That's all I meant by "groupthink". And that's why I find it so hard to discuss things here. I always hear the same things from the same people.
Well, yes. The really talkative people on Buffistas do share a lot of opinions. "Groupthink" implies an intent that I don't think exists here, though. I've seen quite a lot of common-ground-finding here as opposed to homogenity-making (and it's a fine line, admittedly).
I know I'm one of the more conservative people here, but I'm also one of the less confrontational. Still, the few times that I've questioned things that Buffistas hold dear (like the definition of "slashy") I didn't get shot down. They explained themselves. And if I still disagree, then I still disagree and that's fine.
Maybe I just don't feel a need to get the last word in. I'm not used to winning arguments.
And instead of being a bunch of people who are hanging around the water cooler chatting, it's becoming a bunch of people who feel required to do extensive research before they venture an opinion.
Which is part of why I trust them to hash out a voting system that will probably be more fair and accomodating than I will think it needs to be. If it makes them happy, no harm done.
And I like extensive research, personally. Non-inquisitve people need not apply for membership here. (I think I'm safe saying that...)
Julie ...
marry me!
edited because I wanted it smaller and more cow-bell goddamnit!
their quality and depth was appreciated by a cast of thousands hundreds dozens.
Bwah! Thank you. That's very kind.
t chuffed
Snerk!
BTW, I see that a certain person was so incensed by my recent Nigel Havers diss that she mentioned it in her LiveJournal! This amuses me vastly.
Is it just me, or does this pic bear a remarkable resemblance to a certain Miss?
Could it be there is more to Fay than meets the eye?
Damn. You have discovered my secret, you cunning creatures. I am, in very sooth, Geri. My presence here is research for a project associated with my UN activities. I'm planning to bring peace to the Middle East through yoga, a rigid diet regimen, and running around in nothing but a vest and knickers. Curse your fiendish perspicacity, wee Jimi.
My feelings about Saddam Hussein are like my feelings about the death penalty. Because, fundamentally, I am inclined to think that the death penalty is wrong, yet I'm not one bit sorry Ted Bundy is dead.My relief at hearing that Bundy died wouldn't make me support the death penalty, because most of the time it's not fair, etc. And that probably really sounds stupid after the smart posts in here.
I wonder who was slapping Pvt. Lynch during the incident that inspired the Iraqi man visiting his wife (a nurse there) to both walk six miles to inform the U.S. troops of her whereabouts, and then to take his family and go into hiding.
From the whole story, I gather that there were guards when she was first brought in:
Private Lynch’s military guards would allow no other doctor to tend to her ...
But by the time the "rescue" occured that they had run off. The doctors used deception to keep them from taking Jessica with them.
On April 1 the local Baathists fled al-Nasiriyah for Baghdad and arrived at the hospital looking for their prize captive. Dr Harith moved her to another part of the hospital, and other doctors told the soldiers that he was away.
“They said that they thought Jessica had died, and they didn’t know where she was,” he said. In their haste and confusion the soldiers left, leaving behind only a few critically injured soldiers.
In short she was almost certainly abused with the doctors doing everything they could to mitigate it, and then the doctors hid her while the abusers ran off.
And the next day our troops burst in and destroyed medical equipment, and knocked around the doctors and such.
BTW - you did note that the story was in The Times - which strongly endorsed and does endorse the war. Not the Observer or Guardian, or the UK left press.
Hey Angus is Robson Green preferable to Havers?
ION it looks like we've managed to piss off Canada
Ottawa/Santo Domingo — Just one day after cancelling a presidential visit to Ottawa, the White House announced yesterday that Australian Prime Minister John Howard will visit George W. Bush on his Texas ranch.
Mr. Howard will travel to Crawford, Tex., on May 2 and 3, just two days before Mr. Bush had been scheduled for a state visit to Ottawa. >The White House postponed that visit, and did not reschedule it, after U.S. complaints about Canada's decision not to participate in the war in Iraq.
And an Australian take on one of the biggest of the big ...
MICROSOFT MAKING $51 MILLION A DAY
Microsoft reported its March quarter profit overnight and it is worth contemplating the enormity of the numbers in Australian dollars.
Profits were up marginally to $4.65 billion for the quarter - that's an incredible $51 million a day. Microsoft is making bigger profits than the big four Australian banks and Telstra combined.
And what about those amazing profit margins. Revenue rose 8 per cent to $13 billion for the quarter - equivalent to $144 million a day.
Therefore, each night when Bill Gates goes to bed he knows that he's sold $144 million worth of goods and services that day, incurred $93 million in costs and pocketed $51 million in profit. That's a net profit margin of 35.4 per cent. That's what you call monopoly market power.
If you want to know why America is a super-power, look no further than Microsoft which has paid tens of billions in taxes which help fund the world's biggest military budget - a budget enhanced by superior technology provided by the likes of Microsoft.
Edited to say, not at all Trudy, it all sorta hinges on 'does the end justify the means?'
