[TopHat]

Originally Posted by MoMo

This system which we have come to know as " Embedded Journalism" is well named. The journalists are in bed with the forces and are drip-fed items of news, as and when the army decides, and are treated as friendly, so long as they are not critical of the job which the army is doing.

This system is so flawed, and unconstitutional, that it beggars belief!

I'm very reluctant to get into this fray, but I will say that unit security plays a critical role in determining which info is "drip-fed" to the journalists, and when it is so fed.

It just wouldn't do to have a journalist (Geraldo) going about willy-nilly announcing to the world what the next move will be, right? Right.

[timbo]

Hay skunky - I see you've finally had a bath!

[MoMo]

Yes, I agree. The Global Warming business is booming and many people are making big bucks out of it. They are just symptomatic of the confused state of the industrialised west.

I don't subscribe to the view that CO2 is the main cause of all our problems. In fact, more disinformation is put out about CO2's effects than all the disinformation that was put out about Saddam's WMDs.

However, it remains a concern that the industrialised nations are still emmitting CO2 on a massive scale, and this is not good in the long run.

It is clear that the Sun, stellar radiation, cyclical variances in the axis of the earth and other factors are more damaging to the environment than CO2. We can't do anything about the forces of nature, but we can limit the possible future effects of CO2 by cutting carbon emmiting fuels.

The problem here is that if we do discourage underdeveloped countries from burning fossil fuels, we condemn them to perpetual poverty. They cannot develop more sophisticated forms of generating electricity because they cannot afford them! Alternative technology is too expensive, and they want cheap power!

DaDoser, the point of the Pompeiian analogy was to underscore man's bad record in responding to the weathervane, not to suggest that he could fight back against an act of nature.

Also, No4Mkit made the perfectly valid point that all the Kyoto signatories are hypocrites. This is true. They have all found ways to circumvent most of what they signed up to. This is the system we created. Almost all of GREEN politics espoused by Mainstream Political groupings is hogwash. They just play a fiddle to keep the public happy while they pay lip-service to the issue.

Top Hat, I wasn't for one second suggesting that the media give aid and comfort to the 'enemy' in any conflict. I was suggesting that safeguards are embedded which would assure me that when your government or mine is covering up its ineptitude in directing a foreign adventure, there would be an opportunity for at least one person to report the truth, as they see it.

Don't forget, reporting the truth is a very risky business. Jounalists were killed in Iraq because they reported on acts of brutality and terrorism enacted upon Iraqis by OUR armies in YOUR name!

So what's the problem? You ask. The problem is that 90% of people don't want to face up to the harsh truth about what WE did in Iraq. They'd rather say it was all a big mistake, and that we should not have gone to war there. We were all conned. We thought that Saddam had all the WMDs. We believed Blair and Bush ( let's blame them! ).

The sad truth is that the only people who will learn lessons from all the craziness is the Defence Departments and The Army. They will be learning a better way to sell the next conflict.

People who pay their wages better think about what they want the army to do in their name next time.

If all you want from your army is to show the rest of the world how to give a fettered and cowering prisoner a good kicking, do nothing. But don't be surprised when some Iranian parvenue sticks two fingers up at the west and says leave us alone or we'll detonate a nuclear weapon in downtown London, or L.A. or on your pals. They are only doing what the army did in your name to Iraq, for no reason whatsoever!

Jim, you are absolutely right. Capital will pay the cheapest labour to make their goods where they can. We are only 3, 2, 1, centuries or 50 years out of serfdom! Now we are too expensive to make things. When we were The Workshop of the World, we kicked ass ( but created an industrial mess, shortened lifespan, slave-labour, and stole half the world ). Now we can't do anything because we are largely deskilled and only good for selling ' Services ' on telephones.

Just be happy that you've got a pension which wasn't robbed by asset-strippers who then paid Thatcher or Blair for a peerage before the Law didn't catch up with them!

It's a cruel world! ( where's my thread? )

[MoMo]

Hey, I get the point! But, who's the ugly guy with the rug?

The translators got it wrong. It was the Geeks who infiltrated the Trojan lines. Didn't you see the movie with that guy who was always pouting?

[TopHat]

Originally Posted by MoMo

Hey, I get the point! But, who's the ugly guy with the rug?

I dunno...Skunky?

[MoMo]

It couldn't be Skunky, although many people have threatened to insert him into a horse ( or made comparisons to Skunky and a certain part of a horse! )

It must be some American media entity. ( do they use the same mould for all of them? )

[MoMo]

And another thing,

Don't think that I have given up on all those 4X4 drivers who are polluting the air and the streets and inflicting untold harm on all our children by giving them all sorts of respritory ailments.

They are the bane of everyone's life and the sooner they're all gone, the better!

[larz]

My understanding is that methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than
carbon dioxide. The 2 biggest producers of methane are termites and cows.

Has anyone heard of a program to put a stop to these 2 major polluters?

Larz

[MoMo]

Re: Where, Oh Where, Has My Little Dog Gone?

---

My understanding is that methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than
carbon dioxide. The 2 biggest producers of methane are termites and cows.

Has anyone heard of a program to put a stop to these 2 major polluters?

Larz

Get the cows to eat the termites, or vice-versa!

[Raven]

Don't forget about...

That deep space asteroid hurtling toward Earth that we aren't prepared for...

or

That big lava dome under Yellowstone that could blow any day...

or

The theory that in 2012, the Earth's poles will shift causing mayhem and distruction...

or

That mini ice age that could happen at any point...

Do you get the feeling that the media and the Dicovery Channel promotes these stories and scares the daylights out of everybody to sell more newspapers, magazines and TV ads?

Yes, I do believe that we should pollute less and move away from petroleum energy sources but for every "expert" that says one thing, there's another idiot out there to refute him - they are both in the bag for some interest group. Yes, we are going through a period of climate change - did we cause it and can we reverse it? Who knows. Are we going to tell China and India to stop growing their economies to help reverse it any more than the US or UK? Would it matter if they did? What happens if it starts getting colder next year? THE NEXT ICE AGE!!!!!