Bruce

There was an American Indian tribe who got so converted that they turned the other cheek to their enemies. This tribe is now extinct. However a true believer would say that they are much better off and in heaven these days. What would your father-in law say to this Yenn?

Nev, do you actually know anybody who seriously believes religious stuff? If so, how do you know that they really believe and are not just pretending to in order to lord it over no-account people like us? Not that their pretense is that shallow, they probably don't question themselves at all. But do they really turn the other cheek and stuff? No way. So they fail the Bruce test of true belief. On another thread I have tried unsuccessfully to unearth a creationist.

I don't have any problem with accepting vegans and in fact I admire them. There was one who was a mate of mine and he used to complain to me of open-class gliding tasks under 600km on the grounds they were artificially short to suit unhealthy people who couldn't fly with complete concentration for 6 or 7 hours at a time. He flew an ASH 25 at the time. What I object to is the portrayal of meat-producers as being cruel to animals and destructive of the environment. Maybe caged animals fed with irrigated grain fit this criticism, but grass-fed pasture animals sure don't. Just look up stuff on " food and the environment " and you will see the nonsense I am referring to.

Tomato sauce is apparently surprisingly good for you. There is something in tomatoes which needs cooking to make available. And I will argue that rainfed pasture meat is kinder to animal life and the environment than what vegetarians eat.

There was a story at the time about a conscientious objector who answered every question with a quote from the bible. The magistrate praised him and so did the reporters and he won his case. This was the 1960's. The objector was of course right in that christianity is totally incompatible with any sort of military. The religion was chosen by Constantine after shopping for a religion with exactly that feature. How the powers that be can doublethink around this issue is yet another proof to me that they only pretend to believe the religious stuff.

What sort of meat Yenn? I sure agree with you about wages and prices. I would love to be able to have a young helper around here, but the costs of employing anybody are way higher than the returns their labour can produce. And then there is the legal risk, you could lose the whole farm from an injury claim. Turbs says to stop complaining and think of a scheme so profitable that we can employ people and still make money. Well I'm trying but need to be smarter than I am. In the meantime, its better to produce less and be safer. Did you see the proposal to force new immigrants to spend some years in "regions" ? Maybe there will be thousands of new immigrants on welfare around here, and we will not be able to afford them either.

I'm worried we might need a new referendum if people want to marry their sex dolls.

Which of these is true: 1. The man is a scientific illiterate. 2. He never studied science, he did Chinese history and Language. 3. Those ancient Chinese knew bugger-all about global warming and resource depletion. ,

Here's a very unusual thing about this planet. It is almost a binary with its big moon. Now that moon is essential to keep the axis of rotation stable. Without this the axis tilt would vary like Mars and agriculture would never have started. I reckon its very likely there are no other similar planets. And we might well have ruined this one already. But here is what is sad... geo-engineering could save us if we for example put thousands of sunshades in orbit . Alas we are squandering the resources which could have done this by fighting amongst ourselves. US plus China military budgets comes to about 1000 billion dollars.

On another tack, thinking about Marty's old ladies and the planet which was "just right" in nearly every way...Why should it be 100 percent right, when all of the others are 0%? Just suppose it was 60% right, with the flaw being that industrial civilization will unlock the time-bomb of frozen methane?

Old K, very few non-farmed animals have a good life. They are beset with parasites and they are not wormed of foot-bathed or sheep-dipped or drenched or any of the things the farmer does to look after his sheep. The terrible suffering of innocent wild animals is proof to many that there could not possibly be a good and caring god up there.

Apparently lots of places in Australia are called " f -off whitefeller" in the local aboriginal dialect of yesteryear. It happened because the white map maker asked his Aboriginal guide what the place was called, then he unsuspectingly wrote it on the map.

Red that translation program is not very good.

I was once confused when this American visitor went shopping for a new tarp. All explained when she came back with a new top.

Both dreadful things to celebrate. ( arrival of convict fleet and landing of maybe the most stupid attack of ww1) What we lack is the day when general Ned Kelly chucked the poms out. Then we would have a 14th July.

I'm just going to live with the Americanization of English. It's gone too far to stop when you hear ABC announcers saying "Skedule" instead of schedule. And in what way are frites different from chips? They are both pretty bad for you as Nev says.

So what is the breakdown of the $1.40 you pay for a liter space?

Adam's markup wasn't that much. The biggest markup I know of was a fuel pump for an imported car. Cost to Lucas was $70. Cost to the customer $1400. Told to me by a guy who worked there at the time.

What makes that story sadder space is knowing that much tax money is just wasted.

Red, don't they need a search warrant to do that? Too much of that behavior will cause people to store their stuff off-premises.

I reckon the "win at any cost" mentality does more harm than good to sports. Related to this is the big money that the sports stars get. Mind you, it is better going to the players instead of the administrators. Look at the sad saga of cricket lately, and look what happened to Essendon AFL club. Too much money at stake.

Good idea Marty. We could then argue over what x should be. I reckon a much lower figure than 25 is healthier for society. Say 5.

col, for most of my working life I was paid by the government and had no problems with the tax I paid. Since then, with money I earned the hard way with no help at all from the government, I can say it hurts to pay out tax money. Especially when its wasted, like on keeping non-violent people in jail, in particular those who had already been punished by bankrupting them. I got to say this to the South Australian minister for corrections... his reply was that they knew this very well and he agreed with me, , but they had to do what the public demanded or lose office.

Thanks space, but I'm too dumb to work a smart phone. The wife has one which she sure wouldn't let me play with. And I've been told that VR doesn't work properly unless you have the good high-end gear. This is a hard thing for us cheapskates to come to grips with I know. If it's true....

Question for you computer experts... I like the idea of virtual reality but don't want to rush in too fast and find its a disappointment. I did this with Kinect, buying it for the grandkids. But here in the northern suburbs of Adelaide I can't find a place to try it out. Yes we have Harvey Normans and JB's but no demos from them yet. 4 questions: 1.Which is the best VR sort? They have a huge difference in price. 2. should I wait for the Microsoft thing? 3. should I refuse to buy anything until I have had a proper demo? 4. will the flight simulators be so good they will kill off real flying?