God help America

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, onetrack said:

I was going through the UNSW Vietnam Battle map a day or two ago, and I was quite amazed to find one infantry casualty was due to a tree falling on him during a contact! 

Wasn't there a bloke in New Guinea in WW2 who died when a tin of bully beef hit him on the head? Dropped from a biscuit bomber.

[willedoo]

4 hours ago, pmccarthy said:

At our NSW primary school we marched to assembly once a week, stood at attention, hoisted the flag and recited "I honour my god, I serve my queen, I salute my flag".

I don't think we said any of that stuff, but every morning before start of classes, we'd form up into lines on the asphalt, boys on one side, girls on the other. The head teacher would drag a big plywood box speaker out onto the verandah and put on a scratchy record of God Save the Queen. I can't remember whether we had to sing along with it or not, but we had to put our hand over our hearts while standing at attention. The JW's were exempt from that; they'd just stand there. I'd guess about a quarter of the kids at that school were JW's.

 

That asphalt parade square got a bit of use. It doubled a dance floor when we had to do dance classes, and at one stage they painted white lines all over it like streets and a safety guy came out to teach us road rules for pushbikes.

[onetrack]

I obviously had a deprived schooling. I went to public primary and secondary schools, and never had to do any of that anthem, rah-rah songs, or other crap. In primary school, I just had to put up with regular beatings from a sicko of a headmaster who'd cane you for any spurious reason whatsoever - including simply "talking in class".

He was a downright abusive bastard and it sickens me to see him lauded as a great headmaster, and have a suburb named after him. 40 years later and he'd be done for child abuse.

[Jerry_Atrick]

An interesitng news report of how dangerous and unhinged the USA seems to be becoming:

 

[facthunter]

Impossible. IF Trump's involved it won't be civil. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

Has a war ever been civil?

[Bruce Tuncks]

We had to do that "saluting the flag" stuff in Alice Springs when I was at primary school. Later, at the then-new Anzac Hill school, the foyer had portraits  of QE2 and the governor -general, Sir William Slim. I believe that the GG was in real life a pedophile although this is called "unproven allegations " to this day. As if a ten-year old orphanage-boy could come by legal "proof" against the GG.

The vice-regal car would visit an orphanage and a good looking boy would be lifted into the back seat to spend an hour with the GG while the driver etc made themselves scarce.

[Bruce Tuncks]

We could see a civil war if Trump is elected methinks.

[facthunter]

He's set up such a precedent that no one could believe the outcome is likely to be above board. . Poor insignificant Donnie. He always HAS to have what he wants or he'll stamp and Pout.   Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

Sadly, he isn't insignificant - otherwise we wouldn't be talking about him, nor consider him a threat to the free world should he get back in.

[rgmwa]

Even if he doesn’t get in he won’t go away. He’ll try and trash everything from the sidelines. 

[old man emu]

In the 20th Century we had a few civil wars, and people from other countries volunteered to fight for the side they believed in. The Spanish Civil War is a good example. I wonder, however, how many foreigners would flock to the aid of either side in a civil war in the USA. More likely to stand by and watch the place burn. 

[Bruce Tuncks]

I reckon the republicans are too bad for that OME. Might well be that the democrats are bad too, but on a least-worst basis, they smell like roses.

[Old Koreelah]

Just happened on this old image; perhaps it belongs here.

 

[nomadpete]

Sad or funny?

I can't laugh because it is just possibly a shot about the standard of education vs self righteous ignorance.

[Marty_d]

Look, it's a mistake anyone could make... just one of those rare 3-horned rhinos...

[nomadpete]

4 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

Look, it's a mistake anyone could make... just one of those rare 3-horned rhinos...

Why would anybody other than a American think it had been shot?

 

It was probably just restin.

 

And had a picture took with it's daddy.

[old man emu]

26 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

Why would anybody other than a American think it had been shot?

To quote Monty Python, "It's not dead. It's resting".

 

 Fossilised dinosaur skeletons have been found with stones (gastroliths) in their stomach region. Birds swallow sharp, rough stones that help grind up food in their muscular second stomach, called a gizzard. In the original book upon which the film is based, we find out that the stones it eats are too close to poisonous West Indian Lilac berries. So when the dinosaur replaces the stones every six weeks it simultaneously picks up some of the fallen berries and is poisoned again.

 

[Marty_d]

To be fair, a 7-ton animal would have to accidentally ingest a shedload of poisonous berries to be that badly affected.

 

[old man emu]

18 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

To be fair, a 7-ton animal would have to accidentally ingest a shedload of poisonous berries to be that badly affected.

 

Never let reality get in the way of a fictional device. 

 

Besides, the late Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 to 66 million years ago, flowering plants probably hadn't developed the protective toxicities of modern plants. It appears from their dentition that they would have eaten short, soft plants, so maybe they did chew on the early flowering plants.

 

This is Triceratops horridus which is exhibited here in Australia at the Melbourne Museum. 

[red750]

US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appears to have frozen up again while speaking to reporters about the possibility of him running for re-election.

 

It follows a similar incident last month where the 81-year-old seemed unable to hear or answer reporters' questions.

 

The latest episode occurred just after being asked if he was considering running for re-election in 2026, causing him to freeze for about 30 seconds.

 

It has raised more concerns about his fitness to lead his party in the Senate.

[Marty_d]

He's not fit to lead a garbage crew, but it's nothing to do with his health. 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Don't wish that rubbish on a garbage crew!

[facthunter]

He's probably been pulled over by a few cops. they say :FREEZE". There's hardly any REPS who are game to confront Donnie the Revenger. They are all gutless bar Pence and  that ex vice presidents daughter, Liz  Cheney. Nev

[Old Koreelah]

11 hours ago, facthunter said:

He's probably been pulled over by a few cops. they say :FREEZE". There's hardly any REPS who are game to confront Donnie the Revenger. They are all gutless bar Pence and  that ex vice presidents daughter, Liz  Cheney. Nev

…and Pence was a fence sitter at best.