What Do You Think Today?

[peter]

Hey Dan - whachoo on today man! ( )

[aTOMiC]

Maybe we should upgrade this thread to Major Discussion.

I agree though I personally think General is way too high a rank for this thread. A Major is just above Captain so I would say Captain Discussion. Lieutenant Discussion would work as well. I would have suggested Sergeant Discussion but Null would have gotten the wrong idea.

[Avatar]

More like general mayhem than general discussion...

--A

[peter]

Any let's not forget General Apathy who occasionally creeps in.

[JIkj fjds j]

Any let's not forget General Apathy who occasionally creeps in.

[Avatar]

Any let's not forget General Apathy who occasionally creeps in.

Haha, yeah, good point.

--A

[peter]

In a result as far as I am aware unparalleled in the annals of political history, the New South Wales Parliament has unanimously passed a vote branding Donald Trump a "revolting slug" and deeming him unfit to hold political office. While some have observed that this might be somewhat unfair to slugs, I myself would be most interested to see how they would attempt to backtrack on this apparently so equivocal a verdict in the event of his winning.

[Avatar]

Apart from being very Australian, and pretty amusing, I'm not sure what point that serves. It's not like they have any say in it. (Or even necessarily any right to have a say, beyond that right anybody has to have an opinion about something.)

Amusing though.

--A

[peter]

I remember on one occasion shortly after 9-11, a man in India being arraigned before the courts on the charge of "looking like Osama Bin Laden" (only in India.....). This to me has something of the same feel about it! it's pointless - but you gotta love it!

[Avatar]

--A

[aTOMiC]

Today I think...

that you should be able to close your ears the way you close your eyes.

that rainbows are jerks because the actually have no end to find.

that the approach of cool weather and the holiday season makes me feel just a little bit more alive.

that aliens exist and have visited this planet but that they are notorious practical jokers and only appear when no one is really looking.

that I don't think I can stand to watch one more political ad on television.

that steam is elusive.

that somewhere out there is the perfect occupation for me, a calling that provides untold gratification and monetary compensation but is always hiding just out of sight no matter how hard I look for it but will be revealed when I no longer need it.

that in the future there will be a better way to clean your bum than toilet paper.

I think that's it for now.

[peter]

Had (by coincidence) intended to post 'thin toilet paper' in the Pet Peeves thread, but given the glancingly scatological observation above this seemed (today at least) an appropriate place for the inappropriate. Thin toilet paper....... I mean, do I have to spell it out!

[JIkj fjds j]

Gives a whole new meaning to the term 'shit for brains!'

[peter]

"Three things in life are important. The first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; the third is to be kind."
[Henry James]

[peter]

There has been a furore about the questionable age of the 'children' seen debouching from the coaches bringing asylum granted refugees to the UK. Much was made of the government's decision to allow 300 or so children immediate entry, and it was with some surprise that people saw on their TVs the chosen children to be adolescent males certainly in their later teens.

I have some sympathy with this. If the camps in Calais are awash with children at risk, as we are told, then certainly they must be given the sanctuary they need - but where are they? Where are the toddlers, the 10, 11 and 12 year olds clearly identifiable as children in the way that most of us accept the use of the word. Why are the semi-adult individuals we see being given preference as the first selected to come. It was disingenuous to use the term 'children' to create a public perception that would foster acceptance of what would clearly be a contentious policy when/if the reality were unveiled. As to the problem of ascertaining the age status of those who are given places on the coaches, perhaps i should be drafted in to help. I have to make that judgement in the shop 100 times a day under threat of legal punishment if I get it wrong, and can absolutely guarantee that no-one who was not of 'minor' status would get on.

(In case my views on the UK's meeting it's obligations in respect of providing asylum to refugees from war-torn Syria are misunderstood, can I state unequivocally that I am 100% behind us meeting our commitments in this regard - but believe equally that it should be done in an open and straightforward manner and not hidden behind smoke and mirrors tactics that fool no-one.)

[Avatar]

Seems a strange thing to smoke and mirror about...

--A

[peter]

......... and absolutely unnecessary to boot. No-one wants to see minors left in a situation of risk and we have a moral responsibility to provide safe haven to those that are with immediate effect.

Another odd inconsistency is that it has been explicitly stated that those being granted fast-tracked entry already have family present within the UK (why in the case of children at risk would the even be a consideration?) - but it seems that they are being distributed into the care of regional authorities across the country. Surely they as true minors, would join the families they already have present here

I'm painfully aware that it might sound like I'm a member of the anti-immigration camp with these posts, but (at risk of overstating the case ......"methinks you do protest too much" etc ) nothing could be further from the truth. I simply see a fundamental difference between seventeen year old adolescent males and five year old children in terms of the risk they can be said to be at balanced against the risk they might pose in terms of their potential for having already been radicalised against the West.

[peter]

On TV, in the shops and on packaging the use of the word 'grab' is a frequent reminder that we as consumers are becoming a bad mannered and impatient lot. On the shopping channels we 'grab a deal', we buy 'grab bags' of crisps etc from the fixtures and I think it panders to the trend to believe that we must always be first, be at the front of the queue, even at the price of being rude and ill mannered to our fellow men and women. Time I think to be prepared to step back, to actually be prepared to allow someone else to 'get the deal', even at the cost of loosing out oneself. In the long run we'd all be the better for it if we reign back this tendency to always demand to be the winner.

[Avatar]

Yeah, good luck with that...problem is it plays into our evolutionary drive to protect/promote/advantage the self against all comers.

--A

[peter]

Yeah - I know it ain't happening Av, but the whole of the civilisation process has been underpinned by attempting to move beyond our base evolutionary drives and I'm damned if I'm going to go through life snatching and grabbing for crap I don't even need. I prefer a more leisurely way............