the village idiot

She would become 'immi-gran', and he would insist on her deportation.

Sixth bloke turns up, very well dressed but with his exposed willy clasped firmly in one hand. The doorman tells the man he is very unlikely to be on the guest list. The man fixes the doorman with a strangely determined expression and states: "It should be perfectly clear to you that I am Master Bayting, please inform the host that I have come."

10 tonne! Wow! I wonder how much it would have weighed had it been winter?

Very good post Kevin. There seems to be a feeling amongst the population that if only we can get the right person into no.10 our lives will become dramatically improved and bad things will stop happening. Whenever something unwanted happens in our lives we look to what the government did to cause it, or didn't do to stop it. Obviously with the tower block there are some very legitimate questions to be asked of the powers that be, but with the majority of our perceived 'problems' the buck of responsibility should stop much lower down- more often than not with ourselves. Blame consitently gets passed upwards until we hit the ceiling of central government. They can't blame God any more so responsibility for everything is seen to be theirs. Political leaders are hounded out for things that really weren't their fault, some other schmuck takes the mantle of the source of all ills and the cycle starts again. In my view, our lives can't really improve until we take more responsibility for how we get on in them.

Where's the fun in that:thumbdown: The article also says that Phelps has a top speed of 6 mph, and a Great White can reach 25mph. So if I understand it correctly, they are trying to find out what is fastest between two swimmers of known speed- one much faster than the other.

I trust they'll make it interesting and stick a pilchard down his speedo's.

It completely depends on your frame of reference. After tax but before expenses I earn around £10,000 per year. This presumably places me towards the 'poor' end of the spectrum of the UK population financially speaking. If you take the view that every human life is of equal value then you have to look at the global picture. On this metric I am in the richest 12% of the world's population. Globally speaking I am very wealthy, in a very large part due to luck (I was born in the UK). This is a controvertial topic, but it could well be argued that using our privileged position to accumulate more wealth for ourselves than we need to live comfortably, whilst others worldwide are suffering terribly in extreme poverty, is morally indefensible. If you look at it purely from an opportunity and ethical position, the thing to do might be to use our privileged position to maximise our earning potential and donate all income (above that which we really need to be happy) to causes that can be proven to alleviate suffering. This sounds quite extreme, but the interesting point is that this will have a very small negative impact on our wellbeing, and a huge life enhancing benefit on the wellbeing of others. It is also quite possible that the immense satifaction experienced from living by this philosophy will actually make you much happier than the accumulation of excess personal wealth ever can. You can literally save the life of a child every year by donating £3000 of your annual income to someone like Against Malaria Foundation. How amazing would that feel, forever! I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this, it is a concept I have only recently been made aware of. Does it make sense or is it problematic and unrealistic? One of the things I like about it is that it puts the focus on the individual to do good things rather than relying on blundering and biased politicians to act on our behalf. If anyone is interested in the concept there is a lot more on the phiolosophy of this in the podcast I posted yesterday. Highly recommended! https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/being-good-and-doing-good

A really interesting and thought provoking podcast below. It's quite long but well worth a listen. https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/being-good-and-doing-good

And presumably you apply that philosophy to every waking moment of your life.

'Wanking, not Banking' eh Mark?

Excellent point Bob!

Oh Felix, you old sweetie!

Hi Stihl123, I sell cubic mtrs of logs wholesale and am based near Ipswich. Demand is high and I am completely sold out for this winter, but could supply you from next winter onwards if this is what you had in mind. Send me a PM if interested. All the best, TVI.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if all aspiring MP's had to stand as independants in elections. They would be more free to articulate their personal stances on things, and we could vote for them accordingly. The problem with Party politics is that when it comes to vote on things to be enshrined in law the MP's are whipped (ie. threatened) into following the party line. The 650 independant MP's could vote to determine who holds the position of Prime Minister. This proposition is probably riddled with problems, but I am struggling to see them off the top of my head.

An all powerful, perfectly wise supreme being?

Negotiating the stool was undoubtably a smart move Andy.

Bit of a curve ball here, but anyone fancy a leader who speaks a bit more like the Prime Minister of Bhutan? One of the poorest but also the happiest nation in Asia. His focus here is on Climate Change, but the most interesting thing for me is the dramatic difference in general tone and vision from that preached by our political leaders year after year after year. Be intersting to hear your thoughts on whether the Bhutan model (Gross National Happiness over Gross National Product) and a refreshingly long term vision is viable globally? [ame] [/ame]

Alec, there's no full stop at the end of your sentence!

:lol:

As much as I would love to oblige Kevin, you have to be clever to do satire:001_smile:. I'm only capable of sillyness. And to be perfectly honest, thinking about the election, and politics in general at the moment makes my brain sad.

Alright, we need a new topic.