Bikergoth

Bargain

Provence

Horny

Lune

Stanley

Bowie

Then you weren't disappointed...!

Gene

Enterprise

& beyond...!

I think it was in the film 'Romancing the Stone' where Michal Douglas's character hacked the stiletto heels off Joan Wilder's shoes.

A good cure for wobbly heels...!

Pratchet

(Was going to put 'world' but we've just had that!)

Back

It sounds to me like you both have major issues that require sorting out in your relationship.

You & your brother both need to swallow your pride, stop acting childishly, meet up on neutral ground with an unbiased mediator then thrash out all your problems & issues. LISTEN to each other. Until these issues are sorted out it will just be a nasty, festering problem that will get worse over time.

Many years ago when I was in my early twenties, I nearly lost my best friend due to such pig-headed stupidity, but thankfully our mothers sussed out what was going on & damn near banged our heads together. We're still good friends to this day.

Try to sort it out before it gets any worse & please let us know how you get on.

Yard

My lady & I have a furry 'Cossack' type hat each. They look either cool or sinister, (or even both), when worn with heeled boots & a full length leather coat. but they're toasty warm.

They aren't real fur so I guess only one faux was killed to make both of them!

Miss

Well the definition of terrorism would be 'inducing fear in a civilian population to force the hand of the governors.'

 

http://orwell.ru/library/essays/lion/english/e_eye  You need only read the first paragraph or two (though the teacher in me would urge you to read the whole thing).

Thank you for a very thought provoking & interesting read Megan. The pupil in me read the whole lot - not only that, I've saved it to my hard drive to peruse at my leisure when I feel like it. Mr Orwell certainly was very perceptive & definitely had his head screwed on, no doubt about that.

Ilikekicks, your first & then last three paragraphs have probably explained the problems we face today regarding rioting & disorderly behaviour. (I haven't yet sussed out how to isolate part of a post & highlight it, sorry).

The media do seem to get it so wrong, so regularly, that it makes me wonder how deliberate it is & whether or not they are primed by government to 'sow the seeds of discontent' to suit the governments own means. For example, if something nasty re: Afghanistan or Guantanamo Bay looks like causing the government embarrassment, lets 'organise' a bit of civil unrest to camouflage it. In the government's eyes, it won't take too much to start something like the Ferguson riots & then blame it on racism, the poor etc. as the people it affects are so wound up they will behave exactly as the government predicts.

The problem with this type of situation is that if you try to gag the media they all start screaming 'cover up' & then fan the flames even more, which as ilikekicks has already said, will probably cause an already tense situation to explode into something much worse.

My previous views on human nature have just been backed up by Miss Amanda, although I do accept her obvious dig at TV advertising - it doesn't help at all.

Absolutely stunning boots, Donnawonna. They look very good on you.

mtnsofheels, that's a very good point about shopping online.

I'm the same as you & always wear boots when shopping online.

Trio

You were probably thinking of Brian Stanley who was "gunned down" by police outside a pub about 150 yards from my front door.

 

I was in the Alexandra when he was asked to leave because he was becoming a nuisance. As I testified at the hearing, I heard the threats to come back with a shotgun and blast us all because he was being denied another drink. I went home shortly after but apparently he came back with a chair leg wrapped in a carrier bag that he said was a gun. He was pushed out of the pub, the door locked and the police called. They challenged him three times to lay it down but when he raised it to firing position he was shot by two separate officers.

 

Had it been a real gun and a couple of officers had been shot, or worse, members of the general public then everyone would have been asking why they hadn't shot him.

Thank you very much for that information Dr Shoe. It makes me wonder how much the media does actually bend the truth about incidents such as this, as I had no idea of the basic facts. One positive thing I guess - he didn't manage to hurt anyone in the pub, but having said that, I know what I'd do if I was in the position the police officers were in on that day. If it's a 'him or me' situation & we're both armed, (or I believed him to be armed), it's a case of do unto others before they do unto you - in those circumstances I'd have shot him too.

I guess the only way to know the full facts about anything is to not rely on media reporting but to actually be there when it happens.

You're allowed at least a shilling.  Thank you for your gentlemanly reply.

 

Oh undoubtedly the nazis had done it first, bombed to induce terror.  They'd practised it in Spain..  That doesn't alter the fact that that was what Bomber Command were doing.  The question is, were they waging war or conducting terrorism?  Intent is all important, and being the second one to do it doesn't make you less a terrorist.  Actually, it was the aim of both sides, and it was completely ineffective.  Kingsley Amis said that the British were never better and probably never again will be better than during the war.  In some senses, I daresay you'd find the same about the Germans.  Of course here I'm discounting the obvious.  They didn't scream and fall apart as they would in a Hollywood film.  They had a cup of tea and went to work.  Terrorism fails because it's based on hubris.

 

Apparently there's archeological evidence that the human race once got down to as few as 1000 individuals.  I don't begin to understand how they know, but if it's true, those 1000 didn't stay alive by competing with each other, so human nature is probably to get one.  Still, if you read Exodus, it's the story of an energetic people searching for lebensraum in a crowded part of the world.  Heard that before?  Anyway, I'm going to disagree with you about basic animal survival.  When the going gets tough you need everyone  you can get.

 

Understanding doesn't mean that I excuse, but one should remember the position of the police. Robert Peel's police force wore top hats as a symbol of authority and tail coats as a symbol of servitude.  The classic British police uniform grew out of that  https://www.google.co.uk/search

The servant who can tell you what to do.  Do you shoot your employer?  The problem comes when the police believe they work for the government

Ooooh! Megan, thank you for the extra eightpence - I promise not to spend it all at once on sweets!

 I know the majority of Germans were the same as us in the war & just wanted it to end - I lived in West Germany for six years in the 1970's/80's

& got to know quite a few civilians & was introduced to a number of their fathers who had served in various theatres of operations from Russia to a U-Boat crewman. Most of them didn't want the war to continue as, like the Allies, they'd had enough of all the killing. But, if you serve in any government organisation orders are orders & unfortunately that's the be all & end of it. Having said that, I'm very aware that a lot of unforgivable things have happened in the past, all blamed on orders from 'higher up'.

If I remember correctly the definition of terrorism is something along the lines of 'unauthorised or unlawful use of violence to achieve political aims'. Bearing that in mind, total war must therefore somehow be authorised by both sides I guess. Not quite sure how they go about that though - I now have a Monty python type image in my mind with a couple of officers from each side entering a room saying, 'Is this the right room to sign up for for a thermonuclear war?' It does seem a bit of a mess, as somewhere in all these definitions something, (but I have no idea what), must be included on how to deal with looting & rioting, (which was the original pursuit of this thread). I know what we were supposed to do & what we did in the army in Northern Ireland, but I'm not sure if that's relevant, as it was getting on for forty years ago.

I'm not a Christian, but do however have an open mind about the religious views of others. I take your very valid point about Exodus & 'lebensraum' from the bible, although I do find the bible can be very contradictory in places.

That's also a very interesting point about the human population getting down to as low as 1000, but I'd be willing to put money on the fact that it wasn't all love & roses. I bet there were a few cases of fisticuffs over male/female relations before some of them broke away & formed their own tribe. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on human nature.

I don't think I'll ever fully understand what makes humans do what they do or why they do it, (with or without weapons)...

Corriedale

Wool

Original