TheCurtOne

Wow. Just as a postscript. I have never seen such tragedy as the dissolution of the marriage of my best friend, ErasOmnius (E/O). Sudden and ferocious. Terrible for their children. Seeing such, I have endeavored in my life to 'be right' less, and to be kind more. He and his wife were like to people who always had to be 'right', and now because of the cataclysm of their each being 'right'. They are each now completely alone, with teenage children crying.

Now she's crying on TV.

Weep and mourn, Jack Layton has passed away.

Happy Birthday to Me...Mappy Birthday to Me...Mappy Burfday dear Curtis..... thinking I've been drinking a bit much.

No, really someone has to start making some tough decisions, from the top. Do we want everyone to have an auto? Do we want everyone to be able to afford one? Or maybe not? When we talk about the robots replacing humans, we know that robots cannot buy those same autos. So somewhere along the economic way, someone has to PLAN the economy. Not this unbridled capitalism that shifts jobs around the globe in a dizzying way, just because some corp's stock price will go up $1.50 for the week. Someone has to say stop because the current system is broke. Those poor kids out in the streets of Britain are just taking out their fury on the closest inanimate object they can come across. The circumstances might be a bit different in Greece, but the root cause remains the same. Give those young men and women decent jobs with a decent wage, and they won't have a reason to riot in the streets. The 'free traders' have left us out to dry. Our libraries are closing, our schools are closing, our rec centers are closing, yet we wonder why the youth are taking to the street, and smashing eveything to bits. They don't have enough money to go to college, and their food and housing allowances is being cut by politicians in their capital cities. That Mr Cameron was on the news saying that people will have their access to Facebook and Twitter curtailed if they are suspected of wanting to be involved in the rioting. How is he or any policeman going to be able to tell if someone is planning on using Facebook to cause a riot? Give the youths some jobs, instead of a police state.

I have to agree with Dante. This is the cause of the New Left, simply to find jobs for the common man. Good manufacturing jobs, with skilled trades. Actually building something with your hands, and getting paid a decent wage doing so. The robots have come and have displaced a good fraction of those poor teens and twenty somethings off the assembly line, and into the streets. The other part of the jobs have gone east, and are being done by people who are nothing more than slaves. I don't know the particulars of what is exactly happening in Great Britain, but it seems to be a common theme around the world. That people need decent jobs, with a decent wage, manufacturing something that there own countrymen can and will buy. We need to have unionization of factories on a world wide scale. I'd wonder and like to know what the percentage of people are who are willing to destroy with their hands, those who create things with their hands. Create things like autos, appliances, and the like. As someone who puts items onto a car chassis in an assembly line, I'd have a hard time burning a building down, or smashing a car to bits. In fact, the thought of purposely trashing a car seems inconceivable, like what's seem on TV in England, when one puts them together. It seems that these youths may have lost the appreciation of building things with their hands, something that the 'free traders' took away from them.

Damn, whose side are we on?

Did Greece have a 2004 Summer Olympics that they could not afford, doubling of the percentage of debt? Same thing with US in 2002 Salt Lake City. Italy's up the toilet, and they hosted 2006 Torino. I'm seeing a pattern here.

Yeah, I'm semi-pi$$ed that some of the news outlets called him a "Christian". Don't know where it says that Christ wanted to gun down teenagers.

Well, take care everyone. I only joined because my friend asked me too. And now he's gone, or been banned permanently. I think that in a way it's a good thing that EO has been set free from this place. He can stop crying, worrying, getting mad, at the goings on, here at the Dune 2000 debating forum. My only hope is that he doesn't go back to the place where they'll always accept anyone who agrees with them, at Brian Herbert and K Anderson's place. ha ha

Seems like all of the Saudi Arabian students that are taking classes abroad would want to try to "open" their country up once they get back home. Once someone gets the taste of the "democracy bug", it would seem that they would not want to go back into the box of a monarchical dictatorship. Although I see from this news article that the gov't is basically funding and paying for everything for their students abroad. Sounds like an interesting system of keeping everyone in line. I think from this article which is from the Organization of Islamic Conference observers and members in Kazakhstan this week, they feel that discrimination against Muslims is on the rise. Hey, the thing is, is that there are all sorts of Muslims. There are the ones who are next to you at work, then there are the ones who are doing horrible things like terrorism.

So that's it? Good God man... That's your counter argument? "Good God man...hand me the brandy and another cigar." Not a very strong counter argument. Of course the engineer or tool and die tradesman in the Nw of Europe or North America is going to have more educational opportunities than people elsewhere. But that doesn't mean that they should necessarily be paid more. If people who are continually more and better trained, earn substanially greater amounts of money than those who are not, then mass immigration will never stop. There have to be mandatory wage parameters across Europe, across North America (incl Mexico), or "things will never even up". Where the money goes, or where the wages go, so will the building of schools, pre school programs, universities and colleges, and better jobs. But if we even things out, with a better playing field, then better things will happen in disadvantaged areas. In North America, minimum wage laws need to be mandatory in Mexico, just as they are in the US, so that the cost of producing auto parts there is the same as in America and Canada. Otherwise, corporate interests will always prevail, and "ship" jobs to other countries where it is cheaper to manufacture items. In China, where factories are run with a soldier always within sight, labor is real cheap. But would you want to work there?

My whole point is, there probably needs to be greater integration in the European Union. The rights of trade union workers in Germany, Scandinavia, and Great Britain, which are high, need to become continent wide. This way, mass immigration from East to West across Europe will cease, and new EU countries can develop their middle class. Even in white collar fields like engineers, the gap is too great when one compares salaries across Europe. Hey, this issue cost the former PM of Great Britain his job last year when he couldn't or wouldn't explain himself on the issue of cross EU immigration fully. So, if trade unions were strengthened in eastern Europe, and a continent wide minimum wage were put into effect, it seems like major problems might go away. According to this study, the disparity is too great.

You asked for Van Halen? Here's the REAL Van Halen, with Sammy Hagar The personal info issue. Is that something I am doing?

I am trying to figure out of the Saudi gov't is trying to protect the birthplace of Islam, which doesn't really seem to be all that anti-Hebrew. Or if they are simply anti-Semites. Or maybe it's the Palestinian problem. The Saudi gov't isn't talking much about the whole event that they are causing. They should at least release some kind of statement. WAIT: This just in a few minutes ago: Saudi Arabia denies discriminating against Jewish passengers. After reading this, it seems that many of the parrties involved are in denial. Delta, the Saudi gov't, others.