154 replies · 2,404 views
Steve Campbell wrote:
Bonzette wrote:
Missy Jem wrote: Wow this is a grown up conversation! I thought we were all a bit numb, obviously not.
Good weekend everyone?
BTW Steve Campbell and Gnu - you've both changed your avatars - why? You had an identity change or summink?
Missy- you're back We so missed you! I did anyway. Did you get your ticket for Manc Aid?
YOU missed her?
(actually I'm sure you did, but trust me....i missed her too :) )
You jealous Mr Campbell????
I dunno who of and why? Is Jem batting for the opposing team or what? (besides, Jem's the one with CAUSE to be jealous since u might be gettin to hook up with her fella before she does!)
BTW, some men really get off watching women fight over them, I don't play nice 
I thought if Mr. Campbell was brave enough to show us himself handling his rod, I could post a pic as well.
Plus, to be honest, I was fishing for at least one 
, sincere or not.
Ronald Kirsch wrote: Its a matter of intelligence and education. Same thing happened here, well to a lesser extent. Our conservative prime minister set himself up as the people's friend, whilst stirring the patriotic pot. Patriotism works well with the less brainy. If you can paint your opponent as less proud of one's country, then that works real well. This is of course a big hurdle to overcome for any reforming party. "Why do you want to change things? Don't you love your country etc".
Howard went as far as calling himself the best friend the Australian working class has ever had. I think the working class her is slowly waking up that he is not. He gave tax breaks to the rich, he passed more a "liberal" workplace relations bill, he is cracking down on welfare recipiants.
Alternatively, it's got less to do with a perceived lack of intelligence in the electorate here and a lot to do with the fact that everyone seems to enjoy a booming economy and low unemployment.
Odd, that.
:\pimp3:
craig's digitalwaters wrote: I think it was CakeClockZwart who posted;
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
Go have a look... The Q's take 5 mins.
I'm definately a lefty based on this.... It's obvious that there's a mix of lefties and right wingers on this site, but I think most of us are left of centre.
no, that was me. *cough*
i sit just to the lower left of the dalai lama. when the head of my department took this quiz last year she was so far to the bottom left she was almost off the chart. all of my students who claimed to be bush supporters were either in the lower left or upper left quadrants, although i had one girl who was EXACTLY in the center! the one exception was one student who was in the lower right quadrant. i was noticeably surprised when she showed me her sheet and she asked me if there was something wrong with her! i told her that there was nothing wrong, it was just unusual to find true libertarians--so she was a real catch!
i think it's a pretty accurate quiz, as they use the grid system rather than the line system. anyway, no matter what one thinks of it, it's still interesting (if you like politics, that is!).
Gnu Odor wrote:
Any suggestion that Kerry was "the antiwar candidate" is hardcore revisionism.
to find an 'anti-war candidate' you'd need to build a time machine, then transport yourself to 1968 to vote for eugene mccarthy.
kerry was the 'i'm not bush candidate.' sad as it is, if that was enough to defeat bush, that was fine with me.
Well, there was local all-star Dennis Kucinich: in fact, between my house and my children's school, I (still, over a year past the election) pass one Kerry yard sign and two Kucinich yard signs.
I wasn't allowed to vote in the primaries, but when I heard the results come back from Iowa, and then New Hampshire...
P.S. You and me and the Dalai Lama should have lunch.
Gnu Odor wrote: when I heard the results come back from Iowa, and then New Hampshire...
i presume you mean you actually heard the results. not on TV, but being carried across the wind: WHOOOOOOOOH. YEAHHHHHHHHHHH! *fist in air*!
dennis kucinich is currently employed as a garden gnome in my parents' backyard. he looks simply adorable wearing the little red hat.
Hey Agent Wood, a serious question here, not a windup:
I'm reading the Ten Key Values of the Green Party, and I'm wondering what a country does when encountering, say, an influx of Muslim immigrants.
I mean, you need to respect diversity, certainly, but what do you do when that diversity is so diametrically opposed to the other values, such as feminism and grassroots democracy?
Again, sincere question.
Gnu Odor wrote: Hey Agent Wood, a serious question here, not a windup:
I'm reading the Ten Key Values of the Green Party, and I'm wondering what a country does when encountering, say, an influx of Muslim immigrants.
I mean, you need to respect diversity, certainly, but what do you do when that diversity is so diametrically opposed to the other values, such as feminism and grassroots democracy?
Again, sincere question.
what makes you think that islam is diametrically opposed to feminism? keep in mind, seeing (i.e. the media) is not always believing.
Honor killings, for one. I heard reports of 40-45 in Germany alone in the last 10 years. What to do when sharia conflicts with civil law?
depthcharge wrote:
Ronald Kirsch wrote: Its a matter of intelligence and education. Same thing happened here, well to a lesser extent. Our conservative prime minister set himself up as the people's friend, whilst stirring the patriotic pot. Patriotism works well with the less brainy. If you can paint your opponent as less proud of one's country, then that works real well. This is of course a big hurdle to overcome for any reforming party. "Why do you want to change things? Don't you love your country etc".
Howard went as far as calling himself the best friend the Australian working class has ever had. I think the working class her is slowly waking up that he is not. He gave tax breaks to the rich, he passed more a "liberal" workplace relations bill, he is cracking down on welfare recipiants.
Alternatively, it's got less to do with a perceived lack of intelligence in the electorate here and a lot to do with the fact that everyone seems to enjoy a booming economy and low unemployment.
Odd, that.
:\pimp3:
Yes, but this argument only works as long as the economy is booming. Just wait until the inevitable next recession. How comfortable and relaxed will the Australian worker be then in the newly deregulatred labour market.
I suppose the last ALP leader didn't exactly help the cause either.
Ron do you cunt threads up by accident or is it a talent that requires practice? :D (couldn't happen to a nicer thread)
Steve Campbell wrote: Ron do you cunt threads up by accident or is it a talent that requires practice? :D (couldn't happen to a nicer thread)
i believe i made an entirely innocent comment there.
it's not your comment I meant silly man! note how the broken-ness of this thread begins with your post :)
well i'm not always able to respond to something imediately with the time zone thing and the occaisional bit of sleep.
Would the owner of yet another set of unmatched quote pairs please return to his post and fix them up!
Thread is munted.
:\pimp3:
Gnu Odor wrote: Plus, to be honest, I was fishing for at least one
Sincere? Or not? 
AgentWood wrote:
craig's digitalwaters wrote: I think it was CakeClockZwart who posted;
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
Go have a look... The Q's take 5 mins.
I'm definately a lefty based on this.... It's obvious that there's a mix of lefties and right wingers on this site, but I think most of us are left of centre.
no, that was me. *cough*
i sit just to the lower left of the dalai lama. when the head of my department took this quiz last year she was so far to the bottom left she was almost off the chart. all of my students who claimed to be bush supporters were either in the lower left or upper left quadrants, although i had one girl who was EXACTLY in the center! the one exception was one student who was in the lower right quadrant. i was noticeably surprised when she showed me her sheet and she asked me if there was something wrong with her! i told her that there was nothing wrong, it was just unusual to find true libertarians--so she was a real catch!
i think it's a pretty accurate quiz, as they use the grid system rather than the line system. anyway, no matter what one thinks of it, it's still interesting (if you like politics, that is!).
Soz Agent for mixing you up... Mucho Kudos to you for finding this site!
Yeah, so where the hell does anyone else here fit on the graph? Bonzette? Anyone?
Bueller?
Gotta tell ya' ... I'm listening to National Public Radio right this moment, and if I lived overseas and this is all I heard about America ... I'd fucking kill myself in despair.
It does help give me perspective, though, on how other countries must see us and how little I know about them.
Kudos on the Bueller mates gawp at me when i do that :)
Yeah, you see...we don't just pull it out of our arses you know....there's a massive industry in the US devoted to making the rest of us think you're all morons. Tom Cruise for instance, read WOTW....and thought it was set in America...I mean...what?
What do ya know...I AM actually completely alien and free minded. no one else on their examples falls near me :)
Steve Campbell wrote:
What do ya know...I AM actually completely alien and free minded. no one else on their examples falls near me :)
Piss off, you fucking authoritarian Nazi communist fascist bastard.
I was thinking, I must be pretty close to being an extremist anti-extremist. Or a grass roots buggerallist
Ronald Kirsch wrote: Yes, but this argument only works as long as the economy is booming. Just wait until the inevitable next recession. How comfortable and relaxed will the Australian worker be then in the newly deregulatred labour market.
I wasn't really referring to what may or may not occur here in the future.
I'm simply suggesting that the longterm tenure of the current government has more to do with successful economic management than any supposed "patriotic" or "friend of the worker" marketing campaigns. I don't know that the electorate here is that gullible.
History shows that if you're overseeing an economy going gangbusters, with a housing boom, low unemployment, vast budget surpluses and so on, you're going to be very hard to dislodge.
The current US conservative experience is a little different.
:\pimp3:
Damn, just erased my own post.
Campo, use your seductive powers over women to get Bonzette to take that quiz.
Bonzette, I just realized where I was being patronising and I apologize. I'm not used to your presence here and must begin to specifically exclude you from the bunch of nimrods I'm used to addressing.
I'd like to see Bonzette's results ( 
) in particular because I'd like to see where one who has been exposed to and studies different political systems would fall on the graph; that is, if one has studied the good and bad points of each quadrant, would one be more likely to land in the center?
Or is the idea of Cartesian coordiantes expanding infinitely from a center point even applicable here? I mean, is the center neutral, and if so, would the world be a better place if we all parked ourselves in the center?
And where the hell is Pope Pius of Nool? He started this mess and ducked out. My short answer: those riding the bus with me in downtown C-town at 7 a.m. in 9 degree F weather to go to work aren't that thrilled with their neighbors who collect a welfare check. Plus, school choice/school vouchers are a big issue among the poor, and the Dems don't dare touch it for fear of the NEA.
P.S. That Gwen Stefani has some big boobs, huh?
His Holiness, The Pope wrote: Maybe one of you smarties like Agentwood or Blue Order can sort this one out for me, but why is it that so many Republicans supporters are people like poor farmers and wage laborers, even though Democrats are more in favor of welfare and a social security net that would help support and subsidize those same poor people! Guess it just proves that family values and olde tyme relijun are more important to some people than having enough money to support their non-aborted children.
The US seems to be run by a coalition of rich plutocrats and not-so-rich Christian fundies. The former get to enrich themselves and benefit from the ever-increasing economic inequality, while the latter get to beat up gays, women who want abortions and anyone who propounds evolution.
I must say I'm intrigued to see how long this can last. The two groups interests aren't ultimately compatible it seems to me.
How can one have a modern scientific nation, and so maximise profits, while banning teaching of evolution? I guess in that regard the plutocrats are dependent on the fundies not spreading out of their heartland.
It makes me groan though when liberals suggest that the poorer Republicans are merely stupid. Not a good way to win friends and influence people, I'd have thought.
