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BAAAAAAANNNNNNNNZZZZAAAAAIIIIII

Epop Bastart the Justified, I

16:19 / 03.11.04

Hey... let me just say:

"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

http://www.metalvortex.com/poems/the_third_man_quote.htm

In the sixties, when the back was to the wall, and the situation grim, the political wing and the magical/spiritual/psychedelic wing split: Abbie Hoffman on one side, and Tim Leary on the other.

That was no way to run a revolution. This time, let's try and keep everybody on the same page.

Seriously. We've got the ugly foreign war, the dark president, the horror of losing when the light and dark seem so obvious...

It's the 60s all over again, right down to our own personal vietnam. Gulf War Syndrome == Agent Orange... the parallels are countless.

Both sides have learned: the Archetype Of The Burner is a lot faster, sleeker and more powerful than the Hippie was, but the Demographically Manipulative Republican is a lot more evil.

Grudge match. This isn't your parent's war for reality.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

07:24 / 05.11.04

Oh for God's sake. That has to be one of the stupidest and most persistent pieces of nonsense ever. Inventions from Switzerland include:

Movies with sound

Velcro and Cellophane

The World Wide Web

The Lokomat robot which teaches stroke victims and others to walk again.

In fact, Switzerland's universities have trained some of the most inventive minds, from Einstein to semiconductor pioneer, Jean Hoerni. Its professors gave the world Bernoulli Numbers and one of the first supercomputers.

Switzerland's industrial research labs have spawned liquid crystal display (LCD) technology, the lab-on-a chip, the scanning tunnelling microscope, which revealed matter on the atomic scale for the first time ever, and superconductivity.

Its policy of accepting political and religious refugees over the past four hundred years has made its green valleys and lakeshores home to many others, including the inventor of sonar technology.

Get a clue.

08:33 / 05.11.04

Both sides have learned: the Archetype Of The Burner is a lot faster, sleeker and more powerful than the Hippie was, but the Demographically Manipulative Republican is a lot more evil.

Bloody shame the former haven't decided to turn up yet though, isn't it? Recent events would tend to suggest that the majority of our crazy, fired up new generation couldn't give a fuck.

Oh, and I'm generally of the opinion that wantonly drawing tenuous comparisons between the present day and previous decades is an addictive, unhealthy and generally pointless habit which it's better to avoid.

Starting a manifesto for future progress with "hey guys, it's just like 40 years ago, how cool is that?" is, well, kinda missing the point a bit y'know?

Apologies for being negative, but that's the way it goes.

13:35 / 05.11.04

Second Spin - it's a quote from the Third Man - great soundtrack.

The 60's was a deomocratic age, in terms of the US president, so perhaps we should just forget the whole Demon in the White House thing - they're all pretty much a sameness, Clinton = Bosnia etc - it's all a bit of a nothingness though, a rallying call for more voters led to Bush winning the popular vote, remember...

13:50 / 05.11.04

Benny the Ball - I think Second Spin just might know that.

And on the Sixties... did *we* really have our "backs to the wall"? In what way, exactly? Unless you were sitting around with a droopy moustache and wearing a headband, plotting with your chums to put acid in the water supply, or were living in fear of being sent to Vietnam, just how was the Sixties a time of *actual* revolution more than the Seventies, Eighties or Nineties? Sure, there was a lot of "revolution in the head" but how much actual real change was there effected for ordinary people?

Not sure how old you are, Muppet, but maybe you should go and ask that question to your dad.

13:59 / 05.11.04

I believe Second Spin is capable of figuring out it's a third man quote from this bit: "the_third_man_quote.htm"

So this is supposed to be a more positive, rallying sort of counterpart to the not enough vodka thread? Sounds great. What kind of ideas have people got, aside from talking shit about the Swiss and bringing up hippies?

One thing that's been suggested is that it might be effective to try to find somebody people would want to vote for, rather than merely against. Kucinich, H. Clinton, and Obama are all names that have been tossed around. Any others on the horizon?

Anybody know of some rising stars in your area that might have potential? Anyone you're excited about who's doing things on a smaller, local level?

Another tack to take is building a Base of our own. What kinds of things might appeal to people in rural areas, whose vote seems to be having a significant effect? Abortion, gay marriage, war, etc. are issues that drive them quickly to the other side. What are our strengths? We must make all thier base belong to us.

Please note that I've reversed the vowels in 'their' deliberately.

14:01 / 05.11.04

Shucks, Sax, I know that, I'm just pissed because he forgot to mention Toblerone!

14:01 / 05.11.04

Mmmmmmm, Toblerone;

http://www.toblerone.com/

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:27 / 05.11.04

Amyway, I couldn't have invented the cuckoo clock. Could you? People are always so down on cuckoo clocks. I think it's kinda sad.

14:36 / 05.11.04

Cuckoo clocks are o.k, but they're not as good as those little weather houses where the man comes out if it's rainy and the woman comes out if it's sunny. Though of course they perpetuate gender stereotypes, so they're ideologically unsound, especially compared with a cuckoo clock.
Also the Swiss have the Swiss guard. They're cool as well.

14:50 / 05.11.04

The Vatican and the Pope has the Swiss Guard - and most of them are from East Europe.

They always reminded me of the Emperor's personal guards in Return of the Jedi - dressed oddly, didn't seem to do anything, but gave off the impression that they could really hurt you if they wanted.

15:07 / 05.11.04

The pope and the vatican have the benefit of them, but they are in fact swiss. The website is here. Still I agree, they do look cool.

15:24 / 05.11.04

Nice site.

I read a feature about them in the Times about a year ago, and was sure that it said that the Swiss requirement had been dropped and they basically had a bunch of merc's doing the Pope's bidding...

Epop Bastart the Justified, I

05:09 / 06.11.04

Sax - yes, we did have our backs to the wall. It was called The Draft, you may remember reading something about it?

17:37 / 06.11.04

Ah, you're talking about a different *we*, see. Round these parts it was all Mackeson's and strikes and wondering whether the Beatles were going to impregnate all the young girls in the country.

at the scarwash

18:14 / 06.11.04

I don't think Wells really meant any harm towards the Swiss with that line. I think he just thought it was cool. Did Graham Green write that, or is it one of his improvised fluorishes?

20:13 / 06.11.04

Whatever.

Scotland invented large portions of the modern world, despite being mildly harassed by a govt. in Westminster that was largely not voted for here.

And, what?

unheimlich manoeuvre

00:01 / 07.11.04

and the great Scottish thinkers like David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Reid and Adam Ferguson.

...

makes me wonder if "the worst brings out the best in people", as odious as it sounds.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

01:08 / 07.11.04

Hence the amazing leaps and bounds made by Cambodia under Pol Pot.

It's not quite that simple.

unheimlich manoeuvre

02:04 / 07.11.04

stoatie, yes you are so right...

note to self: think before posting, otherwise threadrot sets in.

...

damn, done it again.

14:37 / 08.11.04

I'll have an E please, Bob. Actually, better make that two.