MsGuy

So if it's not practical to attend all the military funerals, why is the general officer's to be the exception? If the Prez wants to honor one for all, why not choose the corporal's? Two stars can get all the rigamarole the general's family wants. A corporal's family might actually derive some comfort from the President showing up.

States that are based on underlying tribal constructs (say Germany or Poland) are a bit more natural to homo sapiens sapiens. Takes a lot less work to convince the folks they share an identity worth rallying around. But I agree that anything beyond an extended family is artificial and requires a lot of social effort to maintain. The interesting thing is not that larger social/political constructs are difficult to create and keep going. What's interesting is that it's possible to do it at all. Who would believe it was possible to convince several hundred million folks that they should share resources like they were family if we couldn't look around and see it done every day. Back in the 1780's there was a lot of carping that it would be impossible to get 3 million folks scattered from Boston to Savannah to feel any kind of kinship. Well, it took 4 score and a bit more years, but we managed to get it done. (Did you notice that the use of the first person plural in the previous sentence didn't throw you for a loop? Took a lot of effort by many generations of people for that little "we" to be unremarkable.)

Explain to me why a two star's funeral is more deserving of respect than that of a no name corporal in a sealed coffin.

Before we turn the page on those whacky Scots, take a look at these poll numbers in America. Yep, 24% of Americans are sympathetic to the notion of their state seceding from the Union. The good ole US of A is no less an artificial social construct than the UK of E,S,W&NI.

OK, a bunch of new districts reported and it's about 54/46% NO. Those totals included Glasgow (which voted YES but by not nearly the margin it would have taken for a SNP win) so it's all over now but the shouting. Probably lots of drunk Scots tonight and lots of Scotch drunk. Bedtime for me folks. (kiss)

I'd play the Palin part tonight, AS, and let you have Cleese, but I'm starting to get sleepy. That's why I linked to the live count site in the first place. Sorry. ====== Oh, and 12 districts are now reporting, only two (albeit largeish ones) went for YES. Count now 46.8 YES and 53.2% NO. About 80% of total vote still out. ===== And somehow I forgot to mention that the Orkneys have threatened to secede if Scotland votes YES. Seems that they are 90% Norwegian descent, were originally a marriage dower to the English Royals (or some such) from the King of Norway were only recently (like 200 years ago) merged with Scotland and, in any case, have their own unique accent & don't trust those Celts one little bit. Scotland can say goodbye to a lot of that North Sea oil if they pull that off.

YouGov Plc reported the NO vote at around 54% based on it's exit polling of actual voters.

Here's a live count site for referendum results. Currently with 4 of 32 districts reporting, the vote's about 42% YES and 58% NO. ===== Inverclyde, a mid-sized city (for Scotland) came in at damn near 50/50. Tiny edge for NO. (SNP needed at least a marginal win here.) From the way things are going, & since Edinburgh (2nd largest city) is expected to swing substantially NO, now looks like Glasgow will have to go very heavily YES to offset NO votes gradually building up elsewhere. The border districts are thought to be reliably NO areas (although none are reporting yet.).

Well, the first of the 32 regional voting districts has reported in with an NO vote by a 54% to 46% margin. Clackmannanshire, in central Scotland, had been thought to be leaning toward the SNP and independence. I read somewhere that the Republicans in England were calling for a Parliamentary Inquiry into the Queen's behavior. Apparently her cautioning the Scots to "think carefully about the future" has them outraged. I'm not too big on the English royals, but that seems a bit much. (Full disclosure: I did have a bit of a crush on Charles, flappy ears and all, back when I was a teenager.)

Patience, young Skywalker, patience. Results aint due until Sunday. Although Lurker deleted your best category. Life ain't fair.

Go for it, OZ. Statistically speaking, you'll probably be safer in Israel than in Jordan. You might want to hold back on advising Israelis on their how they conduct their relations with Pals. Israelis tend toward aggressively argumentative and blunt to the point of rudeness in their conversations. No joke, there's even a government office that tries to coach Israelis on how to talk with foreigners w/o offending them.

The English habit of referring to all things Scottish as 'Scotch' will probably account for several thousand Yes votes in the coming referendum.

Hahahahahahahaha...

Damn right, RA1. Except in salad, vegetables had to be boiled down to a custard like consistency. Salads were mostly iceberg lettuce (none of that weird stuff. I'm pretty sure iceberg was all our local Kroger carried) and a chopped tomato, all drowned in 1000 island dressing. Maybe some diced celery if you were out at a restaurant.

Boy's gonna get all wrinkly making faces like that.

Crisco's just the thing for fluffy biscuits and crispy fried chicken. Ketchup = best steak sauce ever! One uncle put it on scrambled eggs. But, then he was a yankee and did all sorts of strange things. You could cut out the red pepper & vinegar as far as I was concerned. Oh, and meat had to be well done or I wasn't eating it.

I think those would go in down better with a little EVOO, Sucky.

"Miss Vinegar Veins" without so much as a "bless his heart" to accompany it? Harsh, AdamSmith. I'm agast.

So where the fuck were you? It's not like you to be so closed mouth about your trips. Speculations here ran from an illegal visit to Castroland to a humanitarian trip to Ebolaville but no one seemed to have the inside dope. Personally I leaned toward the CIA blackmailing you into a secret mission to spy on ISIS but I thought discretion called for holding back from posting that until your return with head safely intact on your neck. ==== But to answer your question, things rocked along about like normal except that Suckrates went on strike for a while so there was a temporary shortage of cute boy pix. Several long threads by Driver on his trip to Brazil that are worth reading. He has a new way of looking at reportage.

What a lovely post, ihpguy. You're sweet.

Funny old lady.

Well young Beiber... Shall we get started?

Bitch with the axe gonna be suspended indefinitely from the NFL.

Naw...I wanna see him nekkid and jerking. Preferably in hi-def.