Bruce Tuncks

Back in school in the 1950's, the C of E kids were told that Henry started his own church because the old one was financing the Spanish Armada, which meant that the poms were planned ( by the Catholic Church ) to pay for their own enslavement. Next door, the Catholic kids were being told that Henry wanted to murder yet another wife, but the Pope said " enough". Who was right Spacy? ( Hint: we kids thought they were both wrong and furthermore we thought they were stupid not realizing that the kids would talk later.)

The M???? I tried ( but failed) to get orgies, I think he meant " organics" , which I reckon are loony-tunes stuff. Except for this titbit.... vegetable growers usually have a row they use for themselves and they DON'T use sprays on this row.

You guys are right about it being mercury in the amalgam. Gosh, this proves it I reckon, that is about how it makes you stupid. There was an experiment where they gave sheep fillings and later discovered that mercury was in the carcase. The dentists who used the stuff poo-pooed this experiment of course. They said how sheep were totally different. Personally, since I have got to know sheep better, I reckon that I understand investors better too as they act just like sheep. Electors too, maybe.

I always reckon that the pommy monarchs have LESS autonomy than the Aust GG. As an example, that awful Kerr guy eventually had to leave Australia because wherever he went, there would be a demo against him.

How many milliamps does the tripper need to turn off the main circuit?

AND the dentist used to use amalgam for teeth fillings. They denied that there was any transfer of lead out from the amalgam, but I have my doubts, and offer my increasing stupidity as a proof.

Darn, I get convinced too easily by the last argument I read. Could it be the lead in my brain? we used to melt it outside in a jam-tin and pour it into sand-molds made using plastic toy planes.

A non-elected position of political power seems fishy to me.... but using power to enrich yourself is clear evidence of corruption to me.... Here's a test: Is banking and financing more profitable in the UK than in comparable countries? If the answer to this is "yes" then we really have a smoking gun on corruption counts.

I recommend making the rich pay tax.

About 50 to 60 years ago, life insurance was a tax deduction, and so you had to put up with lots of well-heeled salesmen trying to sell you life insurance. I was saved because I didn't believe that going gliding really put me into a higher category of risk than smoking did. The salesman told me that cleverer-than-me actuaries had worked it all out and I should believe them. ( I was willing to accept that they were clever than me, the sticking point was that I did not believe they would be honest with me.)

Thanks Willedoo. I didn't know about the transfer of extra powers to the PM of the day and I would not have liked it. I like a true democracy and agree with the idea that " governments can only take freedoms away" and that this is only justified if the freedoms are going to be used to do harm. So our road laws are there to protect you from hoon drivers etc, and are permitted in a true democracy. In some ways, I reckon that laws to stop liars from getting into power are in this category. Much more problematic are laws designed to protect people from themselves. A lot of our drug prohibitions come from this mindset and I don't like them, even if they are supported by the majority.... I wonder if the voters have not been influenced by liars.

I had been amazed at how youi suggests in their ads that you get a bigger and faster payout from them... I didn't know that they are all owned by the same lot, so thanks. Many years ago, I foolishly opined at a club meeting about how insurance companies were crooks. They made me Insurance Officer next time around, but I was as bad as anybody else. There is always the possibility that some fool might injure a young doctor in such a way that we needed insurance to pay out millions. You can be uninsured yourself because you have control all the time, but when you are relying on strangers to do the right thing, well the thought makes me at least, turn to water. I stopped insuring my gliders 30 years before retiring from flying them, and came out so far ahead that I wished I had banked the premiums. In any case, after 20 years, I was ahead financially. I don't know anybody who insures their expensive self-launch gliders these days. After all, they are just toys that you can live without and the premiums are too far removed from the actual risk that it is just poor business to pay.

Willedoo, I reckon that you are correct about the Prez being elected by the house of reps at 2/3. So that is why I voted "yes" all those years ago. But you voted "no" and I'm curious as to why. Of course the thing is all history now, but I was aghast at how an Irish-heritage guy I knew voted "no" because he aped an Abbott ad and said that he "didn't want a politicians republic." And no, I didn't read the whole thing carefully.

They could replace thousands of accountants and lawyers with a land tax, if this replaced all other taxes. The law could fit onto a single sheet of paper.

spacy, I read somewhere that it's a legal requirement to display prices properly.

I got the grandkids to take an interest in arithmetic by pointing out that if you couldn't count properly, you could hand over a $50 note and get change for a $5 note. It impressed them to know that there were indeed examples of this happening.

Hungary is a tragic place... I well remember the uprising ( 1954 I think) when the army supported the protesters and the russians came in brutally killing thousands. This led eventually to Aborigines being citizens, since the russians were ready and primed when Australia joined the chorus of complaints about their wicked ways. The worst-off ethnic group in the Soviet Union had better stats than the abos had in those days. Australians were on the nose for months after the russians pointed all this out. In my first job as an engineer, I worked with a Hungarian woman who said that their whole history was messed up with traitors of various types. I hope that she ( Viola) finished up alright. The other guy there was Frank the pole, who saved to go back to Poland where they couldn't understand his language. Frank was a smart draughtsman but hopeless as a linguist. We couldn't understand him either, he spoke such a heavily accented mixture of polish and english so as to be incomprehensible. ( he had left Poland in 1939 to work as a mechanic on spitfires)

I guess it's much easier to get into the EU than to get chucked out. How come Greece is still in there if they are so corrupt?

Interesting huh that an independent judiciary is very important for avoiding corruption. And here's me complaining how they are too easy-going ...

i always reckoned the "11th hr" stuff was too theatrical to like. What about the poor buggers who died on the tenth hour?

Yep, I notice that "treatment of minorities" was a condition of joining the EU. Turkey would fail for sure with the treatment of its Kurds.

Here's what I really don't understand.... why is not greed used AGAINST the druggies? For a small example, if there was a $1000 reward for dobbing in a drug seller, I bet we would all be out trying to buy drugs with noted money. Just try your friendly local cops to see if this is encouraged in your area. My only explanation is that corruption is at work, but I'm buggered if I can see how.

I always thought that Turkey was a backwards Islamic place. Is it corrupt too? And yes, you are right willedoo, the EU must have more up-to date stuff than I can get my hands on.

We sure are well-off. I saw a list of demands to make the world into a great place. These demands included enough food and education and housing for everybody, just like what I grew up with. Gosh, thought I, We really lived in a great place at the best of times. The next big thing is going to be real food shortages, brought about by climate change and over-population and resource depletion. Enough gloom and doom, though.... We won't be around to worry in ten years or so.

I was shocked on reading about corruption still existing in Ukraine. Previously, I thought that while it used to be corrupt, since Zelenskyy things have improved dramatically. Alas I now have my doubts. One of the worst things was reading that "most people" expected to have to bribe the police... gosh I hope that this was years ago and not now.