Offline for next 4 days

[t19]

Going to the Toronto Bike show, where I am many others will pray for real global warming so we can ride longer.   (Sorry Stan)

I will not have much Internet access... so play nice


Cheers

Andrew

[mobile_bob]

psssst... Stan...

DOINK!!!         

there is one in the eye buddy!

(figured i would get that one in while the big dog is away)



bob g

[Stan]

Hey, I admit right now I'm feeling like a selfish b@stard praying for a small, brief ice age.  To h3ll with all the folks living at sea level, those barely able to survive in desert areas etc.  I want to ski! 

On a somewhat related note, have you been reading in the investment press about the looming food crisis?  It seems the USDA has been lying to everybody and grains and soybeans were harvested at miniscule levels last year and it seems this year is going to be worse.  Since the US is the world's largest producer of grains and soybeans, and since both those products make  up the majority of what everyone eats (except for rice of course which is also in trouble in asia) there is speculation that the world's poor is going to be up the creek this year and next.  Us rich folks will just fork out the extra bucks but anyone living on the edge (that's about 5 billion people) are going to go hungrier.

Not a good scenario for places like India and Pakistan who have lots of hungry people and, both of which have nuclear weapons and neither of which like each other.
Stan

[t19]

unfortunately, i am afraid going to war when there is a food crisis is not a unheard of.

does this mean i have to watch millionaire rock stars sing about the poor and tell me to give up my hard earned money?  God i hope not

[Tijean]

t19, if I was paying the those rock stars (or for that matter pro athletes) it would be for their day job efforts , then if they wanted to perform in the evenings for the free joy of it, I would allow them to do so!

Helping a neighbour out of an unforseen difficulty seems like a good thing to do, but if his calamity is that he has bred himself out of a place at the table then my giving becomes somewhat conditional. treating symptoms is deferral not problem solving.

Even if global warming was a fizzle, the looming collision between population growth and key resource depletion just about guarantees warfare.

Consider what conditions are in Haiti and the reality gets a lot closer to home. Without expending ever more and more in national defense, even the haves reach a point where they cannot keep the hords from making their lives unpleasant.

NIMBY! wanna bet? Lol!

[Stan]

Unfortunately tijean, you would have to convince hundreds of millions of people not to pay to watch rock stars on TV or buy their music, or pay to watch pro-athletes perform.  It's the general population that pays through the nose to be entertained by them that drives their income levels. 

 You won't catch me paying more than $2 at a thrift store for CD's of music, and I don't watch pro sports, ever!  The olympic torch is going to come to our town and parade through the main platzl (pedestrian square) that I can see from my front window.  I won't even bother to wander over to the window when it comes by.  So count me in on your list of non-enablers. 
Stan

[Tijean]

One of the Caesars is supposed to have said of the masses, "Give them bread and circuses and they wont notice what you really are doing with them"

[MikeyT]

It seems the USDA has been lying to everybody and grains and soybeans were harvested at miniscule levels last year and it seems this year is going to be worse. 

In fact just this past week USDA announced they had under-reported 300 million bushels of corn for 2009. There is no shortage, just the traders trying to make buisness.

[Stan]

Good, you remember that, and if you're up my way maybe you can stop in and help me carry all these cases of baked beans into the basement!