My, my, my. How times have changed!
 

It has been 50 years since the building of the Berlin Wall began, when the communist East closed its border, and divided the city for 28 years.

Time goes fast when you're having fun. :)

(That is amazing that so much time has passed. Now there's no E. Germany and no Soviet Union (although Putin is approaching that state again).

I'll probably get hung, shot and my genital hair plaited uncomfortably for this, but the title of this meshed with a news item I was watching.

America is telling Syria and Libya to stop using force against a dissident minority, yet she fought a 4 year civil war to suppress her own separatist minority.

What was good then is bad now, apparently.

I've noticed that a lot the past decade or so. :confused:

You make a very valid point.

I don't understand why we should be talking to or about them in any case. We seem to have enough problems of our own.

Fortunately for Americans, the Federal government, and the costs associated with it, emerged from that battle triumphant over the various States of the Union.

:huh:

It is that collection of one hundred Senators, four hundred thirty five Representatives, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices, the totals of which is five hundred forty five people out of the three hundred odd million Americans who are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic bliss we now enjoy!

Right?

Some totally cynical people would say that it's more in spite of, rather than because of.

Far be it for me to criticize the labors of others! Still, I do wonder, from time to time, why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, why the U.S. runs a deficit of more than a trillion dollars? I have also occasionally wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, why do we have inflation and high taxes?

I trust that I shall be forgiven if I admit into the discussion the possibility that if one accepts as true that those 545 people control the power of the federal government, it follows that what exists is what they want to exist.

Perhaps, old friend, perhaps.

Could it be that most of the poliiticians are LAWYERS? Or is that "Liars"?

Yep!

Respectfully, as the overwhelming majority of lawyers are not politicians, I remain unpersuaded that the problem with politicians is due to their prior career choice.

I suspect that for some, the progression is as inevietable as egg, caterpillar to moth.

I will somewhat disagree that being a lawyer was the PRIOR career choice. There are plenty of lawyers in politics that have never practiced law of any kind.

What other profession prepares one to better lie, cheat and steal .......................legally?

Only partially true. One party is primarily represented by lawyers. The other is not. :yikes: Actually the last numbers I saw are 81 Republicans and 123 Democrats in Congress are attorneys. No wonder we're so screwed up. :(

It is true to say, most politicians seem more interested in their own well-being and egos than they are worried about citizens in general. :(

Lord Snow,

Oldfart’s, yours, and my posts are not mutually exclusive.

Also, I believe that the evidence shows that the ovewhelming majority of lawyers are honest, decent people.

You're surely not including those that go into politics. I think that's against their rules (being honest and decent. :( ):yikes:

:faint:

Jurisprudence and Politics are different career paths, and attract different people.

LOL! Yep.

There are honest and good lawyers. It's just the 99% that give the good ones a bad name.

I’m going to go way out on a limb here, and guess that you have had few truly satisfying experiences with the members of your Bar Association. :rolleyes:

Will all citizens who are not part of or connected to (not receiving a livelihood directly or indirectly, in part or in full) from our legal system and had interface that was a positive experience and effect for them, please raise your hand. :cool:

Will all citizens who have had interface with our legal system that was NOT a positive experience and effect for them, please raise your hand. :line::line::line::line::line::line::line::line::l ine::line:

To your first question, PF, I think I see one ... way back there at the back of the crowd ...


... no, wait, I was mistaken, he was just picking his nose. :(


To your second question ... I do believe the whole assembly has their hands up.

The wise among them seek professional advice about legal issues.

Of course. The 'advisors' created the 'legal issues' with such intent.

Legal issues crop up all the time. Day in, and day out. It is in the nature of any human society for people to have serious disagreements. When sufficiently difficult or intractable, those disagreements are resolved by a social convention know as Law Courts.

One refers medical matters to those trained in that discipline, to engineers when the physics problems are hard, and to scientists when the engineers don't know. What is it about difficult social issues that people think they are entitled to be sages?

Because their teachers shared the same delusion.

Ah! Reality as a shared delusion. A variation of the "brain in a vat" conundrum.

Fair enough.

Does a shared delusion represent a valid reference?

Does that mean you are all just voices in my head? Or am I just a voice in all of your heads? Kind of a scary thought....me being inside your heads.............. :devil:

The real question is, which one of us is sufficiently insane to have created this subjective reality?

My suspicions rest with that PF character.

Did I remember to say "Bonjour Jacques"?

His insanity is in only your mind.

As each of us can be certain only that their own “I” exists, you may be correct. It is possible that “reality”, including the external world and other people have no independent existence, and are only internal events and representations.

I wonder what Dr. Freud would have to say about me somehow hallucinating all these people.

There are some days it's just not worth chewing through the straps.

The tribulations if maintaining a high fibre diet.