Thread: Why our enemies -- and friends -- hate us

Beatles are undercover agents of India!

They ruined western civilisation with all the mysticism of the Orient learnt from the levitating Guru, Maharishi.

My sweet lord
Hm, my lord
Hm, my lord

I really want to see you
Really want to be with you
Really want to see you lord
But it takes so long, my lord

My sweet lord
Hm, my lord
Hm, my lord

I really want to know you
Really want to go with you
Really want to show you lord
That it won't take long, my lord (hallelujah)

My sweet lord (hallelujah)
Hm, my lord (hallelujah)
My sweet lord (hallelujah)

I really want to see you
Really want to see you
Really want to see you, lord
Really want to see you, lord
But it takes so long, my lord (hallelujah)

My sweet lord (hallelujah)
Hm, my lord (hallelujah)
My, my, my lord (hallelujah)

I really want to know you (hallelujah)
Really want to go with you (hallelujah)
Really want to show you lord (aaah)
That it won't take long, my lord (hallelujah)

Hmm (hallelujah)
My sweet lord (hallelujah)
My, my, lord (hallelujah)

Hm, my lord (hare krishna)
My, my, my lord (hare krishna)
Oh hm, my sweet lord (krishna, krishna)
Oh-uuh-uh (hare hare)

Now, I really want to see you (hare rama)
Really want to be with you (hare rama)
Really want to see you lord (aaah)
But it takes so long, my lord (hallelujah)

Hm, my lord (hallelujah)
My, my, my lord (hare krishna)
My sweet lord (hare krishna)
My sweet lord (krishna krishna)
My lord (hare hare)
Hm, hm (Gurur Brahma)
Hm, hm (Gurur Vishnu)
Hm, hm (Gurur Devo)
Hm, hm (Maheshwara)
My sweet lord (Gurur Sakshaat)
My sweet lord (Parabrahma)
My, my, my lord (Tasmayi Shree)
My, my, my, my lord (Guruve Namaha)
My sweet lord (Hare Rama)

[fade:]

(hare krishna)
My sweet lord (hare krishna)
My sweet lord (krishna krishna)
My lord (hare hare)

Originally Posted by Ray

One wonders why only these!

I have a lot of acquaintances, but only a few that I count as friends. I'd rather have a few good friends than a bunch of fair-weather ones that only call me when they need help moving.

There are others that we are particular to- the list is long; Japan, Poland, Germany, Mexico, Costa Rica, the Bahamas, the Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, to name a few. I'm sure I am overlooking some others as well.

I would say we have friends on every continent, in spite of what we read here every day on WAB about us "Evil Americans".

But not too many that rise to the same level of friendship as the ones I mentioned intially, and that's okay too. I am not particularly interested in trying to please all the people all the time...

Originally Posted by highsea

I'd rather have a few good friends than a bunch of fair-weather ones that only call me when they need help moving.

Isn't it funny that once we bought trucks, we've got friends coming out of the woodwork? And lending the truck ain't good enough. They need your muscles too.

In one case, this "friend" did not want me and my engineers to walk on her hardwood floor and gave us "socks" to wear. I hope our boots didn't leave permenant marks.

Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers

Isn't it funny that once we bought trucks, we've got friends coming out of the woodwork? And lending the truck ain't good enough. They need your muscles too.

I had a "friend" come into a restaurant and interrupt my breakfast with my girlfriend one day. He wanted help moving a big metal sign to his house.

I tossed him the keys to my new Expedition, told him to bring it back when he was done. I would stay and finish my breakfast. I expected that he would fold down the rear seat and put the sign in the back (like any sane person), right?

Naturally, the f*cking idiot put the damn sign in the back seat and tore hell out of the leather door panel in the process.

$340.00 for a new door panel, of which he paid exactly nothing. Apparently it was my fault for not telling him to put the sign in the cargo area!

[QUOTE=highsea;357430]

$340.00 for a new door panel, of which he paid exactly nothing. Apparently it was my fault for not telling him to put the sign in the cargo area![/

QUOTE]

So Highsea how is he getting on in that wheelchair now ?

Originally Posted by highsea

I had a "friend" come into a restaurant and interrupt my breakfast with my girlfriend one day. He wanted help moving a big metal sign to his house.

I tossed him the keys to my new Expedition, told him to bring it back when he was done. I would stay and finish my breakfast. I expected that he would fold down the rear seat and put the sign in the back (like any sane person), right?

Naturally, the f*cking idiot put the damn sign in the back seat and tore hell out of the leather door panel in the process.

$340.00 for a new door panel, of which he paid exactly nothing. Apparently it was my fault for not telling him to put the sign in the cargo area!

It never ceases to astound me how many people have IQs starting with a decimal point

Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers

Isn't it funny that once we bought trucks, we've got friends coming out of the woodwork? And lending the truck ain't good enough. They need your muscles too.

That's why I make an effort not to buy a truck, and get to know as many "friends" with trucks as possible.

Originally Posted by astralis

major dad,

the market will correct itself in that regards. so corn prices have gone up. good. that means farmers will start producing more corn, and hopefully we can get rid of those wasteful subsidies to farmers to get them to STOP producing corn...

The government doesn't just subsidise farmers not to produce corn, it also buys enormous quantities of corn, amoung other things, to keep the price high. It then re-distributes this as food aid all over the world. As our domestic demand increases (for use as fuel, not food) this practice is also going to become unsustainable, and the rest of the world is going to get a lot hungrier. And we will, of course, be excoriated for selfishly placing our own decadent Western lifestyle above our "responsibilities as the worlds only super-power" to take care of the worlds poor, hungry oppressed, etc. etc. Or some such bullsh!t. In fact, it already starting. Note the last two paragraphs:

Biofuel demand makes food expensive

Commodity prices are rising in line with demand for ethanol

The corn trading pit of the Chicago Board of Trade is an extraordinary place.

People yell orders and give frantic hand signals to seal their bargains.

The traders wear garish jackets, so that someone across the floor will know who he or she is dealing with.

The latest prices of consignments of corn for future delivery are displayed on giant electronic boards along the walls.

And, although the price fluctuates minute by minute, over the last year wholesale corn prices have roughly doubled.

The reason for the surging price is increasing demand from refineries that are buying corn - or maize as it is sometimes called - to turn it into ethanol.

The ethanol is then blended with conventional fuels for use in ordinary cars.

"We are using 20% of our corn for ethanol," says Roy Huckabay, executive vice president of the Linn Group, which advises commodity investors.

"When the energy markets went bananas over the last year, the value of corn as an energy source sky-rocketed."

The US Government is promoting the use of ethanol with subsidies.

At the coffee-shop people were talking about doctors quitting and taking up farming

And President George W Bush has set ambitious targets for increasing the use of bio-fuels in future.

Ethanol produces lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fossil fuels.

But many observers think that the big attraction of bio-fuels for the Bush administration is that they will reduce America's dependence on imported oil.

The policy is also making some American farmers very happy.

Sam Martin manages 19,000 acres of land, mainly in Illinois.

He has always used some of the land to grow corn, but is now adding to the area that will be seeded with corn this spring.

"2007 should be a wonderful year," he says with an optimism uncharacteristic of the often hard-pressed farming community.

"At the coffee-shop people were talking about doctors quitting and taking up farming."

But the impact of soaring corn prices on consumers is likely to be less beneficial.

Corn is used directly by the food industry in things like corn flakes.

It is also widely used for feeding animals like pigs and chickens.

And food companies are warning that high corn prices will feed through to everyone's grocery bills.

In Mexico, there have been street demonstrations about the rising cost of tortillas, which are made from corn.

And rising food costs are unlikely to be the only impact of biofuel refineries buying into the corn market.

In places like Illinois, the price of agricultural land has started to rise.

That will eventually feed into the cost of other agricultural commodities.

Sam Martin puts it succinctly.

"I think that cheap food is history," he says.

This trade-off between greener fuels and higher food prices is one of several difficult issues thrown up by the rapid development of the biofuels industry.

The world has already witnessed the absurdity of virgin rainforests in Asia being torn down to make way for palm oil plantations.

Palm oil, like corn, has become hugely profitable because of demand from biofuel producers.

But the environmental benefits of the biofuels are outweighed by the loss of the rainforests.

Biofuels can make a contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

But the processes by which they are produced need to be kept under constant review to make sure that they do not have perverse consequences.

And that includes forcing up the price of essential foods

BBC NEWS | Business | Biofuel demand makes food expensive