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

Just popping up to say:

BLUES SHARK: Marcus Aurelius - early Stoic, not Christian.

DELLA: Marmite and Vegemite are both vegetarian friendly - I think Bovril is the meat product one.

Bovril: Meat
Marmite: Vegetarian
Vegimite: Vegan

All of the above: Fairly disgusting...

http://www.worldhealthcare.net/marmite.html

http://www.gty.org/~phil/marmite.htm

All you ever wanted to know about Marmite, and how can you not like it? It's yummy on top of hot buttered toast!

Mel

http://www.worldhealthcare.net/marmite/intol.html

Also suitable for Vegans btw!

Mel

Thanks for the info on mamite. Definately, at least one thing not wrong with America.( We prefer our yeasties alive and kicking!)

Nbcdnar: I'm trying not to get into "your" God and "My" God distinctions. My point was, and still is, that America is falling apart because we have become so materially successful and pleasure driven, we have abandoned our "moral" beginnings. Families have fallen apart to begin with, and that has ripple -effected into society at large. It's an old story. Civilizations rise and then become decadent and decay from within. My bringing up God was in response to a question about how American history has been revised in school books.

Americans, especially those near the border of Canada, make "fun" of Canadians as flannel wearing, beer swilling, "eh" saying, hocky playing, dudes, who aren't too bright. Obviously a Saturday nite Live, or Second City stereotype. It fits a lot of folks that live near me! Can't think of any jokes at the moment.

Coldjam, not to start a ruckus, but I think America is too obsessed with morality.

Jerry Springer exists as a sort of zoo of the immoral and depraved. The reason it's so popular is because people can watch it and think 'Hey, I'm not so bad. Lookit them people!' I've wondered about it being staged. (I haven't watched this show for more than five minutes at a time, myself. But I've watched a lot of one minute segments - all I could stand before my gag reflex kicked in.) Seems like every time they bring out the jilted lover, **BAM** he runs out and swings at the 'other' lover. Why? And then after he hears what happens, he STICKS AROUND? Why? First of all, I would never ever appear on that show. Second, if I were the jilted lover, I wouldn't stick around to be humiliated. So I figure they offer the jilted lover a wad of money to swing at the other guy, and an extra bonus if he connects. No money if he hits one of the security guys. And they must tell him he has to stay the full hour to get the money - I can't imagine doing that, even for a LOT of money.

America's founding fathers were Deists - they didn't subscribe to a particular religion, although they believed in God. The removal of the Pledge of Allegiance from public schools was a great idea - Jefferson and Jackson would never have gone for the 'Under God' bit - that's why they came to America. Which is why Pat Buchanan makes my neck hairs stand up. And my lip curl in an uncontrollable sneer. He's an evil man who's trying to use religion as a rung in his political ladder.

Heinlein (paraphrase from Friday): 'Civilizations decay when citizens begin to identify with a particular group, instead of their country.' I think we're safe so far - we keep calling ourselves Americans. When we start calling ourselves 'Catholics' or 'Liberals' or 'Democrats' or lord help us, 'Republicans,' :-0 then we're in trouble.

Oh, the Canadians can thank Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas for that... better known as Bob and Doug McKenzie. It began on SCTV, then they had that silly movie - Strange Brew. That show made the Canadian flannel wearing lumberjack stereotype popular. And the 'eh?' and calling everybody a 'hoser.' What is a hoser? It sounds bad...

I thought Monty Python popularised the image of the flannel-wearing lumberjack...?

Now I will never be able to get that song out of my head

Mel

for the info Frogbit.

Regardless of the man's belief system, I still think it's one of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard.

You should read his "meditations" - it's a real cracker and full of stuff like that (still inprint 2000 years down the line. Must be doing something right).

It's amazing how well religion has weathered, when you consider how quickly most things go out of fasion!

Mel

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/news/koran/index.shtml

"In the USA a university has been critisised for giving students a reading assignment on the Qur'an.

The university said the assignment on a book called 'Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations' written by writer Michael Sells was given to help students understand Islam after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. But critics, (a member of the Family Policy Network, and three students at the university) argued that the project impinged on the religious freedoms of the students.

A judge has now made a ruling that the reading assignment cannot be forcibly stopped. "

aaaaaany comments ?

They are not asking the students to read the actual Qur'an, they are asking them to read a book about the Qur'an. There is a huge difference between asking people to read a religious text and asking them to read a review of a religious text, one is asking students to review a religion the other is asking students to review an opinion on a religion.

>critics, (a member of the Family Policy Network, and three students at the university) argued that the project impinged on the religious freedoms of the students.<

Presumably this was their freedom to remain bigots and uneducated about the rest of the world?

So long as they were allowed to form their own opinions I don't see why they shouldn't be made to read anything.

I think I'm going to speak out about shakespear, I don't apprieciate the way he encourages children to go against their parents in Romeo and Julliet!

Mel

An educated person should be willing to read about almost anything. The reason the Family Policy People probably made a stink about it is: the Universities here (most Ivy league ones founded by and for Christians) have made anything Christian (for the most part) unwelcome. This has filtered down to public school as well. You can teach kids about any OTHER religion, but not the one MOST of the founding fathers believed in. I think going to the actual books Q'ran or Bible is the definitive way to study another religion. All the rest is just somebodies take on it. My husband believes they should take "under God" out of the pledge, just for the sake of "truth in advertising." This country has very methodically taken itself out from under God.

To address another past spoken comment. The tendency of Americans to not know what is going on in the world...we are a huge country, and a lot goes on here you probably don't hear about. It's really tough to keep up, and impossible to know what's going on there if you don't subscribe to cable.

Lentilla,ditto your sentiments re Jerry Springer. I think you get it.

The Texan joke is one we tell on Texans. Are there any British made jokes about Americans? Even one liners?