Jara
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Everything posted by Jara
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Well it wasn't, but compared to yours, it was.
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Yeah, right. I suppose this needs to be explained to you in words of one syllable or less, but it was meant to be a joke. I was being conciliatory myself. I liked Wrecker's response. Yours, on the other hand...
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Yoicks! Not only do I have to defend the modern welfare state, I have to defend what I had for dinner. Anyway, it was a vegetarian lasagna, much of it fresh from the garden, and delicious, thank you for asking. Dunno if I could ever solve many of the world's problems - I have enough trouble solving my own. FWIW, I have this feeling that, for all the wine-fueled arguments, people rarely change their political stripes - I reckon whether we are conservative or progressive is a consequence of our personalities - you can look at a bunch on kindergarten kids and work out how they'll be voting in twenty years. Some people are more independent, self-centred, etc - others more sharing, caring, communal. I suspect we need both. I mean, it's all very well to admire Rupert Murdoch or Gina Reinhardt, but you wouldn't want either of them as your nurse when you hit the old folks' home. I'll have to think about your question in response to my (alas, very knee-jerk) comment about the left/right divide and those public services. My initial response is that I said it because I've always thought of Labor as more supportive of things like public education, hospitals and even transport. The Conservative parties seem to be the natural home of those who prefer - and can afford - private schools, hospitals and freeways. That's simplistic, I know - obviously both sides support all of those things to a degree, but it's a matter of where they place their emphasis. Think of Medicare, for example - founded by Labor, frequently under attack by the Libs. (And yes, I can guess what your response will be - that much of the money to fund it comes from those closer to the big end of town - maybe it does, but we all chip in, through our taxes, and it seems to work pretty well, certainly compared to what they have in America)
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I was annoyed after our QB victory the Hair-oiled Scum paid more attention to Howe's mark than to our win.
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Uh ...god. I'm not up to a history lesson myself, and I'm sure you're right - of course none of them are attributable exclusively to progressives. But a quick search of Wikipedia suggests to me that progressives led the way in such things. For example, the article on Compulsory universal Education says that it was resisted for a long time because the elites wished to hold on to their priveliges. Hang on - dinner on the table. Will finish reply later.
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Also Wrecker - sure I take your point about people in capitalist countries. I'm fully aware that I enjoy a standard of living that most of the world can only dream of. That's why I was saying I tend to see the benefits of both the conservative and progressive approach to politics. But we do need to be careful about unbridled capitalism. Was it you who talked about China and Russia earlier? (Actually it was Daisy, but I'll respond here) I spent a year or so living in China when I was a student (in the mid eighties - studying Chinese) - spent a lot of time wandering around the country. Everybody was very poor. Been back numerous times since. The thing I've noticed is that their economic boom has dragged a lot of people out of poverty. Great. But when I travelled out of the big eastern cities - out around the north-west, Xinjiang, Tibet etc., - the vast majority seemed to be living no better than I saw them thirty years ago - worse, in some cases- e.g. no more cheap health care or education. I got the impression that a bunch of spivs - usually connected to The Party - are making a fortune - at the expense of a bunch of virtual slaves. The other thing that worried me was that China was getting rich by exporting its troubles to - and ripping off - the rest of the world. What they are doing to Africa beggars belief. It's terrible sad. When I was a student in China I really admired the way they'd bring in all these African students and give them an education; now - alas - I suspect it was all a big con job, and that a lot of those students I knew have been co-opted by corrupt regimes who are cosying up to the Chinese to rip off their own people.
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Maybe. I personally find it repulsive when I see people living in dire poverty while others around them are dying. That's one of the many things I've never understood about the Middle East; people there are always banging on about Crusaders, Muslim solidarity etc But you've got all these countries with the most unbelievable amount of wealth, while their brothers down the road (in Gaza etc) are living in terrible conditions. I admire Bill Gates much more than I do Murdoch. What's the point of amassing so many billions? Was the guy born with a shrivelled willy or something?
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Not sure what you mean. Who's revising anything? Where did I defend Russia or China? I've spent long periods in both countries - both shitholes. Not defending them at all. If anything, I'm defending our pluralist democracy in which there's room for both conservative and progressive sides of politics. I reckon we need em both.
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I suppose it depends on whether you're happy to live in a society where some people have huge amounts and others starve to death. I thought we developed democracy to get rid of that. You're welcome to thank the free market for your ability to run a business; if I were you, I'd also be thanking the progressive side of politics for the old-age pension, public schools and hospitals, disability support, public transport, etc. You may be healthy, wealthy or independent enough to be able to choose not to participate in such things - of course that's your right - but I'd say their existence goes a long way towards explaining why we live in the kind of relatively stable society that enables small businesses like yours to prosper. (I've no idea what your business is, but I dare say a lot of your customers enjoy those public benefits)
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Ah Dieter, ya leftie snowflake. I'm with Pro on this one - he's converted me with his irrefutable logic. My only complaint is that he doesn't go far enough. Deport the lot of them, I say (ok, maybe we'll make an exception for Adam Yze, as long as he behaves himself) . In fact, I'm beginning not to trust anybody. After Bourke Street, let's get rid of the Greeks. The Queen Street massacre - Vitkovic? He was Yugoslav or something, wasn't he? Out they go! And the Mafiosi - back to Sicily. And what about Stringybark Creek? Bloody Irish. And Myall Creek - those Aborigines - hang on - Myall Creek? the boot was on the other foot, wasn't it? Never mind - this is the Breitbart age - never let facts stand in the way of an opinion - back to where they came from!
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You must have misread my post. I just told you - I'm converted. The sheer logic of your argument has won me over. Deport em all. My only worry - who's going to tell Bashir Houli? (Bags not)
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Wow. Bunch of cut and pastes from Breitbart. Very impressive. I'm converted.
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Prodee, a lot of pointless generalisations there, too many to reply to. I mean - the left is a mental illness? Where's your evidence for that? Pointless. Left and right, they're both just political stances, they've both got a role to play in creating the reasonable society we enjoy today (my own pointless generalisation, for what it's worth, is that the Right tends to create wealth, the left ensures that it doesn't all accrete to people like Rupert Murdoch. So you can thank the left that you've got an eight-hour day, the right that you get well paid for it.)
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Sorry I got nothing original to add, but Jeez, Biff, I wish you hadn't reminded me. Can't believe the duds we got from them. And it kind of broke my heart to see that beautiful mark in a Collingwood jumper.
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I reckon the Cats'll be huge for years. I suppose they're the last of the Victorian clubs with a real home-ground advantage and a powerful community base. Also, being in a depressed region with swinging seats, they get a lot of Government support.
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Ah, yes, I know that one. Thanks.
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No, neither could I - got it now - Gawn's Beard must have a great memory - thanks again
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Ah - that was the one - music to my eyes (hmmm - actually that doesn't make sense, but you get the idea) - thanks heaps
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Thanks Daisy but no, it wasn't that one - sorry, I should have been more specific - it wasn't last weekend - it was one somebody posted maybe a month or a bit more ago - embarrassingly, I can't remember who it was against - Monday's game must have addled my head as well as my heart - it was one of the most tenacious passages of play I've ever seen - from memory, Clarrie battled all the way from the centre down to the forward zone in the middle of a scrum, lost it and won it back then sent a beautiful handball to Garlett, who goaled - I thought it was incredible, but I can't find it - thought it must have been in this thread, but can't find it here - tried Youtube, etc.. no luck - thought this would be quicker any help appreciated - do want to gloat at a couple of Maggie mates cheers
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Hey - just wondering if anybody could point me to (or post) that amazingly committed Oliver clearance to Jeffy (want to show it to my Magpie mates)? Cheers
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On train going past Collingwood carriage just burst into spontaneous round of "It's a grand old flag" Hilarious :-D
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D, I didn't say I approved or supported the invasion of Afghanistan (in fact I attended protests against it) - I said I understood it - Sept 11 was a disgusting event, but I'd have preferred to see its perpatrators punished through the law - I always thought the US was out of its tiny mind with rage and wanted revenge - that much I understood. I just thought the American response was a stupid, pointless and wasteful breach of international law which, in the long run, cost more American lives than Sept 11 (not to mention Afghan ones).
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Yay, what a post! Well put.
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I'll move on when they admit they're anything other than victims. It wasn't the drug taking that annoyed me - I presume that was the work of their mad semi-scientist - as much as the club's consistent refusal to acknowledge that they'd done anything wrong, their efforts to blame everybody else, their burial of the evidence. The evidence! I always come back to that. They must have it somewhere - can't believe anybody would give hundreds of injections and not record what they were. I've always thought that Dank was so stupid, he just didn't know what was legal and what wasn't (as proved in the Baker/Mackenzie (forget which one:( ) interview. The injections were given by a registered nurse. Friends (and wives) of mine who are health professionals say the first thing you're taught is that you record every micro-millimetre of every substance you put into people's bodies.
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I reckon it was an insanely stupid decision - Bush was an insanely stupid person. I read an interesting book by William Dalrymple on the first British invasion of Afghanistan - amazingly enough, in support of an exiled Afghan king who was an ancestor of Khazi - (sp? sorry) - from memory, only one member of the invading army survived. Again from memory, don't think there was much doubt Osama B was there - they had open training camps - the Taliban were willing to hand him over to an international court, but Bush wanted a scalp for his trophy cabinet. That went well.
