Conservative and Liberal Communist and capitalist The two ends of the pendulum's swing.

What has worked in the past? What has never worked?

Republics only last as long as the population does not figure out how to use the power of government to take from one segment of the population and give to the other - Frederick Bastiat calls it "Legal Plunder" in his famous essay entitled "The Law" (written in the 1860's - a beautiful piece of work albeit a bit dated but universal truths withstand the test of time)

Once politicians successfully polarize the electorate to the degree illustrated by the posts on this bulletin board, it is only a matter of time before one of the two extremes of totalitarian government are put into power by the teeming masses.

Right now, the pendulum is at near zero velocity all the way to the left almost to the very top of it's swing - it will hover a while before it starts it non-linear acceleration toward the center and if the final blow to freedom occurs, we may see what our friends in Russia saw in 1917 - the complete arrest of movement for about 70 years with the pendulum stuck at the top left position, allowing the fractal image of history to repeat itself. The useful idiots will be eliminated by the government ensuring that they will never be able to repeat the very actions that gave victory to the despot in the first place and the scramble for bureaucratic power at the expense of the common citizen will ensue. The Oligarchy will do whatever is necessary to preserve their special status even if it means starving over 25 million human beings as Stalin did during his reign. I

If the pendulum is dislodged at the lofty position so far to the left, I fear it may swing down with a vengeance to the right and swing rapidly through the middle position until it hovers dangerously to the top right position where, if we are lucky, it will result in the NAZI style of socialism that is so egregious that the rest of the world will come to it's senses and do whatever is necessary eradicate the scourge.

Both extremes of the pendulum result in socialism - they only differ in their personality. Both are totalitarian, both result in immense human misery and both will eventually fail.

Peace and stability are present only when the pendulum swings in a short range around the middle point. It's the only time when there is any balance in the powers that drive society.

At that point, the golden goose is allowed to live by the lefties and there are still cows around to give milk. At the ends of the pendulum travel, foolish zealots kill the golden goose and then wonder where the golden eggs will come from - they kill the cow and wonder why there is no more milk to drink.

Please remember that this is just an opinion. Please do not get a posse together and try to find me or my family to torture - I have a very low tolerance for physical pain and if anything I have said offends you, I will immediately recant and swear allegiance to your side to avoid any discomfort.

But I digress...

On to the real purpose of a BB like this:

Anyone know what the outcome of that Whooznxt contest was?

Thanks!

Thanks!

Both of them are good!

Sami Rae is one of the fastest girl guitarists I've senn in a long time!

I guess it takes a while to evaluate all of the top 96.

Michelle,

Here's our government at work:
Farmageddon
Big agribusiness have resources to deal with the government - small family farms do not. Family farms have personal pride in their produce and we never had the problems you cite when they were the primary source of food.
Crony Capitalism and the necessity of eliminating small business to promote socialist agenda did them in. The same way that local banks have been lured into selling their mortgages to real estate investment vehicles by the government regulations crafted to exactly that - get rid of the little guy and promote the megacorps - the big boys have the resources to support a fascist socialist government.
The last thing the government wants is productive small business!

Let me preface this by saying that I am not a Republican or Democrat - I am as independent as they come and choose to pick candidates that I feel are in the countries best interest - not neccessarily my own, I feel like being a member of either of those institutions is like belonging to either the Crips or the Bloods.

I believe the operative word in the LA Times hit piece is "accused"

After reading the story, I found not a single statement that documented any actual wrong doing.

Every time there is an allegation, it is preceded by "possible", "accused", "allegations", "seemed to", "potentially", "he said", "started an investigation."

The only certain, positive statements were those made by the lynchee:

Sean Spicer, spokesman for the RNC, said the party had "zero tolerance" for voter fraud and cut ties to the firm Wednesday. "We severed our relationship," he said. "We acted swiftly and boldly."

"creating fraudulent voter registration forms would not help the Republican Party"

Here are some of the actual statements from law enforcement:

"None of those allegations have led to criminal charges."

"The Justice Department started an investigation, which did not lead to any charges"

This is nothing more than propaganda being passed off as news.

Notice how they skillfully used innuendo and he-said she-said tactics to deliver their political message. Yep, the election is drawing nigh.

That being said, I am sure that if the tables were turned and the republicans had total control over the american version of "Pravda" they would be just as smarmy and low-life as the democratic/progressive/socialist/communist apparatchiks are.

They are, after all, human beings and as such, left to their own devices will take the low road every time.

Now - on to what this board is really about!

Still no word on the winners of the Satriani master class contest - do you suppose Satch got too busy over the last couple of weeks? It drives me nuts that there is no resolution to this contest of skills, and believe me, if you listen to the links I provided in an earlier post, there are some AWSOME new talents waiting to fill the void that will be upon us when the great guitar instrumentalists decide to kick back and relax. You know, they are not getting any younger and there's very few out there willing to take up the calling!

Look at that Premier 7 piece kit that McCarty is playing back in '68 - compare that to Peart or Portnoy's rig today - Back then, it was all bell-bottoms, brocade, paisley and patchouli. They made real music with the bare minimum that has stood the test of time (even if their style of clothing didn't).

Is this where it's going?