Fragile Bird

Well, I guess that soldier who set himself on fire to protest US support for Israel has in fact influenced someone else, just not other US soldiers. 

14 minutes ago, Zorral said:

It was suggested already a couple weeks ago by people who taken upon themselves looking at this horror far more often, far more closely, and far more attentively than I do that this is what he was up to.

Yes, I saw your previous post a few weeks ago. I was just trying to come up with an alternative.

19 hours ago, Zorral said:

Look at the photo here of him leaving the courthouse today

Former President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he leaves court on the second day of his criminal trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 16, 2024 in New York City. (Mark Peterson-Pool/Getty Images)

-- he is losing weight.

https://www.salon.com/2024/04/18/hes-dropping-little-clues-the-troubling-message-we-are-missing-from-maga-rallies/

 

Maybe he has cancer?

This is really something very small but there is a post on Facebook about the fact the main actors for the Duncan and the Egg series that is going to be filmed have been cast, and Duncan is going to be played by a former footballer who has started an acting career by the name of Peter Claffey. He’s so new he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. I asked the question so how tall is he, since I couldn’t find the answer anywhere (about 6’5”) and I just saw my question got a “like” by…Sean Bean. I think it’s the real Sean Bean, but who knows for sure, his identity could have been appropriated. But I am inordinately pleased.

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

Thieves keep thieving.  First we as a whole plunder it from others.  Then we plunder it from ourselves.  That's how it works, amirite.

I think this is an very accurate statement, though to clarify it for some you might have to explain that “plunder it from others” means people in other countries and “plunder it from ourselves” means people in our own countries. You may have been too nuanced.

37 minutes ago, DMC said:

Does the JFC there stand for Jesus Fucking Christ?

Exactly what crossed my mind!

A story just popped up on Google saying that in Trump’s trial jury selection two corporate lawyers have been picked out of the 7 chosen so far. That could get really interesting. Traditionally lawyers are not chosen for juries.

5 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

I can't think of a single thing that hitting a kid would improve the situation.  Using force to grab/restrain them when they are danger is absolutely sometimes necessary, but what behaviour would result in hitting someone?

I think there’ are such deep Protestant roots in the UK that the concept of “spare the rod, spoil the child” will never go away. It was certainly ingrained into a very Calvinist Ontario here in Canada. Blame Samuel Butler for adding the “spoil the child” idea to biblical proverbs that talked about parents who didn’t discipline their children were doing no favors.

Just out of curiosity I looked up the original poem by Butler:

”What medicine else can cure the fits

Of lovers when they lose their wits?

Love is a boy by poets styled

Then spare the rod and spoil the child”

The Bible verses that get quoted as justification for hitting children talk about discipline with both “rod and reprimand”.. Examples, “whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them”. And “a rod and a reprimand impart wisdom, but a child left undisciplined disgraces its mother”.

The problem is of course the fact that people can be brutal and lack common sense. We know that, sadly.

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

Also, the smoking ban is surely a stupid idea in the first place? I hate smokers and would for everyone to stop, but aren't we already at a point where smoking is dying out anyway? It seems pretty rare to see someone actually smoke a cigarette these days. 

Just a point of clarification here - which smoking ban are you referring to? I looked up the law in the UK and that’s the first I’d seen about the “raise the legal age every year” law being proposed by the PM. Presumably you don’t want the 2007 law reversed?

I think the idea of raising the legal age for smoking every year is actually a pretty good idea. The argument against is the usual “it won’t work”.

On 4/14/2024 at 12:19 PM, Fez said:

I wouldn't be surprised if a few close US allies under our nuclear umbrella started looking into the feasibility of developing their own weapons after Trump made a whole lotta statements while President saying the US shouldn't defend our allies. But I doubt any of them actually have any yet, both because a nuclear weapons program takes a long time to spin up and because I think they would announce they have them as soon as they do.

Can you imagine how badly the US would lose its shit if Canada announced it was starting a bomb project? Or Mexico?

On 4/14/2024 at 12:25 PM, Zorral said:

 

In the meantime I keep thinking that the machete geocide in Rwanda that lasted approximately 100 DAYS killed more people than died in our War of the Rebellion.

This made me look up the population numbers, 2.5 M in the US in 1776, 13.78 M in Rwanda in 1994, and Rwanda was a targeted genocide. But yes, once a nation has genocide on their mind the slaughter can be fast and ruthless. 

11 hours ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

My step-father returned home from being in the hospital for around two weeks if my math is right. He looks terrible. Home hospice is almost always the end. At least he seems happy to be here. We had an uncomfortable conversation about the stuff he thought I might want and what/how I should get things to my step-brother. These have not been fun times. 

Not fun but really important, and something you’ll regret in the future as a needless bit of stupidity or even cruelty if you don’t do it. This comes under the category of being the better person. Be generous, it’s in you.

2 hours ago, TrueMetis said:

How does a provincial statue set a limitation on a federal treaty?

The limitation period in the province where the matter arises is the limitation period that applies. The law does not put any limitation on the treaty itself, the court ruled that once the band realized they had a claim they had to make the claim within the limitation period.

eta: however, the judge used very strong language about the way the federal government acted, and that could go a long way to pushing the feds into making restitution.

4 hours ago, Maltaran said:

Big Tory donor and the chairman of JCB

I looked up his name for news about him “absconding” but there’s nothing that I can find except news of his resignation, and some stories about the investigations going on that are a couple of years old. Has he actually absconded?

2 hours ago, Spockydog said:

Let's see if this guy is pursued by the Gammon Press as vigourously as Angela Raynor.

 

 

What the actual hell is going on? Why would the debt be “nullified”? Who is this guy?

19 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

I assume this is the thread were we mourn the untimely passing of OJ.

RIP Juice

 

 

“Finally OJ can rest knowing his wife’s killer is dead”

The internet produces some great memes.

Where else does a person mention OJ Simpson died? 

Rest in hell.

1 hour ago, JGP said:

iirc, Canada had a pretty shitty legalization rollout. Fuzz had to shut down tons of illegal/unlicensed weed shops [some Provinces being marginally better than others]  

Hah! It was more about people wanting to jump the gun and open up before legislation was passed. People opened up shops while it was still illegal, and then bitterly complained when they got charged and shut down.

eta: it was like the attitude was “it’s going to be legal in a few months, why are you bugging us?”

This discussion about pot shops (we call them “dispensaries” here) made me look up the numbers in Toronto. There are 212, but it feels like there are shops on every block. There are at least five on the main road at the bottom of my block and another at the local mall. I guess I just live in the right neighborhood. There were recent stories in the local press (on-line blogs) about American tourists complimenting us on the prices and availability. Funnily enough, the police report there’s still a thriving underground market, that 80% of the pot sold in Canada is still the illegal stuff.

16 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Tesco, The UK's biggest supermarket chain said pre-tax profits hit £2.3bn, up from £882m, while sales rose by 4.4% to £68.2bn in the year to 24 February.

it was never inflation, it was blatant and disgraceful profiteering. 

Exactly the case with the big grocery chains in Canada.

Wow, Lany, I can’t imagine hail the size of baseballs! Glad you didn’t suffer damage!

Did the UK have police stations thick on the ground or something, that so many are getting closed? Are the public complaining?

Friends of mine decided to drive to the totality zone and they had a great experience and took fantastic pictures!

2 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

I've been doing it in increments since 2008 when they stopped giving us meaningful pay rises and changed our conditions of employment for the worse, every year i care a little bit less.

I’m curious about that. I’ve been listening to the Hamish Macbeth mysteries, all 35 or 36 of them, they’re short and consuming them is like eating candy, and the constant theme of the books is the shutting down of police stations. I looked up “police stations shut down in Scotland” out of curiosity and was surprised to see that it’s continuing even now. I think it said 19 stations to be closed.  A person wonders how the country gets policed. Is this going on in England as well?

5 minutes ago, Lord of Oop North said:

Now it's a bright sunny day,

Thanks, Mother Nature!

It got dark here, the streetlights came on and automatic headlights on cars came on as well!