From: erming	Date: July 16th, 2006 03:29 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Not least of all, spending nights-in with my wife!

And going to a festival with some of your friends.

Steve (barbedwirekiss) and I miss you two being around.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: July 18th, 2006 06:36 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Which Countries Set the Best Examples? April 2005

This is regarding your articled posted April 24th 2005 titled 'Which Countries Set the Best Examples?' I read your article and the other readers' comments about it.

Among others many of your 'hard facts' were taken from
1989 Sociology
2004 Cia World Factbook
2005 United Nations Human Development Report

I have 2 comments
1) Racism, Environmental Awareness, Marital stability (measured perhaps by divorce rates or length of years in marriage) and Mental Health (assessed perhaps by prevalence of psychiatric ailments and suicide rates) are absent from the indices on which the countries were compared. You made a comment somewhere that Racial Discrimination is outlawed by these countries - In other words it's not on paper - but does the everyday reality reflect what's on paper?

2)My second comment is about world donors. Under 'Aid to developing Countries', I like your comment about US aid being a way of subsidizing its own products - 'tied aid' as you called it. However, it is not clear from your article whether this ranking was based on aid amount as a percentage of income or GDP (i.e. per capita aid or donations). A country may look like a small contributor when you see the $ amount but after adjusting for it's GDP may turn out to be actually far more generous - A case in point would be the Gulf countries and the US. This year Saudi Arabia donated $15 million in donations to the U.N. World Food Program (surpassing the $12 million from France and Australia). The U.S. contribution is $486 million, 32 times bigger than Saudi Arabia's, but if you look closely its GDP is in fact 38 times bigger. Much of the US $486 million consists of bulk food deliveries, which are in effect a way of subsidizing U.S. farmers. Ref:- http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/93-06262006-675562.html

What this brings me to, is the point that I was also a bit surprised to see that the Arab Gulf countries (known for their wealth) seemed to be conspicuously absent from the list of donors that you prepared. Jim Krane in his article (Ref given below) points out the reason which I think may help explain this apparent discrepancy. He notes that donations from Arab countries are not funneled through the U.N. (because they have been known to donate directly and many times anonymously to non-UN charities). This would mean that these donations go undocumented and could explain why they don't appear in the U.N's HDR.

It seems what gets documented on paper is accepted as the truth (eg. outlawing of Racial Discrimination or Social Generosity) but what is actually practiced in reality, from day to day, gets conveniently (or inconeniently) left out.


Ref: http://www.vexen.co.uk/countries/best.html

	From: vexen	Date: August 3rd, 2006 01:41 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Which Countries Set the Best Examples? April 2005

Thanks for you intelligent comments and important points.

Point 1:

I would like to include "racism" as a comparison, but haven't stumbled across any stats. I expect that societal racism is very hard to measure.

Environmental Awareness is partially covered already, though I would like to say more.

If you find any good stats I could incorporate, let me know.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: July 31st, 2006 07:01 am (UTC)		(Link)

what puerile nonsense!!--you expect people to believe that you know what jc did or did not intend?--how pathetic!!--always you failures use jc to justify your pathetic beliefs--there is NO god just yiour own pathetic imaginings to justify your sad little existence--i dont support Vexen but i must write to say your childish patronisation and its justification with reference to your imagined god is insulting to anyone with real experience of the psychic atmosphere--jesus was not the founder of Christianity --jesus was a DEVOUT JEW--he would REPUDIATE all christians IF he came back--which incidentally he will never do because that life ended when his body died--since then the being in that body has been back as many others both male and female--but rest assured that jesus will NEVER come back--not ever--tho christian bigots will no doubt froth at the mouth that their beliefs are called to account--but they are only beliefs and NOT PROOFS--and your assurance that you "know" god is nothing more than the ravings of another deluded follower of religion!!--as for claiming that you know what love is then i suggest you take a look in ANY mirror and you will see a christian delusional --the root word is LUDERE--to play games--to delude then to collude then illude--ie to join together(collude) in order to believe(delude) in order to believe in your delusions--all religions all SO-CALLED gods are delusions colluded at by believers in their illusions--your patronisation reveals your obvious delusion about love--ragnarok is coming--and NO amount of prayer will help you

From: (Anonymous)	Date: July 31st, 2006 09:49 am (UTC)		(Link)

furthermore!--ALL repeat ALL gods including the christian one the islamic the hindu the satanic and the buddist(gotama has been elevated to this status)were created by the "creative centre of all being--"--these gods most certainly did not create the universe but were themselves created as disincarnate spirits with the sole function of assisting humankind in its long march towards understanding on an INDIVIDUAL level(each person being a tiny part of the "creative centre of all being--these spirits assumed the identity of "gods" in order to steal the physical energy of humans whom they induced to Worship" them --this was due to two factors -1 the exdtreme gullibility of humans 2 the mendacity of the ecclesiastical establishment--when these spirits were created they were handicapped by being susceptible to VANITY--and oh boy do they love being worshipped by anyone as this gives them humans energy to feed off!!-this can ONLY be understood by letting go of conditioned identity and letting go of the mind--this energy matrix called mind controls the individual as Teresa is and joins in group minds of various kinds(religions--political movements --etc)--this is not easy to do!--it takes a certain courage!-something religious followers can never posess--there abject following shows their lack of personal understanding--lovely old phrase--DRAG YOU DOWN INTO THE HOLE THAT THEY ARE IN--i support vexen tho i dont agree with him--

From: (Anonymous)	Date: August 4th, 2006 06:57 am (UTC)		(Link)

thinskinned is just about right!!--i dare you to stop CENSORING my postings!!--youve removed at least four so dar!!--guess you dont care for freedom of speech do you--dont answer! its obvious your just another failed intellectual full of anger and self importance!!--well youll have to live with yourself the rest of your days until you face reckoning!!what will you do then?--bluster and obfuscate as per usual?--one thing though!!--you cant play your puerile intellectual games with the "creative centre of all being!!--maybe a few will see this before you wipe it out--just what are you afraid of??

	From: vexen	Date: August 4th, 2006 07:01 am (UTC)		(Link)

Listen, if you want to post on here, say something informative or at least, say something coherent that people would understand if they read it. Before you post your next rant, try getting someone to look it over first?

From: (Anonymous)	Date: August 4th, 2006 09:42 am (UTC)		(Link)

you are insecure--so you are CENSORING me--not very grown up behaviour--ill leave you alone to your obvious delusions--root in Italian--LUDERE--to play games--as you do--you and your ilk DELUDE yourselves with your ILLUSIONS and then COLLUDE in order to gain legitimacy--goodbye

From: (Anonymous)	Date: August 6th, 2006 05:39 pm (UTC)		(Link)

shame on you Vexen!!--why try to hide your ignorance behind badmouthing??--youve removed several postings that i have read(presumably others have too!)that doesnt jell with your supposed libertarian views--you attack the mode of delivery and ignore the content(youve joined the ESTABLISHMENT)attacking what YOU dont understand !!--you reveal yourself as a typical narrow minded intellectual--for shame