bjorn_skurj

The commercials are not bad, for commercials, but I'm starting to get a bit sick of them.

And Biko was a a "powerful, yet evil African American"? He didn't come across that way in the Peter Gabriel song ...

Now, THAT is what this country is all about, my friends.

You never know. The erosion of the middle class in this country will eventually lead to a pre-revolutionary situation. When the elites have taken everything from everybody, then everybody except the elites will have nothing to lose. If I may break out the Durutti: "It is we the workers who built these palaces and cities here in Spain and in America and everywhere. We, the workers, can build others to take their place. And better ones! We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin i

Anyone who is not an internationalist at this point is really living in the past. Globalization, which will not be stopped, renders the 19th-century concept of the nation-state more irrelevant with each passing day. We could not have the kind of America we have today, with ultracheap food and consumer goods, without porous borders and 12 million some odd people we don't have to pay market rate.

You have no idea. Good journalism is still done in places, mostly on the local level, but the near-total lack of calling Bush on his obvious absurdities leading up to the invasion of Iraq indicates the pillar is no longer a pillar, and that we have something less than a democracy.

Win #297 for his Glavine-ness.

I'm sorry. All the talk about surpressing rebellion in the Civil War thread has brought out my inner dictator. This is why I cannot be trusted with power.

They were lucky Allen Klein didn't kill and eat them personally. They fucked with the wrong dude.

Journalism is funny. It is both a commercial enterprise and a pillar of democracy.

Hey, look at Ireland. Those people are still pissed off, but I will note that it seems that once they stopped trying to blow up the British and concentrated on the future by building their economy, a "miracle" occurred.

Not too many people in the north really care about the Civil War anymore, but it really did deal a huge blow to the south.

One might argue that the elimination of the very great evil that was slavery is worth the tolerating of a lesser evil. And as I said before, those troops at Fort Sumter didn't fire on themselves. Do you want to start talking about "Bloody Kansas?"

Heh. I'm not lobbying to be an admin, but if I were an admin, I would call some sort of halt to it. I don't foresee either side converting its opponent.

I could be wrong, but I think the .... guy's central problem is with capitalism itself and he resents anything that he likes being tainted with it in any way. I respect that, but that's gotta be an awfully hard way to live your life. There a great many things that I do not like about capitalism, but I look at it like Churchill looked at democracy: "Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms t

Mine too. Had a bad night last night.

I'm not endorsing it, just stating a fact that has been proved by history on numerous occasions. Iraq, like Vietnam, was a mistake for the United States as we are not the kind of country that is willing to do the kinds of things that have to be done to pacify a hostile population.

1. Fuck you for making fun of fat people. 2. I think America was just not ready to pull the trigger on Bush in 2004. As a people, WE WANT TO BELIEVE.

You used to be nicer. - viachicago.org

On Baseball Complaints About Schedule Arrive on Time By MURRAY CHASS Earlier this month, Boston Red Sox fans were angry. All right, Red Sox fans can often get angry when anyone says anything they construe as negative about their team or positive about their team

I would ask your friend how does what happened in 1864-65 really affect him today? Other than giving him something to be pissed off about, which does have a certain objective value.

Well said. I wish I had a time machine.

To put down a rebellion, the civilian population has to be intimidated to a point where they no longer rebel. ("Fear is the beginning of wisdom.") And as the plight of the black people didn't really improve that much after the war and the white elites didn't seem to get all that poorer, I don't think the economic impact of emancipation was really that extensive. Not a great deal of wealth shifted. And it should be noted that nowhere in the north was as pro-Confederate as New York City, as that's where a lot of the cotton money flowed through.

"Urban Hymns" was an awesome album.

Hey man, those troops at Fort Sumter didn't fire on themselves.