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Phi for All

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Posts posted by Phi for All

  1. It is an economic problem, or will soon lead to one. As more large corporations consolidate through merger, they create unfair advantages that can't be stopped by normal market means. Government regulation are the only way to curb this, but the mega-corporations can afford to throw millions at lobbying, disinformation, propoganda and other tactics to derail legislation. Add media ownership into the mix and the voter voice gets pretty hard to hear.

  2. Well first, how are the mega-mergers bad for the country?
    I think they squash competition while disguised as a down-sizing method.

     

    Second, why does the existence of mega-corporations imply a weakening of the boundary between church and state? (Or am I misunderstanding you?)
    What I meant was Church & State-like problem, not type. My bad. Mega-corporations have so much money and such specific interests that they are able to unfairly influence political endeavors.
  3. Elect another TR!

    That old Trust Bus'in cowboy.

    Oh, now you're just sucking up to Pangloss. ;)

     

    I would love to have someone go through the White House with no corporate agenda, owing no one for getting elected, and put a stop to some of these mega-mergers.

  4. The new buzz-word is "fristians".
    Did you hear that on Randi Rhodes? Your fundamentalistas just had too many syllables to make a good sound bite. Too ethnic for mainstream as well. Fristians are people who do business in church right after the sermon.
  5. IMO the problems in the US are, by and large, due to bad behavior and political grandstanding, not flaws inherent in the system.
    In the hopes that you'll stop playing Quiddage ( :D ), let me ask you this: Many US companies have been merging to form huge conglomerates that wield immense political clout and also tend to stifle free enterprise and competition. How can we keep big business from creating another Church vs State-type problem when they have more resources and political cohesiveness?
  6. Freeing all those former opium warlords to help us fight the Taliban and find Bin Laden turned out to be a pretty smart move then I guess.

     

    Sorry, cynical mood today. :mad:

  7. Now I'm paranoid as well.

     

    According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the amount of land (in hectares) devoted to opium (heroin) production in Afghanistan in 2000 was aprox. 82,000. In 2001, the Taliban burned most of the poppy fields and declared war on the opium trade since they are fundamentalists and drugs are not permitted by Islamic law. The land devoted to opium growth plummeted to less than 8000 hectares. The US invaded in November 2001 (opium planting season) and by 2002 the amount of opium land jumped to 74,000 hectares.

     

    Shouldn't the US military have been a bit more anti-drug minded? I guess not since the figures jumped to 80,000 hectares in 2003 and a whopping 131,000 hectares in 2004. Drug money laundering, it turns out, is a trillion-dollar business worldwide.

     

    UNODC Afghanistan Poppy Fields Report 2004

  8. It looks like both communism and capitalism lead to totalitarianism, just capitalism takes longer to get there.
    The desire to be the ones holding the last reserves of oil may be leading US industries to manipulate our democracy into totalitarian leanings, but I don't think it's inherent in the system of capitalism. If the voters let the worst happen, then it will happen.
  9. all the pictures i can find online seem to show a feeding tube going back under the head. its hard to tell, but the creature in your picture doesnt seem to have one.
    Neither shot really shows the underside of the head. I think it can tuck up under a bit when not in use.
    are there species of assassin bug that dont have this?
    I think that's one of the things that distinguishes them. Most bugs that small that digest externally have one tube for the corrosive juices and another tube for feeding.
  10. Have you seen him feed? If he injects prey for external digestion, he could be an assassin bug. Assassin bugs usually have one combo injection/feeding tube to do this instead of two seperate ones. There's over 3000 species of them.

  11. Phi: I think you know the riddle...
    Sorry you don't trust me not to participate it if I did.

     

    I know a lot of these yes or no riddles, i.e. the man with the pack on his back, the man who asks for a glass of water, the man in the elevator, the dead man and the bicycles, etc, so I know how they work. This was a new one for me.

     

    In the future, leave out the emaciation, it tipped me off.

  12. Okay, I think I've got it. My next question is a spoiler if I'm right, so I'll hide it. I'm going to sleep, so I'll check in the morning. Uncool is the only one who should check the highlight.

     

    [hide]Was there at least one other person on the island with the two men?[/hide]

  13. Men are pressumably more expendable than women, even when both are equal to any occassion.
    Perhaps as the hereditary hunters/protectors of the human species, it is our role to delay danger while females lead the children to safety.

     

    Chatha, can you suggest a direction that would give this thread a reason to stay in Philosophy & Religion instead of Ecology/Populations/Habitats/Environment?

  14. I was just wiondering, am I respected here? Or am I viewed as a moron?
    There are no morons on these boards, imo. Every person here contributes in their own way and you are no different. You are needed here. And not everyone gets their own Gir Stand-up in the Jokes thread.

     

    People regard phi and sayo as demigods
    Me, a demigod? That's ridiculous. The pantheon has higher standards.

     

    YT2095 has more knowledge than my whole graduating class. He is next on the list for ascension.

     

    Sayonara³ actually is a demigod, his mother having been seduced by the Norse god Loki. He will now strike me down, but it explains a lot, doesn't it?

  15. Sur Ströming is basically a kind of fermented fish.

     

    ...

     

    The cans are all bulging and swollen too' date=' so Australian customs

    have a nasty habit of destroying it.[/quote']Does the smell kill the salmonella bacteria? Have any customs workers been killed by the off-gassing of these swollen cans?

     

    Can ecoli make chili out of it? The production of can-swelling gases may help his constipation problem.

  16. Sur Ströming.

     

    When you open the tin' date=' bend your nose real close to ahhh,

    savour its [i']impressive[/i] aroma.

    When I google for this, the only definition that comes up is "currently curdled". Though your description is impressive, I detect a sour note here somewhere.

     

    Is this some sort of Swedish meatbleh?

  17. I can't help but think that lowering the AoC helps only those few young people who begin their sexually active phase earlier than most. It also seems as if pedophiles are looking for those very children. I can respect that pedophiles are not out there cruising for just any child, but I can't justify allowing even those children who may be more mature in their sexual outlook to be mentored by a pedophile.

     

    I can see where these early bloomers might resent a puritanical approach to sex, but we don't need necessarily to tip the scales even further by having a mentor who is sexually attracted to the child.

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