Well, here I am again.

A cousin of mine is getting married on Saturday. I just found out that my sister didn't get an invitation, but my wife and I did. Needless to say, my wife and I are a bit annoyed by this -- so we are not going. Am I rude in doing this?

Post 212068 on the FNM board is a challenge I am making to a Chomskyite on that board (at the least, he quotes Chomsky frequently). The honest ones are interested in discussion about the challenges of setting up proper international institutions, whereas the dishonest ones are more interested in complaining about the USA's allged "hyperpower," when they fail to realise that a duopoly in power leads to a Cold War and a multipolarity of power seems to lead to frequent jockeying for power, as the history of Europe between 1500 and 1945 seems to indicate.

I have commented frequently that World War II was the equivalent of the Ludovico Treatment from A Clockwork Orange regarding Europe. Witness Europe's inability to handle civil strife of a hateful nature in its own backyard during the 1990s.

It is my fervent hope that (1) the USA's excessive militarism and Europe's excessive pacifism can be balanced out -- neither is exactly helpful to the world as it stands -- and (2) that the USA does not need to undergo further Ludovico Treatments a la 9/11 to be cured of this miltarism.