Dr John Dee

Grow up. This thread is about Jonah Lomu not your need for point scoring. On reflection, I might as well add this, despite risking that it concedes to your efforts at thread-jacking: if you knew your Hobbes you'd also know that it's the social contract that in fact stops the condition of human life from being 'nasty, brutish and short'. The social contract and all its possibilities couldn't save Jonah. Comparing his death to those entirely preventable deaths of self-indulgent 'stars' is no more than insulting. RIP big man.

Where exactly did I misrepresent you by saying/suggesting/implying/insinuating that you'd said any such thing? This, of course, is a standard manoeuvre of yours. Maybe it's time to put up or shut up. Why? It hasn't done you much good.

Don't try to patronise me Biff, you've already shown yourself an abject failure at that. BTW I've never used a word or reference whose reach I haven't understood, but I can't take responsibility for any that might fall outside the confines of your narrow and prejudiced little world.

Standard tactic of the bleating right wing, of course, to start griping about freedom of speech when anyone with a different view starts exercising it (I'm not offended, by the way. Maybe you should check the meaning of contemptible sometime). No, your ridiculous effort to try to justify yourself by proclaiming yourself to be Charlie is precisely that the time for that particular proclamation is past. The simple fact that you don't understand this demonstrates more than adequately that you're not Charlie and I doubt whether you ever were.

There's not much point, Moneider. Biff loathes: (i) Muslims; (ii) anyone he deduces to be smarter than he is; and (iii) anyone he fears to be wittier. While it's easy enough to find plenty of people in each category, Waleed Aly has the misfortune of belonging to all three.

Great posts, Pauline. We need all the simplistic contributions from all the addlebrained keyboard warriors we can find before this war will be won.

Too soon, far too soon. Players of Jonah's stature are entitled to long lives reflecting on past glories. Anyone who saw him in his pomp will now have to carry the memories for him, but it hardly seems enough.

Clearer? You didn't need to be any clearer about your contemptible effort to exploit the Paris massacres to make some political point about climate change. And no, you're not Charlie. Nothing could be clearer than that.

There's nothing you won't stoop to, is there?

Sorry Moneider, you can get away with all sorts of claims about the cultural importance of Christianity, but this is reaching too far. It was the Greeks (Aristotle for one).

If you're really that bad at reading basic English, maybe you should think a bit more before posting anything. And as for disingenuities maybe you should take a look in the mirror sometime since that's exactly what your use of the word 'merit' was.

I didn't realise that there was some sort of competition for owning reactions to this new outrage but if there is I'll leave it to the Parisians to decide. And merely repeating 'BS' doesn't make an argument or even a coherent observation. You think Islam is a monolith, fine. I'm just glad that those who do the security analysis stuff (whether it turns out that they've missed something again this time or not) have a slightly more nuanced view of the world.

So, since you seem to be more confident in your knowledge of these than the French security forces at the moment, what are the ‘merits’ of this chain of atrocities, Daisy? I’d have thought that Moonie’s point is that we might need to get beyond knee-jerk religious labels before the particulars of the Paris attacks are identified and understood. If that’s sitting on a fence, so be it but I can’t see how it’s any more intellectually ‘lazy’ than Biff’s comment, which might be a good one liner but isn’t anything other than that. Meanwhile, back in the world: ‘The France midfielder Lassana Diarra has revealed that his cousin, Asta Diakité, was killed during Friday night’s attack. ‘Diarra played 80 minutes of the match against Germany. In a statement posted on Twitter, he said his cousin was like “a big sister to me … In this climate of terror, it is important for all of us who are representatives of our country and its diversity to speak and remain united against a horror that has no colour, no religion.” ‘Diarra’s team-mate Antoine Griezmann, meanwhile, said that his sister Maude had escaped the attack at the Bataclan concert hall which left at least 87 people dead.’ (Guardian Online)

Ah, yes Old Dee, but the question is: is it a wet or a dry ticket? Fox Sports last night added to their report that Essendon had 'co-operated' with the investigation and 'agreed to' the charges. I presume the EFC believes it's going to be a wet one. They may be wrong (hopefully they are) but so far you're ahead of the field ... again.

So you don't deny the temptation to abjure your fleshly ways, Uncle Bitters?

No opportunity should be sneezed at, R&B, although when it comes to dodgy artworks we have a preference for the nineteenth century. I refer you to our last brush (so to speak) with fake artistic fame: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/30/1088488031771.html?from=storylhs (Hopping Dicks Creek is aka Limpinwood ... you may spot the third-class pun)

That is simply taken for granted by all on this thread, Mr Leg.

All disreputables welcome here, Daisy. We’ve recently suffered an invasion of small hordes of true (sic) believers for whom their god hath builded pristine white houses with pristine white sheds and pristine white letterboxes. We need whatever help we can get in returning the valley to the paths of unrighteousness. I had thought BBO might be just the sort of immigrant we need since he could correct the balance with his unique collection of iniquities; but his little outburst of Weltschmerz the other day makes me fear he may be a prime candidate for religious conversion.

There you go, boasting about your s-x life again.

If it's ok with you Uncle Bitters I'd rather not. Nothing personal, but you're not really my type.

Whatever makes you happy, chap.

Interesting. Agree in general about the cultural disadvantages but we can get Fox Footy. Pay a fortune for it but it's my only lifeline (local free to air stations regard AFL with contempt).

Sorry, should have said for most of us. Actually shouldn't have said anything at all since the main point was to try and avoid a major sidetracking of the thread, which immediately occurred (and has now been excised).

That might be because fantasy - even (perhaps especially) badly written fantasy - and reality aren't the same thing. But in any case see post #3 above.

A fine, upstanding one, I might say, except that all it would probably do is open the door to all sorts of nonsense about Cialis.* * had to look that up, obviously.