Alas, it ain't no better here.

Our Elder Philosopher p^Hwonders:

So then - what's your take on the "pack animal phenomenon" in Finland, the rest of Euro? Are avge. citizens you observe as insouciant about local politics as our'n?

Yeah, unfortunately they are, more or less.

Here we are mollified, rendered catatonic via the dangled Murican Dream\ufffd\ufffd ie. remain a good drone in the Worker Caste, believe the slogans and someday.. You too may be reincarnated as Pharaoh! Why.. Anyone can become President! [we have surely proven That one].

Here, it's "Remain a good drone in the Worker Caste, believe the slogans and someday... Your children will be Safe and Secure in the protection of the Cradle-to-Grave Welfare State".

Funny thing is, that's the "SOMA" -- NOT the reality, as all those Merkin Bashers(*) of "European 'Cradle-to-Grave Welfare State' Collectivism" seem prone to think.

What's the Soma in your bailiwick? Do folks around there actually participate in the elections, require actual debates, listen to them and vote against patent BS? Or just bitch a lot in better English syntax?

Naah, I'm pretty alone in bitching at this level of English syntax -- apart from the actual English themselves, that is... :-( Most people don't even do that.

They, just like your ComPatriots(+), swallow the bait, slightly different a bait though it may be, and happily chew the Status Cud.

"When the rich assemble to concern themselves with the business of the poor, it is called Charity. When the poor assemble to concern themselves with the business of the rich, it is called Anarchy."

-Paul Richards

Sounds like a pretty smart guy; who the heck is (was?) he, and why haven't I heard of him before now?

(*): Hello, Bogey-Fake!

(+): Hmm... And they complained about "ComSymps"!

[followed by trumpet fanfare] \ufffd Tom Lehrer '50s

[link|http://bookshop.libdems.org.uk/author.jsp?ID=68| Paul Richards] - for one ref.

(At least there are Liberal, Labour parties in UK - along with whatever the Tories are calling selves lately (besides Liege, Sire)). It's bloody insipid crap when there's only our One Party.. which can't figure out what it wants to 'conserve'. Clearly the vaunted US Constitution ain't one of the things)

ComPatriots.. hmm has a ring to it. I See ~~~
I See: The Winter pre-War Schedule !!!

Mud Wrestling in Arena at 11
ComPatriots VS ComSymps [Boo!]

Open rules:
\ufffd dangling participles and insipid slogans permitted
\ufffd that which is not prohibited is compulsory
\ufffd no *definitions* of blab-words required [One Night only!]

Door prize - Choice of
\ufffd John Wayne's first draft deferment notification, in aspic.
\ufffd Herb Caen's original tripewriter in glass-house case.

Well, there's +Fox's Saturday lineup for the winter.

+ Our imported Official Provider of Grossness in Meeja

Ashton
[Seriously though *cough* - I've never before seen the state of 'Language' over here, in such desperate straits. Every public utterance (not as usual - 'just most') is a baldfaced-Lie/Dissemble or the start of a Tissue-of. G\ufffdbbels possessed at least a pseudo-rationale within most fulminations; our 'writers' just spout unpolished turds. And.. hardly a peep, except from the Usual Suspects, who aren't reported anyway.]

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