Incredibly well put, RicB! Paul Bruesch Stillwater, MN <div class="gmail_quote">On Dec 30, 2007 3:12 PM, Richard Brekne <<a href="mailto:ricb@pianostemmer.no">ricb@pianostemmer.no</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Hi Alan    I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy, hale and hardy New Year. The same back to you !    I dread the upcoming avalanche of political BS, nastiness, and hard    feelings that we in America are about to experience. Let us resolve    to not partake of any negativity among our pianotech community,    friends and colleagues, regardless. Why are you expecting more political BS then usual prey tell ?    We are still at war and things just took a very nasty turn with the    murder of Benazir Bhutto. As I see it, this war, of which Iraq is    only one skirmish, will likely last for many long years; and that    will be regardless of who is elected next November. Let us resolve    to remember that what we share as free people in free nations is    bigger than our political or religious disagreements and that    freedom, itself, is more fragile than we can imagine. Hmm... Hard to avoid debate here when disagreements go deep into the whole basis for why the US is <<at war>>.  As for the fragile freedom... last I checked it looked rather shattered already.... barely hanging together as it were. My own personal take on all this is that Orwell was far more foresighted then we even now give him credit for... and that the golden heyday of great western democratic adventure of the past 300 or so years is hastening to its end.  The US's power is spent and overextended, regardless of the reasoning behind the various sorties of the recent past.  Its % of the GWP is dwindling and on a probable irreversible downwards spiral whilst China now nearly equals it and is on a very steep upwards curve.... conveniently they also have a non-intervention policy which basically holds their international engagements budget to zip diddly. The EU is slowly consolidating... but probably will be to late to assume leadership in the world.  Our grandchildren at the latest will see a world in which Asia calls the shots... what will become of the Americas is anyones guess. An ominous uncertain future is in front of us to be sure. Democracy in any real sense of the word is already being shoed out the back door. Nasty shame if you ask me. Anyone ever seen a painting of the city of Rome anno circa 1000 A.D. ?  Scary thought. But then I suppose in the end it is inevitable. Grin... I wonder how long it will be when someone will seriously try to interpret the right to bear arms to include your average backpack sized nuke....    Other than those two somber thoughts, I have resolved, absolutely,    to make no New Year's Resolutions whatsoever; so far I have been    completely successful in that resolve. On these more then somber words I'd remind you all of a Christian precept...  one that I tend to see as more then reasonable despite not being particularly religious myself... at least in the usual sense of the word.  Mankind... despite all his/hers good intentions and efforts are doomed to fail... and have been since the proverbial original sin or beginning if you prefer.  In the end our inability to get along with ourselves and our environment will be our undoing.  Indeed... thats the main justification for the need of salvation.  I'm not all that sure about the salvation bit... but that we in the end don't quite <<make it>> isn't hard to see.  In fact I find it more then a little difficult to shut out enough of that vision for my daily dose of sanity. Still... we have ourselves.. and those we can influence... and there is more then a little comfort in that thought.  We CAN choose to be part of that which stands against the tide... to resist the prevalence of evil. That <<fight>> doesn't start with any far away war or distant woe.  It starts in each of our own hearts.... with the will to reach out in friendship instead of fiendishness. The willpower to not lash out in scorn or criticism or worse.  Or... as another one of my favorite folks so many claim faith in said it... to love even ones enemies.... to turn the other cheek when struck.  We CAN as individuals choose which life we ourselves will live.    Best wishes to all and Happy New Year! Stay tuned ... Best wishes to you to Alan.... and don't worry about staying tuned... not much of a choice really.  Besides... whatever the future may bring I doubt seriously it will be boring. Cheers RicB    Alan Barnard    Salem, MO </blockquote></div>