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For me it's The Da Vinci Code, because it's short but thrilling chapters reminded me of the intensity that Eddie brought to the ring every night.

The Soviet National Anthem

Tell that to the millions of people he fucked over. Visionary? Sure. Incompetent at reaching that vision? Hell yeah. The asshole tried to get half a million dollars from Saddam for a god damn election campaign! Saddam, of all people. Not to mention the thousands he put out of work. Oh yeah, and the oil price schock was really helped by massive government expenditure that made inflation ten times worse than it could have been. The thing which really annoys me? If Gough was such a visionary, such a leader, he could have spent the last 25 years contributing to public debate. Instead he chooses to go on and on and on about '75. What a waste of a life.

It might of been his metaphor for trying to clean himself up.

Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run (Night, Backstreets, Born To Run)

Er, what the fuck? This is where idiots who know nothing about France fuck up. Because Chirac and Co are the most 'right wing' compared to the other parties (excluding the crazy Le Pen), the problems of France are somehow classified as consequences of right wing policy. How is massive agricultural protection and gigantic government subsidies 'right wing'? How is a wealth tax right wing? How is a centralised and state influenced education system right wing? How in God's name, is Chirac, the man who proclaimed 'Liberalism is as diastrous as Communism' RIGHT WING?!! Not to mention banning religious symbols and their fight against multiculturalism for 'frenchness'. France is the only western nation I know of where Socialism is considered a legitimate alternative. And on top of this, their fervent fight against trade liberalisation at the coming WTO meeting. The French is to right wing as Adolf Hitler is to judaism.

I thought the legalisation of abortion was the key factor in the crime drop of the 1990s.

Ok

Really interesting article in the Sunday Times on Sunday.

The most telling part of the novel is the following paragraph, where Hughes talks about the aliens: And before we judge them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior races. The Tasmanians, inspite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred the same spirit? That's why it bugs me when people cry over the "anti-climatic ending". They miss the point. The story is primarily about the invasion itself and the comparisons it draws between similar "invasions" during the colonial period. If you want a climatic and orgasmic ending, then rent Independence Day. If you didn't like the ending, fine. But it was directed that way for a reason.

The author probably doesn't realise that sub-sahara Africa has the most closed economies in the world. It's not my impression that economic liberalisation is the key factor hurting them. The idea that economic liberalisation being a corporate conspiracy to help the rich and crush the poor is an idea that should have died with the Soviet Union. Especially considering what has happened to the Asian Tiger economies. Conditionalities, or structural reform hasn't been affective primarily because the African governments don't want to implement them. Human nature dictates that when your forced to do a job that you don't want to do, your going to half ass it. There are hundreds of examples of such reforms that have failed ONLY because the governments have made them fail, not because they don't work. Here's something to sleep on. Its been estimated that an increase in a country's cancellation of debt of 1% GDP, from 1979 to 1997, has resulted on average in a 0.34% increase in that countries burden of debt. The reason? The main one is that government revenue has been wasted by most highly indebted countries, due to corruption, and the expectation that more debt will be cancelled in the future. This is so ironic that it makes the author look like a fucking moron. Stopping subsidies IS 'free market policies'. Every Free Market economist has CALLED for the end of subsidies. The best example of Western Nations doing this is through their farm subisidies and their manufacturing tariffs, which prevent third world countries being able to export goods. Unfortunately, this author doesn't believe in lowering tariffs..so we can forget that idea. Fact: Post World War 2, Africa has received the equivalent of 6 Marshall Plans. Look how that's helped them. This article does achieve one thing though. It's so utterly wrong that it come close to being offensive. That's quite a remarkable achievement. I mean, really, I'm actually in shock. Because while Zimbabwe President Robert Magube is fucking bulldozing down peoples homes, and REFUSING to let people farm on vacant land during their worst period of STARVATION...we have marxist fuckheads like this piece of shit writing something that was put to death 15 years ago, advocating the very thing which is keeping them in this mess. Unbelievable.

Does anyone know any sites where I can get sheet music from? I'm specifically after Springsteen's 'Thunder Road' for the piano.

I'm disappointed about Katie. One aspect I liked about Batman Begins was that finally there was one true romance, and it looked like that the days of a new 'lover' every Batman flick, was over. Katie's performance wasn't an award winning performance. But she's good looking and very likable, which is all Batman's girl needs to be. Even if she's not in the sequel, hopefully that romance will come back in a later film. Batman doens't need a stronger actress, it just needs ONE actress for once. Not a dozen.

Pink Floyd Re-Form Yay.

First of all, although I'm actually of the opinion that Communism is a harmful concept, it must be noted that Marx was not an actual advocate of Communism, but was making a (flawed) prediction based on his interpretation of history. In other words, Marx was not a Marxist. Second, the reason capitalism has never existed in its purist form is because of trade restrictions put into place during the 19th and 20th centuries. Before the Progressive era of the early 20th century, capitalism was responsible for such deplorable practices as child labor and 16 hour works days. These things would not have been changed by the existence of free trade (if anything, they'd have been made worse). There's a reason why pure capitalism has never existed. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Is there evidence to suggest that Marx didn't agree with the key ideas that formulated communist ideology. It's true that Marx (and Engels) were more concerned with human history than politics, but they nevertheless founded the doctrine of scientific socialism as well as the starting the First International. To say that Marxist was not a Marxist is saying just that: That Marx does not endorse the ideas that Marx endorses. And I strongly disagree with your argument on capitalism. Firstly, I think your getting Colonialism and Capitalism confused, both very different things. Secondly, the 19th Century was incredibly less democratic than today, with governments (and businesses) less accountable. Your argument is flawed in the simple fact that it has been the lowering of trade barriers in recent decades, and the liberalisation of economies in recent decades, that has LOWERED child labour and has reduced absolute poverty to the most liberalised nations. Technological advancement has meant a greater flow of information globally, and as a result, accountability has risen significantly.

I said they're innovative, I just think they sound incredibly dated. It's all subjective anyway, if you like'em, good for you. My loss.

Coldplay give writing credit to Kraftwerk in their album sleeve. They've talked about the sample of Computer Love in dozens of their interviews, it's no secret. Maybe I just don't get it, but Computer Love goes for more than 7 minutes and is essentially the same bar repeated over and over again. The same goes for a lot of Kraftwerk's work. Other than being incredibly innovative, doesn't their music sound too much like Super Nintendo music?

But the list of course, is not the 10 most evil books, but the 10 most harmful. I could write a book advocating the slaughter of any one who expresses the emotion of happiness, but the Communist Manifesto would STILL be more harmful? Why? Because it was a document with ideas that were not only bad, but were acted upon by a lot of people, causing great suffering in the process. Also, to those who argue that communism has never existed in its true form (and I'm not suggesting they're wrong), should be prepared to admit that the exact same argument can be made with Capitalism and the market economy.

The standouts for me personally are 'Everybody Knows That Your Insane', 'Burn the Witch' and 'Someone's In the Wolf' (which is my fav off the album). The softer tracks, which are mostly in the last 1/3 of the album take more time to get into, but I like'em. I can't understand why some don't like Songs For the Deaf. To me it was a great album, especially the neo-title track (A song for the deaf) as well as 'a song for the dead'. Grohl's drumming was excellent I thought as well.

Mike. Yet people here bitch about JBL, HHH, etc. I know. You bitch about ECW. Wrestling IS subjective, but people tend not to understand why others don't like the things that they like. It's a part of human nature, only you tend to be more dogmatic about it. It gets to people. Ah, so nobody is allowed to criticize? Got it. ECW sheep really were not too good at handling a differing viewpoint. The irony here is that your the one who seems to have trouble handling a viewpoint. We all know that ECW fans get shitty. That's a given. But you just turn it around and put yourself in the same position. And I'm not saying that nobody is allowed to criticize. If I thought that, I wouldn't have criticized you. Got it? Their matches sucked and the company went belly-up because people, clearly, DIDN'T want to watch them. Their ratings were shit on TNN because people didn't WANT to watch them. Their PPV buyrates were shit because people didn't want to see them. Yet as this ppv has shown (as has the dvd), there is still a market large enough to make these small ECW events worthwhile. That's all that matters. I'm surprised also at your little jab at me for having a minority opinion. As a dedicated right winger (like myself), shouldn't you know that the tyranny of the majority can be just as bad as a government if tolerance isn't a allowed. Go read 'On Liberty' by John Stuart Mill. Anyway...what were we talking about again? Oh ECW. Right. Hmm, I might start praising HHH now, simply because you've just said it is impossible to criticize. Not impossible, no. Just annoying. But that's democracy for you. Cheers.

Mike, if people were entertained by ECW and enjoyed the matches (I am one of them), then that's a fact that you CAN'T dispute. Wrestling, like all entertainment, is purely subjective. If you think you can come onto a board and tell people that what they thought was good wasn't, then the only mark here is you. If someone enjoyed a segment/match, then it was good TO THEM. That's all that matters. Your not an idiot and you know this just as well as I do. So don't waste your time telling people that what they thought was entertainment wasn't. It won't achieve anything.

Not his biggest fan, but Born to Run is a great song. And Born to Run live is even greater.

I really liked Rammstein's Reise Reise this year. And judging from video clips this year, I'd say their single 'Ohne Dich' is the best music video of the year. Visually quite beautiful, and sad.

In relation to the 'Shutdown' angle that was to take place after, or during WCW Greed 2001, had WCW still kept going, it seems the general idea of that angle had stemmed from a column written by someone within the internet community, I can't remember who, maybe someone from wrestleline...I don't know I remember reading this idea for an angle, in which during one Nitro, WCW would experience a 'Lockdown' of soughts, with wrestlers being unable to leave the building and a new owner (who presumably would be a hired actress), would completely change the way WCW would function. It was to involve a complete visual makeover of all WCW programming and sets, with present alliances breaking up and old ones forming again (The 4 Horseman was mentioned, with Goldberg I believe, as being a new member). Following this column Mark Madden, on his website, mentioned that he liked the idea so much that he was going to bring it up to the WCW booking committee. I remember the whole thing vividly because it was something completely original that could be done quite economically. If anyone has the link to the 'lockdown' column I'd love to read it again.

Also, a word of warning for memory cards. They're not a 100% secure, and can corrupt pretty easily if not taken care of. Even so, dust or sand or whatever can screw the card up. It doesn't mean it's broken though, it only means you've lost the pictures you've taken. Be sure to load up the pics to a computer all the time.