Off Topic Manchester Terror Attack

Yes - to be offended by historical fact and truth is always a problem - I can see how that could lead to a person being so upset you can't report a bomb plot that will maim and kill dozens of innocent people.

Those pesky Islamophobic Copts shouldn't have dared been travelling on that bus this morning in Egypt - being the first day of Ramadan and all. Apparently mass murder seems the only logical solution to such an insult.

Don't travel down that sort insidious road of masochistic thought my friend. It leads to a complex of appeasement and capitulation.

 

Total nutjob, scary. Could have caused mayhem.

 

snap ..had the mick taken out of me for ever ,because i am dark skinned ... had people talk to me in there own language when on hols all the time ...( my lasss thinks it is funny )

as it happens my great grandather was from italy . so thats where it comes from . all my sisters are the same dark skinned .


my son got a dna test from school and we apparently are 100 per cent from that area of europe . lol which they say is very very rare ...



nice to nah where your ancestors are from like lol ..soz a bit of subject

 

Haha people have asked me if I am Portuguese/ Italian before. I remember one year I was in Chicago wearing an Italian top. Had the full tan and an Italian couple started talking to me in Italian....there's me replying in full on Geordie....'i'm not Italian like.'

 

Ha ha, brilliant from you two

 

pmsl got to be something to it m8 ..

 

At least with you it's a reasonable, by the sound of it, enquiry. Just think of Obi, who people ask if he's the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Chippy, who they ask if he's human, and No Chance, who they ask if he's still alive!!!!!

 

Historical fact and truth can be presented in various ways. Some of those ways will have a clear agenda behind them, especially if they are presented alongside opinion. I personally think you are selectively presenting facts about Muslims in order to further your quite strict anti-immigration opinions. I don't necessarily agree with those opinions, but definitely understand where you're coming from.

It's worth remembering that we're not asking ordinary Muslims to report a bomb plot. We're asking them to report young men who are acting a bit dodgy - looking at websites, making unguarded comments. That's a brave step to take - because you're never going to be 100% that someone's a terrorist, and when you're wrong (which you will be 95% of the time) you suffer the consequences of that. It's the 5% of times that they're right that's so crucial.

How many times have you seen a bag lying around at a festival/station/airport and not reported it because odds are someone's coming back for it in a second and you don't want to make a fuss. Multiply that dilemma by 1000 and we might be close to the dilemma faced by moderate Muslims - who reported the Arena bomber five times!

If you get the impression that the people you're trying to help, by taking that risk and reporting someone, would cheerfully have you deported from the country you were born in, you're probably less likely to stick your neck out. That might be morally questionable, but it's human nature.

I'm not saying we have to go down the route of completely ignoring Islamic extremism like some seem to. I'm a Zionist Jew. I have no illusions about the nature of Islamist terrorism, trust me. However, accepting that most Muslims living here probably want to just get on with their lives without bothering anyone, just like the rest of us, is an important first step in isolating the terrorists and, eventually, beating them.

 

Don't they just take one look at Chippy's trousers and assume he's colourblind?

 

Fellas, its good that we can debate in such a candid manner, all of us. Why can't politicians have such a debate?

 

Agreed.

 

With your name, I had you down as some kind of Native American! where does the Halfbreed come from? <scratches head>

 

Half Geordie half American (originally Polish) Jew. It's an unusual mix to say the least. I'm not allowed out without three jumpers on in July but I'm in trouble if I wear more than a T-shirt in December.

Funnily enough my Geordie Dad got in far less trouble with my (protestant) Grandma for marrying a Jew than my uncle did for marrying a Catholic!

 

Because they've all learnt to have their heads wedged firmly up their arses - the biggest problem today is that being a politician is a career.

So people leave Uni or whatever with little or no life experience then get to decide what works for the rest of us. I think there should be a new law which states you can't stand as an MP until you've had a minimum of 5yrs in some form of job.

They're all pretty much divorced from reality

 

A bit like footballers!

 

A year of national service wouldn't hurt either.

Not a fan of compulsory national service for all, but making voluntary service a requirement for holding public office would be a good move I think.

It could be as a police officer or paramedic if people are skittish about the forces.

 

Not sure if you ever listen to Any Questions on BBC 4. They get half a dozen politicians on from across the spectrum and go to halls around the country. Questions get posed from the audience.

I'm frequently very impressed with how knowledgeable and thoughtful the answers are, from all across the spectrum. Then you listen to their various party leaders trying to explain the world in sound bites and sounding like idiots. I'm beginning to think that a large part of the problem is that the press won't report anything that takes more than 15 seconds to broadcast. The politicians know that if they want to have anything reported they have to over simplify it to the point where it loses any meaning.

 

The most intelligent leader of the past few years was Farage. Just a shame I didn't quite agree with some of his arguments.

 

I don't know about him being the cleverest (not saying he isn't, just that I don't know) but he is certainly the most effective politician. I can't stand 90% of what he stands for, but nobody from any side can deny how effectively he has got his message across and how cleverly he has used the political spectrum to his advantage.

 

Intelligence in terms of his influence I would say. His arguments were generally sound as well.