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

Would this be the same General Wolfe that some pubs (one in Coventry) are named after - if so - cool.

CH

I'd imagane so, I don't know of any other General Wolfe's of any note in English history.

Did anyone notice in that piece I posted this morning that 2.15 and 98.85 add up to 101? I repeat - I copied it, I didn't write a single word of it myself. Or Number.

The song was good, too.

Carpetbaggers got the nickname from the fashionable small piece of luggage of the day made of carpet fabric. I apologize if that was mentioned in the post...it's late and I'm starting to go crazy listening to the same crap on the television about you-know-what.

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15. That is, the number off letters you were off total in your slight typo there. Bush is the oilman with the daddy as a former president, not Gore. That number is nowhere near 42 though, which of course is the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Perhaps next election the numerical result of your typo will be closer to the more desireable combination of digits.

By the way, I find Gore to be quite clever, and at least he's browsed through the American Heritage Dictionary a few times to find the correct usage and pronounciations of the words he chooses while he is debating or being interviewed. Bush's 27,000 word pocket spell checker doesn't do him much good, and I doubt even that has seen much use from the likes of George Jr.

So, some americans trust Bush because he seems unintelligent and missinformed ?
Trust him to do what (apart from screw up) ?
Trust him to appoint advisers who will *really* run the country without having been elected ?

PS Trillian's Child - If you're moonlighting over here, no wonder you haven't done that index yet !!

Just a thought ...
Does anyone know if the "Notice of Revocation of Independence" has been faxed to the US Embassy in London yet ?

It's just like I typed earlier...Americans like stupidity. They don't like or trust anyone who is smarter than they are. That's why Reagan was so popular. He "dumbed down" foreign policy, domestic policy, and political rhetoric, and everybody felt better about themselves because they thought they could finally understand the issues. We good, they bad. (They including Russians, illegal immigrants, gays, women, environmentalists, scientists, artists, etc., etc., etc.) Americans like to blame the perceived "other" for their own problems.

This also applies to our popular culture. Just look at "Friends", the WCW, Adam Sandler, MTV, Cops, any comedy on Fox, and what passes for popular music these days...

Dubya's election plays into this theme. Our President will actually be Dick Cheney, don't kid yourselves.

Have you faxed it to them?

Read a comment that if the house ends up not being able to choose between the vice presidents (after not being able to choose between the presidential candidates), the speaker then gets the job!
Interesting way of doing it

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I can see it now: Presidental Poker! After all, it is a game of skill and diplomacy (i.e. the ol' poker face)...you have to be pretty cunning to win. Not bad attributes for any country's leader in this day and age!

Hey, My Instantaneously Zonked er, Froods!
Don't Panic! I'm an American voter who's reasonably informed on the vague ways and portentous(ha!) happenings in this great country of mine. Believe me when I say that whoever ends up winning this presidential election won't make a lick of difference... the same old people will have lost again. Us.
Now, you won't catch me taking tolchocks at my country... at the so-called ignorance and laziness of Americans, of our "arrogant" ways, or our pride. We are what we are and, in the end, that ends up meaning "no different from anybody else." It's easy to take shots at us because we're a big easy target. The dominant society during any historical age is always ridiculed and snobbed by the smaller, less influential cultures... it's nothing but the barking of dumb dogs who are only waiting for their own turn in the spotlight... which always comes, sooner or later. Ask the French, the British, the Spanish, the Chinese, the Germans... the Greeks, the Romans, the Moors. Always it's "What horrendous manners!" "Who do they think they are?" "I wouldn't want my daughter to marry one!" "The things they're doing to the language!" "How coarse!"
No, what's happening here right now has nothing to do with the American people. Or rather, it has very much to do with us in that it has very much to do with everyone. If you live in a country with politics (oh, to live in the one without!) you live with politicians. Politicians love nothing more than the circus. The circus keeps us all from realizing what the real game is... power. Just like George Orwell said. Power is gooooooood. Politicians are the sneaky enterprising b*st*rds who've realized this and taken it to a grand scale. In the end, they're all the same since they're after the same thing for the same reasons. American politics have been homogenizing for decades now and we've finally reached that strange point at which the electorate have begun to realize this. (But maybe not.... remember Kennedy/Nixon?) "Keep the masses distracted with bread and circuses while we gather and polish this Power that we can never really use lest we disturb those same masses." It's the same the world over and I challenge anyone to intelligently deny THAT.
So what's my point? My point is that cycles always repeat themselves and motives never change. It doesn't matter who gets elected since the main candidates in any election are never fundamentally different. It doesn't matter who gets elected since money and good-old-boys behind the scenes influence have always ruled everywhere and forever no matter what the costuming of government has been. It doesn't matter which country is at the top of the figurative mountain since they always end up being knocked down by Fate by the next "champ." You won't find me worrying about whether or not Gore or Bush end up in the Oval Office since I know neither one of them is willing or able to fundamentally change my life at all. Would you say the United States has suddenly become viciously polarized or do you think we just can't choose between McDonald's or Burger King?
I think you know my answer. Take a soak in your bathtub, drink your fizzy pink whatever, and contemplate the stars 'cause I'm talking about your country, too. Iron Kids Bread and P.T. Barnum over here. We're all in it for the ride and it always ends up at the same place so just relax. My vote for Al Gore didn't count for much more than a little colored-in dot on an anonymous ballot.
dOn't PaNiC.

I say we simply declare the presidency vacant for the next four years, until we can get another election. We've had it vacant for the last 8 years, and the result has been our highest prosperity since the 50's.

"That government which governs least, governs best."

The markets are enjoying the grid lock in Congress. It keeps things stable, since Congress isn't finding new ways to increase spending.

As I recall, we actually saved some money back when the government "shut down" in 93.

RE: The rest of the world picking on the USA because your the dominent culture.

Wrong, its because you deserve it - last time I was in LA someone asked me where I was from - I answered London (in a strong English accent) to which I recieved the reply "What state is that in ?" (or words to th effect of). Before you made a mess of the election you were being made to look like idiots over the way the right has come to dominate many school boards and dictate that science teaching be dumped in favour of mythology and gun control and policeing and ..... While being the dominent power will make you a target to those with an axe to grind, you do seem to go out of your way to hand out axes to those that don't have any.

Well, OK. But the last time I was in Britain someone asked me where I was going on holiday and I said Moscow. To which they replied "Oh, and where's that then?"

*shakes head*
So many people. So little brain.

Ain't that the truth.