. The technical term for it is inflation, which means creation of currency out of thin air. Another term for it that you won't hear on the news is 'currency debasement'. Every time you double the number of dollars in existence without earning them, you cut the value of any dollar in half. It's that simple. The money supply has been growing at somewhere north of 12 to 15% per year for years now. Chart it on a spreadsheet or use a compound loan calculator, and see how long it takes for your spending power to be cut in half. The evil that springs from this is not just the drop in your buying power and the value of any savings. It keeps on giving, because it steals from your future buying power, too, until you can get a raise to reach parity. By then, price increases are just filtering through due to increases in material costs, then others start demanding raises, etc. It's a treadmill that keeps moving a little faster than you can run, and you can't get off.

But there's another effect at work behind the scenes, more important yet. The biggest evil that comes from inflation is the fact that this money created from nothing is used to buy power and influence. And it's a torrent of money, a Niagara Falls of money, going to favored corporations (like defense contractors who own media giants) who use some of it to prop up the politicians and keep them in office. They print and spend, you have to create something and trade it for that dollar. To boot, every dollar in existence is borrowed in the act of creation. At interest. And those who print and spend it borrow it, borrow it in our name and WE have to pay it back! The only way the interest can be paid is for it to be borrowed into existence as well. So the money supply by definition must continue to expand until it is abandoned, or the banks end up with all of the currency and title to all the property. The U.S. Federal Government is borrowing two thousand million dollars per day to fund its operations, money which must be created from thin air, and which the citizens are pledged to repay with interest.

Is this a fantastic scenario? A conspiracy lunacy? I'd like to be proven wrong. We sit still for this and watch it purposely silenced out of political debates, hoping it's wrong. History shows it's not wrong, and the outcome is inevitable.

So anyway you combine inflation with threats to the supply, and the futures markets react with increases in price. Those threats to the supply come from preemptive attacks and invasion of producer countries, and threats to invade or launch nuclear strikes on others. If the U.S. is successful at goading Israel into attacking Iran, another huge price surge will occur. And if Iran starts sinking ships off their coast, we might see a real oil shortage, which we haven't seen yet. Imagine what will happen then, and what will happen to the economy when the government has to borrow yet more to react to that.

The politicians, and the New Messiah Obama in particular, promise to 'crack down on speculators', as if attempts at price fixing can control world markets. As if every attempt to do so hasn't failed. The market always wins. Price controls result in the disappearance of the commodity. Nobody will produce at a loss, and if you try to enslave them and make them do it as slaves, they will do everything slower and half-assed, because slaves don't toil with enthusiasm. This has been tried since Roman times and it has failed every time. That's why basic commodities are contraband in Zimbabwe right now. It's illegal to sell them for more than the legal price, which is less than the cost to produce. So you can't buy food unless you are a criminal. Sizing the scheme up to world markets can't make it work any better.

All other countries operate on virtually identical fiat currency schemes, and they have had to inflate almost at parity with the U.S. so as not to be shut out of the market due to their currency being too valuable by comparison. It's not a hard argument to make for the other countries' politicians; Gee, we need to increase our spending and thereby our influence to help our export market. OK, then!

Consider this if you are a U.S. citizen, and considering how to choose between the lesser of two evils that have been chosen for you to be allowed to vote for this November. While the press keeps hammering home the benefits of socialist policy over fascist policy, or the benefits of fascist policy over socialist policy, and magnifying the apparent differences between the two (corporate welfare or lazy bum welfare), just remember what they have in common. Whichever side wins, you can look forward to more spending, more borrowing, more inflation, more war, more regulations, less privacy, more interventions in the economy, and more bad laws. And you will have to deal with the inevitable results -- a sickening, stagnant economy, the exodus of manufacturing and other productive activities, record bankruptcies and foreclosures, granting of governmental powers to banks, possible enslavement by the state through conscription, increased spying on your private life by government, and all other manifestations of an oppressive state accruing power to itself, little by little, one little emergency at a time.

Remember that they tried to laugh the man who warned of this off the stage of the debates and tried to ignore him out of the public eye. Remember, you had the choice to learn, and chose to ignore. You had the choice to raise your voice, and remained silent. One man stood against the current and advocated sticking to the Constitution, and was considered too radical for it. Our own Constitution is now too radical for the socialist wimps that make up our general public, and the fascists who control them!

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." -- George Washington

"I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." -- Thomas Jefferson, from a letter to John Taylor May 28, 1816

“An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense... that gold and economic freedom are inseparable.” .... “In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value.” -- Alan Greenspan, 1987 to 2006 Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank (before he took the job!)

"By a continuous process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method, they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some....The process engages all of the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner that not one man in a million can diagnose." - John Maynard Keynes, Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920

Who will be that one man in a million? Is it really too difficult to understand?

Against The Law To Live: Chicken Feet, Unscrupulous Speculators, And A Crackdown -- Coming To A Country Near You, Sooner Than You Think
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/...ood-Crunch.php

--97T--

Edit: How The Game Is Played, Behind Your Back:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSS4mUxgrks"]YouTube - Citibank, Bank of America, and, Fraud? Cuomo to the Rescue![/ame]
Not one man in a million makes the connection .....

Edit 2: Check out these graphs of the treadmill in action:
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials...ini080604.html

[Otter1]

97T,
You covered the wider field of economics which was more than I was ready to comment on but you did it quite well. I couldn't find a single thing to disagree with.

You talk like a pilot. Is that an N number?

[NinerSevenTango]

97T,
You covered the wider field of economics which was more than I was ready to comment on but you did it quite well. I couldn't find a single thing to disagree with.

You talk like a pilot. Is that an N number?

Thanks for your kind words. Yes, my old and trusty 172 I once had. "Tango" generally means the number was issued in 1960!


--97T--

[Mariss Freimanis]

Before we lament the human condition too much consider this. Humans are social animals not solitary ones. Solitary animals (hawks, panthers, sharks) may be the rulers of their own universe but they are impoverished compared to social animals. They can't bring to bear the advantages numbers provide.

If a man from Mars were to take an individual human and a bee as a sample of what exists on Earth, he'd be sadly misled. Neither would give a remote representation as individuals of what they are in the context of their respective societies.

Societies have a few leaders and a lot of followers. Bees have queens and humans have politicians. That ratio defines social animals.

If there are a few leaders and a lot of followers then one must conclude most humans are predisposed to be followers. A leader cannot lead otherwise. This predisposition requires most people to be confused, ignorant or docile about what purpose or direction they should take in life. They rely on leaders to provide these things.

Paradoxically leaders themselves are not an exceptional bunch. Followers must believe they are exceptional but in reality most are not. Poor ones (Hitler, Jim Jones) marched their followers over a cliff. Leaders have the genetic compulsion to lead and their followers have the compulsion to follow. It's how nature has us all wired.

This accounts for the crazy-making cognitive dissonance of global whatever (warming, change, cooling, tepid?) evident to all thinking people. The science of it is ambiguous at best, cooked and fraudulent at worst. Yet the general public marches in lockstep behind the leaders as if it were a certainty.

The thing to appreciate is it doesn't matter in the least what the direction and purpose of the march is. What matters is having people believe there is a direction and a purpose for what they are following. Each are doing their part as they have for untold generations. Silly goal, silly effort but it doesn't matter. History is replete with silly efforts.

What probably differentiates some that still follow this thread is they fit in neither group. They won't waste the pointless effort to be leaders and they simply cannot volunteer to be sheep. The watch the silliness of the whole parade from the sidelines and only object when the effluent of the passing parade threatens to splatter on them (Kyoto Accords). Otherwise it's just good fun to watch the prancing morons leading the parade of shuffling idiots.

Mariss

[NinerSevenTango]

...
Societies have a few leaders and a lot of followers. Bees have queens and humans have politicians. That ratio defines social animals.
...
If there are a few leaders and a lot of followers then one must conclude most humans are predisposed to be followers. A leader cannot lead otherwise. This predisposition requires most people to be confused, ignorant or docile about what purpose or direction they should take in life. They rely on leaders to provide these things.
...

Mariss

Characteristically profound.

[Otter1]

Mariss wrote:

"What probably differentiates some that still follow this thread is they fit in neither group. They won't waste the pointless effort to be leaders and they simply cannot volunteer to be sheep. The watch the silliness of the whole parade from the sidelines and only object when the effluent of the passing parade threatens to splatter on them (Kyoto Accords). Otherwise it's just good fun to watch the prancing morons leading the parade of shuffling idiots.

Mariss"

That is more or less how I see this but I can't help being curious about what makes the "Parade watchers" alike. And they are rare enough that encounters with them are a pleasure.

Once in awhile I get a few clues, like when I see 97T's posts that look like something I might have written myself. Then I learn that he too is a pilot. Most other pilots (and gear heads in general) I've known also have what I'll call a "reverence for reality" and tend to view life through the lens of constant truths rather than the increasingly popular 'truth is relative' school of thought.

It's an over simplification of course but Aviation tends to be an objective filter for which view is correct. If you believe that the laws of aerodynamics are relative or just momentarily forget them, you are likely to crash. Same thing in CNC. If you don't think the rules of machine tool control are absolute or you make a mistake, you will have a tool crash. Aviation and machinery tend to draw people who appreciate this reality together. I have no explaination for Ian though :>)

[fizzissist]

Maybe Ian could be persuaded to take up flying....
That would likely solve a little part of the population problem he seems so focused upon.

Now that I think about it, I wouldn't be surprised if he weren't a lead author in the FAR/AIM.