wbb, the quote is from William S. Burroughs’ novel “Interzone”. From your sobriquet and avatar I assumed you’d have picked up on it easily. WB also recorded those words with John Cale on WB’s album “Dead City Radio”. You seem to be going in circles William Burroughs’ Babboon (wbb). That’s precisely “the level” I was referring to at 39 when you politely inquired
“Describe that level for me, EC, so I can try’n get a bead on where your brain is at. Please”

And wbb, I’m not an anarchist. I vote and have been on the roll for years, have an understanding of realpolitik and preferred Rudd to JWH, and of the 3 remaining candidates in the “land of the free”, prefer Obi to Clinton to Johnny Bomb-Bomb.

Sincerely trust that your brain hurts no more, wbb:)

Of course his wife and kids might see that differently…

rulers by accident, inept, frightened pilots at the controls of a vast machine they cannot understand, calling in experts to tell them which buttons to push

No I’m not familiar with that, EC. But staying on that level, then which Australian leader is any different to any other?

Surely even an anarchist prefers and recognizes the lesser evil.

About the same as Rudd means to Oz, presumably.

And if you don’t know what that means,you are not paying attention.

Perhaps. I say anyone who doesn’t understand this internationally recognized metaphor should shut the fuck up.

It took the US over 100 years to sort out major differences and millions dead and maimed before our Civil War finally sorted those out and we established the United States as it stands today,

Well actually four score and seven years by Abraham Lincoln’s counting in 1863, so add another two years for the end of the Civil War and perhaps one more year for the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment- so that’s ninety years.

Lefties are so ignorant of history and even present-day facts, then presume to climb on some self-righteous throne and pontificate about politics and policy. Someone so ill-informed, intellectually incurious and apparently illiterate and ignorant of daily news that they don’t know the U.S. has 50 states shouldn’t be writing or speaking at all, because they merely prove they are the fool everyone thinks they are.

And you say you are used to dealing with a US with 13 states: in the US, we learn about the American Revolution, the ratification of the Constitution and the addition of states to the original 13 colonies in about 3rd grade (7-8 years old). What did you do, leave school before they got to the 1800’s history? There was a US civil war in there, and the 1900’s will provide even more interesting titbits about US history that might inform some of your half-baked shibboleths and lefty slogans about the US-Australian alliance.

You might particularly be interested in the 1940’s, America and Australia’s tight bond was forged then. Luckily, most Aussies and their leaders don’t seem to have forgotten that bond and the common cause Americans share with Australia.

As ignorant and unread as you seem to be, no wonder you question the alliance and cooperation. Your grasp of geopolitics is as weak as your arguments against the War for Iraqi Freedom. The war is an absolute good; messy, mistake-laden, miserable, unfortunate and deadly for many innocent people, but necessary none the less.

Iraqis are certainly glad we threw out Saddam and that we stayed to help them establish a democracy. It took the US over 100 years to sort out major differences and millions dead and maimed before our Civil War finally sorted those out and we established the United States as it stands today, a beacon of freedom, flawed, unfair and wrong on occasion, but you and the rest of the world are lucky that if there must be a super-power its a benign and good-hearted and loyal one that is based on freedom and bent on spreading it throughout the world. You owe us more than a little for your own freedom, or you might be writing the above post in Japanese, mate

Describe that level for me, EC, so I can try’n get a bead on where your brain is at. (Please.)”

Certainly, wbb at 27, on this level. Recognise It?

“We have a new type of rule now. Not one-man rule, or rule of aristocracy or plutocracy, but of small groups elevated to positions of absolute power by random pressures, and subject to political and economic factors that leave little room for decision. They are representatives of abstract forces who have reached power through surrender of self. The iron-willed dictator is a thing of the past. There will be no more Stalins, no more Hitlers. The rulers of this most insecure of all worlds are rulers by accident, inept, frightened pilots at the controls of a vast machine they cannot understand, calling in experts to tell them which buttons to push.”

“4. Will your forthcoming recession make all of this a tad unimportant?”

“Forthcoming” recession? There’s been a de facto moral-equivalent-of-recession here for ages, it’s mighty kind of the MSM to finally notice it. You must mean the forthcoming societal and financial full-scale Total Collapse Event. Yes, I think that could potentially have a slight ripple effect on Australia.

But I wouldn’t worry too much about who the next president is. After eight more years of any particular flavor of fiasco (choose one disaster out of three), the next president of both America and Australia will be some faceless Chinese bureaucrat in the PRC’s newly-formed Department of Governing Incompetent Foreign Devils.

seeya, cobber!

(By the way, I’d welcome a woman being elected President, I just think HC may be unelectable.)

And how about

“ID’TRBWIFPE,BWNSOP”

[I didn't really believe what I first posted either, but will now stoush on principle]

User friendly version SOP: stoush on principle. eg “this has degenerated into a SOP, people”

WTFWIK?B

[translation: "What the Hell would I know? but"] as a preface to one’s comments on a far-off or complex or generally misunderstood area. Modesty becomes us. Some of us have Much to be Modest about.

IMHO, “WTFWIK?B” could be a useful addition to the bloglexicon, along with “IMHO”.

You considered it first on LP, folks.

Most cultures are more complex and have more integrity than there appears from the outside.

Sometimes money and power fuel the illusion that this complexity and integrity don’t count for much.

Challenging this illusion is what drove much of the action in Graham Greene’s The Quiet American.

It seems to me that Obama presents a very similar enigma for US voters. And I think the results might be much the same: even if he does not adopt anything that could seriously be called a “leftist” agenda, it will still be such a breath of fresh air that it will be loudly hailed by one and all as a revolution.