h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Operation Iraqi Freedom" Interesting name for an occupation...

And in the UK:

The Department of Health - which looks after you when you are ill

and

The Department of Employment - which pays you money when you are unemployed.

Orwell's contribution was to give a name to Newspeak. His essays are superb. He's one of those writers whose style is to write so simply and clearly he hardly has a style.

B

Not to mention ...

Ministry of Defence - involved in going over to foreign countries and killing people

In the US we have a Department of Defense that does the same as your Ministry of Defense.

We also have the Department of the Interior, which looks after the outdoors.

And a State Department, which takes care of non-military things that are outside the United States.

And how about No Child Left Behind?

Well, you have a Department of Defense and we have a Ministry of Defence.

There's a difference.

C - See?

Our Ministry of Defence has a subdivision called Ministry of Defence (procurement). Their job appears to be not to procure flak jackets for our soldiers, or armoured vehicles to protect them from roadside bombs. Soldiers have been buying their own equipment, because the Ministry has had other things on its mind, such as not procuring enough helicopters.

Another thing that has kept the Ministry busy has been the Nimrod. This is a reconnaissance version of the Comet, the aircraft whose tendency to crash helped to hand the world's passenger jet business to America. A Nimrod crashed in 1980 (killing two crew members), in 1995 (ditched in the Moray Firth after an engine fire, no casuatlies) and, also in 1995, a Nimrod crashed into Lake Ontario during the Canadian International Air Show, killing its crew of 7. In 2006 a Nimrod crashed in Afghanistan, killing 12 airmen, one marine and one soldier.

In less serious incicents, in 1984 a Nimrod was written-off due to fire damage, without casualties, and in 2007 a Nimrod crew noticed a fuel leak during air-to-air refuelling. After an in-flight mayday, the aircraft was landed without casualties.

Well, in the US, our Marines had the Osprey, with the same horrible safety record. But your Ministry did give us the Vulcan and the Harrier.

Are there any Republicans in this conversation? I would to hear some cogent reasoning about why Michele Bachman is uttering outright lies, provable outright lies, about the stim bill. Like asserting that $5 billion has been allocated to ACORN. I would like to know why several Republican congressmen have been boasting about what benefits the stim bill will bring to their constituents, even though these same congressmen voted against it.

You may find that there simply aren't any Republicans, Lil.

If you ever come to the UK, you won't find anybody anywhere who voted for Margaret Thatcher.

Because they think they can get away with it? At least among the ones they cater for?

This is one of the cases where the press should roast them over embers - but very often don't these days. Where did the critical press go?

>>Where did the critical press go?

That species went extinct some time ago.

Anyone see Frost/Nixon? Apparently back in the 70s even entertainers wanted in on the critical journalism gig. These days...

I seem to be getting nostalgic for a time I did not live through. Is it worth it? I mean, as much as I dislike many things that are happening now, it does seem life is better today than it was 30 years ago. But that's based solely on second and third hand reports.

To be honest life isn't better now than 30 years ago. I really don't want to go into details or my politics but there is one major differance, particularly encouraged by New Labour, what a sad joke the 'new' tag is now, that has greatly change the face of England where it is now too late to go back. To be honest I sometimes feel like ducking off to another country and give up on England. By the way I voted for Thatcher and don't care admiting it, Thatcher got in due to Labour screwing up, New Labour has turned out to be just the opportunistic, lie telling, self serving bunch of wankers who care nothing about Britain like they have always been!

"This is one of the cases where the press should roast them over embers - but very often don't these days. Where did the critical press go? "

The critical press is not going to bite the hands that feed it. Most news organizations are owned by conservatives; the myth of the "liberal press" should be pretty clear from this.

I think every generations picks its own existential angst, Irv. I grew up fearing nuclear winter. When I told a friend of my parents this in the late 1970s he pointed out that previous generations had feared plague, with better reason. Now it's ter'rism and climate change. In the 1930s it was Fascism and a second European war. And so on.

Actually, of course, what we fear is our own suffering and death, but we make it less proximate by generalising it.

>> I seem to be getting nostalgic for a time I did not live through.

I am nostalgic for the 1930s. My grandparents remembered it as middle aged adults, and my parents remembered it as a young man and a pre-teen girl, so I got three very different first hand perspectives. Looking back with an historical perspective it seems to be the 20th C distilled. Every idea within the 20th century and every social challenge problem were present.

It was also a time of great social and political change and great confusion. People were faced with moral and political challenges and - as with the previous eight years - most of them failed the test. Many Brits and Americans were pro-Germany, which is something you only find out by reading contemporary works. Revisionism swept that away very quickly indeed. The only important thing not there in the 30s was the internet.

On the subject of personal revisionism: I can't remember if I voted for Thatcher or not. I tend to vote against the incumbent, but I think I was too young in 1979. The only exception to my anti-incumbent strategy was 1992,when I voted for Major. We do have a nominally 3 party system in the UK, so I usually vote for the Lib Dems though I don't believe in their policies that much.

B

My take on the press is that they seem to select rather superficial issues, spin them to create controversy and often outrage from the masses and thus create the impression of investigative journalism. The smoke from this distracts the public from the major issues they should be covering. There are also these regional news stories that suddenly become national that people obsess over.

As to living in an earlier decade, I can't say that appeals to me. I've lived through some pretty amazing times, actively participated in some of them, and have to believe that the future will be equally interesting. Besides, I love having something to complain about, and today's politicians certainly provide that. Also, I'm curious. I want to know what happens next. I would like to recapture some of the optimism and energy I had 40 years ago.

Then there are the mod cons. I love my mod cons. I think this is a great time to live.

I find it hard to imagine that any major political party in any country could "care nothing about" the country where it is in power.

It's called class solidarity, Irv.

If the party puts its own interests ahead of the country's interests, Irv, then believe. It happens when that party seeks power (money) for its own sake, and tries to perpetuate that power. Like a "permanent Republican majority", to quote Karl Rove, who is currently bargaining with the Justice Department in order to keep his sorry backside out of prison for what he did to his country for 8 years.

>>"permanent Republican majority"

A dozen years ago people in Britain were talking about the Conservatives as "the natural party of government".

They're in politics. They claim to like democracy. But they don't appear to understand what the word means.