Sorry to take so long to answer... I've been managing the Wrold for
youse..

Well.... It sure as Hell has me wondering what 'Free Trade' is supposed
to mean... and just _who_ has access to 'Free Trade'.

I believe that the internet has become the foremost propaganda tool of
many different countries and industries. As such, the spotlight has
turned even further away from shortwave broadcasts, and so it can be
more of a service for those who are interested, as opposed to one for
those who must know what is going on elsewhere. The content has changed
from when you may have listened to, say, 'Radio Free Prague' as a
youngster. ('Bet you know _all_ about how to run a potatoe farm).

In fact that reminds me: you are living just south enough in the USA to
be able to (just perhaps) grab some of the digital radio programs off of
the AmeriStar satellite. These are beamed at South America, and there
are other satellites that beam programs to Afrika and Asia. All this is
under the umbrella of the WorldSpace broadcasting system, started by a
Nigerian born and USA educated lawyer. Allot of the big world political
stars are also backing them. Stevie Wonder is one of their biggest
supporters, as his way of helping to sort Afrika out. The beauty of this
system is that it is digital and the receivers are cheap as dirt. You
can be listening to Australia, say, while toting a walkman sized radio
on your belt. Sure you can read the Web, but it is not the same, and the
radio is often un-edited (read: sometimes you hear the TRUTH).

IIRC, you can get them through their website at:

http://www.wrn.org

Another thing you can do is plug WorldSpace into Goooogle Groups and
some of the more serious radio groups will fall out. You can ask them if
anybody in South Dade has been able to cop those waves on a digital
receiver or not. They would be able to tell you also just what the
content is on WorldSpace (you have upwards of 40 channels).

Lest you think that I'm only down on all of youse, that is not true:
when younger and in school in Europe, we quickly learned NOT to travel
with Kanadian flags on our bags. When Kanadians were within earshot, I
was careful to keep my mouth shut, lest I be associated with them. When
working in an Irish Pub in Montreal, I saw the exact same mentality in
German and Japaneese and British tourist groups. It happens to all of
us... it is a form of xenophobia even amoungst those who try to keep
open minds. BION, one of the best describers of this mentality that I
have ever seen is GB Trudeau (Doonsbury) in his cartoon  chronicling of
the Viet Nam war years. Some of those anthologies should be studied at
the University Foreign Affairs level.

....???? ! ! ! ....I'm sorry: What was the question again?........

I find it pathetic.... and now, the country is again in real danger of
falling apart due to some a.sholes who went too far in patronage
mongering...

You're right, but I can't speak Mohawk, Arapaho, Cree or Inuit...
Neither can many of their own children.

...;-) :-) ;-) :-) ;-) :-) ;-) :-) ;-) :-) ;-) :-) ;-) :-) ;-) :-) ;-)

SP
Finally: take out the TRASHH.... and a lot of it IS just that...

    Well for one thing, they could adjust the COLA.  In light of the
improvements in technology over the last decade or so, and in light of the fact
that we are in a war, and in light of the fact that our refinerys are nearly
maxed out, don't you think increasing the COLA for the first time in some ten
years is a logical move?

    What percentage of the population has that problem?  When was the last time
you saw a Yugo?  True subcompacts are a rare breed these days.

    Perceived perhaps, but the statistics say something else.

    We had little league teams long before we had minivans.

    I mean "scarce" in the economic sense; that does not mean "hard to find",
it means that there is a large demand and a finite supply.  Here in south
Florida, land is a scarce resource, yet it is everywhere.

Thanks!  You too, and the rest of the smd family.

Vaughn

    Huh?  You have to be careful to distinguish between annualized and monthy
figures.  The PPI has risen 1.3% in the last 60 days.  That annualizes to a rate
of 7.8%.  Not double-digit yet, but not that far from it.

From the BLS: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ppi.nr0.htm
"The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods advanced 0.6 percent in
April, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S.
Department of Labor reported today.  This increase followed a 0.7-percent
rise in March and a 0.4-percent gain in February.  At the earlier stages of
processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods climbed
0.8 percent, after advancing 1.0 percent in the previous month, while the
crude goods index moved up 2.7 percent, following a 4.3-percent rise in
March.  (See table A.)"

    "Among finished goods, much of April's increase was due to a 2.1-
percent advance in the energy goods index.  Excluding prices for energy
goods, the finished goods index inched up 0.1 percent.  The indexes for
finished consumer goods other than foods and energy, capital equipment, and
finished consumer foods also increased in April--rising 0.2, 0.2, and 0.1
percent, respectively.  Excluding prices for foods and energy, the index
for finished goods increased 0.3 percent in April, compared with a 0.1-
percent gain in the prior month."

    That was then, this is now.  You are correct, deflation is bad for the
econony, as is inflation.  That said; at this stage of my life deflation is the
least of my worries.  It would increase the value of the pension that I can
start drawing any time I wish, and increase the value of my savings.  The value
of my home might drop through the toilet, but I happen to live here and it is
not for sale anyhow.

    Yes, but not enough to make up for inflation.

Vaughn