Old Koreelah

Trying to look up the current Republics and Automomous Regions of Russia is like wading through a smorgasbord. So many disparate ethnic groups with little in common, held together by the brutal hand of the central government. If Putin loses in Ukraine, expect plenty of pressure from these units for more autonomy or even independence. In neighbours still under Moscow’s boot, things might soon get sticky. Kazakhstan has been wriggling free of Russia and recent demonstrations in Georgia have seen the EU flag waving. Russia’s last Civil War was 100 years ago; the next one might be worse.

One of those bored retards put a bullet through the head of an Australian journalist as he was passing a checkpoint in some African hot spot. Reporting on the news is a dangerous occupation.

The religious mob have always had a foot in the door of state schools: religious instruction lessons, delivered by lay persons of variable ability and effectiveness. Just a few years ago they were given a much bigger role in our supposedly secular public schools. The LNP government attacked ethics classes in favour of paid “school chaplains”. I worked with one who was a wonderful addition to the team, but know of others with too much religious baggage.

Spacey there are supposedly Christian sects which are bluddy hard to leave. The JWs is one known to impose unnatural punishment on anyone who leaves.

Australia’s governments have always been heavily influenced by special interest groups- mostly wealthy whites and foregners- so now we’re complaining about our first peoples having the ear of government?

Motivation is everything. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

The whole nation has been raised on the idea of “Religious Freedom” so any nutter can have a vision and start his own religion which might allow lots of wives. That well-known Prophet in Arabia apparently had a number of visions, each one telling him he could add a few more wives. What America (and the rest of the world) needs more than anything is Freedom FROM Religion.

Don’t be surprised if, within a decade, alliances in the Middles East get a big shake-up. Iran once again on speaking terms with USA and the Saudis finally recognised as the backward, hate-spreading regime they always were.

Spacey this is the mantra of the No side of politics. A silly argument. They conveniently forget that the Constitution itself isn’t very clear about how the country should be run. That simple document was a starting point for our system of government to evolve from. The Voice is the same. The sky will not fall, if after 250+ years, we finally recognise the original inhabitants.

Bruce I’d agree, but only in the sense that Mustafa Kemal’s statesmanship turned the “sick man of Europe” into a modern, secular democracy (although Erdovan is undoing much of Ataturk’s work). Let’s not forget the huge numbers of Turks killed (about 90,000 at Gallipoli alone) and they lost their empire.

Churchill had a difficult decision to make: if he allowed the Turks to take delivery of these new British-built warships, they might have been used against them. (The French did someting similar to Russia not so long ago.) A quarter century later, Churchill had a far worse dilemma: what to do about the powerful French fleet, which after their surrender, would likely be used to greatly boost Hitler’s naval strength. After pig-headed French Admiral refused to bring his warships to the British side (he was reportedly miffed that the Royal Navy sent a mere captain to negotiate, rather than someone of equal rank) Churchill ordered them all sunk. The resulting carnage haunted him.

A few km north of Cook’s encampment and only about 18 years later, Governor Phillip was speared as he approached some locals. About 200 years later, a facinating detail about that was revealed by his decendants: the spear point was iron!

You talking about these deep thinkers?

Cyclical mega draughts certainly hammered many civilizations, but human activity has always played a part; overgrazing by goats and sheep is surely a major factor. Once the trees are gone, you’re stuffed!

A major reason Putin want Ukraine back under Russia’s control: it had much of the design and industrial talent of the USSR. Britain is in a similar situation; much of the Royal Navy is built by the Scots, so Scottish independence would by problematic.

I had a student whose parents believed that he only had to learn about computers to survive the future workforce. Atrociously poor at everything else.

Change.org has higher ethical standards than some of those churches!

If you’re sick of this madness (which is also well entrenched in Australia): …then you could sign this petition: https://chng.it/wcz4hmcWHt

Willy my drilling rig career didn’t even last as long as yours! A couple of weeks offsiding on a rig doing core samples on a man-made island…in the middle North Sydney. Excavations for the foundations of the Northpoint Tower hit a snag when the central “island” started moving sideways. Out task was to bring up samples of the weak, sloping strata that it was moving on. A very long way below us about a hundred new immigrants were digging out the underground carpark. They were being showered by our cold, dirty drill waste and some pretty angry abuse was shouted up at us. Under orders, I constructed a temporary coffer dam to contain the horrible liquid, but that just postponed the inevitable; the poor buggers were inundated by a massive dam burst, prompting us to leave work early that day, as a crowd of irate labourers ran up the access ramp.

An expanded version of that amazing story was featured here years ago. Movies have been made about lesser adventures.

…but not their daughter?