I prefer when Usenet was the was the way to communicate.

Given the context it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that he meant that only naive people thought politicians shouldn’t be for sale.

The place is already taken:

Bets are open: will this game come out before George R R Martin is finished with the next book in GoT?

You have to think of all the lawyers that would be out of a job if you implemented that simple and efficient solution.

Do you get a volume discount on litigation? “Sue five people, pay for four”?

This reminds me of the old Eddie Murphy movie “The Distinguished Gentleman” where Eddie’s character happens to have the same name a a recently deceased congressman and run for a third party hoping that enough people will be confused and vote for him: “Vote Jeff Johnson, the name you know”.

Then there is the countries that are easy to enter, like Cuba, but illegal according to US law, so you have to convince the Cubans not to put a stamp in your passport or you could face prosecution when returning to “the land of the free”.

What did pigs ever do to you to be insulted in this way?

Power corrupts, and the Catholic church may be the oldest power structure that exist.

It’s also surprisingly common how people who are intelligent and knowledgeable in one area act like fools outside their expertise. I recall a video by Nobel laureate Ivar Giaever where he dismisses climate science based on the thorough knowledge gained from “I spent a day or so - half a day maybe on Google”.

Iceland has a population of only 350 000. It’s a miracle they show up as often as they do in international competitions.

Lenin and Stalin was sent into Russia by Germany during WW I to cause chaos and get Russia out of the war. Russia learned the lesson and sent Trump to USA.

Yes, throwing a javelin at his back is so much more sporting :-)

Proper response:

Civet coffee is even more strange.

He should to it Obelix style.

That sounds like project Babylon, Saddam Hussein’s supercannon that was never finished. The designer was assassinated (probably by Mossad) and the whole project destroyed during the war with USA.

Illustrations like that are made by artists, often with little input from the author. Are you sure this is Verne’s concept?

At the same time USA imposed sanctions on Russia for annexing Crimea that was part of Russia until 1954, USA also keeps pouring money into Israel that has annexed Jerusalem and parts of Syria. Hypocrisy or collusion?