husmusen

It's not that simple. I support a few things the Howard government has done, but in general my political views align fairly well with the Swedish Social Democrats so Howard isn't my cup of tea. But neither is the Labour Party, and the Australian Socialist Party are not sensible enough, they are nothing like the Swedish socialist movement. The Greens and Democrats merged would probably make a good party but that wont happen. I didn't support the invasion of Iraq, for several reasons, One, the battle of hearts and minds at home had not been won, so I thought it was crazy to try and win one overseas. Two, I was suspicious of hidden agendas, namely that the war was more about America gaining geostrategic points of influence, than a threat to Australia. Three, I suspected the war could run into a long drawn out mess. (I think was right) Four, This was not an imminent war of national emergency(i.e. being invaded). But a long and planned war. Therefore I feel the parliament should have had the vote, not the individual, the primeminister, that he should abuse the provisons in the constitution provided for the sake of national emergency to a) Lie to the Autralian people that he had made no commitment. (the American army unwittingly let it out that the P.M. had committed way back in November) b) Repeatedly refuse to debate the issue, saying no decision had been reached. c) Then used the emergency powers and said, well the decison has been made no point debating spilt milk. I felt he should have been denied his war on democratic principles. The Australian election was fought less on the war than on peoples fear of losing their houses(to high interest rates), their jobs (to illegal immigrants), and of course there wer all those "terroists can be anywhere call this hotline if you see anything suspicious" signs. That only got put up in marginal electorates and not in safe ones. Maybe I'm being cynical. As for Howard as a person, when he "forgot" to have the widow of Australias SAS casualty invited to her own husbands state memorial service, (rumored to be connected to her criticism of his government). That really sunk him,as a person as opposed to a political figure, in my esteem period. Cheers.

Oh to compare a colony of bees with the reproduction patterns of humans, is apples and oranges. And to refer to the bees and ants as female is misleading. It would be better to say that humans have two sexes (inspite of what the intersex lobby thinks) male and female. Ants and Bees have three, Queen, Worker and Drone. Only the Queen could have a vague similarity to a human female, and the drone a vague similarity to the human male. So there is only one true female, in a colony, and millions of males. And billions of worker ants who have no equivalent human type. Cheers.

I Agree. Also Remember that the population of earth has not always been 6 billion people. if 3/4 of the male popluation were to die, leaving 750,000,000 males (more than 2.5 times than the population of males and females in the US combined). I dont think there would be any noticable loss of genetic diversity at all, at worst it would regress to around the 1700s or so... hardly catastrophic. Read my post: "Especially in small social units like thirty to a hundred people." Obviously if it's some kind of global catastrophy that affects everyone equally, thre wont be a relative disadvatage. But if one tribe has a bad outcome in a war, and lost 75% of there menfolk. Then they are suddenly open game for every other tribe with a food shortage. They can't defend their food sources, and they die. Captain of the troops Sven. "Vigge, our crops have failed, our tribe will die, what shall we do? Everyone else is short as well and will not trade, Shall we raid the tribe to the east, who have 75 men with bow and arrow, the mighty tribe to the north, who have 250 men with bow and arrow. Or the tribe to the west who tussled earlier with the tribe to the north, and now have only 25 men with bow and arrow and 10 of them are lame." Cheif Vigge: Sven, I think you should attack the tribe to the west, who have only 25 men with bow and arrow and see what the have, if they have no food, we shall threaten the tribe to east with great war if they do not trade. Every other tribe has similar discussions and so the seven times decimated tribe gets raided again and again, unless they have friends, but friends in those kind of climates usually come with a hefty margin attached. Despite what feminist theory would have you believe. Cheers.

We've got American citizens in jail being denied due process and the ONLY reason there's so little hue and cry over it is because they aren't of anglo-european descent. It's shameful. Hear, hear! But it also begs deeper questions. What bothers me is that (I just found out) there are a lot more where this woman came from, they are locked up, and noone can say under what law. Some faceless person somewhere has givn an order and there is zero accountability. Even senators are being told, "we'll give you an answer tommorrow" but tommorrow never comes and with all the forces of the government protecting these faceless noname people in the beurocracy, theres not much that can be accomplished by law.

Welcome to the forum from another resident of Athens Mk2. Although that's not as true as it used to be. Did you know there is an official introduce yourself thread? Perhaps it should be made a sticky thread? What do you think mods? A liberal arts student eh? I hear you fellows get a lot of practice saying "do you want fries with that". Cheers Mate. Are you studying Russian Lit?

Yeah your right that does seem, strangely out of place, somehow. Perhaps I should change my location to 'Facisti Australi' and start posting pictures of the Il duce around the place. You know I was almost jovial for a second and then that poor little kid waiting at the kintergarten flashed up. And besides, fell through what cracks? That implies someone bothered checking. When they did find out by accident 2 YEARS later they covered it up, and why did it take the press 5 years? Not fscking good enough. Allright I'm cooling down a bit, but I fear the first action of the Howard government when it's majority comes into force will be to shut down the whole inquiry. Additional linkage from the Sydney Morning Herald. Well comrades I will no doubt soon be getting my expulsion orders. I can only hope I get a seat next to Solzhenitsyn, on the trip to Sweden. Cheers.

linkage More linkage From the first link. It should also be known that to the best of everyones knowledge the woman has gone missing in the Philipines, you can guess the three most probable reasons. "if anything unfair had happened" Howard has apologised for nothing and conceeded nothing. Lets get the reporting straight. An Australian citizen is deported to a foreign country, seperated from her child, and now possibly dead, and Howard says '*If* she was treated unfairly.' He's lucky he isn't within fist range. And how come this only comes to light now? Could it be because the media is barred from all aspects of this process, like some ^%^&%7 stalinist state? Last night, The Weekend Australian confirmed that an Immigration Department official became aware as long ago as early 2003 that Mrs Young had been wrongly deported, but no action had been taken. I really don't think I need to comment on this, it speaks for itself. That poor little kid.

O.k. Immediate possible problem that just popped up in my mind. If 3/4 of the males get wiped out, the genetic diversity loss would be pretty catastrophic anyways. Especially in small social units like thirty to a hundred people. Additional to that the loss of manpower and food gathering ability would also be catstrophic. not to mention the loss of ability to defend themselves. Thus the popular theory of male expendability seems flawed to me. Cheers.

Ahem, holoperidol must be taken at the set times and amounts. It's very impotant to stay on your schedule. Either that or you've been infront of a computer monitor for more than the recomended exposure limits by a considerable margin and need an urgent transfusion of reality. Cheers.

A friend of mine in Queensland once got a green tree ant crushed between his eyelid. Judging by the screams it hurt. As for myself, hmm, coke-a-cola hurt(don't ask). But sawdust was the worst I think. Onions are for wimps. Cheers.

Coral: Yesterday a friend of mine visited me and brought news that she has been officially diagnosed with MS. She is naturally devastated. I am devastated for her as well. I held her while she sobbed for at least 5 minutes. Sad to hear it, as one who'se been to the edge of that particular cliff. Look out for the little boy, I've seen similar situations to this and in ten to twenty years time he will probably be the primary caregiver in that family. Coral: Could this be because, despite some statements to the contrary, people really like to work, like to be productive, and like to make a contribution to their communities? I think were on the same page here as well, helping people is part of what makes life meaningful.

If raw GDP is the whole of life then, perhaps America comes out ahead. But life is more than gold coins and bank notes. At least it is to me. And as the same links will attest, in Sweden we get more life. Cheers.

Interesting link, still browsing but while scanning the American entry I spotted this : At the same time, they face higher barriers to entry in their rivals' home markets than the barriers to entry of foreign firms in US markets. I'll send it of to the Australian BHP steel mills as I figure they need a good laugh. You see the Americans have near completely locked Australia out of steel mainly on the grounds that US steel is less efficient than the Australian steel producers, and US manufacturers were starting to buy Australian. I suppose it sucks for them(US manufacturers) too. The US producers reckon they need at least 5 years to refine there plants, because they couldn't be bothered doing the forward planning. So the US capitalist system rewards them for their lack of foresight. Actually I might send it off to the sugar farmes as well, they'll get a good laugh too. I understand why the USA does this, they don't want their manufacturing to get stomped on, but the puritan whinging when other countries do the same is always amusing. Hey now this is interesting, Inspite of Swedens enourmously more generous unemployment benefits, we have the same unemployment rate as the US, hence good unemployment benefits do not cause unemployment. Cheers. Ps from the link, Like I said, the best of both worlds.

Darth: Indeed, Nor should we fall into the falacy that there can only be one succesful model of state. For all it's problems, the USA is not the worst country in the world by any means. At the same time, countries like Sweden and Australia while socialist, Sweden more so than Australia, are in the top 20 economies in the world, not bad for countries with 9 million and 21 million in population. Neither system is perfect, but neither are abject failures. I feel that long term socialism will prove more stable, I think of it as the sweet spot between capitalism and communism, possesing the strengths of both, and that the synergy of these combat the weakness of each. Private property lends flexibility, but state welfare protects. Cheers.

I'm not sure about the values in your post(Q 3), I am pretty sure that the venous system is far lower pressure than the arterial system(even in the foot). As for how the venous system gets up, it's assisted by the contraction of the leg muscles(e.g. calf) and the prescence of one way valves in the veins. When these valves aer damaged you get varicose veins. Cheers.

As I said before Darth, that you like capitalism comes as no huge shock to me, it is my opinion that socialism(which to me is very different from communism) has it's own strengths that will see it through but, over the next century or two, truth will out, and it's possible even that both capitalism and socialism will join communism in the meaphorical grave. In the mean time I feel we are like two smooth stones, endlessy bouncing of eachother, yet never wearing eachother down. Cheers.

Coral:

Sur Ströming is basically a kind of fermented fish. I actually like it(the taste not the smell). How to describe it? You know the smell of a fish market toward the end of the day? Multiply by 1,000X. Gilded has probably eaten it. The cans are all bulging and swollen too, so Australian customs have a nasty habit of destroying it. Sigh. Cheers.

Actually in that class alchohol was the major culprit. Cheers.

What do you mean by "They carry on a lot"??? Yelling Screaming and whooping. High volume chatter. Jumping up and running around class. Dragging the "nerdy" kids out of class and thumping them. Throwing objects around the room. Basically acting like a bunch of hyperactive 5 year olds tanked to the gills on caffiene, red food dye and sugar. Cheers.

I mean that they disrupt the class quite a lot. That's annoying, especially if it's something interesting being presented. Cheers.

When you say your fellow classmates are stupid. Do you mean a) They carry on a lot and disrupt the class? b) They don't know a lot compared to you? Cheers.

A slow fellow student is nowhere near as irritating as a ignorant teacher. Fortunately all our current lecturers are very good and have all worked in the industry they are teaching us about. Cheers.

Semag: I fear you are right about where the U.S. is headed. But don't lose hope, you sometimes make great comebacks. If someone had told me in 1940 that by 1980 you'd have black people in high ranking government positions I would have found it hard to believe. But there you go. I've had the privelidge of living in both a socialist and a semi-socialist country, I suspect that Darth has never lived in a socialist country. If I was bringing up a child, I would see a socialist country as a very desirable place to live, because if anything happened to me I know my family would get looked after. And that's the differance as I see it. In Australia, we have free healthcare for everyone under 16, It saves us enourmous amounts of money as we have an extremely healthy working age populous compared to many other countries. Ultimately you have to choose, whether your approach is 'I'm allright jack, eff you', or whether you look after eachother. And ofcourse most people fall somewhere between these. In all these situations you have to be very careful because people are individuals, you can't just make two boxes (No-hopers and hard-workers) and fit everyone into it. I think there is a big place for government spending on the homeless, and I can guarantee you there will be a few people who will try to take any scheme for a ride. I do not see that as a reason to stop a program that's also helping sincere people. I say this for the same reason I wouldn't stop running an import business just because 0.12% of the containers suffered freight damage. You can never get such things to 0, so you do what you can, to prevent it, but you carry on doing your work because it's worth doing. Cheers. P.S. Darth: In the end there will be one of two posibilities, One all the socialist countries will go under. Two the capitalist countries will go under. Which happens first will depend more on reality than on our own opinions. My own experience has given me the impression that homeless people are just people like anyone else, and most don't want to be cold, hungry and homeless. There are exceptions, but there are some nasty people in every walk of life. I don't see a reason to hold homeless people to a higher standard of morality than everyone else. I have been tempted to dump on tater several times but for the same reason I hesitate to dump on homeless, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he has just had really lousy luck meeting homeless people. I don't know. Or maybe he needs to watch less Fox News . Cheers.