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How times change...

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Soapbox
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  • L Lost User

    mark merrens wrote:

    The left govern the people, the right govern the country.

    The subject is too complex to translate to a binary decision.

    Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

    R Offline
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    R Giskard Reventlov
    wrote on last edited by
    #15

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    "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

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    • D Dalek Dave

      Letter to 'Sinclair User' June 1984: "AS A TEACHER and a Conservative supporter, I take exception to some of the remarks made in your April article, No Time For Complacency. I cannot speak for the present Government but I would like to put my views as briefly as I can. The profligate spending of the last Socialist Government, or "Labour" as it calls itself, for some unknown reason, left this country in a very difficult financial position. The International Monetary Fund had refused to lend it any more money because of the extravagant way in which it was spent and the Socialists had to impose a freeze on spending which affected education and other services very severely. It has cost practically all the revenue from North Sea oil to pay the interest on that debt and pay off some of the blank cheques left behind when they were put out of office in 1979. Under their Minister of Education, none other than Mrs Shirley Williams who was then a Socialist, we suffered equally from shortages of books and materials at a time when schools were full. She was too busy trying to impose comprehensive education on all and sundry to bother about such mundane things. The present Government has put things back into perspective. You just cannot go on spending other people's money for ever, soaking the "rich" - who are usually not Labour supporters - to give to those they consider are the "poor" - who are usually good Labour party members, otherwise they do not exist - forever. What happens when there are no more "rich"? I bought a 48K Spectrum last July after a long wait until I could afford one, as I wanted to assess its capabilities as a teaching machine, which I found to be limitless. I also wanted to keep one step ahead of the little horrors I teach and to be able to hold my own in discussions. As I find it a pleasant relief from work and politics, I did not welcome the intrusion of this in your otherwise excellent magazine. I shall, of course, continue to read it, despite all. I cannot afford many things just now, like a daisywheel printer to go with my Tasword II and replace my 30-year-old typewriter; I shall buy one when I can afford it. The Government would dearly love to issue each school with two dozen computers and keep them up to date but there is the debt to pay and all manner of pressure groups demanding their share of public funds which are only just beginning to exist again." We move in circles.

      --------------------------------- I will never again mention that I was

      M Offline
      M Offline
      Matthew Faithfull
      wrote on last edited by
      #16

      Plus ce change. However anyone thinking we're in the same situation again should consider that we actually still have a Socialist government. By that I don't just mean that the current 'Conservative' government is actually increasing spending ( which it is although on nothing useful ) and borrowing but that we are now being governed largely by the EU. It produces > 70% of our legislation by page count and controls > 40% of policy areas covering considerably more than £100,000,000,000 ( 100 billion ) of annual expenditure. For example our elected government has no more influence over its own environmental policy than Greenpeace, in fact probably less, as it's an example of a full EU 'competancy'. In other words the EU have 100% control of all environmental legislation and policy. (Every time the BBC announce something environmental as 'government' policy they're lying and they know they are) The EU's faux democratic 'parliament' is majority Socialist controlled with the head of the dominant Socialist block being a previously convicted Red Brigade terrorist who spent a long stretch in prison for blowing people up in the name of Communism. The unelected Commisson which is where all the power is in the EU is the plaything of its own bureaucrats who have a long standing apparently Socialist agenda determined mostly by their majority selection from a very narrow elite of French civil servants who in no way see themselves as servants to anyone. However if you are a hard core right wing Thatcherite social Darwinian then do not despair for the EUSSR like the USSR after which so much of it is modelled is a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a lie. Behind all the Socialist facade and all the petty bureacrats working so hard for the false dream of an international Socialist utopia is a deeper darker truth. At its core the EU is in fact much more like a Faschist organisation than a Socialist one. The only body that can actually recommend laws directly to the Commission is not a government or a convention but a cabal of top business leaders called the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT) and the whole 'European Project' as its called was originally sponsored by the neo-feudalist New York banking tycoons who control the US Federal reserve. Such greed worshipping anti-human arch manipulators who could never reasonably be mistaken for Socialists. The 'Euro' currency itself which was designed by the 'Club of Rome', a think tank dominated by international arms dealers and tools of the banking elite, and then p

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      • R R Giskard Reventlov

        Never played games so that was wasted on me. In any case, it wasn't an insult, it was an observation: socialists seem quite adept at putting out of their minds what happened the last time they held power and simply repeat the same mistakes. Again, an observation.r

        "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

        J Offline
        J Offline
        jschell
        wrote on last edited by
        #17

        mark merrens wrote:

        In any case, it wasn't an insult, it was an observation: socialists seem quite adept at putting out of their minds what happened the last time they held power and simply repeat the same mistakes. Again, an observation.

        Just an observation...many humans do that. And the ones that don't become absolutely focused on one single event that occurred in the past and ignore everything else that has happened since then.

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        • R R Giskard Reventlov

          Eddy Vluggen wrote:

          It's a subjective observation, not a definition.

          No, it's objective. Socialists take power: they raise taxes and spend even more than they raise and blame everything on the previous government. Public finally figures out they've been had and votes in a non-socialist type of government which has to spend all of its time fixing what the socialists did, making them unpopular. Stupid public votes back in the socialists who do exactly the same thing again. Seen it too many times to consider it a subjective observation. (And I'm not saying the other end of the spectrum is any better but that wasn't under discussion).

          Eddy Vluggen wrote:

          Implies that any other than a socialist would not have, does it not?

          No, see above.

          "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

          J Offline
          J Offline
          jschell
          wrote on last edited by
          #18

          mark merrens wrote:

          No, it's objective

          Then I suppose you should be able to provide some actual measurements that demonstrate that.

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          • R R Giskard Reventlov

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            "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

            B Offline
            B Offline
            Brisingr Aerowing
            wrote on last edited by
            #19

            01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101000 01101001 01101100 01100001 01110010 01101001 01101111 01110101 01110011 00100001

            Bob Dole

            The internet is a great way to get on the net.

            :doh: 2.0.82.7292 SP6a

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            • J jschell

              mark merrens wrote:

              In any case, it wasn't an insult, it was an observation: socialists seem quite adept at putting out of their minds what happened the last time they held power and simply repeat the same mistakes. Again, an observation.

              Just an observation...many humans do that. And the ones that don't become absolutely focused on one single event that occurred in the past and ignore everything else that has happened since then.

              R Offline
              R Offline
              R Giskard Reventlov
              wrote on last edited by
              #20

              jschell wrote:

              Just an observation...many humans do that.

              Are you inferring that you are not human?

              jschell wrote:

              And the ones that don't become absolutely focused on one single event that occurred in the past and ignore everything else that has happened since then.

              LOL: not a single event: I've lived through a number of "Labour" (for which read socialist and, sometimes, closet communist) governments and, without fail, they do the same thing each and every time even after promising they won't: tax and spend.

              "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

              J 1 Reply Last reply
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              • M Matthew Faithfull

                Plus ce change. However anyone thinking we're in the same situation again should consider that we actually still have a Socialist government. By that I don't just mean that the current 'Conservative' government is actually increasing spending ( which it is although on nothing useful ) and borrowing but that we are now being governed largely by the EU. It produces > 70% of our legislation by page count and controls > 40% of policy areas covering considerably more than £100,000,000,000 ( 100 billion ) of annual expenditure. For example our elected government has no more influence over its own environmental policy than Greenpeace, in fact probably less, as it's an example of a full EU 'competancy'. In other words the EU have 100% control of all environmental legislation and policy. (Every time the BBC announce something environmental as 'government' policy they're lying and they know they are) The EU's faux democratic 'parliament' is majority Socialist controlled with the head of the dominant Socialist block being a previously convicted Red Brigade terrorist who spent a long stretch in prison for blowing people up in the name of Communism. The unelected Commisson which is where all the power is in the EU is the plaything of its own bureaucrats who have a long standing apparently Socialist agenda determined mostly by their majority selection from a very narrow elite of French civil servants who in no way see themselves as servants to anyone. However if you are a hard core right wing Thatcherite social Darwinian then do not despair for the EUSSR like the USSR after which so much of it is modelled is a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a lie. Behind all the Socialist facade and all the petty bureacrats working so hard for the false dream of an international Socialist utopia is a deeper darker truth. At its core the EU is in fact much more like a Faschist organisation than a Socialist one. The only body that can actually recommend laws directly to the Commission is not a government or a convention but a cabal of top business leaders called the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT) and the whole 'European Project' as its called was originally sponsored by the neo-feudalist New York banking tycoons who control the US Federal reserve. Such greed worshipping anti-human arch manipulators who could never reasonably be mistaken for Socialists. The 'Euro' currency itself which was designed by the 'Club of Rome', a think tank dominated by international arms dealers and tools of the banking elite, and then p

                C Offline
                C Offline
                Chris Quinn
                wrote on last edited by
                #21

                You forgot to mention that they are all shape-shifting lizards!


                It's well known that if all the cat videos and porn disappeared from the internet there would be only one site left and it would be called whereareallthecatvideosandporn.com


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                • C Chris Quinn

                  You forgot to mention that they are all shape-shifting lizards!


                  It's well known that if all the cat videos and porn disappeared from the internet there would be only one site left and it would be called whereareallthecatvideosandporn.com


                  M Offline
                  M Offline
                  Matthew Faithfull
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #22

                  :laugh: Poor, poor David I. I feel sorry for him and moreso for the fools that hang on his every word. The worst part is that he has so much of the truth and he's a brilliant presenter so when he mixes it all up with a pack of lies his audiences just swallow it all down and are as oblivious to the difference as he is. A footballer given an open goal and lacking the basic training to take advantage of it. :sigh:

                  "The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage." Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)

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                  • R R Giskard Reventlov

                    Socialists have very selective memories.

                    "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

                    I Offline
                    I Offline
                    Ingo
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #23

                    mark merrens wrote:

                    Socialists have very selective memories.

                    That is obviously correct for socialists... and capitalists... and liberals... and opportunists... and pessimists... and optimists... and men... and women... and nearly everbody on the whole plante. :thumbsup:

                    ------------------------------ Author of Primary ROleplaying SysTem How do I take my coffee? Black as midnight on a moonless night. War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left.

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                    • R R Giskard Reventlov

                      Socialists have very selective memories.

                      "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

                      J Offline
                      J Offline
                      Jorgen Andersson
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #24

                      mark merrens wrote:

                      Socialists People have very selective memories.

                      FTFY

                      "The ones who care enough to do it right care too much to compromise." Matthew Faithfull

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                      • B Brisingr Aerowing

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                        Bob Dole

                        The internet is a great way to get on the net.

                        :doh: 2.0.82.7292 SP6a

                        R Offline
                        R Offline
                        R Giskard Reventlov
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #25

                        01010100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 01110011 00101110

                        "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

                        B 1 Reply Last reply
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                        • I Ingo

                          mark merrens wrote:

                          Socialists have very selective memories.

                          That is obviously correct for socialists... and capitalists... and liberals... and opportunists... and pessimists... and optimists... and men... and women... and nearly everbody on the whole plante. :thumbsup:

                          ------------------------------ Author of Primary ROleplaying SysTem How do I take my coffee? Black as midnight on a moonless night. War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left.

                          R Offline
                          R Offline
                          R Giskard Reventlov
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #26

                          You are correct in a wider sense but we're talking specifically about a political bloc that promulgates a particular economic stance and justifies it, each time they gain power, on the perceived failings of the previous government rather than admitting (as if that would ever happen) that what they are promising to do will make things even worse. The thing with 'socialists' is they want everyone to wear a cloth cap and live in a 2-up, 2-down whilst they reap the rewards of being in power. Conservatives, on the other hand, are quite happy to let you know how rich they already are but at least bring economic common sense to the table (usually). Again, I've lived through a number of these cycles so am under no illusions as to how bad all sides of the spectrum really are; I simply see socialists as the worst possible choice in a democratic society: it leaves everyone poorer.

                          "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

                          I 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • I Ingo

                            mark merrens wrote:

                            Socialists have very selective memories.

                            That is obviously correct for socialists... and capitalists... and liberals... and opportunists... and pessimists... and optimists... and men... and women... and nearly everbody on the whole plante. :thumbsup:

                            ------------------------------ Author of Primary ROleplaying SysTem How do I take my coffee? Black as midnight on a moonless night. War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left.

                            C Offline
                            C Offline
                            Clifford Nelson
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #27

                            Good one

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                            • R R Giskard Reventlov

                              jschell wrote:

                              Just an observation...many humans do that.

                              Are you inferring that you are not human?

                              jschell wrote:

                              And the ones that don't become absolutely focused on one single event that occurred in the past and ignore everything else that has happened since then.

                              LOL: not a single event: I've lived through a number of "Labour" (for which read socialist and, sometimes, closet communist) governments and, without fail, they do the same thing each and every time even after promising they won't: tax and spend.

                              "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

                              J Offline
                              J Offline
                              jschell
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #28

                              mark merrens wrote:

                              Are you inferring that you are not human?

                              I am stating that most humans do not consider the past when making decisions. Politics has nothing to do with it.

                              mark merrens wrote:

                              not a single event

                              Not sure what that means in terms of my comment. But again politics has nothing to do with my comment.

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                              • R R Giskard Reventlov

                                01010100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 01110011 00101110

                                "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

                                B Offline
                                B Offline
                                Brisingr Aerowing
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #29

                                01001110 01101111 00100000 01010000 01110010 01101111 01100010 01101100 01100101 01101101 00101110

                                Bob Dole

                                The internet is a great way to get on the net.

                                :doh: 2.0.82.7292 SP6a

                                R 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • B Brisingr Aerowing

                                  01001110 01101111 00100000 01010000 01110010 01101111 01100010 01101100 01100101 01101101 00101110

                                  Bob Dole

                                  The internet is a great way to get on the net.

                                  :doh: 2.0.82.7292 SP6a

                                  R Offline
                                  R Offline
                                  R Giskard Reventlov
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #30

                                  00111010 00101101 00101001

                                  "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

                                  1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • R R Giskard Reventlov

                                    You are correct in a wider sense but we're talking specifically about a political bloc that promulgates a particular economic stance and justifies it, each time they gain power, on the perceived failings of the previous government rather than admitting (as if that would ever happen) that what they are promising to do will make things even worse. The thing with 'socialists' is they want everyone to wear a cloth cap and live in a 2-up, 2-down whilst they reap the rewards of being in power. Conservatives, on the other hand, are quite happy to let you know how rich they already are but at least bring economic common sense to the table (usually). Again, I've lived through a number of these cycles so am under no illusions as to how bad all sides of the spectrum really are; I simply see socialists as the worst possible choice in a democratic society: it leaves everyone poorer.

                                    "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

                                    I Offline
                                    I Offline
                                    Ingo
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #31

                                    mark merrens wrote:

                                    I simply see socialists as the worst possible choice in a democratic society: it leaves everyone poorer.

                                    I don't want to say you are wrong (because you are right in some way). But, well in Germany we had a so called social capitalism (it's still called so, but they perverted the term social) and I think that's a good combination. Everyone can live from the money he earns and still - if you want to and have the right ideas - you can get rich. Socialism is not possible in our world, it can't work, and capitalism pervertes often the "work" of people, that they can't live from their jobs.

                                    ------------------------------ Author of Primary ROleplaying SysTem How do I take my coffee? Black as midnight on a moonless night. War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left.

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