Recent Comments

1. about 1 month ago on Fowl Language

   I live on the Ligurian coast. Every winter we used to have 1-2 days of snow. It’s some years that we don’t get even close. But some still have doubts about global warming…

2. about 1 month ago on Cul de Sac

   (read 1st part of the reply above)

   robert423elliott confuses “democracy” with “direct democracy” in which all citizens participate in the legislative activity, as in ancient Athens. Impossible now for the huge number of citizens. So USA, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Japan and UK are “representative democracies”, where the people elect their representatives in free and fair elections. True democracies nonetheless.

   the argument by robert423elliott (we pledge allegiance to a Republic, not to a Democracy) is flawed. Republic stands for “state”, while democracy is a possible FORM (the only acceptable) of a state. That is, republic is to democracy as “person” is to “honesty”. I can marry (that is, pledge eternal love to) a person, if she/he is honest. I cannot marry honesty itself. And I claim the right to divorce that person if she/he ceases to be honest. As I claim the right to cease allegiance to my republic if it ceases to be a Democracy

   Rejecting Democracy amounts to advocating a fascist state, or a personal dictatorship like that of Stalin, Castro or Mobutu. Because ideas like civil liberties, free speech, free and fair elections etc. are embedded in the concept of Democracy, much more than in that of Republic. So, claiming that USA are not a Democracy amounts to denying the value of those very ideas which the US Constitution poses as the basis of American society.

3. about 1 month ago on Cul de Sac

   robert423elliott is obviously trying to sell the idea that the only legitimate party in US is the Rep one. Too easy to prove him wrong.

   Democracy means “Power of the People” and “We the People” is the beginning of the USA Constitution. Which, therefore, DEFINES the USA as a democracy.

   Republic means “the thing (the state) which belongs to everybody”, opposed to Monarchy which means “government by one” but also, in many historical cases, “where everything belongs to one” (e.g. to the Sultan in the Ottoman Empire)

   So USA, Italy, France and Germany are Democracies AND Republics, but Republic is the least important term, since there are no real Monarchies (almost) any more, and “republic” has become a synonym of “state”. Indeed, Spain, Japan and UK could be deemed republics, too. They are monarchies only in a formal sense, since real power belongs to representatives of the people. While China and N. Korea can be republics but most surely are NOT democracies, even if the ruling party (or the Kim on duty) claims to govern in name of the people. Who, though, cannot express themselves through free speech or free and fair elections (and N. Korea is a de facto hereditary monarchy). Iran is a republic where the people does elect their president and representatives who, though, are subject to the control of the “Rahbar” and an assembly of religious leaders, so it’s a democracy only in a very limited sense. Does robert think that the USA should be more like China, N. Korea and Iran or Japan and UK?

   (2nd part follows)

4. 4 months ago on Barney & Clyde

   Darwinian adaptation to assure survival of the species at work

5. 5 months ago on Cul de Sac

   what the butterfly should have mentioned is that you never know whether eliminating the butterfly will not bring upon you worse consequences 20 years from now

6. 8 months ago on Cul de Sac

   lethargy didn’t work so well for dodos !

7. 10 months ago on The Boondocks

   So, if you have “a drop of black blood”, you ARE BLACK ? That’s what racist enslavers thought around 1860). Because, in their minds, blackness was DIRT. And a single drop of dirty water makes a whole bucket of clean water dirty. But WHY should we keep adopting the point of view of those racist enslavers?

8. 11 months ago on Baby Blues

   Amoxina 250 mg/5 ml polvere per sospensione orale flacone 100 ml, 3.28 € in Italy NOW (not in ’93)Hey, but Italy and Denmark are socialist countries, right? The antechamber of hell!

9. over 1 year ago on Wizard of Id Classics

   sorry to spoil a good pun but, actually, it’s because you’re in electrical contact with the ground that voltage kills you

10. over 1 year ago on Wizard of Id Classics

    do you feel better now? (’23)