dave_gerecke said:
Yup. It's especially-obvious when the 'natives' are relatively small in number. Some tragic cases in point: They basically ruined most of Colorado, long ago. And they've probably overwhelmed Montana by now, too. I haven't even been 'out West' for over a decade. But with the way it had been going, there, I wouldn't be too surprised if the only places west of Kansas that they haven't soiled yet are small Wyoming towns that are not in the northwestern corner of the state.
I never thought I would hear myself say this, but, I guess the Midwest is actually lucky, in that sense, that it doesn't have such striking natural beauty, and has much larger 'native' rural populations.
GlidingDutchman said:
Solar-generated electricity is not noise-free. (Neither are batteries.)
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Sorry, I can't resist: If I borrowed the usual level of 'logic' used by the Green and enviro-whacko groups, I might also gaspingly blurt out, "Solar cells will block out all of the sunlight and the earth will die!". And note that we're not worried about the people, just the earth itself. ;-)
fsjonsey said:
Yikes. Maybe he and his friends are doing just that, or have tried to do it already. It's getting easier all the time.
I've met, and read stuff by, similar types of people. There's an entire 'anti-human' spectrum in the so-called green movement. (Maybe by 'Green' they mean something more along the lines of Soylent Green. ;-)
It looks more and more like the 'green' virus is a bigger problem than that which it pretends it needs to 'solve'.
7n7is said:
When you consider the price of food and the poor effiency of the human body, this is not a very efficient system. Your better off "burning" just about anything else.
Most Americans have too much blubber to haul around anyway.
Food prices aren't likely to go down now that industry (lobbyists) is getting hot with the notion of burning up our corn in fuel tanks. A little "supply and demand" later, and all human sustenance becomes more expensive. Then throw on higher fuel prices, transportation costs, ect. The question of its 'green' status comes out when you consider the land use, the processing, and economic impact incurred, this fuel may actually produce more carbon credits than burning good ol' octane. IMO, the benefits aren't worth the cost in the big picture. gootee said:
I wonder if this statement should be re-worded to: "Because almost every household here is, and always been, heavily armed with firearms of all sorts, the previous known homicide, of any type, had been 168 YEARS before that!"
G.Kleinschmidt said:
Wow. Score one for me. Yessss!
Yes, it's 'alien', at least for y'all, anyway.
I am actually surprised, now, because *I* learned that term from another Australian! He was on the Tekscopes yahoogroup, and was wryly remarking about how he or one of his friends had to try to buy up some type of Tektronix part, or something like that, "before the Merkins got 'em all". After a while, someone finally just came right out and asked him what a Merkin was. It turned out to be slang for 'American'!
)And I also thought that you would make the connection between that post, here, and your answer to someone else in another thread, where they asked if you were a creationist. [To which I was tempted to respond with something like 'WTF is that supposed to mean?!', but thought better of it, in your case.]
Sorry if I seem a little cranky, by the way. After being self-employed since 1984, I am starting 'a real job' on Monday!! I'm still looking forward to it (an EE position, working on 'electronic warfare' stuff
), but am now starting to worry about how well (or IF) I'm going to be able to handle getting up early every day (like, 5-AM-early!), and not being able to do whatever I want, whenever I want. Yikes!!! On the other hand, ever since 1984, I've always missed having other engineers to 'talk shop' with. (Besides, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse! ;-)
john blackburn said:
OH!! Haha! WOW. <blush>
Yes, I'm... afraid so.
At the time, it sounded reasonable, i.e. When spoken, 'a merkin' could sound a lot like like 'American'.
But that wikipedia article was really an eye-opener. 'Interesting' stuff.
AND, after reading, there, about all of the 'standard' meanings for that word, they compounded the insult with THIS little gem (especially the last line):
(From wikipedia.com's 'Merkin' entry: )
"On certain Usenet groups, "merkin" or 'merkin can be used to refer to Americans in general, especially those who exhibit "ugly American" tendencies. The term is derived from a phonetic rendering of "American." This usage is fully aware of the standard definition."
Actually, in the context that he was using the word, it probably fits with the above, exactly.
He probably got a chuckle out of being able to explain what it meant in such an innocent manner, and getting away with it. (On the other hand, to be charitable, maybe he, himself, was unaware of the 'standard' definitions.)
I now know better than to use another culture's slang without researching it, first.
Thank you.
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