Jara

Been stewing about it all day. It's been years, now - why can't I let go? The same questions keep bobbing to the surface, like a turd in a swimming pool. Where are the records? If you reckon Dank's got em, why haven't you sued him to find out what he injected into your players? Why did you give The Weapon a million bucks? And - oh god, if you exist - why are those cheating junkies in the finals and we're not?

And now they win the Rising Star with the player they got for being drug cheats. What a heartwarming story of battling against adversity, what heroes, what role models.

Hear hear. Dunno about Kennedy but my god I never want to trade with Collingwood again. In my worst nightmares I see Old Plankhands dropping marks, Prince gazing longingly into the mirror and Howe taking species.

I echo most of that. Something died for me on the week-end.

Still got those fancy private school fees to pay.

Great if he comes, but my god it all seems so hopeless right now. I feel like I've been seeing this sort of crap - new dawns, boom recruits, building - all my friggin life and all it ever comes down to is disappointment.

I've been a member for nearly twenty years (supporter for fifty). For each of the past few years I've asked myself - why bother? Then I've looked at the clip of Robbie Flower - and I'm back in the saddle (or the chastity belt, or whatever it is)

Sorry haven't read the whole thread, my apologies if a hundred other people have said the same thing - but hear hear, Ethan. One hint, one sliver of celebration and I'm outta here. The useless flogs don't deserve a moment's celebration - they've got their bloody pay cheques (paid for with my twenty years of membership), which is all they care about. Eff off and hit the gym and the training track, you pathetic gutter bugs.

It won't. I've been hoping that for fifty years.

Excellent point. IMHO not all experts are equal but a-holes, in general, are.

Times of India, 17 August 2017: The writing in that first article is painfully small, difficult to read thoroughly. Does it say when the water shortages will come in? (Bearing in mind, of course, that in 2001 we ourselves had 8 years of terrible drought ahead of us, leading to our worst ever bushfire and the deaths of 173 of our fellow citizens)

Think that's from Hamlet, not MacBeth. Brought to mind another line from Shakespeare I've always loved: "Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit. Bye and bye it will strike." (from The Tempest - Probably not accurate - just from memory, but I've always thought it was such a clever comment upon humour, and how much speed is an essential component of it)

Except that I don't think that's in Act 2. Wrecker must have something else in mind.

"act 2, scene 2 includes my favourite line of Macbeth. You won't see me linking to the whole play to somehow try and validate a point." what's the line?

Doubtless fake news.

One thing I don't understand about your post. Your opening remarks in which you say they predicted temperatures higher than what we got. Is that true? I don't recall it. Can you show me where they said it? I know we've had relatively mild summers for the past couple of years . Also your comment about risks in excess of what actually happened sounds skewiff to me. A risk is a risk. They work them out according to strict scientific formulae. Just because there wasn't a disastrous fire doesn't mean they were wrong. That could be because of luck, or swift action by the CFA in suppressing them before they get away. I've seen instances of both in the past couple of years.

you're ignoring me, so i suppose you'll never get to read this, but what do you think? they put out warnings for fun? - they know that lives are depending upon their predictions - they follow strict procedures worked out by the best fire scientists in the world - (not hyperbole - in Victoria, we really are world leaders) I've observed, for the past few years, that the warnings they put out are mainly concerned about grass fires - it takes years of drought to build up to catastrophic conditions such as those we experienced leading up to Black Saturday - but the risk is still there - remember the Lara fires? From memory, eleven people killed by grass fires - and by ignorance - just because you don't get a catastrophe doesn't mean you weren't at risk of one, or that your local fireys didn't save you or your loved ones from becoming victims - (although on closer reading i see you live in Burwood, so maybe it's of little concern to you) I notice in your reply to Earl you called the fire authorities and scientists pessimists. Jeez... words just about fail me. In fact - they do - I gotta get back into the big red truck.

Two points. One, that's not dog-whistling. And two, I don't know where you live, but for your sake I hope it's nowhere near the bush. How dare you put quotation marks around the word 'experts'? I know some of those guys - they have an incredibly difficult job which they do using the best available scientific knowledge. They have a huge burden - some of the ones I know lost friends and colleagues on Black Saturday and are acutely aware of the importance of their advice. One fact which adds to their burden is the incredible ignorance of the general public (which you exemplify) - I've seen this so often (e.g. a couple of years ago we were racing to get to the fires at Epping and literally couldn't get there because of all the morons blocking up the roads) And you are whistling through your sphincter when you say they have predicted "record-breaking bush fires". As far as I'm aware, they haven't done this since Black Saturday, and they were right then (in fact we have had at least one record-breaking fire since then - the Lancefield fire, which broke records for being so early in the season- it was at the beginning of October, if I remember correctly) They're not using "scare tactics" - they're trying to save lives. When we get 40 degree hot windy day, fires can break out anywhere in the bush - it's only the vigilance of the CFA which suppresses most of them before they get away and stops them from killing people.

Hear hear. Sod off Ash.

I don't know what you mean - dog whistled?

My fellow CFA vols are worried this year's going to be a bad one. At least we haven't had a long-term drought, so hopefully not too bad.

Sorry - you're right - very rude of me - you are very straightforward in your posts - my apologies (god knows, I should be the last to criticise anybody - I send my silly little missives off without even checking them half the time - probably riddled with typos ((if that's how you spell typos ))

I'm with you on this, Biff (well, maybe not the tortured bit)

Yes you are. Any readers who aren't aware, have a look at some of Prodee's anti-Muslim bile on the General forum (he may argue that it's not racist, as Islam is a religion, not a race, but the two are intertwined and it's certainly divisive).

God, you're game. Are you going to share with him your complaint about the low quality of prize winners these days?