Anyhow, glad you feel better and ready to join again. Everyone : Watch Atavar – shows how the natives can win….even though it is probably “wishful thinking” but maybe there are more humans like the pilot who stated “I did not sign up for this” – one cannot abandon hope!!!

As for the widget economy ha ha ha.. that isn t obviously working. Subsistence-ism sounds like a wonderful idea. Not applicable with the midgets called humans.. but definitely, lovely idea. If only people would HAVE TO grow their food for ONE YEAR they would stop being the disconnected ego inflated midgets who think that the world, ecosystem and economy revolves around Ombellico del Mondo, the allmighty HUMAN.

The EVOLVED HUMAN, that s a different story. I do not claim to be one, but I think I came to know how to spot one. That s why I m here. Learning from evolved humans, who think beyond their nose length.

Your worry is very relevant, Jeannie. Force should only be legitim in the matter of defence ( when a country is invaded).
A regime having violence / force as a building stone, it’s deemed to fail, or it will inevitable before or later confuse offence with defence, visa versa.

An army IS the quintessence of force=violence=death=destruction.

The only force I think is acceptable in a decent society is a baton etc. used by authorities, police etc.

In a community founded on the rule of law, no matter how abominable and murderous 9/11 was, it should NEVER have been leaved to be solved by the military might – neither should a chance of goverment.

I tend to believe that for people to have a steady and decent goverment it have to elect it, it self (by majority), after a mature consideration based on honest and genuine information.
and if it fail to do that it may seem not to deserve a such.
Although it looks, for me, like the American people do not really have a fair choice.

If the current crop of manipulators are deposed, certainly another group of lowlife will line up to take their place. It would need the involvement of all thinking people to keep them away from the levers of power!

Coco, I watched Obomber at his news conference this morning as he tried to con the world that the U.S. was a big player in the almost worthless agreement that will be voted on later today. He looked what he is: a snake oil salesman!

Kathy, neither communism or capitalism in their pure form are workable. The former turns the sheeple into ambitionless clones while the latter turn them into greedy pigs! If we take a combination of the better aspects of communism and capitalism and combine it with a lifestyle that embraces nature and our place in it, that would seem to be the best solution.

I’ve heard that the communist manifesto sounded good on paper but somehow didn’t work that well in real life. When I read the definition of capitalism it sounds good on paper too. If I understand it correctly I could decide to produce some kind of widget/product that I think people could benefit from. That makes me a capitalist. I build a building with my own money and I buy the machinery that I will need to build widgets. I hire 100 people and give them jobs. They did not have to pay for the building or the machinery but they are providing the labor to build these widgets which hopefully I will sell enough of to pay 100 paychecks, make enough to live on myself and recoup the costs of my machinery and building.

Just by itself I see nothing wrong with that idea. But then enters the real problem…GREED!! and POWER!! Now I decide I want to make more money so I cut the pay of my workers and ask them to work harder and faster to make more widgets. I see the problem with it and especially if my building is a big factory polluting the air and water. So how do we fix this problem?

Let’s pretend the widget is a hammer or something that many people find useful and there are no more hammer factories. Would you picture more of a local economy as for example every small local area has a hammer maker maybe like a black smith shop?

I just read an article about subsistence farming where families usually grow their own foods that they will need for the year and they do not try to grow extra to sell for a profit. So is that the kind of economy we need,,,, something like subsistence-ism?