Bosterson

Do you actually have the haircut of the dude in your avatar? Cause that would be amazing.

No effing way... I have no words for this...

My favorite (posted on my fridge) was always: "I'm gonna talk about the ideal world, Chris. I've read—I understand reality. If you're asking me as the president, would I understand reality, I do."—On abortion, Hardball, MSNBC; May 31, 2000 Yes folks, that's three tenses in one sentence.

You know Clinton fired her for that, right? It's too bad - now we have Bristol Palin telling us that kids would NOT have sex if they knew about the horrible consequences. (Also: she's totally psyched to be a mommy!) Elders' comment was actually at an AIDS conference, but the point still stands. Maybe we can replace abstinence only with masturbation only.

Ow, that dude's face...

Dude, who we need back is John Ashcroft doing his awesome rendition of "Let the Eagle Soar"...

I don't think anyone is presuming that all of Africa is homogeneous, poor, and starving, and I don't really think you think we think that. As for "changing policies," the ones in question are ours. I don't think war-torn West Africa has enough clout with the World Bank to effect a lot of change in how much it gets paid for its exports. I should said that it was a "government and policy" problem, though: extra aid/wealth/food doesn't help when it goes to warlords... And I can't believe you'd actually suppose Monsanto would be doing something out of the "goodness of their hearts" (they don't have hearts): GMOs are patented and are worth money, money impoverished African countries doesn't have. Using patented seeds also limits farmers' future self-determination since they can't save their own seeds and get locked into a system of buying the expensive patented ones.

Wow! I'm impressed. I haven't read Omnivore's Dilemma, but I have read In Defense of Food. I gather that IDoF is sort of like OD-lite - streamlined for a more everyday audience. He also outlines his guidelines of what to eat (eg, don't eat anything containing chemicals you can't pronounce, don't eat anything your grandma wouldn't recognize as food, etc.). I don't know if OD has that. The best bit in IDoF is where he dissects the ingredients of a loaf of Sara Lee wheat bread (there's something like 35 of them) and then pronounces it "not food."

I don't think they're bad at all. (I was joking about Porter's assertion that dreadlocked hippies were driving Priuses and starting wars.) If I were buying a car and could afford a Prius (and never wanted to drive Forest Roads, I guess), I would get one. I have, however, noticed that a lot of Prius drivers seem really impatient on the road, the way BMW drivers used to be. I wonder if there's some sort of holier-than-thou complex? Like, "I'm saving the world, so you should get out of my way." It's kinda funny...

Whatever happened to their whole "you're paying more because this is made in Canada, not in an Oriental sweatshop" bit?

No way. Dreadlocked trustafarians ride fixed gears; it's the white, affluent, middle-aged Americans who are the ones driving Priuses and feel entitled to the road. Didn't you hear about Portland's great/fake "car vs. bike" war last summer? At one point a driver tried to hit a bicyclist who'd told him to slow down and the cyclist had to jump on the guy's hood as he drove down the street. I don't think any Priuses were involved, but I'm sure they would have been if their drivers hadn't been too busy going to yoga...

Quite the circular non-explanation there. Poverty and war cause...poverty and war. Um... I believe it's saying that poverty and war are causing starvation via underproduction of food.

African farmers are skilled and knowledgeable and are responsible for the vast majority of agricultural innovation that has succeeded in Africa. The low levels of productivity that are often cited in reference to African agriculture are the result of poverty, displacement, war, colonialism, and environmental challenges. Africa’s small farmers do not need the false promises of genetic engineering; they need concrete measures that will attack the root causes of poverty and enable them to farm according to their capabilities. http://www.grain.org/briefings_files/africa-gmo-2002-en.pdf

It's funny, except it's not true. People in Africa are not starving because they are somehow incapable of growing their own food, or because the land is recently unfit for agriculture. It's a policy problem of how their governments are run. They are kept in extreme poverty by warlord dictators, by Western trade policies that force them to grow cash crops rather than their own food and then prevent them from making a sustainable amount of money doing so (see: coffee, cacao), and by their constant refugee status as inter-tribal wars force them to flee from their homes. Besides which, if Africa is so impoverished, why would the solution be highly a commercialized agriculture program where the company (Monsanto, etc.) owns the "rights" to the cultivars, and requires that farmers 1) pay a lot for the specialty seeds, 2) pay a lot more for the required pesticides/whatever, and 3) buy new seeds every year, because it is illegal to save seeds from the plants they've grown?

Yeah, I also disagree that having a garden is "irrelevant," if that means that you're not buying food grown industrially, shipped halfway across the world, covered in pesticides, etc. etc. Not to mention the fact that if having a garden actually induces Americans to start eating real vegetables again.... This could be the END of diabetes and heart disease!!!!!! [/hyperbole] Seriously, though, it would be at least a step in the right direction. Anyone know of any studies of whether people with Priuses drive more because their cars are more efficient? (Same way people take more risks when safety measures are improved in cars/whatever.)

Anyone else starting to think that Prius drivers are replacing BMW drivers as the biggest a-holes on the road? I feel like those two are now in a dead heat in terms of which drivers get upset about being stuck behind a bicyclist and end up driving into oncoming traffic to try to get around them.

Oh. I think I mistook it for the Leaning Tower of Yourmom. You Washingtonians and your sass...

What is that second photo of - the one that looks like a cylinder?

Thankfully there has never been actual tyranny in this country. However, vis a vis the revolutionary war, I'm inferring that your ultimate point is that we should all have rights to self determination, to free ourselves from the shackles of outside rule. Right? The states were a colony of Britain. The revolution was for autonomy. We are a colony no more. So my tangential question, then, is do you feel the same way for other colonized peoples? Europe colonized much of Africa and Latin America (as well as India, etc.) - I assume you must also agree that those peoples should have had the right to rise against their colonizers? And then, by extension, shouldn't peoples who are economically colonized (again, much of Africa and Latin America) be right to rise against their oppressors? Even when their oppressors are Europe or the United States? Even when the oppressed are people you would call "communists" or "dictators?" (Like you, Mossadeq and Arbenz and Allende were nationalists, and they were elected by their people and overthrown by the United States.) How do you define international tyranny? Should we, the people, rise against our own government when it betrays our own principles abroad? How does this relate to the discussion? It doesn't. As far as I can tell, Zelaya has never done anything that could be construed as tyrannical. So I guess this isn't exactly relevant, but I'm curious how far your code of morals goes.

Can you translate that into English for me?

So what you're saying is the reason he seems out of touch with the 21st century is that he's been frozen in a block of ice for 40 years...

Were you overseas? At home in the National Guard? Something about getting shot? (I have no idea who you are or what your backstory is; maybe this is already common knowledge for everyone else.)

Landoverbaptist still exists??

I'm not your pal, guy.

Touche! Is that Blue Steel, Ferrari, or Le Tigra?