Karl

You need a decent one, they are quite expensive for a mid priced pen (between £60-£120 in the UK but probably cheaper in the US). It teaches good discipline and focus. You can't just go at it with a fountain pen, so it helps improve you writing and for some reason it makes ideas flow. I use a mid range Parker with a 22ct gold nib which is nice. It doesn't scratch or blob. The ink and paper are just as important. Cheap ink either flows too fast or clogs the nib. Poor quality paper clogs the nib and can damage the pen. They also require cleaning when not used for a few weeks. It's a Labour of love not unlike vinyl records, but just like vinyl it's worth the effort IMO. It goes along with mechanical watches and good tools.

I thought your conservatism and culture may have led you to the use of a feather quill, or at least a modern day fountain pen ? That would seem appropriate. If you haven't got a fountain pen then I strongly advise investing in one, plus some nice writing paper, blotter and a colour of ink appropriate for your character-a Royal blue I think might suit you well. There is nothing quite like writing on good quality paper with a favourite fountain pen. The ink flows like ideas in a creative way and there is need to use the nib more like a brush instead of the stop start action of modern ball pens. It's very therapeutic, very Tao :-)

If I were you I'd be pushing for sales, the reviews will happen as a part of that process.

Mercury oxide is for whitening. It's good in fluorescent tube coating too. Ink is better for writing. I like Diamine Imperial purple.

I find Jones a bit crazy and I also find the constant scare stories about FEMA camps and the Governments plans to eliminate/round up/imprison the population a bit wearing. However, the economic story isn't far fetched, neither is the gradual destruction of Liberty, nor the dumbing down of the population. If you bought Gold you are doing pretty damned nicely against stock markets investments if you are a little guy without the where with all to be tapping the fed presses. Gold is a only a currency hedge and not an investment as such, it's just better than putting it in the bank. We know that the way the economy and money have been treated is the pre cursor to a massive shit storm. It's not a case of if, but only of when and in what way. Will it be a one and done landslide, a series of jumps up and then big drops down, or a more gradual and prolonged decay with the occasional moment of relief. No one knows quite when, but we can already see the signs of recession in Japan, Europe, USA, Britain and China. Downsizing, businesses closing, falls in commodity prices, Baltic dry goods, stagnant wages, falling productivity, production, retail and the beginnings of some bad news in unemployment figures. Alex Jones doesn't need to tell anyone what is becoming obvious to many people.

Free the water molecule, free the water molecule.

Give me death or Liberty. That is something a tyrant is never prepared to do. They are lazy cowards that ultimately depend on other men for their survival and that means they are always one step away from being deposed. It takes big bribes to keep your commanders sweet and that's the only thing keeping them from tearing the despot apart. A population has an enormous lever if it is willing to use it.

Are you contributing to the campaign in any way ? I suggest that if not, then you should volunteer. It's about putting your head down and working towards the goal. It's easy to get disheartened, but then, if the remain campaign win and you haven't done anything, then you will wish you had. Just a few leaflets, a bumper sticker, a poster in your window. Stick at it and don't get deflected. Cut the arguments down. In the end, the vast bulk of people aren't wealthy corporate lackeys and it's these people with all their power and cash that are driving the in campaign. They are few and we are many. They only have one vote just as we do.

Funnily enough I just had a discussion with a guy who suggested that my voting to leave was because I supported rich oligarchs. I gave him a list of the who's who at DAVOS, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs contributions to the remain campaign and how the leave campaign was powered by little else but ordinary people volunteering to hand out leaflets. All the big guns and all the big money are on the side of remain. Anyone who isn't in that clique should vote to leave.

Everyone should have a skill ;-)

Some might say :-)

I see you're having one of those wig out moments today :-)

My bike is in the garage. My drum set is in the back bedroom. I dream of owning a moon, but it wouldnt fit in the garage and the Sun would eat my sticks and make the throne particularly sweaty.

I took that test as well. Balanced 50/50. I'm a drummer so it goes with the territory. It means very little, same as IQ testing. It's not the size of the brain but how you use it. :-)

If it comes to no other choice then I fight. However, you have to realise the futility of attacking a powerful enemy head on with your pennants fluttering in the breeze. The state can cut you down easier than a scythe through a corn field. Quantum bullshit. Einstein was religious, in effect an Intrincisist, and couldn't abide the ideology which threw God out of the picture. Of course the subjectivist loved it. You can't beat a bit of pseudo science that proves your Kantian ideology and banishes God to the dumpster. Strike one for Hegel and zero for Aquinus. Hurrah Hurrah.

Pisces Or possibly Gemini.

I'm just glad you hold that opinion. As relationships and alliances are built on shared values that seems valid. I just haven't seen you respond in that way before. As for right and left brains-it's a myth.

It isn't 'oversimplification'. This is not about having a positive outlook, it's about direct action. Your answer ? Is it to take power from those who hold it by some form of bloody insurrection. To ignore morality and therefore act just as those you have replaced ? All coups begin with good intentions, but they are ill conceived. The only revolution is total philosophical change and that can never be imposed by force, because force is in direct opposition to liberty and reason. If you don't know your history you are doomed to repeat it. The measure of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result. When you are angry then you lose objectivity and reason is replaced by the mindless mob armed with pitch forks and torches burning down property and massacring the peaceful.

They are not stronger, that's the point, they are extremely weak. They can't produce anything, they are totally reliant on the population for their survival. They have convinced the population that the opposite is true, that without Government they would perish. Our current flap over the EU referendum is about exposing this lie. Governments-or more succinctly the parasites-are terrified that the people get a taste for freedom. Just like the Gods of old were believed to perish once the people stopped believing in them. The important thing here is that all one needs to do is to reject any and all forms of statism except where it is directly protecting inaliable rights. Just quietly withdraw consent, stop voting, stop asking for free stuff, stop being a minority asking for more privileges. Stop asking the Government to help, to get involved in anything except where it pertains to those inaliable rights. Moral people get a moral government. Immoral people get an earthly hell of their own construction.

:-o gobsmacked. A is A and you can know it. I thought you were anti-reason/logic Taomeow ? That sounds objectivist on first reading.

Discovering love is an experiential process of discovering self. There is an initial attraction like a kid in a sweet shop who wants candy, but over time a realisation that sweets aren't good for us. Thus, many who grab for their first girl friend/boy friend will often discover that the relationship doesn't last very long. Over time we learn what is important to us, although I suspect few of us really think about the reasons behind it. What we love about our partners is that they share our values and are thus a perfect compliment to our lives. Thus they are a value to us of and in themselves. Love in this context means the desire to gain and enjoy a value. The man/woman who seeks a passionate romance and not those that only wish to escape loneliness and will seek anyone. Love is entirely selfish. It is selfish because it rests on positive sense of self preservation (as opposed to the negative Ie love is not the absence of hate, Joy is not the absence of fear). It rests on the value of ones own life and of those who share that value. It is selfish because it demands self esteem-one must feel they are worthy of love and not simply pity. Love is selfish because it is a pleasure and a deeply personal pleasure. In a mutual loving relationship it is the reinforcement of both lives from this selfish perspective and sex is the physical celebration of those cognitive understood values.

Taurus.

Sounds exactly like 'special pleading' to me. "These are the rules and here's how they don't apply to me" It's also a version of the sceptics/sophists 'no man stands in the same river twice'. The rivers is never exactly the same river, the man is never exactly the same man. Therefore there is no free will, only the illusion of free will caused by the this shifting. Amazes me that people cling to this totally debunked mysticism which has no scientific basis what so ever. We are slipping back into the dark ages of magical thinking and monsters.

Ah no, none of that is correct. You have been listening to the talking heads. The reason the US has 'seemed' to be in better shape is that it's got the biggest economy and its dollar is the world currency. Funnily enough you have had a lot of austerity despite what Obama has been telling you. Although your debt and defecit are rising, Obama has actually severely trimmed back the growth of government spending and increased taxation. Central banks cause booms and busts by messing with the money supply. The US just ran out of central bank smoke and mirrors. The illusion looks likely to come crashing down in the near future. Expect that you will be told that there will be another round of monetary easing due to 'global market instability affecting the US economy' but that 'The fed has the tools to fight it'. The US hasn't fought off the problem, it just kicked the can down the road a very long way in order to avoid the inevitable. You have been lied to. This is why Trump made the mistake of letting the cat out of the bag when he said that the US needed to restructure its debt. Restructuring is defaulting. Then he back tracked and said he meant the state could print money-but that is exactly what they have been doing and now the game is up. The short term bonds can't be touched or the dollar will crash and price inflation will rocket, the vast bulk of long term bonds are held by the fed itself. Had the banks been allowed to fail in 2007 you would have had a short, sharp recession as the bad bets unwound. It wouldn't have been particularly nice, but you would have come through it. There wouldn't have been financial Armageddon except for the creditors who had lent too much money to people who should never have been given it. It would have demolished the imprudent and allowed prices to fall helping everyone to cope. Certainly the Government would have had to restructure fiscally. It would have had to cut spending much more, reduce its overseas budget and its military spending. The US would have emerged stronger, but, instead it is very weak and one tiny shock will bring the house of cards down.

Right, but how did it all come about ? And who is responsible for allowing it. Once having figured that out, then you are stuck with looking in the mirror. You cannot beat the bankers, or the entire system by force, to do so would be fatal. Instead one must accept ones responsibility for the situation and not add to it. This is all you can do, to change and to change what few you can. This is to create an irresistible force, tiny first efforts that seem pointless against a Goliath, but Goliath only exists by the will of the people. Take away that support-completely peacefully-and Goliath cannot exist. Evil is weak, it exists only by men's weakness, it cannot resist determined morality. There was a great example of this on a recent quiz program. The host asked what would be required to knock down the tallest building in London with a single feather. It takes 25 blocks arranged in domino fashion, of increasing side based on a ratio. Only 25 steps and a tiny touch with a feather levels a sky scraper. It's a simple mathematical multiplication beginning with one single person convincing one other person. That's all. No need to raise an army, draw swords, or charge into battle, just pull the plug peacefully. Change your philosophy and change the world.