I can never quite get over Cory's British-to-American prose switches.

"If you don't like the posts, don't read them. Hell, read BB using an RSS reader, and just read the articles with appealing headlines."

Perhaps the editors should be pleased. Not every site's readers would bother to explain what it is they don't like and why.

They'd just stop coming.

Now THESE are marvellous. Lovely.

Mmmmhmm. I bought Snow Crash solely on Cory's recommendation. I think it's safe to say that that's the last piece of his literary criticism I'll be giving any credence to. Unless this one doesn't in any way come across like a terribly gauche young man trying so, so hard to be William Gibson?

In terms of combating preconceptions, I'd say Cecile has done a marvellous job with her heavy Gothic type. Way to show 'em.

I don't see why people are so down on it. It's a vocational training course that has been recognised by the establishment. OK, you don't learn much about food prep - aside, probably, from how not to do it - but running a fast food outlet is going to give you some basic people- and money-management skills.

Yes, McDonalds are evil. But coming down on this because it's from the Clown and therefore baaaaaaad is pretty reactionary, not to mention stupid.

Ah, my local Sainsbury's. A football pitch full of foodie goodness in the desert of Islington, assuming that you don't want to shop at the Sunday farmer's market or the Holloway Waitrose.

A) I'm sure the Irish won't mind it being pointed out that Ireland isn't part of Britain.

B) does no one else suspect that the phrase "as well as not financially possible" is as important, if not more so, as the whole "EU law" thing?

But hey, why let the obvious get in the way of a good rant?

"Guernican: can you think of any places in the world today where a population of local insurgents equipped with small arms and improvised explosives are able to resist occupation by the United States Army?"

Yes. Yes of course, it hadn't occurred to me until now. You're not talking about your own hide. You're talking about being part of a desperate, outgunned, our-freedom-or-death insurgency. Everything I've read on this thread convinces me that that's the case. I can feel the waves of self-sacrifice just billowing off the page.

Please. Sit down and shut up before you embarrass yourself any more.

"The point of that comma is that, "because a nation needs an army, citizens also need to protect themselves from that army in case it becomes a junta." So citizens need access to the same tools of war as the military has."

Of all the lame-duck justifications on this thread, this is my favourite. Because, know what? When/if the army DOES become an instrument of repression within the borders of the United States, your junior MAC-10 or penis-enhancing .45 will be more than enough to hold off a battalion of Marines.

Good luck.

I hate to say it, Cory, but my respect for you has diminished somewhat. Stick to Quake, old boy.