Messages

I've started only buying collected US comics too.  It seems such a waste of money when you have half a run of some series or other.  Plus they're far easier to read in bed, and to demonstrate to people why they are at least as good as the 'proper' books they are reading.

Bartlett

+" for the whole plot to work Chopper has to act like an idiot."

+Perhaps he is?

He probably is.  But an ambitious, inventive one.  He began life as a juvenile delinquent, and then he was a daredevil sky-surfer, and the height of his stupidity was a sky-surf across the Cursed Earth and the Pacific Ocean to risk his life still further in a surfing contest.

Ambitious, heroic, but still not too bright.  Just because he's got away with those risks doesn't mean he took the right decision in taking them.  

I hope not - this story would seem to be a pretty low-key way to go out.  It feels a bit light - which is not to say it isn't fun, but it'd be a shame to lose an iconic character in an otherwise unmemorable story.

Well, I'd be interested in seeing a Mills scripted Balkans story, but I doubt that Tharg would go for it.  Who knows, with Mills' connections with European publishers it might be something that he could find a market for.

WAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

AIIIEEEEE!  As we know from Darkie's Mob, this is the Japanese for ARRRGHHHHH!

Well, if it is just a recording, I'd make copy after copy after copy and get me fitted into all the household appliances, I could find.  And I'd do it while I was still alive.

Off course, what you must appreciate Will, is that capitalism is in opposition to democracy.  Democracy is generally taken to mean the people debating questions, and the agenda of quenstions, and coming to a decision on the future path of their society.  Capitalism, in its pure form, removes economics from this equation, handing power to organisations, people and the invisible hand, leaving a hollow democracy, trumped by capital at every turn.  Now, some capitalists argue that the invisible hand is democracy, but I'm with Norman Mailer on this one.  If democracy is the highest form of government that we can aspire to, then it must be more than mob rule.  It must be consciously and continually striven for.  

I also seems perfectly logical that the more egalitarian a society, the more democratic a society is, as it levels out the power of different people's voices, asking us to look more at the content of their argument than at the amount of cash they can back it with.  If, though, as Ayn Rand you equate the rich with the 'good' then I can only ask if you really belive that a businessman who is successful at smashing unions and driving down wages, rather than one who accepts lower profits for a greater degree of internal egalitarianism and democracy, is the person you want running the country.

As you seem obsessed with handing power to the wealthy, I fail to see how you can defend torture, rape, murder and war in the toppling of governments by arguing that it is in the name of democracy.

Will, we haven't been talking about whether you would support the overthrow of a British Stalin or British Mao.  We have been talking about whether you would see your neighbours raped by dogs to terrorise a population out of supporting a British Allende.  What troubles me is not that you would swap one dictator for another, though I struggle to see why you prefer the fascist.  It is that you prefer the brutal fascist dictator, and all that entails, to the democractic socialist.  This is Reagan's legacy.  He did not defeat Mao.  He did not topple Stalin.  He toppled left-wing democracies and murdered thousands of people.  He maintained dictatorships that he could do business with, he supported Apartheid because the ANC were Marxists.  The choice you hughlight to defend Reagan, and American actions in the 1980s, is utterly spurious.

And remember what this great man said about AIDS.  'Those who live in sin, die in sin.'  He was a complete and utter...  

Des Loyall

I had never realised, though I should have guessed, that Reagan was such a strong supporter of Aparthied South Africa.

And yet, as an example of why his legacy needs strongly critical attention now, I have seen people on Fox News talking about how he was an incredibly pro-civil rights president (despite the fact that was why he left the Democratic Party), and, as always, a friend of freedom the world over.

If these atrocities are justifiable in the name of freedom, atrocities against freedom by the way, the why are atrocities against freedom in the name of equality, or universal health care, or common ownership of property so evil.  At least the second sort don't run counter to logic.

Yes, but what would your 'traitor name' be?

I'd claim a posh background and re-emerge, a member of the bloated Marxist bureaucracy.

Andrew Turner-Coatson

"Don't leave me this way", he screamed in his high-pitched pinko voice, kneecaps shattered by Will Savage's double-barrelled shootah.  

Will@... has written that he supported American covert actions in Latin America.  Now, there is two conclusions that we can draw from this.  [1] that Will@... would have supported the same actions in Britain if an Allende-like figure was elected.  This means a military coup, death-squads, internment, torture and the like, all in the name of someone elses freedom.  All to, paraphrasing Thatcher, to make Britain a good place to do business.  [2] that Wills@... would have recoiled in horror at the prospect of such brutality being unleashed on British people.  McWhirter would not be his Pinochet.

Now, if the answer is [1] then he'd probably chuck me out of a helicopter into the North Sea.  I'd be insulted if he didn't disappear me.

While [1] is  pretty nasty option, [2] is worse.  [2] is exactly how many Americans were able to support their government abroad.  The justifications for this stance range from racism to simple nationalistic exceptionalism.  As long as these attitudes remain, and indeed, are joyfully embraced, we will murder people who speak different languages, torture people from different cultures and disappear those of a different colour.  

We might always keep doing this, true, but a policeman will not solve every crime, a doctor will not cure every patient and I would hope that while we might never eradicate the irrationalisms and inhumanity or war, torture and oppression, intelligent people would work as if this was their end.

p.s. I am well aware that Pinochet was not aided into power during Reagan's presidency.  The role of the USA in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and the like is equally shocking, and much of it did take place on Reagan's watch.  But it is more obscure, and attempting to use these would have needed a much longer post.  I try everybody's patience as it is...

Bartlett

Has anyone else been to the 'Hall of Presidents' in Disneyworld/land?