Howl Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 One way wealth can be confiscated outright is to revalue the currency...Argentina and Turkey are the most recent revaluations. Italy could be next with the Lira as opposed to Euro. Mexico has been that route. The recent Turkish event entailed dividing by 1,000. Huh, did I miss anything? The conversion of the Lira into the Euro is 'irrevocable'. The Italian Lira does not exist anymore as a currency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 soup..........i always vote Libertarian.........but.........not this time.. in good conscious.........i feel i must go with Kerry...to do what i can to get rid of the psychotic ..nazi bastard....................................... HH...Feel the same way. Haven't voted for a winning president yet. McGovern, Perot, Dole, Gore, etc. Do I dare jinx Kerry by voting for him too? Got to, the alternative is too scary to think of. Starting to feel like the 1930's in Germany. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fxfox Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 I think capitalstool needs a theme song. Must be cool, nice, smart and sexy. I would suggest we take Isaac Hayes, "Theme from Shaft", the intro is very cool, funky and so, like the stool! Who's the black private dick That's a sex machine to all the chicks? STOOL! Ya damn right! Who is the man that would risk his neck For his brother man? STOOL! Can you dig it? Who's the cat that won't cop out When there's danger all about? STOOL! Right On! They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother SHUT YOUR MOUTH! I'm talkin' 'bout Stool. THEN WE CAN DIG IT! He's a complicated man But no one understands him but his woman DOCTOR STOOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Bush's Media Control Operations: As reporting on the lead-up to war, the war itself, and its aftermath vividly demonstrated, the US is now divided into a two-tiered media structure. The lower tier - niche publications, alternative media and Internet sites - hosts the broadest spectrum of viewpoints. Until the war effort began to unravel this spring, the upper tier - a relatively small number of major broadcast outlets, newspapers and magazines - had a far more limited bandwidth of critical views, regularly deferring to the Bush administration's vision of the world. Contrarian views below rarely bled upward. As Michael Massing pointed out recently in the New York Review of Books, Bush administration insinuations that critics were unpatriotic - then White House press secretary Ari Fleischer infamously warned reporters as war approached, "People had better watch what they say" - had an undeniably chilling effect on the media. But other forms of pressure also effectively inhibited the press. After the war began, for instance, Jim Wilkinson, a 32-year-old Texan who ran Centcom's coalition media center in Qatar, was, according to Massing, known to rebuke reporters whose copy was deemed insufficiently "supportive of the war", and "darkly warned one correspondent that he was on a 'list' along with two other reporters at his paper". In the play-along world of the Bush administration, critical reporting was a quick ticket to exile. What does this downgrading of the media's role say about how the US government views its citizens, the putative sovereigns of the country? It suggests that "we the people" are seen not as political constituencies conferring legitimacy on our rulers, but as consumers to be sold policy the way advertisers sell products. As the war in Iraq descended into a desert quagmire, the press belatedly appeared to awaken and adopt a more skeptical stance toward an already crumbling set of Bush administration policies. But if a bloody, expensive, catastrophic episode like the war in Iraq is necessary to remind us of the important role that the press plays in US democracy, something is gravely amiss in the way America's political system has come to function. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FG16Aa01.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brown Suguaro Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Jorma, ...."On the browser thing".... When everyone was converting to firefox, so did I. It's still installed, but like Butter's and others, I was having to learn a new song and dance and I'm just too old and lazy, and I get frustrated easily. It had my favorites all out of order, and a couple of other problems, and I just gave up. I only use my compuker to get on the internet, and don't have any important information on it, so I take my chances with the worms and viruses. I did get infected with the kak virus once, and spent a whole day getting it out. Like cancer, I don't know if I got it all or not. Now if someone were to sit down with me and hold my hand for a day while I learned, I would probably use it. B.S. I taught him everything he knows, and he still doesn't know anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howl Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Not really talking about economics, but a state of mind. Most of us admit that govt. programs were not able to do for the poor what Clinton did by full employment. The Arts are another 'don't get me started' story, so I won't go there. Those who say that any government is bad just don't want to pay any taxes. If these greedy scrooges have to pay one dime to keep some poor niggah alive, they are just outraged. The five most prosperous countries in the world are Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands (according to the UN development index). These are the countries which score best in life expectancy, education and standard of living. All these countries have huge social spending programs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Sherlock It's the weekend (weak end?). Wanna do some off topic discussion about survival in the meltdown. Since you mentioned it, I've been thinking about it. You could write a book on how to survive the coming ________, well, we need to talk about posible scenarios of what's coming, and what it will take to survive them. I think the first thing it will take is toilet paper. Where you gonna get that when things go south? With all the good minds here at the Stool, we might get your Ph'd yet. B.S. Brown Sugar, you are right on with the idea that being prepared requires some strategies. Under what conditions, what will I need, what is essential? Hypertiger got to me with his worst case scenario! So I have been studying this. Coincidentally (?), History and Discovery channels have been running programs on the great wonders of modern technology and historical evolution of various industries. Without power/energy, most of the civilized world is out of business. I had not fully realized how automated technology had replaced manual labor. I watched "Jeremiah Johnson", a movie about survival of a mountain man. Jeremiah killed the indians who attacked him, but was peaceful with the rest. I also found some websites that provide info on the survival subject. First, you MUST be fully aware of "What kind of person am I?" Honestly assess what you would or would not do in order for personal/family survival. Fantasy and Bravado don't count. For me, it would be very difficult for me to kill another human being. That means that my abhorence of violence could get in the way of my survival. As a child, I learned to use guns because hunting helped provide food for the family. My Dad and my uncles took me hunting when I was only 6 yrs old, even though I was "only a girl." I am a good marksman. Yet one night, years ago, I sat in my bedroom with a .38 aimed at the doorway, expecting an intruding person who had beaten up on me earlier in the evening. Police said "Family Dispute", no problemo! As I sat there, I realized that my hesitation about killing someone would enable him to overpower me and thus my .38 would be taken away from me leaving me powerless. I cite this only to say that until we are tested, the ideas we have about what we might do are just fantasy. On the other hand, if someone attacked my child or my grandchild, they are dead in a heart beat!! Just my own idiosyncracy. Perhaps my resolution for this issue is to find a partner that is more aggessive than me. LOL Second, you have to ask "Who will help me survive?" This is important because self-interest will override everything else for all of us. Most people will think first of families, but do not accept that some family members will even betray them. (This is also key to why newcomers to a foreign land will not get support.) Having identified such people, you need to develop a survival plan with them. Shared resources and mutual plans of what to do, where to go, what to store are needed. I have been unsuccessful in doing this with my kids because they think I am a conspiracy theorist and an alarmist. But I will survive, with or without them. hehehehe Third, you need to examine what it actually takes for you to live day to day under adverse circumstances, for what length of time, and for what cost. Be HONEST. My baseline is growing up in a remote farming area without electricity or running water. The only thing running was me with water buckets from the well and coal buckets from the basement to fuel the cookstove. Saturday night baths were the norm while growing and canning enough food for the winter was essential. My second baseline comes from the electic outage last summer. No stores were open, no gas stations, no banks, no ATM machines, etc. Even the water systems were shut down because of electrical pumps. The big clue here is that what you had in your house at the time was the BOTTOM LINE! I did not have a generator, so I lost all refrigerated and frozen foods. argggggh! I didn't have bottled water. But my supply of food in cans and jars remained intact. (HINT) As Hypertiger has stated, the idea is to be able to sustain yourself/family for at least six months until you get your head straight on what the heck is happening and make further decisions. Without electricity (oil/NG) what will you do? How will you cook and stay warm? My fireplace is convertible from NG to wood. But I have stored no wood. Most people just "go with the flow" and never consider how much food/water it actually takes to feed a family. Hyipertiger suggested 365 cans of beef stew per person for a year. Simplistic but realistic. Fourth, you need to get beyond the thinking stage and actually do something! Look at your habits for clues. Do you drink alcohol, coffee or use tobacco? Oh, well, there are some items that wont be available except for black market prices. Fresh Meat is another item that wont be readily available. Enjoy your steaks while you can. Realize that you will be changing from your current dietary habits and your body will not like that. Your body will react violently, in fact. Vegans will have it over the rest of us meat-eating carnivores. I do not own land capable of producing crops. I dont have a horse and plows and other required equipment which my ancestors had a century ago. I do not know how to dig a well to provide water. I dont know how to dig an "Outhouse". All I have is my 3 BR, 2.5 bath, suburban home with some space to garden a few things and all the conveniences of the modern age, Central Air, Ng Heating, appliances up the ying ying... Thus, I am trapped! I think that the smart thing would be to live near an Amish or Mennonite community because they still rely on "the old ways" and know how to survive outside of modern (oil-driven) ways. They will still be producing FOOD!. Yeah, Brown Sugar, maybe I SHOULD write a book! Whadda ya think? Sherlock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 One way wealth can be confiscated outright is to revalue the currency...Argentina and Turkey are the most recent revaluations. Italy could be next with the Lira as opposed to Euro. Mexico has been that route. The recent Turkish event entailed dividing by 1,000. Huh, did I miss anything? The conversion of the Lira into the Euro is 'irrevocable'. The Italian Lira does not exist anymore as a currency. Haven't Checked Italian Lira recently nor the Spanish Pesata. I knew these were to change . Didn't know when. Both the lira and Pesata, before the Euro, could have been easily divided by 100. But then so could the dollar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Iran court told Canadian was tortured to death 17 Jul 2004 17:35:18 GMT By Parisa Hafezi TEHRAN, July 17 (Reuters) - Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi was tortured to death in Iranian custody, her tearful mother told a court on Saturday when the trial resumed of an intelligence agent accused of the killing. "There were burns on my daughter's chest, her fingers and toes and nose were broken ... she was tortured to death," Ezzat Kazemi told the court after a nine-month delay in proceedings. The case has strained Iran's relations with Canada, prompting Ottawa to withdraw its ambassador this week, and has exposed deep rifts between President Mohammad Khatami's reformist government and the hardline judiciary. The intelligence agent, Mohammad Reza Aqdam, has denied a charge of what the court calls the semi-intentional murder of Kazemi, a 54-year-old of Iranian descent who was arrested outside Tehran's Evin prison last July for taking photographs. The charge, lesser than murder or manslaughter, carries a possible penalty of up to three years in jail and the payment of blood money to the victim's family. The judiciary initially said Kazemi died of a stroke, but a government inquiry ordered by Khatami showed she received a heavy blow which split her skull, causing a brain haemorrhage. She died in hospital 10 days after lapsing into a coma. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HAF755277.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brown Suguaro Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Yobob, On government spending. There will always be government spending, so to take some of it and spend it on public arts projects and other welfare programs is OK by me. Think of the other "welfare" programs that have more political clout such as the military and farm subsidies, and the ammount spent on the poor is miniscule in my opinion. What would be interesting to see would be the percentage of a persons annual income that goes to taxes in say 10 different countries and a pie chart for each county showing where it was spent - not that you could trust the numbers from the government including the time and temperature. I know right now that Americas pie for the military is way to large, and I don't even have a source. B.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brown Suguaro Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Tanks Hiding Bear for the information on bank cash transactions. B.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brown Suguaro Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Yeah, Doc. I'm afraid Clinton got too full of himself, and not only hurt his family, but hurt the nation. He knew the Repukes were gunning for him. Why couldn't he have behaved himself? I feel confident we would not have Bushco now if he had. And I feel the Repukes will be responsible for America coming down. They're sure trying. B.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ned38 Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 I vote for Butter and Howl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiHat Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Technically Speaking Six Top anal cysts Address Each Other? And This #%@! Trading Range The trading range drags on. The participants in this roundtable aren?t particularly surprised. Whether bull or bear, none expects the market to break free for a while yet. Still, it wasn?t hard to stir up disagreement when I placed a conference call connecting six of the sharpest technical minds extant, back on June 30. Which way will it finally break and what does it mean? Read on, and take your pick. KMW http://www.weedenco.com/welling/liframe.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Yeah, Doc. I'm afraid Clinton got too full of himself, and not only hurt his family, but hurt the nation. He knew the Repukes were gunning for him. Why couldn't he have behaved himself? I feel confident we would not have Bushco now if he had. And I feel the Repukes will be responsible for America coming down. They're sure trying. B.S. Without Clintons antics, we would have Gore with Lieberman pulling his strings. Lieberman is so far in the neocon camp that we'd probably already be in Iran and possibly Syria too by now. So far at least, Kerry/Edwards appears less likely to start WWIII but who the hell knows. Desperate men and all that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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