Apech

I thought you were identical twins separated at birth.

"Ban them all," he thundered from his iron throne, as dragons spiralled over head.

I lived in Manchester (or nearby) and worked there for over 20 years. It has always had a Muslim community and that community is quite successful - having a large middle class and professional base. it is by no means poor. They are not oppressed in fact you could argue they get too much state support. Most of the community are now or include 2/3 generation people who were born in England, educated there and so on. They have plenty of opportunity to live a prosper. This bomber - which I posted about above - had Libyan parents who fled from Gaddafi - so they were refugees originally. he was quiet, respectable and well behaved. He was not what you might call a maniac or drugged up crazy person or a criminal. So given that - no banning order would have prevented this - since he was English. The security forces did not have him high on the radar so what prevention would you think should have happened? Lock up young men in camps??? I think two things need to happen 1 ) say strongly that this is connected to Islam and 2 ) do an in depth study of the causes and conditions which turn young men into killers - once we understand this we can take intelligent action to cut out the disease. Also I would like your President to live up to his promises and stop sucking up to the Saudis - he's a fucking joke. Thats all.

From the Guardian:

I used to live and work in Manchester for many years and am familiar with all the locations, the bombing and arrests, so this latest horror has affected me strongly. I think the thing that scares people is that here is an ideology which somehow allows otherwise intelligent and peaceable young men and women to think its the thing to do to strap explosives to themselves and blow up innocent children and adults. I have no problem with Muslims and if they are born into that culture they probably have little choice. But they must be asking themselves about how it is being taught and interpreted. I'm a little sick of all this standing with Manchester, or Paris or where-ever and the virtue signalling and rhetoric of politicians and would like to hear some kind of ideas about a solution being voiced.

Yes I do very little pruning of any of my trees - except the Olive Trees which need a haircut now and then. I like things to be natural.

Thanks Karen that was very helpful. I have asked and I have to wait till next spring to do this - and I think I will have to cut the trunk ad drastically as that

Oh so its my fault for not chopping its arms off! You are heartless.

But maybe you should.

Yay! Fantastic ... thanks!

Just worked out I can filter by 'logged in' - which gives active visible users I think.

Yeah I know but still ....

I miss being able to scroll down to the bottom of the index page and see who's online. I know you can click above but lists every guest and is not so easy. Just saying - not a complaint more of a reflection.

With piles your problems are all behind you.

Have you seen the film Scanners? ....

Yes indeed - and despite the fact that Marblehead is being provocative - I could perhaps repeat what I have said many times on here that dukkha means something more like unsatisfactoriness ... and includes ephemerality and conditionality and well as pain/discomfort and so on.

I'm not going to follow Jonesboy, I don't know where he's going.

Well what I meant she still had no image just the description.

The person I knew said they literally could not form an image in their mind.

Sorry I can't follow what you are saying.

I find quite a lot of people to be inconsiderate in various ways. But I am old and grumpy.

Missing chat (sniff).

What?

Thanks

,????