there is only one problem: increasing numbers of humans. there is only one solution: population stability.

here's a modest suggestion that doesn't need new technology and is easy to control:

governments must issue licenses to kill one person over the age of 64 as a condition to get a permit to make a baby. this will reduce population quickly, and solve social security shortfalls as well.

what's more, the money saved on geriatric health care will fund schools and hospitals indefinitely. unlike mr. benfords suggestion, this is a long term genuine solution. he is just pushing back the the time when the final constraint is reached: the 'nowheretostand' date.

they put their hands up and swear to go where they're told, and kill the people there. i used to think that was heroic, but i changed my mind. i think it was because the people at the top of the command structure were crooks, fools, maybe even nutty.

it was bad enough when the cic said go bomb laotian paddy farmers, but my circuit breaker flipped over when the reaction to mylai was, well, nothing. that's when i realized that the few crooks at the top were no worse than the millions of thugs at the bottom.

nowadays, i take the view that every person should do their own killing. don't hire on as some one else's killer, and don't pay someone else what you're too squeamish, or too cowardly, to do yourself.

this will greatly inconvenience the rich, and the poor, as the former is historically inclined to hire the latter to do the dangerous and bloody part. tough.

national defense! they cry. no one threatens america. no one but those people that 'national defence' carried out abroad has filled with desperado determination.

nobody attacks switzerland, or sweden, nobody attacks grenada, except the usa, what a nation of heroes.

it's not fair that rich men should be able to hire women to demean themselves. you could say the same thing about hiring men, too. but the only solution i see is a mixture of nagging and regulation: these men's clubs must be forced to admit a certain percentage of poor men who must necessarily be allowed a byo privilege.

well-behaved old men such as myself would add a certain air of egalitarianism to this culture, and we could promise to throw our bodies between these naked froward women and any captains of industry whose gravitas appeared to be threatened.

naturally, after the revolution, these naked women will be forced to go down t'pit with their male comrades. i presume these woman are all communists to a, woman. i mean what's the point of being a plutocrat if you can't rub the proles face in your sexual potency? does anyone expect humility and charity in these places? modesty?

come down to wimpy's (still in business, chooms?) and i'll shout you to a cuppa, girls. but if you are determined to hang out in bossland, you must expect to get bossed.

.. the war on drugs in the usa was proceeding as before: nowhere. so let's not get optimistic about 'warring' on opium.

afghanis grow opium to make a living. give'em a choice, they'll grow tomatoes instead. maybe less money should be spent on guns, and more on agricultural development?

even jarheads and grunts have some sense of self-preservation.

is leading in match-ups against obama and clinton.

say- what!?

please people, focus: drive the republican party out of existence. then we can deal with the democrat party, too, but right now mccain should hold your attention.

that the iraqis welcomed the americans with garlands, submitted to the imposition of a german model government, signed treaties of oil exploitation with american companies, signed treaties of defence establishing american military bases next to iran, syria, saudi arabia.

what a wonderful world it would be! messers perle, wolfowitz, rumsfeld, and cheney would be collectively regarded with awe, dubya would be a demi-god.

it nearly worked. who could think those ungrateful iraqis weren't happy to play their role in the greater west asia co-prosperity sphere?

i tell you, so much glory, so much wealth, came so close...

and all ruined by a few ragheads who couldn't see the big picture. no wonder poor dick cheney looks like a man with so permanent, so serious, so painful, constipation.

but i'm busy, or it's no use, or it's not my fault, or endless excuses.

the usa is not, that's 'not', a democracy. if it were, recall referenda would have fixed the bush/cheney wagon months ago, or years. this has an effect on the national character, creating a feeling of impotence and disengagement which makes even protest seem useless. but the need to get re-elected means the political elite must appear responsive to popular will, so effective protest is possible.

for instance, an 'impeach' post box could be established in washington to count, then hand deliver, letters from constituents to representatives. by publicizing the number of letters, a fire could be built under the reps. unless of course, nobody really cares enough to write a letter.

who will run the post box? write to your rep, and ask them to do so.

it was not by accident. he volunteered. hey, it's a good living! unless you're actually performing the core service: killing people in distant lands whose crime is to resist the power fantasy of would-be 'alexanders'.

it's not good enough to say this was the only job going. putting on a waffen ss uniform didn't excuse the nazis, and a navy uniform doesn't excuse bombing wedding parties. there's a limit to how you earn a living, and when your choice results in wholesale death, you have to be really sure the corpses deserve it. leaving that choice to politicians is amoral in itself, the hitman's moral code.

in short, not much sympathy here. i save my sympathy for iraqi mothers, who have to explain to their kids why american gunships rip up an apartment block to kill one sniper.