New Mars Forums

Even better, to dress up in goofy sheets & pointy hats and proclaim those beliefs while being completely surrounded by "counter-demonstrators", and protected from those counter-demonstrators by armed Law Enforcement Officers.

Those same LEO's will also cart the demonstrators off to jail if they cross the thin legal line between their beliefs and the actions those beliefs may incite.

Other Examples:
Videoed evidence of Law Enforcement physically abusing citizens being broadcast on the mass-media, and no one gets put in jail, tortured or threatened.

My favorite (lately) is the power to control the meanings of speech.  To change the definitions of words to suit one's purpose, and use that evolution to effect political change.  Or to make up new words, when even new definitions do not suit a given purpose.

Then, to use those words in public, and watch their use propagate and perpetuate, and change the manner in which the public percieves the political landscape.

And most beautiful of all is this sentiment:

I'm an AMERICAN.  It means whatever I WANT it to mean, because I SAY it does.  And if you don't like it, frankly, you can go F*** yourself.

The Greeks being

does not necessarily mean the same thing as "... they didn't even know what a zero was. "

And having the "0" functioning as a place-holder is also different.

It's not personal, and yes I know it is net-picky, but right now I am focused on the lack of clarity of language (in my own personal life) and the erosive consequences of "fast-forwarding" through expressions that only "sound" like truth.

How this relates to me directly is the point, and has little to do with anyone else.  (Unless they want it too...)

For a personal example, it bothers me that so much of my current judeo-christian culture is based on ideas and text that one must work at trying to apply to current circumstances.

This stems from another notion that I have heard; that 90% of ancient jews were illiterate.  Means little or nothing now I suppose until one considers how the "wisdom" of much of what is now known as the Bible was disseminated throughout the jewish community.

Given the exclusive nature of the media and how much the average jewish "joe" would have to depend on the people relating the knowledge, wisdom, beliefs, etc... I find it difficult to find relevance of that culture's culture have on those that are alive now.

With the level of (internet-based) interpersonal connectivity, it seems that humanity should be capable of constructing a superior "blueprint" for future generations, without continuing to be impeded by the limitations of the one that got us this far.

Last week I wound up trying to read blogs of dissident Arabs in (I think it was) Syria, who were being prosecuting for committing some crime of expression.  (Couldn't, because the links to the "english" versions appeared to have been broken.  Perhaps this was an attempt at keeping english-speakers (Americans, given that we are dying for them) from reading about Islamic opposition to this week's version of this year's "Jihad".

Since when have well-educated and intelligent opponents to tyrannical regimes been able to communicate their opinions to the entire human race, in real time ?

Seems to me the whole direction of the human race ought to be dramatically improved by merely surviving long enough for the best "philosphy" (and people) to "win".

The means of achieving this objective must therefore lie in interpersonal communication skills.  Identifying and underlining poor means of communication is like identifying the bad apple, before it spoils the entire barrel.

My own personal mission, I suppose.

CNN has been running the same story every 20 minutes about the "secretive" nature of the Vice-President.  For all the "liberality" of the mass-media, this is a obvious move to "get ahead of the curve" by pre-explaining Cheney's unwillingness to immediately submit himself to Police questioning after shooting his own friend in the face.

"He's just like that, you see.  And always has been."

So instead of an analytical approach to looking for explanations for a certain incident, we are instead invited to dwell on the idiosyncratic personality characteristics of the Vice-Perpetrator.

Also, the release of the report condemning the Federal response to the Katarina disaster is another blatent tactic to distract attention for a more topical issue.

Maybe Cheney thought the old man as an Al-Quaeda operative ?

Listening to AM talk while driving home today I heard the rabid neo-Clone railing against the "Liberal Media"'s mindless attack on our "Honorable" Vice-President.

Y'know, when a lowly Mexican Immigrant drunkenly drives his 1984 Monte Carlo (the one with the green primer-colored door) into a pedestrian, another vehicle or a house, we Texans understand clearly why he runs away before the cops show up.  Fleeing the scene of a crime is a Texas Tradition.

Funny how Neo-Clone's deny our Texan's cultural heritage as soon as it suits them, and drunkenly align themselves with the very class of people they claim to be protecting us against.

Next, I wonder about the Secret Service.  These are Licensed Law Enforcement Officers, hand-selected for their integrity.  Seems to me that there would have been a few of them near the person of the Vice-President throughout the day of the incident.  These Federal Officers ought to be relied upon to relate the truth of the days events, with particular attention to be paid to the significant detail of whether or not the Vice-President and/or the members of his hunting party had been hitting the Wild Turkey while shooting other birds.

Given that the Vice-President is a "heartbeat away from the Presidency" (flawed though that heart may be), I would think that armed Conservatives drunkenly discharging firewarms near the person of the Vice-President would be considered a Risk to National Security, and should warrant the Secret Service's intervention.

Did Federal Law Enforcement Officers aid the flight of a drunken Vice-President, so as to avoid the state of his (possible) inebriation from being made known (and prosecutable) ?

Furthermore, given the degree to which the President has relied on Executive Privilege in order to maintain the appearance of National Solidarity with regard to the War in Iraq, I wonder if the President will also be able to use this loophole to prevent the complete (or at least knowable) details of this incident from being made public.

I find it remarkable that not even Homeland Security (with all their wire-tapping power) can keep these Powerful and Wealthy Conservative Republicans safe, not even from each other.

Three Trilobytes were gathered around chatting.  Two of the trilobytes had became aware that their apendages could be used for something other than propelling themselves through the water.

The third trilobyte (named clark) said:

But the two explorer trilobytes ignored the nervous and kooky trilobyte, and climbed out of that mud puddle anyways.

Well your dead ancestors that died brilliantly and heroicly in blazes of glory, fallen martyrs of whatever cause it was that was considered important enough to die for are dead now, anyways, and so the sting of being "insalted" by my diatribic tripe should be muted by now.

It's a difficult thing to put into words, so that people that only understand words can understand.

Let me try this:

In some cases, there is no direct translation between spanish and english.  It has been said that in some cases, spanish is a superior language because it allows one to express things that simply cannot be expressed in English.  The language itself becomes the impediment for expression and communication of certain ideas or sentiments.

But incapability of language to allow the expression of certain ideas does not therefore mean that they do not exist.

This notion acts as a gateway to potential notions that do not yet exist within the human awareness.  And the validity of the notion is supported by the following political axiom:

"When you control the language, you control the debate."  Beyond the false dichotomy of (for example) "Pro-Life" vs. "Pro-Choice", the attempts at controlling the language by both sides preclude even the possiblity that a viable solution, acceptable by the vast majority, of being implemented.

Furthermore, 100 years ago no one had even a remote idea of what "communism", "socialism" or "collectivism" might be, and today the words are thrown around by grubby men drinking beer from aluminum cans all over the planet.

I assert that there is a social need for a word to describe the current state of social and cultural circumstances.  This condition exists whether clark has motivation, integrity or the ability to reason, and a word to describe this condition is necessary because I said it is.  And that's all the authority anyone needs.

I choose to call this condition "slavery", as a great many components of the slave condition are directly paralleled in what should now be a "more enlightened" age.

Instead, I find these conditions "explained away" by stoop-shouldered NeoCons gibbering about "choices" and "God", as if somehow their blabbering the words of their tenuous "explanation" is the only effort their God requires of them.

And they (like clark) believe it should be good enough for you, too.

Furthermore, the word "slavery" also directly challenges many of these money-grubbing retards other "feel good" social and political banners, namely "freedom" (as THEY define it) and all the things other people ought (as good americans) to be willing to sacrifice in the defence of it.

We should sacrifice (as we once understood it) "freedom" in order to preserve "freedom" as we are now given to understand it.

And if clark doesn't like what I am doing to his favorite word "slavery", I am sure will also fail to appreciate what I have to say about his OTHER favorite word (and it's new definition), "freedom".

"Just because the world is new to me, does not mean that I am new to the world."

This is nothing new.  In fact, much of this is older than the roots of the current american political "philosophy".

I'm to lazy to look up the credit, but wasn't it a 17th century French philosopher that said:

"The law, in it's egalitarian majesty, forbids the rich as well as the poor from begging in the streets for bread."

My opinion of the American "slave" era is that it was the obvious differences in skin color and facial features that allowed the American Government to sustain the institution of slavery.  The institution had popular "support" because the average citizen could always tell exactly who was who.  Which is why "mixed race" people were always considered to be of the slave (or in later years, the substandard) class.

It made things easier for the non-slaves to differentiate.

Today, slavery has gone "high-tech", and the discriminators and "filters" are hard-coded via DNA technology, and stored on vast computer databases controlled by non-slaves, and the application of this data will span across generations forevermore.

Why would you want to "prevent" attracting them (I assume) to this forum ?

What is it about someone else's insanity that causes you to wish them somewhere else ?

When Marge Simpson was attracted to that Architect, she extolled his virtues to Homer: "He's as smart as a person can be, without being crazy."

Personally, I believe there is always a very fine line between insanity and brilliance.  Unfortunately, that line is usually being drawn by a complete idiot (who is neither insane OR brilliant).

I say, read the ravings of the lunatic.  There may be something contained therein.  (Except of course for clark.  There's really nothing worth paying attention to there.)

"Critical Analysis" depends entirely upon the ability to reason, and the integrity and motivation of the reader.  Perhaps you lack all three ?

To wit:

Perhaps I should have slowed down a bit, used more monosyllabic words and spelled out the idea of "the cost to prepare a free meal" costs "almost nothing".  To spend $25.00 in resources in order to recieve $2.00 worth of food in a time of overabundance does not obligate one to gratitude if the meal is substandard.  The social and cultural expectation that it does is one of the means of oppression.

Too often the focus of the evil of slavery is centered on the means by which the "slave class' is defined.  The modern slaves are no longer selected on the basis on the content of melanin of their skin.  So what ?  You argue against the methods of definition, not the existance of the slave class.  And by doing so you are in fact arguing in favor of other methods, while simutaneously dening the existance of the very class that your beliefs create.

You haven't used the word yet, but what you describe is commonly known as a "meritocracy".  My position is that the "merits" of the current Meritocracy are a lie, and a sham.  (This is where your notions of God are propagandized throughout the community, under the false heading of "Values".)  And it is hard-coded into the DNA of Government by the very action of the democratic process.  In short, institutionalized.

You can start by learning how to both read and think.

It's all a matter of semantics.  If you want to believe that slavery is no longer in existance in the United States because house negros and field negros no longer work for "Massa" on the plantation, then fine, go off in your limited and rather retarded understanding of the social situation.

However, some people have a desire to understand things at a level that goes a bit deeper; one with a historical perspective that allows to have a general understanding of future trends.

There exists today a system of economic slavery that is complex beyond the average person's ability to understand it, which is a direct parallel to the "black & white" situation of 150 years ago.

I live in the deep south, and rub elbows with the descendants of slave owners each and every day.  These people didn't suddenly and spontaneously "see the light", have an epiphany and realize the evil and the error of their ways.  They were drug kicking and screaming into a bare approximation of "morality", and will immediately backslide as soon as the iron fist of government relaxes in the slightest.  Which is the primary purpose of the Republican Party in it's current posture.

One of the "untold" truths of the evils of the institution of slavery is that not only does it inculcate a "slave" mentality into the oppressed class (which is an obvious evil); it also degrades the "oppressor" class on an insidious and even more evil way.

And these people are completely comfortable in their beliefs and "values", and have been bleating Christian hymns in Fundamentalist churches for centuries, with absolutely no pangs on their collective consciences.

Keeping an awareness of these cultural and social dynamics in mind, there is absolutely no reason to believe that the collective social pressure to reduce a class of people to effective slavery as been reduced one iota, no matter how many people have died in the stuggle, in what manner or to what result.  So your question has little to do with my points.

The "slave class" exists in the gaps and cracks in our economic and legal system (where has always existed) and denying this reality is the first means of perpetuating it.  The means of enslavement have gone "high tech", and are manifest in ways that can only be known by the people that go looking for them.

As I recall from Zubrin's book, it may be possible to create methane from resources already available on Mars.  What other natural resources are available, and what can be made from them.

What necessary resources are NOT available, an how will Mars acquire them ?

Will a scarcity of certain resources be the means by which Earth maintains control of Martian colonies ?