I think the comparison to heroin is fair. Most people agree that heroin is far more psychologically addictive than it is physically addictive.
So we can add games to the long list of psychologically addictive activities, including TV, movies, porn, news, working too much, or cheating on your spouse.
Problem is, as urban cliff-dwellers, the possiblity of engaging in uplifting social and wholesome activities is severely severely limited by our environment. What would we do without these addictive socially-destructive activities? Go for a walk in the woods with the family? Build a barn? Plant a garden? Anything remotely outdoor or social takes too much effort, money and planning to be at all workable, which is why people don't do them very often, and only when they're really sick of TV.
Even is all I did was eat, sleep, poop, and "make methane", I'm having an effect on the environment.
I think what you mean is that mankind will not be able to change the earth so much as to "destroy" it, and trying to "save" the planet from certain doom is ignorant and futile.
I agree with you there.
Increase and decrease of human populations is a constant cycle as well. Perhaps the black death of 1300 and subsequent decrease in warm human bodies brought on that little ice age. Hmmm...
The house I'm moving into way out in the sticks (in Japan of course) has a "horiben" (which is an in-house outhouse).
Human excrement has to be retrieved via a hole outside the house using what is literally a scoop and a pail, and buried in the garden.
Toilet paper may not be flushed. After you wipe yourself, you must throw it in the wastebasket and burn it with all the other burnable trash.
And the house uses only water from a well, so there is no way there would be enough water for toilet flushing. Hence my decision to put in the composting toilet.
If the diplomat had even first-year Japanese skills, he should have been able to read the kanji "dai" and "sho" (big & little) on the flush lever. Dai is for "daiben" and Sho is for "shoben" (ie pee-pee and poo-poo.) Not too hard to figure out.
They require no water, no chemicals, use hardly any electricity (just enough to power a fan), and produce a dry, odorless white powder that you can use in your garden.
When I read this review, I screamed like a little girl. I mean it was like Uncle Tony grabbed my pantied ass. I jumped about 12 feet up in the air and squealed.
I hold it to be of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words towards any one, for neither the one nor the other in any way diminishes the strength of the enemy; but the one makes him more cautious, and the other increases his hatred of you, and makes him more persevering in his efforts to injure you
- Machiavelli
With things the way they are, I'm sure a lot of Americans could claim refugee status and political persecution upon arriving at their preferred destination.
Hint for those who want to try this: While on the plane, eat your passport. Not having a passport to identify you as an American makes it much more difficult to deport you. At the very least they will have to give you some sort of a hearing.
I recommend New Zeeland. It's English-speaking, relatively easy to immigrate to, there's plenty of room, and it is of no strategic interest to anyone anywhere.:)
I saw this coming from a mile away. In three weeks I move into my farmhouse in the heart of the mountains in Oita prefecture in Japan. This is about as far away from the US as I could think of without going to a country likely to end up on the US's hit list (yes, I am aware there are US bases here.)
Plus I have family here.
I figure if any country on earth is going to balk at any kind of real participation in WWIII, especially if it goes nuclear, it's Japan.
Alphaville - Forever Young.mp3 Nena - 99 Red Ballons.mp3 Randy Newman - Political Science.mp3 Martika - Toy Soldiers.mp3 Boingo - War Again.mp3 Genesis - Land of Confusion.mp3
Look around at the US now for a good object lesson. The US is insulted, frightened, and angry, Just like Germany was after WWI. The US is going to "punish its enemies", and "restore its national honor", which is what Hitler promsed to do.
It's the anger and hatred that brought Hitler and the Nazis to power, Hitler didn't drug and threaten everybody into submission. When people are afraid, they tend to not make rational decisions.
To quote a greater being than I:
"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."
That's not news. America's political parties have been controlled by shifting sectors of the business community since the Civil War.
What's alarming now, is that both parties are in the control of the oil interests, who have a geopolitical agenda. I mean, I don't really mind that much if America is in the iron grip of the Diamond Matches corporation, Apple Computer, or the YKK zipperhead monopoly. But oil companies? Run for your lives!
I see my arguments are not persuasive. Let me try this one:
At my place of work (which is in Japan, among Japanese), we have had the bomb discussion at length several times, with myself arguing the Devil's advocate (pro-nuke) side.
In fact, I talked about it with my section chief during our noon smoke break just yesterday.
Suffice to say, my coworkers are deeply emotional about the issue, so far as to take offence that the Americans were even able to consider rationalizing the moral equivalency of such an atrocity. (BTW, most of my coworkers are about the same age as I am.)
If I bring the subject up to my 83 year old grandmother, she won't stop talking for about 2 hours about the horror of it all.
In the closing days of the war, the Japanese were developing the Atomic Bomb. Had we given them another year by invading Japan, they might have dropped the bomb on us!!!
With no air force or extraterritorial airbases? That would be a neat trick.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the comparison to heroin is fair. Most people agree that heroin is far more psychologically addictive than it is physically addictive.
So we can add games to the long list of psychologically addictive activities, including TV, movies, porn, news, working too much, or cheating on your spouse.
Problem is, as urban cliff-dwellers, the possiblity of engaging in uplifting social and wholesome activities is severely severely limited by our environment.
What would we do without these addictive socially-destructive activities? Go for a walk in the woods with the family? Build a barn? Plant a garden? Anything remotely outdoor or social takes too much effort, money and planning to be at all workable, which is why people don't do them very often, and only when they're really sick of TV.
Even is all I did was eat, sleep, poop, and "make methane", I'm having an effect on the environment.
I think what you mean is that mankind will not be able to change the earth so much as to "destroy" it, and trying to "save" the planet from certain doom is ignorant and futile.
I agree with you there.
Increase and decrease of human populations is a constant cycle as well. Perhaps the black death of 1300 and subsequent decrease in warm human bodies brought on that little ice age. Hmmm...
(PS, I'm kidding)
The obsession with cleanliness in Japan is fairly recent (Since the Taisho period about 80 years old, (so says NHK)).
Go to the countryside sometime and you can see old ladies peeing standing up by the side of the road. You know, out the back, like a cow.
The house I'm moving into way out in the sticks (in Japan of course) has a "horiben" (which is an in-house outhouse).
Human excrement has to be retrieved via a hole outside the house using what is literally a scoop and a pail, and buried in the garden.
Toilet paper may not be flushed. After you wipe yourself, you must throw it in the wastebasket and burn it with all the other burnable trash.
And the house uses only water from a well, so there is no way there would be enough water for toilet flushing. Hence my decision to put in the composting toilet.
If the diplomat had even first-year Japanese skills, he should have been able to read the kanji "dai" and "sho" (big & little) on the flush lever.
Dai is for "daiben" and Sho is for "shoben" (ie pee-pee and poo-poo.) Not too hard to figure out.
I plan on getting one of these.
They require no water, no chemicals, use hardly any electricity (just enough to power a fan), and produce a dry, odorless white powder that you can use in your garden.
Very keen.
When I read this review, I screamed like a little girl. I mean it was like Uncle Tony grabbed my pantied ass. I jumped about 12 feet up in the air and squealed.
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." -Vishnu in the Bhagavad Gita, as quoted by J. Robert Oppenheimer after the test of the first atomic bomb
Do you like the idea of people who HATE us and our allies having nukes and us (and our allies) not? I sure don't.
I prefer to find a way to make those people NOT hate us, rather than trying to make them hate us more.
"With proper tactics, nuclear war need not be as destructive as it appears." -- Henry Kissinger
(Note: This quote is meant to illustrate that policy makers in the 1960's were farking nuts.)
With things the way they are, I'm sure a lot of Americans could claim refugee status and political persecution upon arriving at their preferred destination.
Hint for those who want to try this: While on the plane, eat your passport.
Not having a passport to identify you as an American makes it much more difficult to deport you. At the very least they will have to give you some sort of a hearing.
Americans do sing "God Save The Queen" and like it. They just changed the words is all :)
I've actually looked into this.
:)
I recommend New Zeeland. It's English-speaking, relatively easy to immigrate to, there's plenty of room, and it is of no strategic interest to anyone anywhere.
Jesus Christ. Something like that could start an earthquake.
Couldn't it?
I saw this coming from a mile away. In three weeks I move into my farmhouse in the heart of the mountains in Oita prefecture in Japan. This is about as far away from the US as I could think of without going to a country likely to end up on the US's hit list (yes, I am aware there are US bases here.)
Plus I have family here.
I figure if any country on earth is going to balk at any kind of real participation in WWIII, especially if it goes nuclear, it's Japan.
2002/3/11 suggested mp3 playlist
Alphaville - Forever Young.mp3
Nena - 99 Red Ballons.mp3
Randy Newman - Political Science.mp3
Martika - Toy Soldiers.mp3
Boingo - War Again.mp3
Genesis - Land of Confusion.mp3
Others?
o wabi nanka kekkou desu.
:)
kore kara mo yorosiku o negai simasu.
Look around at the US now for a good object lesson. The US is insulted, frightened, and angry, Just like Germany was after WWI. The US is going to "punish its enemies", and "restore its national honor", which is what Hitler promsed to do.
It's the anger and hatred that brought Hitler and the Nazis to power, Hitler didn't drug and threaten everybody into submission. When people are afraid, they tend to not make rational decisions.
To quote a greater being than I:
"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."
That goes for everyone, US and Germany included.
That's not news. America's political parties have been controlled by shifting sectors of the business community since the Civil War.
What's alarming now, is that both parties are in the control of the oil interests, who have a geopolitical agenda.
I mean, I don't really mind that much if America is in the iron grip of the Diamond Matches corporation, Apple Computer, or the YKK zipperhead monopoly. But oil companies? Run for your lives!
So first-world countries are immune to government failure? Even the US?
I don't think I'm quite as confident as you are about that.
What strategy would work best to contain Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz?
How 'bout a coffee can?
I see my arguments are not persuasive. Let me try this one:
At my place of work (which is in Japan, among Japanese), we have had the bomb discussion at length several times, with myself arguing the Devil's advocate (pro-nuke) side.
In fact, I talked about it with my section chief during our noon smoke break just yesterday.
Suffice to say, my coworkers are deeply emotional about the issue, so far as to take offence that the Americans were even able to consider rationalizing the moral equivalency of such an atrocity. (BTW, most of my coworkers are about the same age as I am.)
If I bring the subject up to my 83 year old grandmother, she won't stop talking for about 2 hours about the horror of it all.
As deterrence against a Canadian rabid moose attack?
Mind you, moose bites can be pretti nasti.
In the closing days of the war, the Japanese were developing the Atomic Bomb. Had we given them another year by invading Japan, they might have dropped the bomb on us!!!
With no air force or extraterritorial airbases? That would be a neat trick.