Down the hatch
Aah, HERE it is! If I had to nominate the one thing that makes life in this form special it's the discoveries that turn our whole group thinking on its head.

We've already seen how society's views have adapted to the changing mortality rate. There is more interest vested in the current plain of existence with the advent of greater longevity and more fortuitous circumstances. Shorter lifespans would have required a shoring up of the afterlife as time and influence allowed little in this life.

But immortal? And imagine the profoundness of the tragedy when someone is killed where they could otherwise have lived on. Eternal life on Earth would not be blissful or heavenly; there would be many things to adjust to and problems to confront. I'm sure experientially it would be fantastic just to be able to create that Barbara Cartland concordance that you would otherwise not have had the time for. But it would affect the whole attrition rate and we've already seen the writing on the wall when it comes to population growth - what prospect for the future generations if their ancestors are still holding down jobs and influencing debate? How fast would our depletion of natural resources and food crops occur if we lived on indefinitely?

Glug glug
Enough about my past for the time being. I'll regale/bore you with more about my early reading habits in a future post. In the meantime I wanted to pick up on that extremely fascinating story about immortality looking set to becoming a reality.

In my search for this groundbreaking story (or never-need-to-break-the-ground story)I came across this bit of fluff and a dumb Kiss ripoff site. This might be getting closer but still not the story I want. I'll keep you posted.

Burning hot
Loathe am I to list alone. It seems we need context. All I can tell you about the magazines is that they were my parents' choice. I get more than my fill of news from the late news on TV and the papers I pick up. I don't have an interest in rural affairs and I only read women's magazines when I'm waiting in a doctor's surgery (HQ is an honorable exception).

Nor was I trapped in the back of beyond with nothing else to read. I was always buying black and white reprints of Green Lantern et al (NOTE: I just lied in hyperlink twice but it was too cool to let go)and then there was stuff like Little Dot. Or those weird old books by the likes of Fergus Ferguson.

Too much coffee man
Before I go on to my scheduled entry I just want to impart some hot news

They're sticking to the Godfather of Punk line but I tell ya he could pass for the Messiah of Punk with that pose!

[Pre zine]

My love for comics developed over time and with new discoveries but I also read everything else that came in the mail: Australian Women's Weekly, Elders Weekly, Farmer's Weekly, and Newsweek.

And in Grandad's room in the old house there were boxes of old Reader's Digests. I consumed a few decades worth of this consistently Right Wing commentary (they adored Nixon)leavened by humour in uniform and in a shirt and tie, and still turned out critical of accepted practices. The jokes on reactionary propoganda I guess.

There's been a spill
Appropros of nothing

Rum and coke
Now just because I've gone to pains to point out how deficient the USA is - and I think that's only responsible when they are adventuring abroad and clamping down at home in ways unacceptable and hazardous - doesn't mean that I dislike all things American. Far from it. I could easily stay up all night extolling the virtues of this film, that novel, the innovations, inventions, ideas... But having a penchant for Batman comics or Clint Eastwood movies doesn't mean that one should accept what a country is doing at an official level.

Perhaps they need to develop more of a sense of history but judging nations like this is always shorthand. I certainly wouldn't want to reflect the image my government puts across overseas.

To the alternate Emperor
The man who coined the term Information Superhighway or the guy swerving all over the fucking thing. Hmm, now let me see..

I did think Al Gore ran a lacklustre campaign - mind you I base this somewhat illogically on the one campaign speech I saw in which he managed to be as charmless as possible and basically shout at people. Anyhow he has well and truly made up for it with this incisive and worldbeating speech.

Espresso
It makes sense that a network service provider could be anywhere in the world (wide web).

Vending machine
As you may have noticed I tend to break up the frivolity with fierceness and the ferocity with flippancy so you can please yourself where you go here.

Or you could bookmark the 15th of June and just see where the 'favourite' link goes each week. I enjoy that. I don't want to give anything out about the methodology but I will say that it has wider application - and more potential enjoyment - than some of my other entries because the links are to objects not ideas.

I do always try to give good link.

As freedom fries
Here you've got to put the two together as a phrase: 'Drink it black as freedom fries'

You know it's been a long time since mainland Europe copped a serve from their friend Uncle Sam yet the outcome of the Iraqi incursion was that Germany, and more particularly France, were on the receiving end of some cutting remarks.

It seems boorish to dismiss France's concerns. True, they don't have a stirling history internationally if the nuclear atoll tests and the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior are anything to go by. But what they do have is intrinsic links with the United States. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France and an especially thoughtful one. It should serve as a boost for American citizens in knowing where they stand but also serve as a reminder of the vigilance required to see that it is not a hollow symbol for something lost.

They share Thomas Paine, the great overlooked figure of two Revolutions - the American and the French. An American founding father, Paine nearly lost his life in France. Paine had a great mind and a strong sense of what could best ensure democracy and freedom of thought. He was a deist who believed the only proof of God could be in His creation; in nature. His texts are well worth the read, being more soundly reasoned and more clearly expressed than more famous thinkers.

France and America both have lively intellectuals who can contribute much to the debate from their specialist fields. I don't mind politicians doing more than their fair share of gloating when things go right but I do object to them stifling discussion on important issues.
I think the fact that the Coalition of the Willing were prepared to defy the judgement of some of their closest allies on the basis of wonky intelligence speaks volumes as to who out of France and the US emerges best from this lamentable episode.