Eric, in summer of 2005, I encountered info on gold bug sites that led me to believe that the West was in for a crash. Since then, I've been reading 40 hrs a week, on average. I touch on several subjects. As a matter of survival, I spend a lot of time on the worldwide economic picture. You can imagine that when one reads technical sites like this;
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1289503232.php
one has to absorb and correlate? / integrate a huge amount of info.
There is the additional problem of GOV disinformation and the usual net bullshit. Some of the stuff that I post is strictly from memory. It doesn't exist on the net. If you watch the global cooling thread, I rarely venture outside of [generally] accepted sources. Same for the cancer thread. In most of my posts, I try to keep opinion and speculation to a minimum. Y'all can speculate for yourselves just what the outcome may be. MSM specializes in regurgitated news where the outcome is given to you already wrapped up.
As you can imagine, 5 years @ 40 hrs a week is a lot of info to digest and recall. I take a lot of nutrients. Two of these are acetyl-L-carnitine and Cognitex. They are especially good for the memory and cognitive function. For some reason, they also doubled my reaction speed.
Much of the info relative to the economic picture is fragmented. I try to post a complete picture of a given "node". If I find it difficult to integrate a given set of data, I'm sure that others do to. An economic picture isn't very useful if a person can't project at least a little bit into the future. I do speculate on the "winter" thread.
I've always been an amateur student of anthropology. Prehistoric history is such a speculative subject that, I'm not a real stickler for accuracy. The cancer thread,,, I am.
The Burning Man festival shows the extreme creativity of many burners. I hope to add something of interest on the E-Playa for all those creative people. The "bar" thread is warm and cozy but, it has a pretty limited scope. Everybody needs some stimulation.
There are very few absolutes in life and I don't expect anyone to be infallible. One has to take a plausible piece of info and file it away as a reference.... always subject to revision. A reference, not necessarily a fact. This "file" is always subject to revision and rarely held as an absolute fact.
Much of what I post is the opinion or conclusion of someone else. I try to quote knowledgeable sources,, not idiots. The conclusion is implicitly left up to the reader.
I realize that the IJJZ thread is particularly "troublesome" . The problem is not going to go away. The weapons are fecundity and the sword. How can there be a reasonable solution? The ever-increasing encroachment of the palestinians is causing an ever-increasing resentment from the israelis;
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 10,00.html
The Wahhabbists are supporting one side and America is supporting the other. These are powerful interests and we can't afford to ignore the situation.
The israeli state brought in millions? of settlers. William of Orange did the same thing in Ireland. Centuries of strife is / was the result. The thread may be upsetting and one-sided but, can we just ignore the situation? Turkey is 97% muslim and has a hundred nukes. That can't be ignored.
I seem to have drifted

I don't post things because I believe that they are the absolute truth. I post them because I believe that they should be considered.