Article

2005-03-08 Europe

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Posted by Seafarious 2005-03-08 00:00:00 AM|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Sure glad we cleared that up.

Posted by PBMcL 2005-03-08 12:25:56 AM|| 2005-03-08 12:25:56 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 "live animals" So was Prince Charles right not to try the local "food?"
I seem to remember some verbiage from the FDA that was at least this detailed...

Posted by James 2005-03-08 12:29:55 AM|| [http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com] 2005-03-08 12:29:55 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 They want to deny Asians dishes like "drunken shrimp" by saying they are not food?

What about live grasshoppers?

Posted by 3dc 2005-03-08 2:15:47 AM|| 2005-03-08 2:15:47 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Somewhere in here, there's a horrible joke about asking a North Korean to provide a written definition of "food" and having him eat the paper and pencil ... but I'm too cultured for such things.

Posted by Rex Rufus 2005-03-08 2:47:51 AM|| 2005-03-08 2:47:51 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 the EU - proving that more is less.

Posted by 2b 2005-03-08 4:03:55 AM|| 2005-03-08 4:03:55 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 I thought the European definition was whatever is halal.

Posted by Mrs. Davis 2005-03-08 8:07:46 AM|| 2005-03-08 8:07:46 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 The term "food" means (1) articles used for food or drink for man or other animals, (2) chewing gum, and (3) articles used for components of any such article.

Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938

So, we have our bureaucrats, too. And we had them 67 years ago.

Posted by Jackal 2005-03-08 9:33:56 AM|| [http://home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html] 2005-03-08 9:33:56 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 LOL Rex R.!

Posted by Shipman 2005-03-08 9:41:13 AM|| 2005-03-08 9:41:13 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 Would they define soylent green as food?

Posted by Steve from Relto 2005-03-08 10:04:37 AM|| 2005-03-08 10:04:37 AM|| Front Page Top

#10 jackal - I went to the link and that was it. It will stand the test of time, whereas the EU will have to keep adding and deleting to the list as times change and lawyers wrangle. Less is more.

Posted by 2b 2005-03-08 10:26:03 AM|| 2005-03-08 10:26:03 AM|| Front Page Top

#11 "The term "food" means (1) articles used for food or drink "

A simple but rather circular definition isn't it? The term "food" means "articles used for food"?

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 10:59:03 AM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 10:59:03 AM|| Front Page Top

#12 it's a difficult concept for you to grasp, isn't it Aris. Kind of like "we the people" v/s your preamble. We don't have to keep updating ours each time something changes.

Posted by 2b 2005-03-08 11:10:31 AM|| 2005-03-08 11:10:31 AM|| Front Page Top

#13 Thanks for the non-sequitur insulting, 2b, when I merely mentioned that a definition referencing itself is, well, the definition of "circular definition".

"We don't have to keep updating ours each time something changes."

No, you only update your *interpretation* of the law, and in order to describe the evolution of your political history, you end up needing to reference a thousand court decisions made by non-elected judges, instead of a thousand laws made by elected parliamentarians.

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 11:34:27 AM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 11:34:27 AM|| Front Page Top

#14 "...non-elected judges..."? I guess that would be a reference to the Supreme Court justices that require confirmation by the Senate. Nomination, then confirmation. No confirmation and the nomination fails. That's not elected?

Posted by Tom 2005-03-08 1:12:14 PM|| 2005-03-08 1:12:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 "Nomination, then confirmation. No confirmation and the nomination fails."

You are describing the exact process that the European Commission (and its President) faces. The European Commission (and its President) are also "confirmed" by the European Parliament, but that hasn't stopped people here from calling them (correctly) unelected.

"That's not elected?"

Ofcourse it's not. Same with the European Commission, that's just "appointed and then approved".

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 5:16:46 PM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 5:16:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 Let me just say, Aris, I hope you get your EU.

Posted by 2b 2005-03-08 5:20:48 PM|| 2005-03-08 5:20:48 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 Your hopes are irrelevant to me, 2b. I'd appreciate your opinion on this issue more: Would you call the SCOTUS judges "elected" as Tom would or not?

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 5:23:32 PM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 5:23:32 PM|| Front Page Top

#18 I have no desire to have a "discussion" with you Aris. Why don't you just go ahead and post your preconceived notions since it never really gets past that point, now does it?

Posted by 2b 2005-03-08 5:28:55 PM|| 2005-03-08 5:28:55 PM|| Front Page Top

#19 Whenever you ask questions about the EU or Greece I do my best to respond, even when it's questions that require page-long answers. But a question that you could answer in a mere sentence or even a mere word, and you don't have the common courtesy to respond, and you instead evade the question.

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 5:33:05 PM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 5:33:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#20 see post #16

Posted by 2b 2005-03-08 5:36:25 PM|| 2005-03-08 5:36:25 PM|| Front Page Top

#21 See post #19, you coward that evades a simple question.

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 5:38:14 PM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 5:38:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#22 Sorry Aris, I'm not in the mood to have a go with you and the strawmen. Maybe some other time.

Posted by 2b 2005-03-08 5:40:52 PM|| 2005-03-08 5:40:52 PM|| Front Page Top

#23 How convenient that you don't happen to be in the mood to answer a simple yes or no question. Coward! Wimp!

I hope you get pecked to death by a giant chicken.

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 5:48:12 PM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 5:48:12 PM|| Front Page Top

#24 Aris, oil your hinges and reassemble. It also looks like some aspirin may be in order.

Posted by Sobiesky 2005-03-08 6:40:20 PM|| 2005-03-08 6:40:20 PM|| Front Page Top

#25 "come back or I'll taunt you again"

Posted by Frank G 2005-03-08 7:31:15 PM|| 2005-03-08 7:31:15 PM|| Front Page Top

#26 One day I'll be famous, I'll be proper and prim,
Gone to St. James so often I will call it St. Jim.
One evening the King will say, "Oh, Aris, old thing,*
I want all of Rantburg your praises to sing.

Next week on the twentieth of May, da-da-da-da-da-da-DA,
I proclaim Frightened Greek Boy Day!

Posted by I Getin Drafted Inamorning 2005-03-08 7:38:14 PM|| 2005-03-08 7:38:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#27 Definition of "elected": "1. To select by vote for an office or for membership."
Senate confirmation is by voting and is thus election. There were plenty of past nominees who were not confirmed and thus did not get into office.

The "thousand laws" enacted by EU parliamentarians (#13) will need interpretation by someone, won't they, Aris? I'll wager that your bureaucrats are sufficiently verbose that there will be a lot of problems. And the multiple cultures and languages will make it even more complicated. Many of the laws will be ignored because they are too verbose and impractical to even read, yet alone to obey.

Honestly, Aris, I thought the old Soviet "central planning" had been thoroughly discredited. But try it if you wish. When the Muslims outnumber you they will simplify everything for you. Have a nice life.

Posted by Tom 2005-03-08 8:24:14 PM|| 2005-03-08 8:24:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#28 Definition of "elected": "1. To select by vote for an office or for membership." Senate confirmation is by voting and is thus election

For it to be a proper selection, you need to have more than one candidates. If you only have one candidate, that's not an election, or even a selection, that's just an approval vote.

Same as the approval votes of the Commission by the European Parliament.

But be my guest. If you admit that everyone claiming the Commission to have been unelected was utterly wrong, then I'll concede that your Supreme Court judges are also "elected". Be consistent with your definition of "elect".

The "thousand laws" enacted by EU parliamentarians (#13) will need interpretation by someone, won't they, Aris?

"Interpretation" of the law in the European sense seems to me a MUCH more limited affair than interpretation of the law as done in USA.

Certainly I remember no major policy decisions being made by courts, like Roe vs Wade or Brown vs Board Of Education in USA.

As for your random personal and non-sequitur attacks and other random efforts to divert the topic yet again (like talking about Muslims in Europe), they again reveal you as thoroughly contemptible. Have a nice death.

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 8:43:06 PM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 8:43:06 PM|| Front Page Top

#29 Have a nice death? My Lentan vow is broken. You insignificant little worm, how dare you? Ban him

Posted by Frank G 2005-03-08 8:48:05 PM|| 2005-03-08 8:48:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#30 Back to my vows - and a confession Saturday

Posted by Frank G 2005-03-08 8:48:53 PM|| 2005-03-08 8:48:53 PM|| Front Page Top

#31 my apologies to RB'ers

Posted by Frank G 2005-03-08 8:54:47 PM|| 2005-03-08 8:54:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#32 How dare I? What, did I insult my "betters" again?

I dare by the same way others "dare" to talk merrily and gloatingly about Europe being destroyed by hordes of invading Muslims, that's how I dare. If you can't stomach open insults, don't launch either open nor covert ones.

Tom's "Have a nice life" in the doublespeak way that means its opposite. Bah!

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 8:57:38 PM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 8:57:38 PM|| Front Page Top

#33 Ban him

Posted by Frank G 2005-03-08 9:00:30 PM|| 2005-03-08 9:00:30 PM|| Front Page Top

#34 *shrug* Ban me, if you will.

But if you don't mind, I'd also first like to know whether wishing death on an entire continent or an entire nation is considered a lesser offense than wishing death on one person.

And I'd also like to know from more people than Tom whether SCOTUS judges are considered to be elected or not.

And as a sidenote, going back to the topic of the thread, I'd like to know whether there's anyone else who thinks that "term "food" means (1) articles used for food" sounds a bit circular.

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 9:06:28 PM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 9:06:28 PM|| Front Page Top

#35 Aris, that was way over the line.

Posted by Matt 2005-03-08 9:06:41 PM|| 2005-03-08 9:06:41 PM|| Front Page Top

#36 Not "hordes of invading Muslims" -- just homegrown Muslims. The Muslim birth rate in Europe is three times higher than the non-Muslim one.

Posted by Krusty 2005-03-08 9:06:56 PM|| 2005-03-08 9:06:56 PM|| Front Page Top

#37 "Have a nice death."

Real classy, Aris. What a pig.

Posted by Dave D. 2005-03-08 9:11:03 PM|| 2005-03-08 9:11:03 PM|| Front Page Top

#38 Matt, not for Aris, he's way over there in paranoid delusions territory. At first I thought it is a language barrier, but few marbles short of full set is now, IMHO, a better diagnosis.

Posted by Sobiesky 2005-03-08 9:11:54 PM|| 2005-03-08 9:11:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#39 Matt, perhaps it was indeed over the line, but it was no more than what they wished me and my entire continent. I prefer to put it into plain words when they've instead learned to use mock-polite expressions to pretend to hide their barbs and claim plausible deniability.

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 9:12:24 PM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 9:12:24 PM|| Front Page Top

#40 Dave D, weren't Tom and .com recently saying that they wouldn't mind if the whole of Greece fell into the sea and disappeared?

Tell me which is the greater offense, wishing death on one, or wishing death on ten millions?

Ooh, I forgot -- one death is a crime, ten million deaths a statistic. Wishing millions of deaths is classy, but wishing one portrays a lack of tact.

Whatever, doublethinkers.

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 9:15:47 PM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 9:15:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#41 Interesting -- Krusty understands better than Aris, and he's just a Simpsons character.

Posted by Tom 2005-03-08 9:16:12 PM|| 2005-03-08 9:16:12 PM|| Front Page Top

#42 I defy you to find a comment where I said I "wouldn't mind if the whole of Greece fell into the sea and disappeared" or even agreed with anyone else saying it. You are out of control and spiraling downward.

Posted by Tom 2005-03-08 9:19:43 PM|| 2005-03-08 9:19:43 PM|| Front Page Top

#43 Tom> You've got a point there and I mildly misremembered - you didn't say that you wouldn't mind, you and .com just said that you wouldn't care one way or another if all of Greece drowned or got swept away by the next tsunami. http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.asp?HC=1&D=2005-02-04&ID=55560

Cheers. I note that nobody called that neither Dave D nor Matt called that over the line, it seems, nor disputed its classiness.

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 9:31:47 PM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 9:31:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#44 ban him

Posted by Frank G 2005-03-08 9:37:10 PM|| 2005-03-08 9:37:10 PM|| Front Page Top

#45 Oh, Aris! I quoted a .com rant that I requested for "The Classics" -- a rant aimed at one of your twitty periods just like tonight. The .com rant was filled with hyperbole. Ever heard of hyperbole? I even credited it and put it in quotes. The fate of millions of Greeks never entered my mind -- it was all about YOU. It's still all about you, isn't it? You never get off the stage, even when tomatoes start flying. What a prima donna you are.

Posted by Tom 2005-03-08 9:46:36 PM|| 2005-03-08 9:46:36 PM|| Front Page Top

#46 Tom, when you yourself say that something *you* did was all about *me*, then it's not me who's the self-obsessed "prima donna", it's you who's obsessed over me.

I take insults on my continent as insults on my continent, insults on my nation as insults on my nation, insults on my person as insults on my person. That's not being *self*-obsessed. That's just me being a humourless SOB with a long memory.

Learn to mean what you say and to say what you mean, Tom. I didn't insult your nation or continent in the effort to insult you.

On other matters, this would have been an all-around much smoother conversation if you hadn't seen fit to intrude irrelevancies like the muslim conquest of Europe in a discussion about whether the Supreme Court of the USA can be considered to be elected or not -- same way that it'd have been smoother if 2b hadn't responded first with rabid hostility at my simple remark that a certain definition seemed circular.

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2005-03-08 10:18:09 PM|| [http://www.livejournal.com/~katsaris/] 2005-03-08 10:18:09 PM|| Front Page Top

#47 If I were pecked to death by a giant chicken â I wonder if the EU would list me, or the giant chicken as the food source?

Posted by Ted Kennedy 2005-03-08 10:39:29 PM|| 2005-03-08 10:39:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#48 Aris! I knew I could find ya in some Euro-type subject matter like this. Anyway, I wanted to make sure you read the thread here "Lessons Learned".

It is about the USMC kickin' ass and takin' names (just like they always do. heh) in Falluja. Tears came to my eyes with pride as I read of what our young Marines did there, Aris. Such fine and determined young men, Aris. I am sure not one of them was thinking of oil or neo-cons or even the EU! They were thinking of their fellow Marines, all engaged in mortal combat with a ruthless, hellish enemy. US Marines. No better friend, no worse enemy.

Anything like the US Marine Corps anywhere in the EU (other than the UK)? Not more than a few platoons. A Marine MEF+ (30K men) could defeat the entire Greek military. Ina long weekend. Pffffft. Soft power? 0 on the turgidity scale. No rise. Flat line. End-of-the-story.

Posted by Brett 2005-03-08 11:54:33 PM|| 2005-03-08 11:54:33 PM|| Front Page Top

17:52 Xbalanke
17:52 Xbalanke
17:04 Crerert Ebbeting3481
17:03 Crerert Ebbeting3481
23:54 Brett
23:49 Sobiesky
23:45 Frank G
23:28 SC88
23:02 Raj
22:45 Frank G
22:39 Ted Kennedy
22:38 Paul Moloney
22:33 CrazyFool
22:22 Frank G
22:19 phil_b
22:18 2b
22:18 Aris Katsaris
22:16 Paul Reubens
22:16 trailing wife
22:14 Frank G
22:13 Eric Jablow
22:10 trailing wife
22:06 Atomic Conspiracy
22:06 Frank G