Vera Mont

That's what I was told, over and over. I found it nightmarish.

Too bad we're not all baby-walking in the same direction.

Attending a candlelight vigil is shared mourning. A demonstration for better gun laws or a traffic light or control over rogue police is shared mourni...

I like that! Some things were seen as bad by the very first people who can be considered human - and many of the same things are considered bad by spe...

More every day. There are lots of books out on alternative living; there are intentional communities based on a different principle; there is a tiny h...

That applies to the general population. Less, if there is a reasonable standard of living, no big disparities and liberal education with fewer bad inf...

Sure: they'll be directing and overseeing machines to do much of the work. But humans still have to be at the fire or flood or evacuation to direct th...

Do you have the slightest notion what resource-based economy means?

Much of the world, including the US, has its head so far up its own ass in denial, you have to wonder whether the species is viable at all.

Whatever for? In a moneyless, wealth-free society, what does anyone have to gain by being 'a politician' in the first place? It's just a service to pe...

The fact that good for one group is very often bad for another. If the majority is happy in the power of a patriarchy, they'll censor anything that th...

Yes... um.. OK, some of it was funny, but I didn't stick around for long. I also saw a bit of the UK version, back when Ricky Gervaise was funny, befo...

Every day, in every way, capitalism makes everything better and better.

The first two yes; the last, I've not heard of, but will look for Not really. They are quite good illustrations that, in the present system of rewards...

Not quite so. Last I heard, there were 54 registered political parties in the disUnited States. What happens in presidential elections is that the min...

I'm not worried about the civil service. It's largely free of party politics already, except at the very top, where political patronage helicopters in...

Yeah. They do the killing and dying. They ought to have a say in what for. Helps if they actually know the purpose of their actions, too, rather than ...

I'm happy with that one. Maybe for solving some problem related to climate change or mitigating its effects - a big service to all the world, that a h...

There is no 'of course' about that. Is there an executive branch? Who put the military and the police under a single jurisdiction, anyway? Last I hear...

1) By plebiscite would be my choice. 2) Amendment to the constitution; at least 2/3 majority. 3) I doubt regions and genders will become obsolete anyt...

That's a longish stride from moral and immoral speech. I was there when it was considered highly immoral to mention homosexuality and perfectly accept...

In one of Kurt Vonnegot's novels, that I don't have time to look up right now, he says "What the world needs in not more love but more common decency....

That's pretty much what a constitution is. The constitution must include an amending formula to accommodate changes that are deemed necessary later on...

Oh, certainly... as long as the the questions are based on an accurate reading of the proposal and not on assumptions brought over form a different sy...

He never claimed otherwise. It is a proposal outline, not a rigid system. I have suggested ways it might be improved. I have found that carping at the...

Hah! The OG foisted a copy of Scrivener on me: it has all the sophisticated computery stuff. And I dislike it intensely. I kept losing notes and searc...

In conversation with The Other, I learned that Readers' Favorites is another site that lists lots of books by genre, and you can download new ones fre...

Mine look a bit like that, except they're chapter no--- er, scribbles. Example: - tour on island - islands, big delta fishing village? Go up to women'...

I have not been on one for a considerable time now. I did belong to one - my first ever forum on my first ever internet connection via landline - in t...

You are off an adventure, a quest, an epic journey. May the wind always be at your back!

Yes. I'm an ogre about words, precision of meaning. Some words are stretched over so broad a spectrum of meaning that they lose definition altogether....

I don't propose to answer for Athena, but for myself: because "love" is such a loaded, booby-trapped word. It evokes sentimentality, hypocrisy, Christ...

Not much you can do about your nature. Conceal it, if questioning leads to punishment; maybe try to fit in despite your doubts - but the inner turmoil...

I'm not too keen on it, either. I don't like having to choose from only two options, of which one or both may be quite different from my true reaction...

They're not just good for you; they taste good, too. And don't go looking for a list of must-reads or anything like that - just wander through a thrif...

Hey! Before, you said Don't you go shifty on me, comerade! It wasn't just allowed; it was engineered, provoked and orchestrated. And that's why I woul...

Isn't everyone? But yes, I have made some efforts at philosophizing and educating through narrative. Patron, when he was a lord bestowing largesse on ...

Probably one of the scariest things you have to face. But wanting to have an open mind, making the effort to understand how you think and why you beli...

Well, there goes Benkei's $0.5 per annum royalties!

For damn sure! I happened to luck out, living in a period of expanding social consciousness, in a liberal country with a pretty decent education syste...

I'll use it with the utmost delicacy and discretion - plus a *footnote credit.

That's why you put a panel of experts in charge; so that they can make whatever decisions need to be made form day to day. Practical and technical dec...

Now I'll have to! Watch it being sold out everywhere because of your endorsement. God on you! Can we borrow it sometime?

That, plus, effort, disruption of other services, people tied up in planning and overseeing - the material and social costs. Economy doesn't just mean...

We have the technical capability now. But money doesn't build roads and bridges; it only buys the materials, energy and labour. For a big, project, re...

This becomes true about ten minutes after you remove the influence of money from the political system. If there is no social or financial gain to be m...

Wonderful name! I'm probably too old to benefit; doubt I'll embark on another big project. Anyway, my old Kindle won't hold a charge anymore, so I hav...

So what? That says nothing about what caused the poverty and fragility in the first place. If there is no famine for a few years or decades, that's no...

As do we all!

For sure. But there is still the ticklish problem of all that blood and sweat tied up in luxury vehicles, mansions, animal skins and the bling in the ...