I thought you'd be on your homeward commute by now, Houellebecq? Or perhaps you're stuck in traffic and tapping on your laptop?

I've just been catching up on the SRI thread and I must say you're in good form today. I'm indebted to you for a good laugh!

I reckon married life's just made you cynical.

Houellie,

"It's only from the position of vast personal wealth that grand gestures of Bill Gates' scale are possible."

What are you trying to defend with a statement like that...and don't be so naive. Have a read of this link, and keep reading down past the bit that highlights "Monsanto in Gates' clothing".

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-03-25/news/29188722_1_paul-kagame-rwanda-agra

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Dear Squeers, Houellebecq, Poirot et al

.

Perhaps you may be interested in reading the article titled "In Queensland, no great barrier to flood recovery" published Thursday on The World Bank blog site. Here is the link:

http://blogs.worldbank.org/eastasiapacific/in-queensland-no-great-barrier-to-flood-recovery

“ Far to the Northward there lies a land,
A wonderful land that the winds blow over,
And none may fathom nor understand
The charm it holds for the restless rover;
A great grey chaos – a land half made,
Where endless space is and no life stirreth;
And the soul of a man will recoil afraid
From the sphinx-like visage that Nature weareth.
But old Dama Nature, though scornful, craves
Her dole of death and her share of slaughter;
Many indeed are the nameless graves
Where her victims sleep by the Grey Gulf-water.”

Banjo Paterson, “By the Grey Gulf-Water”

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[Deleted for abuse.]

"The least we can do is to turn off the light."
What facile piety. So now we can become virtuous to the starving masses in the third world by turning off the light? It would be more to the point to stop destroying their economies with trade restrictions, and lamb-brained anti-economic "aid" interventions destroying local markets.

Squeers
Why don't you cut your own consumption, starting with your internet usage? How can you possibly justify your spending on such an unimportant preference given your views?

And then you can cut your consumption of anything produced using fossil fuels including food, electricity, clothing, transport, communication and entertainment, can't you?

You don't need to wait for governments to do anything. You can just choose any poor person in the third world or anywhere, and send the bulk of your income to them, until your incomes are equal, and encourage them to do likewise.

Do you do so? If not why not?

I hope you're not living in a standard Australian home are you, with lights and heating and TV and video and computer and radio and microwave and hot water and washing machine? How can you possibly justify the inconsistency between what you preach and what you do?

You have never dared to venture a suggestion of what the alternative to private ownership of the means of production is to be. Don't tell me, lemme guess - central planning of all production? That certainly would solve the problem of excess population wouldn't it?

Peter Hume,

So are you saying that people can't communicate opinions concerning the betterment of societal organisation without first attempting to live as if they had already taken place?

...puhlease....