They turn their back on young people

[Diogenes]

They are anchored until an economic crises of sufficient magnitude. When the Long Knives come out, the first victims are the weak.

2008 was that crisis. Everything since has been band aids, neosporin, and desperate prayers. Maybe they can paper over the bad kaka another 1-3 years.

Have you seen this?

I think a good term is "Useful Idiots."

I typed the same phrase, attributed it to Lenin, and then deleted it for civility's sake.

GMTA? I would expect most people in here to have thick enough skin to not get too worked up about stuff like that. I know i've been called some nasty stuff in the past, but it isn't what you are called, it's what you answer to that counts.

I expect the reverberations will crash the plaster-of-Paris repaired remnants of our fiscal house. The question is when.

I agree. You must have seen my "We are Dooooommmed! Dooooommmmed I say! " thread?

You are postulating a different dynamic at work. You may have a point.

There are a number of related metahistorical models. The four-generation version is the Strauss & Howe model.

This theory gives History a resemblance to a fractal, which I find reassuring as to it's likelihood of being correct. There are patterns in everything but which are not always easily discernible. It would be conspicuous if they were absent from History.

Anyways, on a separate but related issue, I have recently been thinking that the Sexual Revolution (which has caused so many societal problems afterward) was unavoidable.

The Consciousness Revolution is a close analogue to the Great Awakening of the 1730s, the Transcendental Awakening of the 1810s, and the Missionary Enthusiasm of c. 1890.

I think what I am referring to is more closely analogous to theGeorgian Era of England.

It occurred to me that it was not only pregnancy of which people were afraid, but of the possibility of contracting what were then FATAL sexual diseases. The advent of Penicillin, and later Sulfa drugs and subsequent antibiotics made it possible to cure diseases that were previously deadly and horrible.

So what were the effects of removing two different brake systems from the natural instinct of sexual intercourse? An explosion of what was previously very risky and dangerous behavior.

The biotech revolution isn't over. Not nearly. IMO it is only beginning its exponential growth phase on its logistic curve of development. I give it another 50 or 60 years before biotech plateus out like aerospace did in the '60s. Look for many more such disruptions. For instance, bills are already moving in the legislatures of two states (New Jersey and Kansas) to make genetic testing & paternity-assurance mandatory upon the birth of the child. Perfectly in line with the implications of current technology, as well as the complaints of men who found out they were cuckolded 15 years after the fact. It does however blow 10,000 years of legal assumptions out of the water - where motherhood has been unquestionable, but paternity a matter of opinion, and cheated-on hubbies have had the option to claim the "bastard" as their own for all of recorded history; either because they desperately want to be fathers, or because they are content to hide the shame of their cheating wives. Within the next two decades, not so much.

Yes, we are definitely sailing in uncharted waters. Some time back I saw speculation on Transgender Womb Transplants. I dare say someone is going to try it one day.

Societal norms, and traditional rules or morality are no match for natural instinct unencumbered by fear. Prior to removing the danger of irresponsible sex, the "SAFE" way to have sex was with a consistent partner who was known to be free of disease. I.E Marriage. Make it unnecessary and you end up with an explosion of fatherless bastards.

The Roman norms on marriage were far closer to "recognized cohabitation" than the religiously and legally sacralized form of marriage we still champion today. IOW - many settlements are functional, but any that utterly separate the father from authority and responsibility are not.

I don't dispute that new societal arrangements will occur, but I think they, like the "communes" will collapse. I think much of the Stability that was Rome, was the result of their paterfamilias based system.

[MSimon]

On this we are pretty much in agreement. I and others have long suspected that the Ruling class cares only that they rule, and have no fidelity to any ideological persuasion other than that they should rule the rest of us.

OK. You see that much. Excellent.

Now consider the Drug War as a Trojan Horse. The police State machinery has been set up and used against undesirables for years. And the Feds control it.

Think about WW2. We went from a 100,000 man Army to what? 8 million under Army control (leaving the Navy and the Marines to account for the rest) in about 4 years.

Now how long would it take to double or more the number of local police under Federal control? About 6 months if they do it at normal speed and 3 months if they cut corners.

Or suppose they end the Drug War and repurpose the police under Federal Control to fight "Domestic Terrorism". i.e. you and me. Every podunk town has a SWAT team. Currently aimed at serving Drug Warrants. Properly militarized by the Feds. Is that a good idea?

You have put a gun in the hand of your enemy. For now he is pointing it at some one else. What happens when he points it at you? At the least it will be inconvenient. Definitely bad for business.

It is not about Drugs (if it ever was), it is about Power and Control.

And we have something like 100 million fools who think (or once thought) that all the above was a good idea.

We had these devils to some extent caged and a whole bunch of people wanted to give that up to fight some "larger" menace. Idiots.

It all goes back to Franklin:

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Or if you like it in Latin:

Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium. How about you?

[MSimon]

After reading Dark Alliance, I started to study the extraordinary moneymaking business that DOJ and agencies like HUD had built in enforcement that really only made sense if in fact the government was entirely complicit in narcotics trafficking and related mortgage and mortgage securities fraud.

http://dunwalke.com/16_Financial_Coup_d-Etat.htm

Are you getting it yet?

[Diogenes]

On this we are pretty much in agreement. I and others have long suspected that the Ruling class cares only that they rule, and have no fidelity to any ideological persuasion other than that they should rule the rest of us.

OK. You see that much. Excellent.

Now consider the Drug War as a Trojan Horse. The police State machinery has been set up and used against undesirables for years. And the Feds control it.

Think about WW2. We went from a 100,000 man Army to what? 8 million under Army control (leaving the Navy and the Marines to account for the rest) in about 4 years.

Now how long would it take to double or more the number of local police under Federal control? About 6 months if they do it at normal speed and 3 months if they cut corners.

Or suppose they end the Drug War and repurpose the police under Federal Control to fight "Domestic Terrorism". i.e. you and me. Every podunk town has a SWAT team. Currently aimed at serving Drug Warrants. Properly militarized by the Feds. Is that a good idea?

You have put a gun in the hand of your enemy. For now he is pointing it at some one else. What happens when he points it at you? At the least it will be inconvenient. Definitely bad for business.

It is not about Drugs (if it ever was), it is about Power and Control.

And we have something like 100 million fools who think (or once thought) that all the above was a good idea.

We had these devils to some extent caged and a whole bunch of people wanted to give that up to fight some "larger" menace. Idiots.

It all goes back to Franklin:

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Or if you like it in Latin:

Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium. How about you?

The Axis powers were a threat in those days, and justified the creation of the behemoth which opposed them. The Axis powers were not just an excuse for Federal action, they represented a real threat.

In the same manner, I regard the spread of addiction as an existential threat. Granted, they are justifying far too many Federal power grabs using it as a basis, but in my opinion it is still a real threat.

The Closest I can get to your position is to allow drug use as long as it is licensed or regulated in some manner, the same as any other potentially dangerous substance.


I personally don't care if people want to smoke pot providing they have the means and ability to do so without becoming a public nuisance. I think Harder drugs should require harder requirements.

[Diogenes]

And have either of you gentlemen noticed the rise of libertarian sentiment in the US? About 50% now favor pot legalization according to Rassmussen. It rises about a percent or two every year.

It is no longer a fringe opinion. It is THE mainstream.

=======

Your real beef is with welfare. I say we cut off price supports for the criminal cartels.

Yes, Welfare is one of my pet bugaboos, but not because I don't want people helped, it's because I think Welfare is done badly, and teaches bad lessons to the recipients. It should not be a COMFORTABLE place to rest in society with others paying for your bills.

I also have issues with the way the Prison system is run, and for that matter, the entire justice system as well.

One of the biggest welfare scams going. According to Social Conservative Pat Robertson that support is ruining the country.

I find it hilarious that you would reference Pat Robertson, as long as he agrees with you about drugs. I think he's been sounding kookier with every passing year.

=======

My kids support smaller government. And that is a problem? It is worse than I thought.

=======

To police crime a citizen complaint is all that is required - I was robbed, thieves broke in, I was assaulted, etc.

To police vice you need secret police. And confidential informants. Was that the kind of country you had in mind? Did I mention that the Vice-Squad is almost always corrupt? Why? Well for one they HAVE to operate in secret and they do deals with "criminals". To "gather evidence". And they can't always be "wired".

That may be a common way of addressing the issue, but it need not be the only way. I suppose mobile gas chromatographs or some even better technology might be developed to sniff the stuff out without any need for informants at all.

[Diogenes]

Corporate Executives being allowed to crash the global economy and get away with that metaphorical murder, or Sarah Palin (one of the more successful and accomplished female pols in the US of the last decade)?

Sarah Palin went nuclear on public TV, I watched it with my own eyes. Anyone who's mind is that fragile shouldn't be in public office period.

I dislike the core Republican ideals of their one religion in the USA, their religion, a form of Christianity based around adherence to the GoP party itself. I also dislike their lies and authoritarian tone, they want to rule the personal lives of all the citizens but not the corporations. I dislike being told what my values and morals should be by men who after telling me this, will go screw hookers and little boys. I don't like people trying to legislate morals and force their beliefs onto me.

The left has their own issues, their mostly a bunch of idiot activists who want to do "something" about "something" and the consequences be damned. Their always on some crusade or another, and trying to spend everyone elses money to support their foolish crusades. Crap like AGW / Whales / Anti-Nuke / Greeny BS.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I grew up in the northern parts of Maine. I'm an environmental conservationist, I want my children to experience the things I did or at least have the option for doing so. That being said, Humans > Animals, always. Nature takes care of itself, it doesn't need us to protect it. If we screw it up badly enough we'll die off and in another 10,000 years it'll be back the way it was. This is the line of reasoning I have when it comes to environmental issues, conserve and recycle but to the advantage of Humans not animals. For the same reason I'm for nuclear energy over Coal and Gas, it cleans up our environmental footprint but also enhances our living standard. "Renewable" require that we lower our living standard and "go without", basically turn back the clock on human development.

If you want to know the Republican I identify the most with then look at Olympia Snowe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia_Snowe
http://snowe.senate.gov/public/

I don't agree with all her stances but she's always been fair and balanced. One of the few Republicans I'd actually vote for nowadays.

And yes I know she's retiring, which is what makes me kinda sad. One less sane voice in the mad house.

You are a childish little loon in my opinion. Certainly not worth bothering with.

[djolds1]

Corporate Executives being allowed to crash the global economy and get away with that metaphorical murder, or Sarah Palin (one of the more successful and accomplished female pols in the US of the last decade)?

Sarah Palin went nuclear on public TV, I watched it with my own eyes. Anyone who's mind is that fragile shouldn't be in public office period.

Cite/link? Video preferred. The Tina Fey character assassinations were VERY effective. And anyway, she is more Kingmaker than Monarch herself.

I dislike the core Republican ideals of their one religion in the USA, their religion, a form of Christianity based around adherence to the GoP party itself. I also dislike their lies and authoritarian tone, they want to rule the personal lives of all the citizens but not the corporations. I dislike being told what my values and morals should be by men who after telling me this, will go screw hookers and little boys. I don't like people trying to legislate morals and force their beliefs onto me.

The left has their own issues, their mostly a bunch of idiot activists who want to do "something" about "something" and the consequences be damned. Their always on some crusade or another, and trying to spend everyone elses money to support their foolish crusades. Crap like AGW / Whales / Anti-Nuke / Greeny BS.

The Left will tell you what to think and believe far more than the Right - but I don't think you're ready to see that yet.

If you want to know the Republican I identify the most with then look at Olympia Snowe.

You entirely missed my AWP into GOP and "social conservatism sufficient to satisfy Hispanics but not the Christian Coalition" references. Do some wikiing. GenY Conservatism is NOT shaping up to be '80s Reagan Coalition Conservatism. The Reagan Coalition was formed to win the Cold War, and has endured a further 20 years on inertia and fumes. Core inclinations are far more important than specific policy prescriptions. The Big Business Washington Consensus policies are dead, but need that final stake through the heart. The GOP as it exists is incapable of driving home that stake. So too was the AWP incapable of taking the final necessary steps wrt slavery. OTOH, "conservatism" is the inclination primed to drive that stake, this cycle.

Conservative does not = GOP.

And yes I know she's retiring, which is what makes me kinda sad. One less sane voice in the mad house.

Crisis is not a time of sanity. Crisis is when the stressors are ended, radical solutions implemented and made "conventional," and the outstanding debts are put paid to. If you want sanity, check back in 20 years.

[djolds1]

2008 was that crisis. Everything since has been band aids, neosporin, and desperate prayers. Maybe they can paper over the bad kaka another 1-3 years.

Have you seen this?

No, and I don't go in for conspiracy theory. Finance uber alles was God 1975-2008, with bipartisan enthusiasm. The only sector in which the parties would "pay off" was culture, and the Dems are far more reliable on that front than are the Establishment GOPhers. That's one reason the conservative base is so enraged and engaged finally - 33 years of lies and attempts to backstab, versus at least second-rate delivery of the goods by the Dems to their Left voters.

There are many ways the Chaos Dice can roll this year. The high-order probability IMO is Obama wins in Novmenber - tight, but a win. After which the TPM and RR fall on the "GOP Establishment" in a Night of the Long Knives, for "forcing another Establishment LOSER on us!" It doesn't particularly matter if that's true - that will be the refrain. What emerges from that roll of the Chaos Dice may still bear the title GOP, but it will be a new organization. I anticipate the full purge of the Big Business wing.

The Democrats as the confirmed home of all the arrogant elites should make for an interesting study.

I expect the reverberations will crash the plaster-of-Paris repaired remnants of our fiscal house. The question is when.

I agree. You must have seen my "We are Dooooommmed! Dooooommmmed I say! " thread?

No. I got tired of T-P. Too much politics, too little focus on physics and engineering. I only combat drop in on occasion.

There are a number of related metahistorical models. The four-generation version is the Strauss & Howe model.

This theory gives History a resemblance to a fractal, which I find reassuring as to it's likelihood of being correct. There are patterns in everything but which are not always easily discernible. It would be conspicuous if they were absent from History.

There are various leading contenders. Spengler. Toynbee. The Kondratiev Long Wave. The Spenglerian cycle looks to be winding down this century, and the Imperial Core for the Empire of the West is more or less set in stone now. Downside - the end of "Kultur" also ends scientific inquiry. I'd like to get a few more goodies out of that black bag before people hear the word "science" and start laughing.

The biotech revolution isn't over. Not nearly. IMO it is only beginning its exponential growth phase on its logistic curve of development. I give it another 50 or 60 years before biotech plateus out like aerospace did in the '60s. Look for many more such disruptions. For instance, bills are already moving in the legislatures of two states (New Jersey and Kansas) to make genetic testing & paternity-assurance mandatory upon the birth of the child. Perfectly in line with the implications of current technology, as well as the complaints of men who found out they were cuckolded 15 years after the fact. It does however blow 10,000 years of legal assumptions out of the water - where motherhood has been unquestionable, but paternity a matter of opinion, and cheated-on hubbies have had the option to claim the "bastard" as their own for all of recorded history; either because they desperately want to be fathers, or because they are content to hide the shame of their cheating wives. Within the next two decades, not so much.

Yes, we are definitely sailing in uncharted waters. Some time back I saw speculation on Transgender Womb Transplants. I dare say someone is going to try it one day.

You mean Androwombs? Quite a popular specualtion in some subsets of fendom. And quite probable. The neurotech ability to rewrite wetware behavioral proclivites on the fly will be chaotic. The Mullahs in Iran will be able to enforce hetero behavior virtually forever, but so too will the Sex Slaves Forever Island Retreat in the Caribbean (or the Sex Slaves Forever Orbital at L5) be able to enforce bisexuality "forever."

"Interesting" times.

The Roman norms on marriage were far closer to "recognized cohabitation" than the religiously and legally sacralized form of marriage we still champion today. IOW - many settlements are functional, but any that utterly separate the father from authority and responsibility are not.

I don't dispute that new societal arrangements will occur, but I think they, like the "communes" will collapse. I think much of the Stability that was Rome, was the result of their paterfamilias based system.

The social balances will sort themselves out organically, once the ideologues are neutered. The ideologues will be forced to STFD and STFU by the current 20 years - such idiocies cannot be indulged while the world is burning.

[djolds1]

Every peer I know of, myself included is for the legalization and regulation of pot. From the method it's grown to how it's cut, mixed and made into smokable form. Standardize it all with safety regulations for content quality and tax it the same way you do cigarettes.

It's available right now, and no amount of money nor laws will stop it nor even slow it down. The best way to protect the citizen is to ensure the quality and safety of the product being sold. Right now the market is underground, not regulated and not safe. You run the risk of being associated with very bad people, this risk isn't enough to deter consumers from seeking a the supply, but it does factor into the overall cost of the product. Once you regulate it then you have a standard and safe way to purchase it, it becomes countable. Illegal black market pot won't be able to compete with legal regulated pot which directly effects the cash supply of not only domestic criminals but also the foreign cartels that supply them.

Honestly it's just cheaper to regulate and standardize then it is to try to deter and hunt down the boogeymen.

Opposition to the War on Some Drugs (WoSD) is not only a libertarian hobbyhorse. Problem is that both wings of the Boom Generation are committed to prosecution of the WoSD, and everything is a moral crusade allowing no compromise to them.

There are three ways to deal with drugs:

1) Target Supply. The current approach. Lock up "the pushers."
2) Target Demand. The previous approach. Lock up "the addicts."
3) Legalize. End Prohibition, let the hopeless addicts destroy themselves.

#1 doesn't work. Given an illegal market generating massive profits, merchants will materialize from out of the woodwork to service that market and reap the filthy lucre. It took my great-grandparents 15 years to figure out they'd messed up; my parents' generation is still prosecuting the glorious crusade after 40 years with zilch success.

#2 can work, but its unpopular. Isolate demand by locking it up and no market can exist to be serviced. OTOH, every addict is some voting mother's "Precious Johnny," and voting mommy doesn't like "Harmless Precious Johnny" being locked up. Demonizing the "pushers" is soooooo much simpler. #2 is an approach more suited to an era without universal female suffrage - fathers simply find it easier to be hardasses, statistically.

#3 requires significant moral ruthlessness. The bleeding hearts are going to want to save everyone, and part and parcel of legalization is demonizing the addicts who are unable to exercise self-control (MADD!) and writing them off as social wastage.

Best solution is probably a compromise between #2 and #3 - keep the harder substances illegal while targeting the addicts with reduced fervor and penalties, and legalize the softer substances.

[MSimon]

You will really like this:

http://theulstermanreport.com/2012/03/1 ... o-chicago/

Also go back and read parts one and two of the above. It all fits in with the links I have been posting. i.e. How hot drug money was used to bring down the economy. Classic pump and dump.

In the name of morality the crooks were given a license to steal.

[MSimon]

#3 requires significant moral ruthlessness. The bleeding hearts are going to want to save everyone, and part and parcel of legalization is demonizing the addicts who are unable to exercise self-control (MADD!) and writing them off as social wastage.

That is rather hard to do with a war on. You see vets popping up all the time in one paper or another saying pot helped my PTSD. And in fact the Israelis will sometimes use it for that purpose. And the literature is voluminous. Now OK - be tough with the kid down the street. But how about the vets? And if the vets why not people with PTSD from child abuse? EMTechnicians. People with 9/11 PTSD. etc.

OK. Now how do you intend separating people with PTSD from the mere recreational users? Surveillance teams?

And how about the fact that 70% of female heroin users were sexually abused in childhood? Of course maybe the Arabs have the right idea. Kill the ones that complain. End of problem.

You know. Even hardened men might find some sympathy here.

[MSimon]

And then there is Portugal. And the reports that when people switch from alcohol to pot in the US, traffic fatalities go down. And BTW pot smokers live longer. And those are just a few of the evil manifestations that legalization would bring.

But I get it. It is bad on moral grounds. Smoking or injecting to get stupified is not traditional. Drinking alcohol is traditional. At least for most North Americans until the Hippie Menace arrived. As traditions change the laws eventually follow.

Prohibition is an awful flop.
We like it.
It can't stop what it's meant to stop.
We like it.
It's left a trail of graft and slime,
It won't prohibit worth a dime,
It's filled our land with vice and crime.
Nevertheless, we're for it.

Franklin P. Adams, 1931

[palladin9479]

Heh,

People on the right saying how bad the left is, then defending themselves. Walk into a group of lefties and they'll respond the same.

Also like the part where I was told what to believe. Kinda validates the point I made. Not that it needed validation.

Thanks Dj for demonstrating what I disliked the most about the Republican / Conservative / TB / GoP / whatever-name-you-want party.

[djolds1]

Heh,

People on the right saying how bad the left is, then defending themselves. Walk into a group of lefties and they'll respond the same.

Also like the part where I was told what to believe. Kinda validates the point I made. Not that it needed validation.

Thanks Dj for demonstrating what I disliked the most about the Republican / Conservative / TB / GoP / whatever-name-you-want party.

Sort of hard to reply without context. But the snark was not unexpected.

[Diogenes]

Have you seen this?

No, and I don't go in for conspiracy theory.

I have as of late (last several years) come to realize that the nuance between "conspiracy" and non-conspiracy is not always apparent. That everyone employed by the Media and News Networks were actively working to get Obama elected is quite apparent to me, but to allege it was a "conspiracy" is not accurate. The members of the media acted in concert for a common goal, but it was because they all shared the same disposition, and not because they specifically conspired to do so. They all simply felt the same way about it.

Now regarding that article I linked you to, my first thought was not to regard it as a "conspiracy" but as an act by people who have a common interest, in damaging us, and who prefer Barack Obama in our Highest office. The Salient point of that article is that SOMEONE attacked our financial system to the tune of 500 billion dollars in a matter of hours.

Now you could argue that it was a "black swan" like event, but the circumstances are suspicious in my opinion. The Beneficiary was not just Barack, but everyone in the system who wants the government to Spend trillions of dollars. Remember the 800 billion dollar response to the event? Remember John McCain suspending his campaign and going to back to Washington to deal with the event? All we could hear from the Fed was that the situation was DIRE. Economic collapse was imminent, and yet since that time, I have heard nothing regarding an investigation as to what triggered it.

To dismiss it as a "conspiracy theory" is to ignore a salient point. Something very bad almost happened, and we have yet to hear how such a thing occurred. If it was a "black swan", and not people trying to line their pockets or influence our elections, I would like to know, but ever since this event, the Silence has been deafening.

Finance uber alles was God 1975-2008, with bipartisan enthusiasm. The only sector in which the parties would "pay off" was culture, and the Dems are far more reliable on that front than are the Establishment GOPhers. That's one reason the conservative base is so enraged and engaged finally - 33 years of lies and attempts to backstab, versus at least second-rate delivery of the goods by the Dems to their Left voters.

I have long suspected that the "Great Society" was Lyndon Johnson's attempt to co-opt Black voters that his party had hated for most of their history, but suddenly found a need for when they figured a way to get them to vote for the Party that had been oppressing them so long. Tell them you care, and make them addicted to the drug of free money.

By any social or financial measure the program was a horrible disaster, but regarding the purpose for which Lyndon Johnson seemingly intended, it was a rousing success, and is still payiung dividends (to the Democrats) to this very day. You are right. The Government has become a delivery system of Goods, (mostly by Dems, but also Republicans) to their supporters.

There are many ways the Chaos Dice can roll this year. The high-order probability IMO is Obama wins in Novmenber - tight, but a win. After which the TPM and RR fall on the "GOP Establishment" in a Night of the Long Knives, for "forcing another Establishment LOSER on us!" It doesn't particularly matter if that's true - that will be the refrain. What emerges from that roll of the Chaos Dice may still bear the title GOP, but it will be a new organization. I anticipate the full purge of the Big Business wing.

This is pretty much my own current assessment. At this point, I am expecting Obama to win. None of the Republican contenders have any appeal beyond their own coalitions. The Media people will give Obama another billion dollars worth of free advertising and likewise viciously attack his opponent, whomever that turns out to be. The Democrat party will insure ballot stuffing and illegal voters to the extent they can get away with it, and let's face it, with the Justice Dept. in Eric Holder's hands, there will be no worries of any investigations of Democrat wrongdoing.

Our government has become the prize among the thieves. (Which is what we Americans have become.) Whoever wins gets to divvy up the loot (yearly tax receipts and whatever credit they can borrow) to their supporters as a reward for helping them get into (and keep) power.

As for purging the Big Business wing, I am thinking that would be a good thing. Their primary concern has become not what is best for the United States, but what is best for their Companies, and themselves personally, and they have been using their money and influence to distort public law for their own ends. (General Electric, for example) This is merely another side-effect of a decline in Moral objectivity.

I expect the reverberations will crash the plaster-of-Paris repaired remnants of our fiscal house. The question is when.

I agree. You must have seen my "We are Dooooommmed! Dooooommmmed I say! " thread?

No. I got tired of T-P. Too much politics, too little focus on physics and engineering. I only combat drop in on occasion.

I used to follow with interest every aspect of the Polywell theory and design, but after the nth-iteration of edge annealing and cusp leakage, I concluded that speculating on unknown parameters was pretty much beaten to death. It had been my intention to refrain from discussing politics, but when that horse left the barn, there was no further point to refrain.

I think all of us would like some REAL DATA to look at so we can finally get an answer as to whether the polywell concept is a valid design for a fusion reactor, and further whether it could actually be possible to use it as a Aneutronic device. I think I saw in the news section that a Report might be coming out shortly. If so, I think we will all look forward to reading it.

This theory gives History a resemblance to a fractal, which I find reassuring as to it's likelihood of being correct. There are patterns in everything but which are not always easily discernible. It would be conspicuous if they were absent from History.

There are various leading contenders. Spengler. Toynbee. The Kondratiev Long Wave. The Spenglerian cycle looks to be winding down this century, and the Imperial Core for the Empire of the West is more or less set in stone now. Downside - the end of "Kultur" also ends scientific inquiry. I'd like to get a few more goodies out of that black bag before people hear the word "science" and start laughing.

You obviously have more familiarity with Social cycles theory than do I. Is this an area of favorite study for you?

Yes, we are definitely sailing in uncharted waters. Some time back I saw speculation on Transgender Womb Transplants. I dare say someone is going to try it one day.

You mean Androwombs? Quite a popular specualtion in some subsets of fendom. And quite probable. The neurotech ability to rewrite wetware behavioral proclivites on the fly will be chaotic. The Mullahs in Iran will be able to enforce hetero behavior virtually forever, but so too will the Sex Slaves Forever Island Retreat in the Caribbean (or the Sex Slaves Forever Orbital at L5) be able to enforce bisexuality "forever."

"Interesting" times.

Yup. I won't be surprised to see people trying to goose evolution with custom physical characteristics, such as bio-implanted horns, or even feathers to replace their hair. People can be plenty weird.

At some point, custom creatures (such as Hippogriff or Unicorns) will be created. I recall reading a sci-fi story in which Dogs were force-evolved into being as dextrous and smart as humans.

The social balances will sort themselves out organically, once the ideologues are neutered. The ideologues will be forced to STFD and STFU by the current 20 years - such idiocies cannot be indulged while the world is burning.

This is exactly what I meant when I referred to the weak being the first to suffer when the long knives come out. People will talk about Freedom and Equality, and how everyone is entitled to this or that consideration, but Under conditions of dire circumstances, the people most able to inflict pain or death on others will be running the show, and unless they can be matched by equal violence, they will have contempt for opinions other than their own.