What Do You Think Today?

[ussusimiel]

attenuated?

u.

[peter]

Attenuated is coming damn close if it isn't the actual word [I have gotten to a place where I no longer have a fixed 'tip of my tongue' point for reference]. Are there any others I can 'try on for size'.

[peter]

Of all the activities that the brain can indulge in, 'worry' must be the most futile. Nothing does or does not come to pass as a result of worry; nothing is changed by one jot or one tittle, be ever so much how much worry is used to manure it. One might say that worry is a 'spur to action', a drive to do that which might avert future problem, but I say no more than a healthy dose of 'right thinking' would do - and without the attendant stomoch ulcers. So let that be our goal [or mine at least]; take that fraudster worry by the scruff of the neck, fling him out into the street and eschew him.

[peter]

British Chancellor Goerge Osbourne is being praised to the rafters for allowing pensioners [for the first time] to release the equity in their pension funds to spend as they will, rather than have to take an anual annuity as was previousely the case. This is all fair and good and very nice for those fortunate enough to have large savings of this kind to fall back on. But it does nothing to adress the dire straits faced by the millions of workers at the bottom end of the pile, who have worked for minnimum wages of one third less than the calculated 'livable wage' and have thus never had the luxury of exess income left over with which to pay into such plans. The Conservative Government say they will follow this highly popular move by turning their attention to inheritance tax, where it is their intention to raise the threshold at which the tax will 'kick in' to £1 million. Again - nice if you've got it. But surely at some stage there has to be a realisation that you can't keep ignoring the huge numbers of disenfranchised and disenchanted people who work for peanuts, form the base from which all wealth generated by the society ultimately flows and are cut no slack whatsoever by sucessive governments of whatever flavour or color. Does it not cross the minds of these people that this army of 'have nots' who bear the cost of the failure of an economic model based simply on competition, will not stay silent forever. They see what is occuring in the Ukraine - that a time can come when only by decisive action can your voice be heard - and by then it is too late. If the barricades ever start to burn in Westminster square will the government of the day aply the same principles to it's actions as it expected of the beleguered ex-Ukranian government?

[I'm Murrin]

The answer to your last question is: "Everyone is the hero of their own story."

[peter]

Trier of the Year Award must go to the man who attempted to hijack a plane with a bar of 'Toblerone' and a blanket wrapped around his head.

The 23 yo Finn [who had had previous mental health issues the court was told] wrapped two economy class blankets around his head such that only his eyes remined visible and advanced on the cockpit brandishing a Toblerone bar like a samuri sword, demanding to be taken to Sochi so he could see the Winter Olimpics. 10 out of 10 for optimism, but 0 out of 10 for judgement - the case is being heard in China where the punishment for attempted hijack is death.

[edit; one assumes that it was one of the larger size Toblerones [say the 250g pack size] - even this guy would have realised how ludicrous he would have semed attempting this with a bar that was only 4" long.]

[peter]

Tricky dilema yesterday during a family game of scrabble when I had the chance to lay the word 'ONANISM' and score a double word score to boot. How I would face the inevitable questions at first caused me to hesitate and then I thought "To hell with it - We're all adults here." and went ahead anyway. There was a brief uncomfortable shuffling which soon passed and in fact my eight year old grand-daughter did not even seem to notice.

[wayfriend]

Do eight year olds qualify as adults in your scrabble games?

[Avatar]

Well, really, Onan's sin was refusing to impregnate his dead brother's wife...

--A

[peter]

Do eight year olds qualify as adults in your scrabble games?

Sorry Wayfriend - it was a weak attempt at being funny. [The tale is true in it's essentials exept by the time of 'the O word' she had got fed up and gone off to play 'Minecraft' {whatever that is}]

[wayfriend]

Do eight year olds qualify as adults in your scrabble games?

Sorry Wayfriend - it was a weak attempt at being funny.

I'm afraid I have to make the same claim about my response.

And what would you have done if the eight year old gave you a hard, suspicious look when you played onanism?

[peter]

I did wonder after I posted Wayfriend! Thankfully the situation did not arise, though the 'thirty something' element of the family did groan a little and roll their eyes.

A 'Scrabble' related question. There were three of us playing [after the 8yo deserted who had been partnering her dad who remained] and we finished up with the scores 213 beat 212 and 212. It's the first time I've played Scrabble for so long I can't remember. Tell me, is this kind of 'grouping of scores' a feature of the games arrangement [ie is it just a consequence of the numbers and the squares on the boards etc that occurs more often than not] or is it a pure coincidence [possibly designed by a benevolent deity who realised the long term acrimony that widely divergent scores could have introduced into our household].

[peter]

I am reading a book [which we are currently discussing over in 'The Loresratt' - come and join the fray] in which it is reported that the performing of DBS [electrical stimulation of deep seated regions of the brain by means of surgically inserted probes] resulted in 60% of parkinsons disease sufferers reporting a significant improvement in the shaking of their hands following the treatment. This leads me to propose a test [forthwith to be known as 'Peters Brandy Test'] for use in deciding whether to have a proposed theraputic treatment, be it by chemotheraputics or surgical intervention.

Ask yourself or indeed the clinician proposing the particular route of treatment, if it will significantly improve your condition over and above two stiff glasses of brandy taken three times daily and if the answer is no then decline it. I propose 'Peters Brandy Test' on the basis of an old saying [which I've used in these pages before] that 'What brandy can't cure - can't be cured!"

[aliantha]

Sounds like a plan. I'm in.

[peter]

Glad to hear it Ali - I need someone on my side!

I eat four bars of chocolate a day which quadruples my chance of getting diabetes. Luckily I drink four cups of coffe a day which todays papers tell me reduces my chances by three quaters.

[peter]

Yesterday I went into town on my day off at about 9.30 am. Crossing the 'piazza' the life of the town was stirring itself into action, but there was a man asleep on the benches with his few meagre belongings in plastic bags beneath him as he slept.

I live in the UK where we pay much tax to maintain a state welfare service, a safety net that is supposed to catch people as they [or if they] fall into truly hard times. How then can it be that life could go on around this man, who had clearly reached a point where he could no longer help himself. I realise that I don't know the answer to the question of "What state service is in place to reach out to this man, and give him the help he clearly needs to get back on his feet - or at least give him the security of a bed and a hot meal if this is impossible." Why was he there? Why did not a van arrive to take him to a place of security where the healing process could begin.

Lets be clear - if this man is there by choice, then fine. I'm not in the buisness of moralising or 'cleaning up the streets' here. But I need to know that if this man chooses to accept help, that he doesn't want to be on that bench, that my taxes and our state services are there to ensure that the leg up - or the simple protection - he needs are in place to help him. If however he is trapped in a vicious net of indifference of atttitude and unavailability of help, then we need to have a serious rethink.

[wayfriend]

And did you walk by, contemplate his condition, and then go on your way? Think about that. (Not a criticism, just trying to inspire a thought about life in general.)

[ussusimiel]

I know that in Ireland, which has a safety net system similar to the UK, people still manage to fall out the bottom. A number of factors are involved. Some have to do with homelessness; for certain services and assistance you need to have an address. Homelessness can be a result of addiction, where the person, for whatever reasons, can't manage living with other people. Homelessness can also be caused by mental problems, again leading to an inability to adapt to living with or near others. Unfortunately the people who end up at the bottom will often be suffering the combined problems of homelessness plus the condition that caused them to end up homeless. Once a person has been through and fallen out of the system, so long as they are not a harm to themselves or others, there is very little that can officially done for them. Once the person reaches a certain point only forced incarceration or committal remains.

Our current system, thankfully, doesn't allow that. It is sad and tragic when we see someone at the very bottom with very little prospect of rising up again, but it is better than some regime of enforcement that forcibly removes a person from public view for their (and our) supposed betterment. We all know where that leads.

u.

[peter]

And did you walk by, contemplate his condition, and then go on your way? Think about that. (Not a criticism, just trying to inspire a thought about life in general.)

Of course not Wayfriend - I came and posted here didn't I.

But seriously although I take the point, thats not the point is it [ ].

It is way beyond my means both financially and professionally to extend the hand that this man so desparately needs [perhaps]. As U. says, the problems often associated with this level of 'colapse' of a persons life are way beyond the point where a concerned bystander can become involved [at least at the street level exept by handouts of soup and blankets etc], but what one can and should do is attempt to ensure that what can be done [by those paid for such functions] is being done. Absolutely U. - I'm not saying that the streets should be 'cleaned of these people' [God, I hope you know me better than that!] but it bevoves us to know that al least, if that man wakes tomorrow and says 'enough', then the means is in place to then provide the support he asks for. If at that point he is turned away through lack of funding, or lack of provision of service or whatever - then we have failed in our basic responsibility of care as a society.

[Iolanthe]

Here in Lincoln we have the Nomad Trust, which has been going now for many years, and which takes in homeless people for the night, or several nights, or whatever. They have just opened a new bigger place with more rooms. It is a halfway house, if you like. It exists on donations and some funding from the local council.

But, there are people who don't want help. I remember when I was a child there was a man who sat outside the library every day with the picture of a boat. It looked as though a child had painted it, but people saw him day after day and dropped money into the recepticle for that purpose. Every evening he walked some miles up a main road, presumably to the same place where he slept each night. When eventually he died the local paper did a story on him. He had been the captain of a ship, but had experienced severe mental problems and preferred his wandering way of life. He apparently was very well off!

I know that's perhaps a special case, but peoples' problems are often very complicated, and perhaps the expert help is no longer readily available as it should be.