Ahhh the Palm sisters: Inita and Ivanna.

Doctor Seuss has some good advice. I could never look back at this stuff and not think of it in context of soldiers from blue helmet to ghillie suit. There is an eerie similarity to offering advice to a soldier about to go overseas, especially in the context of what most western soldiers will realistically be involved with in places like Somalia, (Haiti, Iraq), to what you feel you need to offer to an innocent about to embark on life. I offer an abridged version of...




"OH THE PLACES YOU'LL GO"

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!
...
You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.
...
You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both you elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a sting of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.
...
And when you're alone, there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.






Ahk

Fair enough. I'll drop it.

You do seem rather excited about it kactus. Are these people your role models or something? Is 'kill me or I kill you' an activity you're aspiring to? There's a recruitment center in your neighborhood. Alternatively Im sure the PKK takes on anyone. That's a joint better left unsmoked, yo.


Absolutely. What's 'funny' is that if you went in there with fast air and non-stop artillery you'd kill a whole lot of civilians as well and it wouldn't be "Oh look the Kurds are better fighters than the Turks!"; it would be 112 : 8 and we'd be reading, "ohhh those ruthless Turks! You bastards! Picking on defenseless Kurds!"

The self-evident hypocrisy by those who think they know what they're looking at when they see combat is astounding to me sometimes.

^^ Yeah what Abraxas said. It's not so much any rule changes. i think the rules are good, but the method of refereeing, the so-called video replay referee and so on, the dynamics around the penalty shot vs say just tripping. It's not really the rules so much as how they're enforced.

other sports have their shit together (some might say too much), like with football and challenging a video replay and basket ball officiating is top notch,imo.

Case in point: some game in around '97-'98 between the oilers and L.A. Very near the end of the second period scored tied at 1.  There's been a lot of defensive play by both teams but now it's about to break open. Oilers come in close to the net and get a goal. But we had our toe over the crease and that's all you need. And there we have it too, a camera up top showing us easily that yes indeed his toe was over. So the ref takes a look on the side video camera replay and takes back the goal. Ok. Fine. That works.
The very next play immediately after the face off in center when the goal was taken back. Theres a little jostling around and then an LA drive for the net...but jsut as they pass the blue line they do a change and there's too many men on the ice. Everyone in the stadium knows its too many men. Everyone watching knows it's too many men. Martians looking down through telescopes know its too many men. But the ref missed it. Hes watching the line. Boom. LA gets the goal and it end up a 2-1 win.

We immediately prepared to lay siege to LA but nobody knew Spanish so the plan kinda died on the vine.




So now I only watch play off hockey. Can anyone guess why? Because the officiating is top notch and runs on a "less-is-more" ideal, and the players aren't tempted into stupid retaliation over stupid or unfair calls. But even in play offs once in a while a bad call ruins a game. IMO, quite a while ago the game became too fast for one ref and two linesmen.

Ahk

So if it's flagged as spam until a moderator approves it, then wtf? I think it was the drug names in caps.


Anyways Patton, um, I hear ya. I wasn't trying to make heroin sound inoculate by any stretch. I agree the addiction, leading to long term usage and the effect that come with that would be a "harmful side effect that directly stems from the drug". Was that the gist of it?


Ahk

I haven't seen a good hockey game since the Can. womans team won the gold 2 olympics ago.

I love hockey I really do but I dont pay attention any longer until the play offs. Growing up with the Oiler dynasty kinda spoiled me but I also really believe hockey needs to get it's referee/rules in proper order - sorta bring them up to date - before it will finally mature fully.



Ahk

My favorite quote: "Washington also raised concerns".

Yes well one would think it would raise a little more than an eyebrow.

No I'm sorry that's not quite right. The Patricians were rich families who were said to be the same families that founded Rome. These were generally the upper class of upper class. I'm speaking of freed slaves and plebs. The Patricians had no need for land reform as they were the rich stealing the land.


Yeah but that's not saying much. Slavery was not new by a long shot. Hundreds of years earlier Spartans enjoyed a 12:1 slave to citizen ratio at one point. They ended up freeing most of them. Just like Rome they became part of the population, and 2nd r 3rd class citizens. Romes main slave problem came from winning Carthage, which was centuries before Augustus or Caesar. In fact there were so many people (plebs and freed men) by this point that they made up the vast majority of the civilians and were the mainstay of Italy. We're talking generations at this point. Freedmen status was the reason why they could support a huge slave population. It prevented slave rebellions. But what you end up with is a huge percentage of the population working 'for free' and no work for the rest. It became a stagnent economy.

Well that was one problem but another major one is they were trying to run an empire like a city state. This is a huge subject matter at this point. The old question "How did Rome fall" is an inside joke with historians because there were about 120 reasons over the last 500 years of it's existence.

No not at all and that's not exactly what I meant. The first emperors retained their power because they were reformers for the people (the plebs/freedmen), just as there were attempted reforms before. No what I meant is that the emergence of the Emperors (as the real authority over the senate) was because of this need for reforms. What happened after was up for grabs. There were many good emperors after Augustus, but you only need a couple of really bad ones to screw you for good.

Dude. oligarchs were also in Egypt and Sumer. The moment there were riches to hoard there were oligarchs. Maybe im not using it right? Please explain to me what you say oligarchs means. I use the word to mean someone who is so rich and employs so many that this becomes their political power base and subsequently become above law and government.


We get away from my earlier point which was that Emperors did not address 'socioeconomical' issue with war (any more than anyone did), and that the presence of the Emperors or dictators was a direct result of 'socioeconomical' problems within the state that the rich and the highest class could no longer contain. To see this one needs to look at who julius and Pompey grew up with and the revolutionists that tried and failed while they were coming up to power. Catalina is a total Che figure (figure not direct analogy). A rich patrician kid who gained his political power with the young poor and disenfranchised. He tried to overthrow the senate (probably only once although accused of trying twice) and was set to "bring it all down man - helter skelter!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catilina

After Augustus gave them 40 years of relative peace, prosperity and good management the concrete of Emperor rule of the Roman empire began to solidify until it was finally accepted that half of the planet can't be governed by a mayoral-level senate.



Ahk

Thanks Cass that was a really good contribution.

Terry & Yimaz: No biggy guys Im not wagging the finger at either of you, and I certainly can get "charged" during debate myself so it not like I haven't been there. It's just as a 3rd party is seem like you guys are arguing eggshell white and off white.

How come when I think of "bring back wigs" I think of those long curly white wigs that judges and M.P's used to wear?

Spanking?


You guys need to chill out. I'm not even understanding what you're disagreeing over.

Well okay but the difference here is you average smoker is smoking 25 grams of tobacco/day whereas someone smoking 25grams of hydro everyday is going to have heavier and more immediate problems than the possability of cancer, imo.


The other difference of course is tobacco companies are still making money hand over fist with tobacco, meanwhile this represents an unfair buisness practice since I too have access to a naturally grown substance that is addictive, causes major health problems and offers absolutely no benifit except looking cool, (just like tobacco). I call it 'candy' but you might know it better as crack, heroin and pot. I fail to see why the tobacco companies can sell their product and I can't start up my own business.

I would also just mention for the heck of it that even heroin has very little in the way of harmful side effects that stem directly from the drug. Simply slowing down your metabolism is not so bad (mind you they end up forgetting to eat properly etc etc).



Just sayin.
Ahk

Islamic Bowel Movement has been banned for violations too numerous to mention.

^^ this would be so much funnier if it had an ounce of believability to it. I smell a bonggaroo, which is Cree for "redneck-who-thinks-he's-fooling-us-but-is-not".