The Political Thread

[The Legendary Shark]

Good point. In order to explore space we need a place to explore it from, and Earth would seem to be the logical choice. Maybe we should designate the whole planet as a spaceport...

[JOE SOAP]

I think not fucking up this planet is more essential to the long-term survival of humanity.

Yes, but as Proudhuff so rightly says, that does not preclude space exploration.

It probably should preclude all else if our only intention is to pillage the universe the same way.

[Frank]

Some poor Australian spooks - possibly an entire section of them - have to read every single word Thryllseekr posts anywhere on the internet:

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/terror-laws-clear-senate-enabling-entire-australian-web-to-be-monitored-and-whistleblowers-to-be-jailed-20140926-10m8ih.html

[Professor Bear]

Now we have to encourage him.  And somehow get him onto the topic of terrorism and Australia's national defences.

Interesting that whistleblowers can now be jailed for admitting that Australia steals Aboriginal children to sell them to white families, but it's perfectly okay for me to say it.

[TordelBack]

I think not fucking up this planet is more essential to the long-term survival of humanity.

Medium term survival, certainly. 

[The Legendary Shark]

Even short term would be nice.

[Ancient Otter]

Funding space exploration would be a lot easier with publically created debt free money than with the currently used interest-bearing pretend money.
.
Just saying - fix money creation and suddenly a great many things become possible.

Charles Stross asked should we just massage the egos of the plutocrats and get them to cough up the cash.

[Richmond Clements]

Now we have to encourage him.  And somehow get him onto the topic of terrorism and Australia's national defences.

And how it relates to Slaine.

[Banners]

Here's one Conservative policy we can all support...

[Hawkmumbler]

[I, Cosh]

What do we make of the latest development in French diplomacy? The geopolitical equivalent of snorting derisively when the manky kid in your class tries to make up his own nickname and continuing to call him Jobby-breeks Brown.

[Frank]

What do we make of the latest development in French diplomacy? The geopolitical equivalent of snorting derisively when the manky kid in your class tries to make up his own nickname and continuing to call him Jobby-breeks Brown.

I had an overactive colon, okay? I would have called them something genuinely childish - like Fanny Face - but this is still a great idea. Who would have thought the French, of all people, would arrive at a solution which just involved being fantastically rude  ...

This isn't without precedent either; the North Vietnamese Army never referred to themselves as Viet-Cong, it was a label popularised by the US military and media - although the purpose in this case was to make the enemy sound more threatening. See also the sudden widespread adoption of the fairly recondite term insurgent when referring to groups in Iraq who would be described as rebels in most other circumstances. That sounds too much like they're Luke Skywalker, who only beheaded folk who really deserved it.

[Professor Bear]

I like "ISIS" because it makes them seem a bit like COBRA from the old GI Joe cartoons, some of whose whacky schemes involved raising ships from WW2 to use them against the modern US military, creating a heavy metal band to brainwash the population of America, stampeding dinosaurs towards their enemies, and announcing that they were annexing bits of existing desert countries to create their own whacky nation of bullshit laws that could only exist in the mind of a cartoon villain.
Still, if it annoys them to call them Daesh, why not?

[Professor Bear]

Noted murderer Dave Cameron wants to scrap Britain's commitment to the Human Rights Act, presumably because we don't need the safety net of redundant legislature seeing as Britain treats people so humanely, and not because David Cameron is a murderer:

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/27/britain-not-fear-eu-exit-culture-secretary-sajid-javid?CMP=twt_gu

[SuperSurfer]

... the North Vietnamese Army never referred to themselves as Viet-Cong, it was a label popularised by the US military and media - although the purpose in this case was to make the enemy sound more threatening.

Way I understand it, Viet Cong were not the North Vietnamese Army. The Viet Cong were insurgents in the south and the NVA the military from the north, all with a common cause of course.

BTW on that theme, this is a very good graphic novel. I bought it for about £3 from a now closed bookshop a couple of years ago.