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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 188.147.40.178
Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2010 - 06:57 pm:   

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1260521/Evesham-school-fake-shooting-tea cher-traumatises-children.html?ITO=1708&referrer=yahoo
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 147.252.230.148
Posted on Friday, March 26, 2010 - 02:14 pm:   

Is this what happens when everything must be entertainment? Knowledge cannot now be interesting in itself. How did we get from THE ASCENT OF MAN to this?
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.231.150
Posted on Friday, March 26, 2010 - 02:59 pm:   

A fake school shooting one day, earlier a threat of being dragged to a concentration camp....

I say next, they show the kids Spielberg's THE WAR OF THE WORLDS and call it actual documentary footage of a recent incident in the States, then run through ground-spouting giant-tentacle-avoidance drills.
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, March 26, 2010 - 03:33 pm:   

If I had read that incident in a 'satirical novel' I would have thrown it down in disgust as too ridiculous... what the fuck are we evolving into!!
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.143.133.88
Posted on Friday, March 26, 2010 - 11:56 pm:   

We were in fits today in this second hand shop; someone had put this 'Based on a True story' sticker on the 3D box of Terminator; Salvation. I could not stop laughing for over a full hour.
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 188.147.238.82
Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 11:26 am:   

Stephen - I know what you mean. I could well imagine somebody trying to ape Irvine Welsh and coming up with the aforementioned scenerio, only for me also to throw the book across the room.

It's utterly bizarre.

I agree with Protodroid about the entertainment quote, too. But at the same time I'm surprised it didn't make its way into other newspapers.

Craig - I'd say unleashing Speilberg's WOTW on adults on your side of the pond may be far more effective than showing it to kids. If your referencing Orson Wells, it may be far more relevant to how many an American feel in this current age. No kidding.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.79.33.192
Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 12:23 pm:   

"'Based on a True story' sticker on the 3D box of Terminator; Salvation."

That's good!

Someone once described the US as the most over-entertained culture in history. It's happening here too. Some disciplines require hard work and a certain amount of rote learning.

What's next? "Join the Army: it's a cushy number."

If Stephen Fry had to correct dozens of student reports he'd soon realise how wrong he his relaxed attitude to speleng, gramer and punctuasion is. Innit?
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 188.147.238.82
Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 12:32 pm:   

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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.247.105
Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 02:58 pm:   

Not sure, Frank, many Americans fear the coming of the aliens, though many probably believe a Communist coup has taken place with the passage of this health care bill. Many after all believe Obama is the Anti-Christ (by a recent poll taken).
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.79.33.192
Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 03:28 pm:   

I think the rest of the world is utterly baffled by the venom directed at the idea of providing basic health care for the USA's citizens.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.254.249
Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 03:45 pm:   

The Right in America did have the most bizarre of arguments against it during this whole last year - it went basically like this: "Don't pass the bill, because nobody wants it - and then once it's passed, no one will want to get rid of it!"

Oh, kay....
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.152.222.139
Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2010 - 12:10 am:   

"Death Panels", too. No logic to the phrase, just a crude attempt to associate it with a negative phrase. Might as well replace the "O" in Obama with a little skull.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.143.133.88
Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2010 - 11:11 am:   

I hate the US for not wanting the health care thing. They look like a vast raft of assholes.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2010 - 12:47 pm:   

>>I think the rest of the world is utterly baffled by the venom directed at the idea of providing basic health care for the USA's citizens.<<

Absolutely. No offence to Craig or any other US RCMBers.

I don't know if it's just the way the UK media are reporting it, but there seems to be no logical argument on the anti-healthcare-for-all side at all. It looks like they're just saying "we've got insurance cover. We're OK. Bugger the rest".

Going back to that story about the so-called "role play" at the school in Evesham, that beggars belief too. I mean, they're teachers - surely they'd realise the effect of their actions on the kids? Crazy.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.143.133.88
Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2010 - 01:06 pm:   

Oh, if only school was always that meaty. A level of fear is great for kids. I used to love it. Anxiety, sadness, despair, abandonment - they were the killers.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.250.8
Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2010 - 05:25 pm:   

There is though a problem, Caroline/Tony. Leaving aside the nature of healthcare itself, what about...

To sum it up: A proposal was made to overhaul our healthcare - it enters the arena of public debate. The Right argued, the Left argued. In the end, the Right prevailed in the public opinion department - by the end of this issue, an overwhelming amount of people didn't want anything done about the healthcare issue at this time.

In America, there is the "game" aspect to it all, and if your side can't make the argument effectively - if the mass of people don't want X, for whatever reason, even if it's good for them - you lose the game, and should take your political ball home, to play another day. So isn't there a problem when a government steps in, and says, We override what you want, and will impose this instead?

Which is how it ended up, in so many ways - the House represents the people themselves (as opposed to the Senate, the States), and if they voted as the people were telling them to, they should have killed the bill - but they didn't (perverted as so many were by back room deal-making, which is an affront really to the "sunshine transparency" administration Obama vowed to run). And so, now, a giant group of people are justifiably angry, because - for whatever reason, again - their will was thwarted.

Governments imposing what's best for its citizens upon it - a greater good? Or governments thwarting the will of the governed, and imposing at all - a worse evil?... Is an unchecked government a greater menace than an ignorant populace?...
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2010 - 06:15 pm:   

Hmmm, I see what you mean Craig - but that sounds exactly the same as the way they do things over here! I don't think it matters what part of the world you're in - all politicians do what's best for *them*, not for the people.

Although, of course, in this particular case, I guess the people were being swayed by the vehement arguments of the anti-reform brigade as to why healthcare reform is such a bad thing? In which case, it's just the politicians manipulating the people - the same the world over.

Oh and I saw the other day they wheeled out that awful woman, Sarah Palin, who was talking about Obama's desire to "redistribute wealth" as if it was a terrible thing to do. Again, it's this "I'm alright Jack" attitude of the wealthy, and their complete disregard for the poor which annoys me.

They were also saying (on the news report) that she might be considering running for the presidency next time. I thought it was bad enough with that idiot Bush in charge, but with Palin in charge - OMG!! (unless it was Michael Palin of course )

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