Bruce Tuncks

I would like to see all the democratic countries leave the UN and set up their own organization. There would be lots of dictatorships suddenly feeling exposed, which would be great to see.

I reckon the world is divided into 2 camps, democracy and dictatorships. Of course, one can easily flip into dictatorship as we have seen recently with Trump. There is such a blurred line between them , even Putin is going to hold an "election". So what criteria should be used to decide if a country is what?

OME, When you are a funeral director, you will find that people are dying for your attention.

I would much prefer the fire brigade to nobody. Anyway, I reckon there is far too little attention given to the benefits of democracy vs dictatorships. Sure, we can vote in some silly and lazy farts, but at least we have the ( theoretical) possibility of voting them out again. I would like to see the true democracies of the earth form their own association and not allow dictatorships anywhere near.

Nowadays the area is devoid of rice and geese. I personally would have allowed geese to be harvested along with the rice. This was the area near Darwin.

Well the chinese system works for me. I always add the postage to the price when comparing deals.

Great story Nomad, and hard to explain without the idea that the birds were playing with the cat. Birds do have good brains, I guess that they need to be fairly smart to avoid flying into trees etc, especially on windy days.

That's right willedoo. The magpie-lark is the same as the pee-wee. They are NOT magpies. The reason birds attack their image in a mirror is that they are vision-dominated animals. Dogs will not be taken in by a mirror because it doesn't smell right. What good would it do a bird to be scent-dominated? Apparently there is a higher ape that can understand a mirror, but mostly even apes can't so they try and fight the image then they try and suck up and then they get depressed cos nothing worked.

I'm surprised that gaza, for example, is not a sought after place for its cheap labor.

I notice the chinese are not so silly.... the postage rarely puts me off.

I reckon the last packet of fags I bought cost 3 shillings and 4 pence. But the worst thing I ever saw was a fat family at an "all you can eat" restaurant in the USA. It was breakfast time, and the two fat boys piled their plates up with a mixture of bacon and eggs and ( truly!) chocolate icing donuts. They used one big plate each and the pile was a pyramid about a foot high. You could see strata of bacon, eggs, sausages, donuts repeating as the layers rose and had to get smaller .

Many years ago, I was a new fishing guy and I went fishing with a bunch of experts. They forgave me for thinking that you could eat bait ( squid) on account of coming from Alice Springs. Whenever I see any of this lot these days I ask them about calamari, I reckon I got the last laugh.

Good onyer Nev. I personally live in a shed and u are dead right. I also have a hangar and I agree that it would easily be made fine to live in. But the house I sold in Adelaide cost $100,000 and was sold for $400,000 and none of that was taxed and it sure was a rort. The $300,000 profit was just that.

I read that the "wealth divide" in society is too big for young people who work for wages. The divide is because some have help from their parents to buy a house and some do not. If you have parents who help then you are rich in comparison.

I would like to see much more affordable housing being built. A shed can be cheaply built to withstand any weather and earthquake situations. And it can be quickly lined for living in. BUT the powers that be would ban such a thing out of hand. You are only allowed to have unaffordable housing ( they don't say aloud but they do by their actions ) , and they will send police with guns around if they are disobeyed . Why do they act so badly? My guess it's that they like housing increasing in value, which is the result of what is happening right now.

While I agree that the cops need to act within the law , surely the wrongdoing of the cops has to be weighed against the wrongdoing of the perp. In the case of the illegal parking, there is no comparison at all if the perp is, say, a drugseller.

Surely it's not true that if a cop parks illegally to catch a perp, then this whole thing gets thrown out as " the fruit of a poisoned tree?"

Thanks OME. Personally, I like the idea of entrapment as used against illegal drug sellers. Just as I like the idea of booby-traps as used against criminals... for example, secretly photographing a criminal doing his thing is a great idea methinks, also connecting a desirable object to the mains power, to catch a burglar. My guess is that the photo bit would be legal but the electrocution stuff would not be. But I accede to your knowledge on the subject... I would limit the requirement to be that entrapment which CAUSES a crime when no crime would have taken place should be illegal. An example would be getting a girl to ask a big guy to help with a heavy suitcase and then arresting him for carrying drugs.

Thanks OME. I gotta say I like the idea of swapping money before a buy... but don't forget, you are using the druggie to shop his supplier. He could justify it in many ways, going straight is just one, getting in first is another, moving interstate with enough money to start over ( clean or not) is another. And while I agree about the sellers having good informers, I reckon that this does not have to be permanent. Right now, the Commonwealth cops are tight enough that they can keep imported drugs under surveillance for months without the perps finding out. What could be worth more money than knowing about this? I didn't know about even the cops having to get a court order before being " allowed" to buy illegal drugs, but this could be changed by legislation too. It seems unreasonable and certainly cuts off the possibility of any spontaneous buying, even by the cops. Yes, I am aware that certain corrupt cops may just be drug buyers in real life, they surely need culling out, there can't be many of them. AND I say again, most of my men's exercise group would be off trying to buy drugs if they got a grand or so for succeeding. But nobody is interested in this deal. SO your arguments have won the day.

I always thought that the poem from my schooldays..."The piles are bad, the crabs are worse, so shit at home, for safety first" was uneducated crap.

Apparently a big nail is good for 2000 amps.

OME, there is a "guide to fuse replacement" cartoon which is pretty good.

In ALice Springs, you could choose to use the Yeperenye dunnies at 50 cents a go or else the public ones down near the Todd for nothing. The money was well worth it, and I guess that it is more today. I would pay dollars to not use the public dunnies.

I don't think the minister up the front knew what was in the picture he demanded to see.

I never thought about changing rooms, nomad, except for the time the metho minister's son drew a picture of a copulating couple. The minister up front (not his dad) DEMANDED to see the picture. Apparently it was quite good. I never got to see it.