The thread title says it all. First, I’m curious to see how many people get this reference. I’m hoping that most will.
My opinion is that we are headed that way. I don’t think we are going to fight a real war against Switzerland, but I believe this provides a good analogy for the next big war.
I look forward to all the Arial bombardment shots on CNN.
I’ll get my coat.
I googled it, so I understand what the Helvetian War was, but I don’t get your analogy. Help, please?
These are the times of the New Romans. High on the Palatino Hill they look towards Geneva.
It seems that “transparency” is a huge buzz word right now, both in the US government and in financial circles.
The Bush administration was the exact opposite of transparent, and Obama has made this one of the pillars of his administration.
One of the big factors in our current financial mess is a complete lack of transparency with what financial institutions were doing (and are still doing) with OUR money. Also, there was an additional layer of obfuscation within the financial industry… obfuscation that was used to screw other similarly educated and trained financial hot-shots. Credit default swaps fall in this category.
Identity theft and personal privacy have been important topics of discussion and continue to be topics that are most likely to affect ordinary citizens in the near future. We want privacy, yet technology is stripping all of it away.
The result is that “privacy” will become a luxury of the wealthy and connected. We all know what happens when wealthy, connected people are allowed to operate in complete secrecy.
It just looks to me like privacy/secrecy and openess are slowly becoming divisive topics, and armies are beginning to form on both sides of the issue. It is still early, but from somebody who was first introduced to this concept 19 years ago, the idea of a war fought over “secrecy” has gone from complete utter fiction to quite plausible.
Davos is going on right now, so all the Swiss-related news currently deals with politicians having meetings and such. What did the Swiss do for us to ransack their villages and take away their (gorgeous) women?
Sans serif, they march proportionally.
Do you mean Swedish (gorgeous) women? Because, uh, bikini team over yodelers any day of the week. ;)
I can’t understand this thread at all. Could someone send a courier to explain it to me?
According to the tracking site, a Ms. Lorem Ipsum signed for it already.
Well, I’m hardly a font of knowledge, myself, on this subject.
You all are a bunch of dingbats. Cry havoc and let loose the quick brown foxes.
I was hoping after the longer explanation by RLMullen that a good discussion would begin. I look forward to following it, but have little to contribute, other than some anecdotes about being required to give your SS# to obtain car insurance with some insurance companies. And I suspect RLMullen is looking for a bit more substance than that.
He’s probably after an argument with real impact. Something bold and justified.
David Brin reference? Earth?
Lucida Sans said this in her latest report:
The Candara and Castellar invasion needs to end immdiately. This act of aggression was out of bounds.
She made hefty comparisons to the recent assault on Georgia.
A bunch of Wingdings, the lot of you.
I should underscore my own confusion. I suspect my intellect is just not of the proper Calibri for it.
Damn comedians! If this was meant as a joke, I vote we ban any comic sans humor!
I never expected the thread to go in this direction, but what the hell. I approve, and no I don’t have any puns to add.