Comments on: Unseen

By: The Psychology of Transcending the Here and Now « Humanitarian Futures Programme

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:53:38 +0000

[...] different.

By: Bob Murphy

Bob Murphy — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:44:03 +0000

91. Ursus Maritimus:
“The ease with which Hannibal won battles against Rome, again and again, even without Roman ‘allies’ defecting to him.
Combine these two factor and Rome folds like a house of cards.”
The bottom line is that Hannibal did not get the backing he begged Carthage’s government for, even after his brilliant military victories against Rome.
They failed to support him, his victories were for naught, and in the end the Romans buried Carthage. Utterly destroyed it.

By: Bob Murphy

Bob Murphy — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 04:23:04 +0000

I meant Germany’s choices were stark.

By: Bob Murphy

Bob Murphy — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 04:21:57 +0000

@Slade
re Monster at the bottom of the Abyss.
I disagree with that columns assertions.
Germany, for instance, was not “trapped in the Cold War”. It’s choices were start with Soviet occupation of part of Germany and all of Eastern Europe and barbed wire all along the border.
And the Cold War was not, as the column said, it was between the Communist Soviet Union and the rest of the world.
If Germany comes to an understanding with Russia and turns it back on the West will we then see a carving up of the countries caught between them as those same two nations did with Poland before WWII?
Or will we see NATO’s focus shift East to those countries who have had a taste of Russian domination and are still willing to defend themselves and their cultures against aggressors?
The columnist says, “Russia looks at the collapse of the United States and sees an opportunity”. Rubbish. Not since the demand for and price of oil has collapsed. The Russian economy is basically one legged and it is going to fall over if they cannot manufacture a supply crisis that jacks the price back up.
Nice title. I like the notion. But Upper Volta with missiles is still a walking deadman.

By: Ursus Maritimus

Ursus Maritimus — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:47:59 +0000

The Conquistadors against the Aztecs is like Hannibal against Rome, but during the Social War.

The ease with which Roman ‘allies’ defected during the Social War, even without any charismatic General to lead the opposition against Rome, or even a hope of winning single battles against Rome.
The ease with which Hannibal won battles against Rome, again and again, even without Roman ‘allies’ defecting to him.

Combine these two factor and Rome folds like a house of cards.

By: Pascal

Pascal — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:57:34 +0000

Every time I hear someone say that RINOs lack spine I know I am hearing someone who has received the accepted wisdom and has not confronted one.

Unseen.

Go up and introduce yourself and you’ll meet the kindest of ol’ gents, the sweetest of ol’ gals.

Ask what they know of the loathsome,
known by every C student and then some,
and you’ll hear
“[Smiles] Why no, I never knew.
[starts to turn] Send a note for my view. [over the shoulder, raised eyebrow, hooded lid] So nice to have met you.”

You catch up to the shirker,
who turns to face the lurker [ingenue gaze],
“How come you don’t fight back?”
Some teeth while arches back,
[snarls]“be gone you lowly worker.”

Tails of the RINO

By: Unsk

Unsk — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:40:55 +0000

Mc Cain raised the white flag yesterday for all to see; he surrendered completely. We of course, should not bring up Wright, Khalidi, Resko, Auchi and all the rest. How could we? That would be against the Senate rules of hospitality to the Democrats. We knew all along the Mc Cain would be a conscientious objector all along in the fight against the Obama led leftist/marxist takeover of our government. We just been teased to hope that he would really fight.

Like the Fannie/Freddie fraud, the takeover will be largely hidden from view. Here in Southern California, where functioning republican democracy has largely been erased by the leftists, the media hardly ever reports critical local political debates or events. Instead, the public is tranquilized with wall to wall coverage of celebrity gossip, fashion events, sex scandals and sports. The public is led to believe it still has some control over events, when it really doesn’t .

So it will be with the Obama Administration. Through the return of the Fairness Doctrine, Campaign finance reforms applied to the internet, and other means, effective public debate and dissent will be so muffled as to erase it from public view. Then the takeover will begin. Constitutional rights will be reinterpreted one by one, with little public debate in the fine print of many a high minded sounding Congressional bill that the Media will trumpet as absolutely right and necessary. The takeover will be over before we know it. Right before our eyes, through thousands of innocuous sounding regulations, our behavior will be so constrained to the point that resistance will be futile. There will be no Civil War. It’s hard to galvanize resistance to thousands of arcane sounding regulations that appear on the surface to be innocuous mush.

By: Wadeusaf

Wadeusaf — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:43:49 +0000

So this is the same chain store that wants to sell health care, right? Ugh!

Farce for the Sleaze…Hummmn. Farce for the Sleaze…,
…Crash Cart to Check out lane 12.

By: buddy larsen

buddy larsen — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:08:03 +0000

PS, in the imagined version, the chainstore has shareholders (that’d be us citizens) who had been ripped off by two distinctly different sorts of malefactors –(1) the manager and any accomplices actually harvesting the hot cash, and (2) those who knew what was going on but were too scared of the cash guys to do anything much more than utter a CYA pro-forma murmer from time to time about vague irregularities happening at the store. The former are ever so much guiltier than the latter, but –how can you ever again let the latter run the store?

By: buddy larsen

buddy larsen — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:52:21 +0000

There’s a story about a grocery chain that had a long-term and very serious inventory theft problem at one of its stores. Nobody could catch it –even plainclothes cops wandering around shopping all day. Finally one day the longtime manager disappeared, left the country for parts unknown. That’s about when someone finally noticed there weren’t ten checkout stations as per design & accounting, but eleven –the 11th identical to the others and busily transacting, but generating no records. The cash had been going into the pockets of that suddenly-disappeared manager, natch.

F&F reminds me of that 11th checkout counter, with the difference that upper management knew about it along, but didn’t want to be branded as racist homophobes by that store manager, and so just looked the other way and hoped and hoped that not too too many folks would choose that checkout line.