caroljane

{bolding mine) Michael, I was very struck by this. Do you mean that Katie Couric etc dictate the agenda of the TV news, and that the star reporters decide the direction of the newspapers?

Best start a fresh thread for that, Carol. I suggest "Inexpressibly boring Canucki politics," so folks don't get sidetracked. I would gladly answer there. No. no, it's OK. I'll know soon enough anyway. I realize what a ludicrous counterpoint such a comment was to the Egypt thread. Of course I am glad and grateful to vote, it's just the TV ads I can't stand. Re teaching Arabic in schools- I wasn't aware that any foreign languages were taught in US schools as a routine part of curriculum (it being an officially unilingual country).I suppose it varies from state to state. Arabic is freaking hard. Russian is a bit closer to English, and I tried to learn it at university, but I only got 13% on the midterm, so I had to take geology. I feel better now. Back to rational discourse.

Not weird at all. I wrote that many forceful arguments can be made against teaching Arabic in schools in the USA. Then I wrote, "Putting all those things aside, there are other issues that are worth considering, to my mind." And then I wrote on those other issues. I don't know if you or anyone found them worth considering. I haven't had much reaction to that content, so I expect it's one of those 'chew it over' moments. If anybody finds what I write about Arabic/Middle Eastern media to be uninteresting 'gush,' I can live with that. I very much appreciate the opportunity to post in this forum. wss, I have come to rely on your analyses because they are things I am interested in but would not take the trouble to research myself. Also I am barging in to ask, has another election been announced here? I just saw three commercials in a row about how trustworthy Harper is and how foreign Ignatieff is. Oh, not again so soon, couldn't they wait till the time limit? (to Americans: we are always having to vote at inconvenient times)

Uh, Tony, would you like to join too? I write at the suggestion of our Grand Shaman Gord who fancies himself an oenophile. He says if you will send us a case of SA red we will waive your first year's dues. Sound like a good value trade?

AlJazeera different layout Shorter speech: "I am not going anywhere. Blah blah blah. I am not going anywhere. I have decided, I I I me me me, my government, I have directed, I decree, I me my mine not going. Crowd reaction: "Get out! Get out! Get out you stupid old patronizing fuck! Get out! Get out!" President: "I hear you, oh youth. I me my decree stay blah blah" Crowd reaction: "He shall leave! Get out!" What a sad, empty bag of bullshit Pharoah delivered. Is it up to the Egyptian army now?

pippi, you said: I think Rand would hate you I am on min wage and get 40% or more taken out of my pay I agree, I think she would. I admire her and her achievements greatly (see my "Why I Admire Ayn Rand" in Articles), but I probably wouldn't have cared much for her personally either. Rather than have to meet her, I would have run a mile. I still really want an answer to my questions about the apparently incredible tax rate in New Hampshire of all places. I worked for minimum wage for three years and they deducted less than 15% - and that was in socialist Canada! Well?

I like your universal human values. As one who lives and works with humans from nearly every part of the universe, I can tell you that they are both universal and local. Big NAFTA group hug!(it's a start)

Yes, it's torn in most places from all the treestump-perching. Any special reason for your interest? It is a line from a Leonard Cohen song. It was a test. You failed. ;) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Please, please don't tell the Brothers about this, they will make me stop singing Halleluia at every meeting and Closing Time after bingo. I'm grovelling here. I never said that I was brave. Which song? You big ape with angel glands, you. Why, "Famous Blue Raincoat," of course. Only his best. Nice pun, by the way, Marianne. Figuring out Famous Blue Raincoat makes reading Galt's speech feel like walk in the park. [Just kidding, Phil, keep your powder dry.]. Have I mentioned, by the way, that Leonard Cohen is Canadian? [Whilst the knife is already in, no reason to avoid twisting...] Writhing, writhing on the ground. Was it for this I read Beautiful Losers at age 13, barely understanding a word, that a Young Turk should now expose my superficial knowledge for what it is? Of course it was only to be expected. As the newest inductee of the Brotherhood, naturally you are afire with zeal. Converts are always the worst.

Yes, it's torn in most places from all the treestump-perching. Any special reason for your interest? It is a line from a Leonard Cohen song. It was a test. You failed. ;) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Please, please don't tell the Brothers about this, they will make me stop singing Halleluia at every meeting and Closing Time after bingo. I'm grovelling here. I never said that I was brave. Which song? You big ape with angel glands, you.

To Anonymous: It's a very dark purple-blue, almost black, with a rusty tinge. Size 10 (it's a little tight). It has snaps, not buttons, at about 3-inch intervals. I don't know why, but your questions make me feel a little uncomfortable, if you don't mind my saying so.

Note to Ted. Thanks for the info. I am making progress though like Brant I am still too fat. Tardis flashback (a redundant phrase if there ever was one). We went to Scotland when Son Whohead was 9. Needless to say, our sightseeing activities consisted entirely of finding and guarding police boxes and being photographed by Japanese tourists many, many times while our Dalek 3-year-old threw cosmic tantrums.

Yes, it's torn in most places from all the treestump-perching. Any special reason for your interest?

J, Any thoughts on AJ Casson and/or the Gang7? I love the all's-right-with-the-world feeling I get from "Saturday Afternoon"

Tony, We're talking apples and orange outerwear. The American Empire dominates our sartorial nomenclature here. If invited to such a party (of course I would not go as I am too Respectable)I would have to devise something like Lady Gaga's meat dress, only with fruit. Canada gave the world its best-tasting apple, just as Scotland gave the most practical rain gear, and Billy Connolly to sing its anthem (the Welly Boot song). And a major symbol of authoritarianism (the Jannie). I feel a PhD thesis coming on...better go lie down till the feeling passes.

Because he has an amoral, pragmatist disposition, as opposed to Jefferson's generally principled and morally forthright stance. Jefferson was conveying a moral tone proper to the subject when he said "sacred and undeniable", and I have no doubt that if this had remained, the country would have been better off for it. Nor do I have any doubt that Jefferson's statement grated on Franklin at his very core. Shayne Ben? --Brant --there, done that will never get another such opening so could not resist it seems to describe the Anarchist-Minarchist Hundred Years War anyway enlist - and re-enlist- and re-enlist -and re-enlist---

I think I just heard "Daunce's" head explode. Only the right side. I don't use it anyway.

pippi, you said: I think Rand would hate you I am on min wage and get 40% or more taken out of my pay I agree, I think she would. I admire her and her achievements greatly (see my "Why I Admire Ayn Rand" in Articles), but I probably wouldn't have cared much for her personally either. Rather than have to meet her, I would have run a mile. I still really want an answer to my questions about the apparently incredible tax rate in New Hampshire of all places. I worked for minimum wage for three years and they deducted less than 15% - and that was in socialist Canada!

The term honour killing is detestable since it imports the idea of honour to an act which is the grotesque nadir of dishonour. It should be femicide, or filicide, or the most contemptible cide anyone could think of. I am seeing Aqsa Parvez as I write, bright, brave, murdered at 14 by those who should have cherished her the most. Such killings are entirely tribal and cultural and occur among Palestinian Christians and Hindus in equal proportion to Muslims. Call it for what it is. It is their code of honour that is detestable, and renaming it simply distracts from the fact that it is their code. That doesn't help to stop it, that helps to cover the cause up and ensure that there are more victims. You are bringing Christians and Hindus into it in order to mitigate, which I detest, but so far as Christianity and Hinduism goes, if it leads to the same kind of thing - and I know that Hinduism does it, but I'm not so sure about Christianity - they (those codes) should be equally denounced and ostracized. They way to put an end to this shit, is to have zero tolerance of that shit, not mitigating and protecting it by announcing that others do it too. It's the tribalism and misogyny and the individual's evil that kills the women, you blinkered fool. The religion is used as an enabler or just ignored, according to who's the murderer du jour.

I tried to put my actual picture up a couple of years or more ago, but it was rejected as too fat with no instructions on how to deal with that, so I just grabbed something out of the community pile. I like it because it makes it easy to find my posts while scrolling through a thread so I'm not changing it. So there! (I also like airplanes.) --Brant I like airplanes too. My own photo actually resembles a troll, and though I would like to put it up for my friend Tony and other interested-sounding persons who have requested it, I'm glad that it's inadvisable. That raincoat really dates me.

Jonathan, I like your paintings so much. There is a such a perfectly self-assured renderer and discoverer in them. May I ask what you think of Alex Colville? OK, this is part of my gig with TC, but I would really like to know too.

Earth to Ba'aly Bob: The story is not about war, children or Afghanistan although probably they were part of the thoughts that spurred Michael to write it. It's about individuals and what they value most and how they deal with that in a world full of other individuals. It's about (among other things) OBJECTIVISM. CJ Stuart Socialist

I tell the truth as best I know it. It is my nature. I am very bad at deception and lying. It is not as though I haven't tried them. But with me, it just does not work. Ba'al Chatzaf I Know you're very literal - you didn't misread "deadpan" for "deception" by chance? I was giving you a compliment.

This started on the Workplace Movie thread when I mentioned I liked the Dr Who avatar (include 9ths in this). Having served my 30 days on OL, and about 50 on the Internet in total, I have a bit of the feel for the culture and feel qualified to pontificate on its every aspect. My computer will always remain to me a typewriter with benefits, the screen a page of writing. The illustrations will always be something of a distraction though often a welcome one. It is nice to know what a writer looks like, I appreciate the photos people post, and I enjoy some of the droller icons.I realize that icon placement is a shorthand skill I will never have. But it's the avatars that fascinate me, because I know that besides the interests and personal info you may or may not choose to share, they represent your core values in a highly personal way. Even if they are just funny, they are funny in a way that reflects your worldview and self. Here I was going to do an exposition on various avatars- but I've changed my mind. I'll just say that that one of my favourites belongs to a person who I know despises me; one of the avatars that least impresses me, belongs to someone whose writing and character impress me; and I would like to have an avatar but I do not know how to put it up and I emailed Kat but she never answered me. I don't reallly mind though. Us hooded menacing strangers with no age, sex or location are the most restful correspondents, if you ask me.

Clerks, of course And Paul Blart, Mall Cop. I told you my standards were low.

(to estranged husband) "If I want to do..er..M&Ms it's none of your business!" I guess the Terminal movie would fit because the stranded guy lives in everybody else's workplace. I didn't see it but it might be somebody else's favourite.