...

RB>> And what they leave behind, the destruction of cultures and
RB>> ways of life, social structures, health services, the means of
RB>> productive work or even agriculture.

 BL>  That only applies to the losers, and no one cares about
 BL>  the losers or they wouldn't do it. Did Dubya and his
 BL>  bureaucrats give a moment's thought to the Iraqi people?
 BL>  They demonise their leaders, make "Iraq" the enemy,
 BL>  organise proper PR and get the Media onside, and to hell
 BL>  with the innocent "enemy."

 I've often wondered, if you compared the lives lost in the war
 to the number saved by the technical advances, how much the loss
 would be.

 OTOH, in war more of the casualties are from plague and
 starvation than the actual combat, usually.

...

 BL> corruption, real democracy went out the window. I
 BL> understand why the anarchists are so active now. I look
 BL> forward to the time when they start shooting politicians
 BL> and power-freaks like Packer and Murdoch (and perhaps the
 BL> Archduke Ferdinand). I've always had a soft spot for those
 BL> little round bombs with a wick.

 Ah, what a tempting thought.

...

 BL> on a bike without lights suddenly appears. A new driver
 BL> does not react instinctively because he's still training
 BL> his autonomic sytem. They rarely have time to yell
 BL> obscenities out the windows, for instance.

 True.

 BL>  An experienced driver has time to miss him, swerve closer
 BL>  so he *almost* hits him, and then yell "Dopey poofter!"

 Ah, the benefits of experience.

...

 BL> writers who bury the story in style. I expect it's because
 BL> I spent 15 years trying to distill meaioning out of what
 BL> was mostly meaningless prose but hey... text books are like
 BL> that.

 I once had a philosophy text like that. It had a summary of
 every idea, and the text which was totally impenetrable. I had
 major problems until I realized everything you needed to know
 was covered in the summary, the text probably was just inserted
 to pad it out to a book, so the author could actually sell it.

BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... Cat \kat\ Small four legged fur bearing extortionist.
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