Sad times

[Admin Jaap]

I feel the need to chime in. We've had our share of political shite on this forum. And the banning/disappearance of certain members as a result of escalating discussions didn't do this forum any good. That's why I follow threads like these very carefully.

 

If you want talk politics (or religion), do it with restraint and w/o personal abuse, or I will take my role as Chief Whip seriously! :-)

[Scud]

Thanks Jaap.

 

I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of this week's Economist magazine. I'm sure the Brexit issue will be covered in some depth - including the "undo" options.

[MartyNZ]

On 6/26/2016 at 10:02 PM, stewgnu said:

For better or for worse, the uk voted out of the eu.

I think we all expected some backlash of sorts but my word..... How the jingoistic racists have crawled into the sunlight.

Racism: A line of thinking long since identified as morally repugnant, ignorant, fatuous, counter-productive and downright ugly.

Yet, like other residual crap dogging us as a species and preventing us from fully embracing a wiser future, it remains entrenched in the hearts of our lesser members.

I read today that swastikas have been grafittied onto bus shelters in my local area.

A belgian couple I know: Beautiful, kind, intellectual people, have been on the receiving end of various bigoted nonsense from gobshites both face-to-face and on social media.

There was footage of a man claiming he voted 'out'- of the eu remember- because he didn't want any more 'african muslims' coming into the country...

I was saddened by the result of the referendum, but feel somewhat desolate upon hearing of the above happening.

Brexit is still mithering on 2 years later, with UK politicians wanting to have their cake and eat it.

New Zealand just had some bad news last Friday too. Our biggest mass shooting ever. 
A white supremacy nut killed 51 citizens and hurt lots more. The police caught him while he was on the way to kill more, within 21 minutes, without firing a shot. 
Good job NZ Cops! 
Then the NZ government, within 6 days, outlawed military style semi automatic rifles, and high capacity magazines.

Now I'm a gun owner, but I think NZ failed badly not to copy Australia's lead on gun control 2 decades ago.
Good job NZ Government!

Even though it is too late for 51  citizens.

Now we need to get to work on the reporting and treatment of haters who enable/encourage mass shooters. 

[LowRyter]

Agree with you Marty.  I wish we had learned our lesson in the USA

[stewgnu]

The New Zealand authorities have acted in an exemplary manner.  A gun-crazed murderer caught alive?  I doubt even England could manage that these days.

[pete roper]

Drove past one of the mosques where the shooting occurred yesterday and am staying in a motel only about a km away. There are still three armed cops outside but they, and everyone else, seemed fairly relaxed. It's amazing what an incredible amount of solidarity this tragedy has engendered in NZ and the prime minister and the rest of the parliament have behaved with a level of strength, leadership and decorum that should be a blazing torch for other polities around the globe.

When I look at the enormous, raging clusterfuques that represent most other English speaking 'Democracies'  at the moment it is reassuring to see that the system can work and it is possible to say no to bigotry and hate. Would that my own country would embrace such high minded and common sense ideals. Sadly I fear that successive governments of all stripes have allowed racists to crawl out from under their rocks without being stamped on immediately. That, along with social media platforms that allow isolated individuals to band together and reinforce each other's hate have made a fertile dung-heap in which bigotry can thrive.

In my youth I spent a fair bit of time at anti racism marches, sometimes even punching on with racists. I was really hoping to have left all that behind but now, in my sixties and half a world away from the country of my youth it looks like I may have to do it again! That sucks! I've got a dicky heart, fuqued lungs and can't walk very far nowadays, (A packet of darts a day for fifty years will do that to you!) but shit like this is important! For our kids and the future of mankind. 

[czakky]

Well said.

On a lighter note, Pete you have to write a book. 

[Chuck]

Dorcia loved your rant, Pete. I told her to paste some of it in her facebook feed. One of the wimmen she used to work with was bitching about having "one of those muslims" in congress. She never says anything on facebook, but this time she did. It's about time.

[pete roper]

Being a weedy, White, middle class dipstick I always found that if it looked like things were going to get ugly and we were going to go head to head with a bunch of room temperature IQ skinheads I always found it handy to latch myself on to a very large West Indian bloke, preferably with big dreads and a thousand yard stare on top of the muscles! You tended to not get punched as much with someone like that watching your back!

[LowRyter]

The Wit and Wisdom of Mr Roper

[pete roper]

5 hours ago, Chuck said:

Dorcia loved your rant, Pete. I told her to paste some of it in her facebook feed. One of the wimmen she used to work with was bitching about having "one of those muslims" in congress. She never says anything on facebook, but this time she did. It's about time.

This brilliant scene always reminded me somewhat of my experience with skinheads Chuck. Dylan Moran at his best.

 

[MartyNZ]

So, Roper, you started with an inspiring comment, which gradually became advice on picking a pub fight. Awesome story telling there.