Au Revoir Folks!

[pagetheoracle]

I have reluctantly decided to quit the forum again.  The first time I joined, I backed out of a firefight after a couple of days.  Then I ended up more recently in another firefight and left, coming back to challenge the person who attacked me.  Now I'm leaving again for the same reason but a different altercation (less severe).  The thing is that it has led me to behave inappropriately in the real world too, shouting down a couple of neighbours because I wanted them to hear my ideas, rather than listen to theirs.  I've also gone through a period of ignoring my wife and getting into arguments with her over recent months, which while this isn't related (work stress being taken out on me), it too has taken it out of me:  She's now retired and I am in the wrong in this situation now, where before I wasn't.  So all in all I've decided to butt out again (On top of all this my wife has three siblings, two who are in mental decline and in homes, and one who is seriously ill).  We are moving back up North as all this has made her home sick:  I've spread myself too thin over large areas because we were settled here, and now I need to cut back links, throw out what we cannot take (mental and physical baggage) and  prepare to travel light, in mind and body.  Whether I return when we get settled again, only time will tell. 

 

In the meantime, anybody interested can catch up with my Twitter account @paigetheoracle or visit my Pinterest boards http://www.pinterest.com/paigetheoracle/boards/

 

I may also put longer posts and artwork on my Linked-in site.

Edited January 27, 2015 by pagetheoracle

[Eclogite]

I am sorry to see you go.

 

I am even sorrier that you think you have been engaged in firefights with members (presumably, including myself).

 

My presumption is that most members are adults. As such, we should know that it is perfectly fine to disagree with each other. Is that annoying? It can be. Is it frustrating? At time, yes. But it isn't a good reason to leave a forum.

 

Do I think some of your posts have been, a term you took exception to, balderdash? Yes, I do. I have three options when I see balderdash in a post.

 

1. Ignore it and fail to help the author understand his error. I don't think that is socially responsible.

 

2. Gently try to point out through reasoned argument that the author is mistaken. I and other members tried this with you. You ignored it.

 

3. That moves one either returning to method 1, or being more direct.

 

 

I tried methods 2 and 3. I'm sorry you saw this as some sort of firefight.

[pagetheoracle]

I am sorry to see you go.

 

I am even sorrier that you think you have been engaged in firefights with members (presumably, including myself).

 

My presumption is that most members are adults. As such, we should know that it is perfectly fine to disagree with each other. Is that annoying? It can be. Is it frustrating? At time, yes. But it isn't a good reason to leave a forum.

 

Do I think some of your posts have been, a term you took exception to, balderdash? Yes, I do. I have three options when I see balderdash in a post.

 

1. Ignore it and fail to help the author understand his error. I don't think that is socially responsible.

 

2. Gently try to point out through reasoned argument that the author is mistaken. I and other members tried this with you. You ignored it.

 

3. That moves one either returning to method 1, or being more direct.

 

 

I tried methods 2 and 3. I'm sorry you saw this as some sort of firefight.

Firstly I am not really leaving because of the firefights but because it is taking me away from other things I need to do as in preparing to possibly leave the area as mentioned.  The bout with Turtle and the first one I ever had on starting on this site, were real firefights as for you and me, I think it was probably frustrating for both of us as you couldn't see what I was on about it and I didn't immediately cotton onto what you were on about.  I don't think I ignored the arguments by you and others but I should have responded to some of the points and didn't, like Einstein's work being discounted (I didn't mean relativity but some disagreement about the results of quantum physics, which he thought was caused by one mechanism and somebody else said it wasn't and he was proved wrong a few years back, according to the TV program I saw on the subject).  I didn't mean it to look like all his work was wrong but that is why you carry on a conversation on a forum, to hammer out these points.  I just got carried away when you seemed to ignore my points and got a little bit incensed as I say.  Yes you did ask me if I wanted to hear what you had to say on the matter and you did have some valid points. 

 

I personally felt that with the development in Europe, which is where I am, this discussion paled into insignificance.  To kill people for a sense of humour or because they are Jewish, is to me totally insane.  You may be used to mass killings in America (schools) and individual shootings but this is unusual here.  Okay there was the London bombings after 9/11 but unlike the IRA bombing campaigns, it seemed to be a one off.  This though was an attack upon free speech.  I was Gladdened by the turnout of Muslims, Jews and ordinary French People at this attack because as several said they were French first, Muslims second, although not everyone thought (French or Muslim) that the magazine should have printed what they did.  I have been all over Twitter because of this as I felt more incensed about that than our disagreement.  Would write more but my wife wants on the computer.

[Eclogite]

I preface my remarks with this one: Je suis Charlie.

 

Since the Paris shootings several thousand children have died in Africa from preventable illnesses and addressable conditions. This will continue for the forseeable future. We were happy enough to debate your points while that was going on. Why should the deaths of a dozen Europeans change that?

 

I am not used to mass killings in American schools because I live in Aberdeen. I am not downplaying the significance of the Paris shootings, but nor will I single them out. How do we fight the extremists? When the 7/7 bombings in London happened, I was in Moscow. I tried to change my flight so that I could return through London, with the express intention of riding around on the tube all day, as an "up yours" to the bombers and their supporters. But, I refer you back to my second paragraph.

[pagetheoracle]

I preface my remarks with this one: Je suis Charlie.

 

Since the Paris shootings several thousand children have died in Africa from preventable illnesses and addressable conditions. This will continue for the forseeable future. We were happy enough to debate your points while that was going on. Why should the deaths of a dozen Europeans change that?

 

I am not used to mass killings in American schools because I live in Aberdeen. I am not downplaying the significance of the Paris shootings, but nor will I single them out. How do we fight the extremists? When the 7/7 bombings in London happened, I was in Moscow. I tried to change my flight so that I could return through London, with the express intention of riding around on the tube all day, as an "up yours" to the bombers and their supporters. But, I refer you back to my second paragraph.

Well I live in Kilmarnock but come from Norfolk (A little place called Diss, on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk). 

 

As for your points about The Paris reaction, here it is.  A nation, bar a few cowardly individuals (see my return to Forgive them Lord, for more on this), said enough is enough.  If the world had the sense to see this with regards to the Ebola outbreak, then it would quickly be brought under control (We are the world / No man is an island).  This disease if not contained will spread to the civilized world and is probably not as dangerous as it seems, from those getting treatment quickly and not dying.  The trouble is superstition at least in part.  Either the ill are shunned and don't seek help soon enough because of fear or shame and the dead are apparently are washed down according to tradition.  The facilities for treating the disease are negligible but in The West aren't - hence the mortality rate difference.  Not rocket science.

 

I was in Scotland during the London bombings and delivering leaflets in Glasgow during 9/11.  The first I knew of the latter was seeing a TV set through somebody's window, showing the first plane crashing (I thought it was a movie until I got home - like Lady Di dying, I couldn't believe what my wife was telling me and she didn't believe me when she came home from work and I told her about Diana (She was a great fan of hers)).

 

The importance as my wife says is that it was a stand against this attempt to frighten people and shut them up through violence and intimidation:  Firstly through the Charlie Hebdo staff stand by not running away from their killers and the reaction of the French people.  The London bombings were like The IRA campaign in earlier years, just innocent victims dying but even there people said enough was enough with The Inniskillin bombing and this is the same on a worldwide scale, aimed at the Muslim hard liners.  Enough is enough.  This is the significance and the message here that makes this incident different.

Edited January 14, 2015 by pagetheoracle

[pagetheoracle]

_{Before I go I'd also like to apologize for my final posts on the Joke thread as inappropriate, just like maybe the Charlie Hebdo cartoons would be considered to be by some Muslims.}

[Eclogite]

Rearrange into a well known phrase or saying.¹

 

of making hill mountain mole a out a

 

Or, in another collofquialism from your milieu: don't get your knickers in a twist just because (shock! horror!) someone disagreed with you on an internet forum.

 

And to address a couple of other points for you:

I don't hunt, I have never hunted, you should re-read what I wrote.

I was born and raised working class.

I have told my children that if I were to die as a consequence of a terrorist attack they should sue the pants off of anyone who describes me as an innocent victim. I will not have my responsibility, small though it may be, for the state of the world, posthoumously excised.

 

 

 

 

1. You, page, are old enough to remember Sunday Night at the London Palladium.

[pagetheoracle]

Rearrange into a well known phrase or saying.¹

 

of making hill mountain mole a out a

 

Or, in another collofquialism from your milieu: don't get your knickers in a twist just because (shock! horror!) someone disagreed with you on an internet forum.

 

And to address a couple of other points for you:

I don't hunt, I have never hunted, you should re-read what I wrote.

I was born and raised working class.

I have told my children that if I were to die as a consequence of a terrorist attack they should sue the pants off of anyone who describes me as an innocent victim. I will not have my responsibility, small though it may be, for the state of the world, posthumously excised.

 

 

 

 

1. You, page, are old enough to remember Sunday Night at the London Palladium.

Yes I did get my knickers in a twist over nothing but I'm the underdog in this situation as Turtle was in an argument I had with him, so now the situation is reversed. 

 

Innocent victim?  I'd agree with that.  Too many people nowadays are following the American example of suing the pants of everyone else and taking no responsibility for their lives.

 

I'm leaving because I have lost my ability to be reasonable (controlled).  Tail between my legs, I'm off.  I've become too emotional to see the truth and respond to it, therefore having lost it I'm going in search of it again (calm, self-control).  I nearly stormed out of the house in The New Year because my wife complained I was monopolizing the computer and it was hers anyway (I don't have a mother to run home to but I do have a cousin who is always my safety net and I made moves to go back south to Norfolk).  As things stand my patience and tolerance has gone out the window and I turned into a foul mouthed beast swearing in the fields, loud enough for the whole village to hear I'm sure (I had an explosion like that with a neighbour over my dogs and his cat, a few years ago.  He was a big bruiser of a man, who we believe was done for racial abuse and could easily have smashed me to pulp but I think (like you and my posts over Christmas) was reduced to laughter by this unexpected tirade)).

 

Talking of Sunday Night at the London Palladium, the string of 'P's' insult was meant to be accompanied by reference to Leonard Sachs and 'The Good Old Days' as he'd always do a string of words of the same letter, to introduce someone.

 

I think I've been under too much stress lately and this was just one straw too many:  We've been here seven years and being physically settled, allowed me to accumulate notes, ideas and loads of stuff I've now got to dump or hastily knock into shape for publication (I've started distributing artwork to local schools who may not be in the least bit interested but I'm loathed to just throw it in the bin). Moving of necessity means getting rid of material.  I thought I had all the time in the world to think and act but now it has become limited:  You ingest stuff, analyse it and then have to get up and move on to find fresh 'food' for thought, that's the rub of it.

Edited January 27, 2015 by pagetheoracle

[pagetheoracle]

I preface my remarks with this one: Je suis Charlie.

 

Since the Paris shootings several thousand children have died in Africa from preventable illnesses and addressable conditions. This will continue for the forseeable future. We were happy enough to debate your points while that was going on. Why should the deaths of a dozen Europeans change that?

 

I am not used to mass killings in American schools because I live in Aberdeen. I am not downplaying the significance of the Paris shootings, but nor will I single them out. How do we fight the extremists? When the 7/7 bombings in London happened, I was in Moscow. I tried to change my flight so that I could return through London, with the express intention of riding around on the tube all day, as an "up yours" to the bombers and their supporters. But, I refer you back to my second paragraph.

Why did that change things?  It disturbed me because it was so close to home and about a subject I think I can do something about - freedom of speech.  You're right about the preventable diseases in Africa but I can do nothing about that - not even change the attitude of the West that allows that to go on (I've tried using arguments about these being disease pools that will come back to bite us and Aids / Ebola has shown this but still nobody is willing to spend money / time on this except for a few dedicated 'voluntary' organizations that I quoted in one of my posts. It is a selfishness and short sightedness that comes with gaining wealth it seems (fear of loss with the rich, which makes them mean and hoped for gain that leads the poor on or that is how I see it).

 

I'm unemployed and virtually unemployable.  I hope my language book material will help people see that literacy isn't that difficult, when you can start seeing patterns in a language but I have such a small audience for these ideas that I'll probably never get any money back from it, even to buy a headstone.

 

One thing that might be troubling me (and I need medical confirmation of this - doctor's appointment next week) is that my wife is worried that I might have prostate trouble (she's an ex-nurse / health visitor). I do have symptoms, so we'll see.

Edited January 27, 2015 by pagetheoracle