1. Richard Dawkins Interview on TVOntario

Comment #181561 by phil rimmer on May 17, 2008 at 1:19 pm

If anyone needs to be watched to make sure they behave well, then "not being watched" doesn't suddenly turn them into mature, empathic, rational and altruistic people. If religious people say they need God to watch them and make them behave in an acceptable manner, then maybe we do need religion - sadly.

Problem solved in the UK where we have more cameras watching us than anywhere else on the planet. That should halt any moral slippage. The reasonable argument that there are not enough moral guardians to watch all the screens connected to these cameras is being dealt with by a new government initiative called "Lace Curtain".

Lace Curtain seeks to co-opt the great moral force languishing in Britain's Old People's homes, to whit, Little Old Ladies. The provision of free monitor screens in each "Guardian's" room plus the use of clever software and interface devices (twitch sensitive curtains over the screens, combined with tap sensing and voice recognition of key phrases like, "'Ere, just stop that young man!") should provide a naturally graded alarm system to suitably alert the authorities to the actions of miscreants.

The associate ad campaign "Mother is still Watching" should put a stop to future moral lassitude and should prove far more effective than Our Father or Big Brother ever could be.

:-)

2. Richard Dawkins Responds to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #181542 by phil rimmer on May 17, 2008 at 11:44 am

RD

I therefore reproduce the whole article by Roger Friedman here, without comment.

Ouch! 'Nuff said...

3. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #181531 by phil rimmer on May 17, 2008 at 11:09 am

Tx

The actual error rate is more in the region of one in a million to one in a billion.

Yeah. Often! Or rather often enough.

4. These dim-wits believe in anything but God

Comment #181508 by phil rimmer on May 17, 2008 at 10:25 am

Henri

Solution: Rename & alter, 'Religious Studies' to 'Elementary Philosophy & Religion'.

Spot on!

I have proposed elsewhere that churches should see it as bad form to for children (of primary school age, through to 13 or so, for instance) to be made to join in with their services. Such children should be offered a simultaneous Sunday-school-type session of philosophy and comparative religion (inevitably with an added sprinkling of love and niceness). I think more enlightened churches may see the moral superiority of this approach, (the informed faith of its new young adult congregation being preferable to the mindless indoctrination of the kids at the rabble rousing church down the road.)

Slowly does it.

5. Americans pray at the pump for cheaper petrol

Comment #179385 by phil rimmer on May 13, 2008 at 7:32 am

Phasmagigas.

I too find reactions weird when wanting to walk in the US. This reminded me irresistibly of Ray Bradbury's The Pedestrian. Of which a little clip....

'Your name?' said the police car in a metallic whisper. He couldn't see the men in it for the bright light in his eyes.
'Leonard Mead,' he said.
'Speak up!'
'Leonard Mead!'
Business or profession?'
'I guess you'd call me a writer.'
No profession,' said the police car, as if talking to itself. The light held him fixed, like a museum specimen, needle thrust through chest.
'You might say that,' said Mr Mead.
He hadn't written in years. Magazines and books didn't sell anymore. Everything went on in the tomb-like houses at night now, he thought, continuing his fancy. The tombs, ill-lit by television light, where the people sat like the dead, the gray or multi-colored lights touching their faces, but never really touching them.
'No profession,' said the phonograph voice, hissing. 'What are you doing out?'
'Walking,' said Leonard Mead.
'Walking!'
'Just walking,' he said simply, but his face felt cold.
'Walking, just walking, walking?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Walking where? For what?'
'Walking for air. Walking to see.'
'Your address!'
'Eleven South Saint James Street.'
'And there is air in your house, you have an air conditioner, Mr Mead?'
Yes.'
'And you have a viewing screen in your house to see with?'
'No.
'No?' There was a crackling quiet that in itself was an accusation.

6. Americans pray at the pump for cheaper petrol

Comment #179318 by phil rimmer on May 13, 2008 at 5:37 am

Tyler,

My point was that you contradicted yourself. People ARE demanding more efficient cars, hence Toyota's success. But GM et al have failed to respond adequately.

7. Americans pray at the pump for cheaper petrol

Comment #179312 by phil rimmer on May 13, 2008 at 5:30 am

Tyler

if American consumers demanded better mileage from the cars they buy, the US Auto industry would comply...

So, how will this "demand" express itself?

Tyler

I think Toyota overtook GM recently as the largest share in US car sales due to Toyota's far superior gas mileage/reliability.

Erm?

8. On Fitna, the Movie

Comment #179227 by phil rimmer on May 12, 2008 at 11:38 pm

Barry Pearson confided: Our plans are no longer secret:

Sweet Hitchens! They know about our army of Mechanoids too? And the secret base?!

We'd best just turn in our brain cells and give up.

9. On Fitna, the Movie

Comment #179010 by phil rimmer on May 12, 2008 at 11:40 am

"New Dawkins Church of Unbelief"

Wash your mouth out, Barry Pearson! And go straight to bed. As penance you can say ten Heil Darwins.

The religites must not know our secret plans or they will tease us mercilessly about our True Faith.

10. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #178880 by phil rimmer on May 12, 2008 at 7:30 am

I want to hear the voice of reason, loud and clear from the Muslim communities, from children through parents to rabbi's and beyond,

Rabbis?

11. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #178538 by phil rimmer on May 11, 2008 at 2:56 pm

RamziD

Who would that be, though? god?

Er...no.

12. Atheists are nice people who will roast in hell, says Cardinal

Comment #178533 by phil rimmer on May 11, 2008 at 2:48 pm

If faulty reasoning can still reasonably be described as the PROCESS of reasoning, albeit with unreasonable data, methodologies etc., is it reasonable to call it REASON?

Clue: No.

Fido, I'm glad to see you've stayed clear of that mischievous little tit at number 105. The naughty stuff she comes out with. Corroboration indeed! You're well out of THAT, Old Faithful, old boy.

EDITED to remove an able from reasonable.

13. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #178506 by phil rimmer on May 11, 2008 at 2:04 pm

RamziD

I'm not a violent person, but given the opportunity I would gladly take the life of this miserable piece of human existence if I had the chance to.

But the guy is sick. He's been poisoned. Find the poisoner. Fuck HIM over.

14. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #178487 by phil rimmer on May 11, 2008 at 1:43 pm

Nairb

I think muslims in europe behave and actually are more civilised then many muslims in dysfunctional countries.I am sure it is not just fear of jail.

I'm sure you are right. I'm sure you will find that those countries that seek to prevent or reduce Muslim ghettoization will have fewer honour killings. A policy of deliberate dilution of the narrow cultural message that multiculturalism enabled now seems a good way forward in the UK.

15. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #178450 by phil rimmer on May 11, 2008 at 12:53 pm

Leila said: She was killed by animals

No, she was killed by the various Imams, Marjas and Mullahs who refuse to take the specific Hex of Intolerance off their people, because it serves them too well.

16. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #178434 by phil rimmer on May 11, 2008 at 12:13 pm

I had the support of all my friends who are fathers, like me, and know what she did was unacceptable to any Muslim that honours his religion.

Barry: By his standards, this was a MORAL act.

And this is why Diacanu can search his own brain and fail to find a scintilla of common feeling with the guy. Were it not for the cultural poison poured in his ear, this man would struggle to find such ideas in his own head. As would any of us.

This is the result of a wicked (possibly consciously derived, certainly consciously maintained) meme aimed at promoting an iron-clad faith.

On acting morally: I chose to define myself as an Atheist, having been a wishy-washy Agnostic, precisely to make a statement about my acceptance of MY moral responsibility for all my actions. It royally pisses me off that religites have the gall to confuse which of the two of us is the more civilised.

17. My Response to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #178162 by phil rimmer on May 10, 2008 at 4:23 pm

The real problem here is that Boteach, who is a an ignorant demagogue, manages to score points again by appealing to the anti-Israel sentiment, and getting the pro-Israel (or even less anti-Israel) people to gather against "Rude atheist Richard Dawkins and his antisemitic cronies" (regardless of whether they are in fact anti-Semites or just misinformed).

Yes, but, not using the ideal example of ignorant demagoguery to show just how dangerous and irresponsible it can be, is exactly the kind of spurious respectful handling that we have seen already in religion. The never-go-there dogma of Hitler-is-Praeternatural-Evil-personified is itself a great potential evil for the reasons I gave earlier.

For someone dedicated to questioning the unquestionable, to flunk out over this would be curious indeed.

I believe RD neither "mis-spoke" nor "smeared". The collateral damage of being misreported or misunderstood are par for the course.

EDITED to remove the impression that Hitler dogma is in anyway religious dogma.

18. My Response to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #178150 by phil rimmer on May 10, 2008 at 3:47 pm

Phil: "Mel Brooks was the first to kick this disgusting little man in the nuts."

Really? I think that Charlie Chaplin got in there almost three decades earlier with 'The Great Dictator'.

The first post-Holocaust kick in the nuts is the point, i.e., after Hitler was elevated to his current mystical status, akin to Beelzebub. Chaplin's brilliant film was 1940. Hitler, though clearly mad, bad and dangerous, was still human then.

EDITED added mad, bad description.

19. My Response to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #177785 by phil rimmer on May 9, 2008 at 5:31 pm

DalaiDrivel

Tossers useful image made me realize that Boteach was indeed behaving like a whore and possibly didn't realize it. :-)

20. My Response to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #177779 by phil rimmer on May 9, 2008 at 5:15 pm

tosser

"Hey, your wife's lipstick is the same color whores wear...What? You're offended? How? I was just comparing colors."

But what if your intention is to say, "Your wife looks like a whore....Don't you think you should tell her? Someone might get the wrong impression." This would be particularly appropriate if addressed to a vicar.

Lying or ignorant demagogues are (intentionally or unintentionally, respectively) a major source of great evil in the world. If Boteach is the former, he deserves all he got here and more. If he is merely the latter he needs to see himself clearly and the very great risk he runs, not least the hugely inappropriate impression he creates in some of his audience.

Finally, Hitler. Whilst Hitler is the archetypal evil man, invoking him or some aspect of him is not to invoke Beelzebub. He was "merely" a very very bad man. I am decidedly nervous about keeping the deeply grievous wound inflicted on the Jewish people by Hitler quite so quiveringly fresh that he cannot even be used as an example of evil or dangerous behaviour.

A couple of my Jewish friends have, indeed, worried that his psychopathology cannot be discussed because of this inverted form of reverence. It has to stop.

Mel Brooks was the first to kick this disgusting little man in the nuts. We have to understand his ordinariness if we are to learn to avoid the trap of thinking or behaving like him.

EDIT Quotes round merely added

21. My Response to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #177463 by phil rimmer on May 9, 2008 at 6:20 am

Banshee doesn't cut it. A lying demagogue is needed for the point.

So who?

22. My Response to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #177446 by phil rimmer on May 9, 2008 at 5:31 am

But comparing Shmuly Schmuck with Hitler, in whatever way, was uncalled for because it does diminish the enormity of the crimes of the Nazis.

Care to put some logic with that?

23. My Response to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #177416 by phil rimmer on May 9, 2008 at 4:18 am

I'm not always 100% behind RD. But today he has been pitch perfect.

Styrer is entirely wrong (IMHO) in wanting a fuller rebuttal of Boteach's arguments.

The elegance of the "shrieking equals ignorance" and "Hitler was ignorant" is a wonderful double whammy of a point. Elaboration is not needed.

The shrieking like Hitler comment originally was spot on in trying to bring Boteach up short and get him to consider what he is doing.

Go and read some books about evolution, learn something about biology, and you'll then find that you can talk about it in a calm and civilised voice.

Slamdunk.

Styrer, EDITED to add the very necessary IMHO.

24. Faith in Britain today

Comment #177386 by phil rimmer on May 9, 2008 at 2:07 am

He said that the regimes of Hitler and Stalin were ruled by REASON....But I think this is the first time I have heard any reputable spokesman (a) say that Hitler and Stalin's dictatorships were ruled by reason and (b) say that reason leads to terror and oppression.
Richard

I must have been brushing my teeth through this bit. This is deeply shocking.

25. Faith in Britain today

Comment #177381 by phil rimmer on May 9, 2008 at 2:01 am

Did he really say 'no, I was praying'? Or am I not in on some joke?

No joke! He really did say it. But little else besides.

I think Humphry's atheist/religious apologist sinews had been stiffened a little by RD's stern "talking to". But alas not enough. The necessary debate on the need for a secular society (whatever personal faiths may be) wasn't enjoined, shafted as it was by wooliness and imprecision on both sides.

26. Faith in Britain today

Comment #177337 by phil rimmer on May 8, 2008 at 11:48 pm

Whatever we're paying Dawkins, it's probably not enough. Srsly.

The man is pure gold!

27. Faith in Britain today

Comment #177333 by phil rimmer on May 8, 2008 at 11:37 pm

Richards performance was masterful. Kept it devastatingly simple and effective. Targeting Humphrys was particularly pertinent given his personal role in failing to call the religious to account for their intrusion into the public space. Humphrys was speechless.

28. Faith in Britain today

Comment #177149 by phil rimmer on May 8, 2008 at 4:53 pm

Is it a defective gene?

Perhaps, but it can cut both ways.

I've always thought of the Irish as the quintessential Storytellers. So many do it professionally. Poets, playwrights, novelists, Cardinals...

29. Faith in Britain today

Comment #177137 by phil rimmer on May 8, 2008 at 4:25 pm

Richard,

I hope you're safely tucked up in bed now but if not....

Have you ever met anyone who believes what Richard Dawkins doesn't believe in? I usually find that the God that is being rejected by such people is a God I don't believe in either. I simply don't recognise my faith in what is presented by these critics as Christian faith.

This is key for me. In the US there are many such people as you rightly rail against. The astonishing attacks against science and reason are formulated by just such people. Its getting worse.

We must take a stand lest it happens here. Invite the Good Cardinal to join you in roundly condemning this faith driven nonsense like, Collins and Miller.

EDIT Just seen the stuff for religion not being a private matter. And Coylus's post. Removed some of my post.

This guy is the enemy. This increasingly feels like war.

30. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks

Comment #175458 by phil rimmer on May 5, 2008 at 1:07 pm

Al

e.g.
"Alcoholism and absentee fathers are a huge problem in the African American community"

I often engage such tough issues using the outspoken comments of someone within the respective community first. In effect, I am not breaking a taboo here. It has already been broken by X.


This is Chris Rock on a more general but related issue to deadbeat dads. The key for me is the wonderful audience reaction. Some taboo is broken and a glorious positive statement is made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpUSElgJcyI

EDIT. Sorry have just lost half of this post it seems. Didn't copy all of it to the clipboard. Will reconstruct after domestic duties....

31. Evolution's Critics Shift Tactics With Schools

Comment #175228 by phil rimmer on May 5, 2008 at 12:41 am

moderndaythomas

Talisker.

But you're welcome if you've a taste for it.

32. Evolution's Critics Shift Tactics With Schools

Comment #175160 by phil rimmer on May 4, 2008 at 4:59 pm

lostpoet

Count me in. I adored the US's ability to "make things happen". Its vision of a better tomorrow was infectious, and I caught it big time. Now? Well it seems you have to tippy-toe round the edge of the country to catch any pockets of it at all.

The good news is that the ONLY problem is that of providing first rate education for your kids and students.

The main political argument to be made is not about religion's intrusion into the schoolroom (even though that IS the problem), but about the QUALITY of education and maintaining the US's commercial lead in the face of billions of educated Chinese and Indians (etc.)

All should be able to support such ideas. And whilst IDers have a wedge policy based on dishonest science, we can have a wedge policy based simply on good education.

33. Evolution's Critics Shift Tactics With Schools

Comment #175155 by phil rimmer on May 4, 2008 at 4:31 pm

Comment #175132 by Sauveterre

I cant help but disagree with the wide opinion that the United States is going downhill.

The technology will certainly stagger on, after all it makes money. But why would YECs (as the majority of the US seems to be)permit wanton waste of their taxes on (most) fundamental science research when the answers are already clear....Goddit.

Science research is the seed-corn of future technology. The problem is you don't know what you might get when you plant the seed by doing the research.

Science is a tough subject in schools and university. It has been under threat from soft choices like media studies. In the UK we already have a huge skills shortage in technology. Worse still, for my company, we find it almost impossible to find technologists with a science background. Physicists, in our experience are the most useful technology problem solvers, because they can take a broad view. School-leavers currently have the worst science education I have seen in decades. They are taught what was thought would be useful in the workplace in the 1990s. And from what I've seen this is pretty much the case in the US too, where we direct most of our work.

Now lay on top of that a sneering, belittling view of science, courtesy of religites, lied to by their evil Christian "Mullahs" and little Johnny has the perfect excuse to skip the tough stuff with his parents blessing.

And little Joanne I hear you ask? (Pauses, swigs the last of the scotch and pops another beta blocker.) Little Joanne is headed straight for the kitchen, whether she likes it or not.

34. A New Jack Chick Tract: Moving On Up!

Comment #174794 by phil rimmer on May 3, 2008 at 2:25 pm

Jack Rawlinson

"I know you think this guy's the greatest, but please consider that he might in fact be a screwed-up twat who's feeding you bullshit by the bucketload. Please just consider that next time you think about this stuff on your own."

Very nicely done!

Evangelicals do tend to fall into one of two types, the abusers and the abused. The opportunities for petty power play AND the irresistible attraction of attention for the socially inadequate is an unbeatable combination.

35. Evolution's Critics Shift Tactics With Schools

Comment #174776 by phil rimmer on May 3, 2008 at 1:00 pm

Mr. Cowan would like a legal guarantee he can teach as he sees fit.

But sadly, Mr Cowan is not fit to teach. He should be sent to learn about evolution if he is required to teach it and is not appropriately qualified.

I would like to see a pro-active program of teacher training in these matters. Get enlightened religious leaders to endorse the program if necessary. Or Francis Collins or that other religious biologist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW_2lLG9EZM&feature=related

America will go down the toilet because of this. Its main commercial competitors are pulling ahead in the education race. Much as I have a fondness for the Amish (OK, Kelly McGillis looking over her shoulder) I would hate to see the entire country slip into quaint irrelevancy.

36. Truly Bizarre : Indians Throw Babies 50ft From Roof To Thank God.

Comment #174732 by phil rimmer on May 3, 2008 at 11:19 am

Pathetic.

Now if they had a decent, all powerful God, they'd be able to do it without the aid of the sheet.

(Couldn't watch the clip through. Made me too angry.)

37. Muslim Rebel Sisters: At Odds With Islam and Each Other

Comment #174709 by phil rimmer on May 3, 2008 at 10:10 am

Fanusi

The idea that we can somehow lull Muslims, put one over them, and get them to wake up one day all 'moderate' is just nonsense.

Indeed nonsense. and not what I said. I merely wished for Alis and Manjis. "We" can't access Muslim minds to change them. Your counter proposal, however, seems to run along the same flawed lines, just with a bigger finish.

We should be trying to break the hold of Islam on individual minds, by demonstrating its absolute evil and how it is responsible for all the miseries, failures, and atrocities of the House of Submission.

What we can do is get our own countries in good moral order in dealing with religions' immoralities, bring religious education under proper control, commence withdrawing from commercial dependence on immoral states. Fight tooth and nail for the education of women (Directed aid.) etc. etc. And, absolutely, proclaim loudly the innate immorality of an unreformed Islam.

Will it succeed? Like Epeeist (and you?) I'm pessimistic.

38. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #174701 by phil rimmer on May 3, 2008 at 9:39 am

Ayn Rand.

Feeble philosophy and unsound psychology.

Aynal types revel in the educative mechanism of negative reinforcement and shun the greater efficacy (proven by Skinner) of positive reinforcement. Its like dopamine does not exist.

Libertarianism has one moral idea at its core which I like. Self-responsibility. This is an important idea for someone as lazy as me. It encapsulates our greatest invention, free-will and its invocation of personal morality.

Sadly, I look at my heroes and so many of them are sponging, exploitative scabs. I'd miss them in a world of perfect self-responsibility, where risk-taking would be progressively selected out.

39. Muslim Rebel Sisters: At Odds With Islam and Each Other

Comment #174684 by phil rimmer on May 3, 2008 at 8:46 am

Westerners have been waiting for Islamic reform for over two hundred years

As I've just been reading on the GatesofVienna link. Very interesting.

We need Ayaan Hirsi Alis not Ishad Manjis

And I am happy to wish for both, though I must concede Manji is bonkers. Her heart (her concern for others) is in the right place, even if her head is not.

The question is, if I were to wish a million of each (Alis and Manjis) into existence, which would have the greater effect. It might just be that the Manjis may win the greater number of converts, by offering the much smaller (but crucial) step change.

Yes we've waited 200 years, it would seem, but up until now no one gave a f*ck. No one could be bothered to give it a push. Well we give a f*ck now, and we must act on all fronts. Combination therapies are often more efficacious than the sum of their parts.

Though you may be right in these matters I find your fatalism dispiriting.

40. Muslim Rebel Sisters: At Odds With Islam and Each Other

Comment #174675 by phil rimmer on May 3, 2008 at 7:55 am

Fanusi Khiyal

Saw it thanks. Scarey!

Re

Islam can't be reformed

I fear you are right. Perhaps its one chance of reform might come from the single block of Muslims with most to gain, women.

Education is the (long-winded!)key.

Unicef Education For All projects seek to apply extra efforts to educate women and equalise access. They are at work in the Middle East, an exemplar girl's school in Baghdad, for instance.

A faster track solution would be a Lysistrata style sex strike. Its always worked with me.:-)

41. Muslim Rebel Sisters: At Odds With Islam and Each Other

Comment #174673 by phil rimmer on May 3, 2008 at 7:37 am

Vinelectric

I fully accept that MEMRI is a propaganda exercise, that its selections may be better seen in a fuller context and that balancing material that may exist is clearly absent...But

You want to know what muslim leaders actually teach their flock about domestic violence? Go listen. Straightforward, really.

Doesn't help me. I need a balanced or balancing resource that consumes an hour or so of my time. Job, kids, Teratornis's Peak Oil, all vie for attention. What have you got?

42. Does science make belief in God obsolete?

Comment #173128 by phil rimmer on April 30, 2008 at 11:59 am

Comment #172728 by John Desclin

Nor was I clear enough. My point was that it is not science that makes religion obsolete, it is that science, politics, philosophy, art etc. etc. make religion obsolete.

The question posed at the top of this thread is a religite's strawman argument based on a false opposition. That is what I most object to.

I completely agree with your points. I simply took your comment for the start of my own riff.

43. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #172456 by phil rimmer on April 29, 2008 at 3:18 pm

Fighting Falcon

Only Teratornis could turn this thread into yet another reason why America's dependency on oil (to say nothing of the rest of the world) is the biggest evil in the world.

What I find impressive is how you think this time its about the topic in hand, then it segues effortlessly into his slick oil spiel.

But then he is right!

44. Girl, 17, killed in Iraq for loving a British soldier

Comment #172443 by phil rimmer on April 29, 2008 at 2:59 pm

P.S. I will be posting my nude pic next. :)

I thought all pix were nude. I've never felt the need to put any of mine in clothes.

45. Does science make belief in God obsolete?

Comment #172434 by phil rimmer on April 29, 2008 at 2:53 pm

These personal "answers" are not arrived at through science

I am increasingly frustrated by this opposition of religion and (just) science. What about philosophy, politics, art etc.

Religion in its infancy claimed in its texts to be pretty much capable of offering wisdom on all aspects of life. All these aspects now have fully thriving and independent disciplines.

The how / why divide between science and religion is totally false. Many categories of human endeavor other than religion offer WHY answers.

46. Girl, 17, killed in Iraq for loving a British soldier

Comment #172411 by phil rimmer on April 29, 2008 at 2:35 pm

emmet

the number of edits is displayed

It can take me ten gos to get the punctuation right. Oh, the public humiliation.

It looks like a simple edited flag might be the thing then. Just as a little caveat as it were.

Knowing the act of editing was going to be visible might encourage editors to identify the nature of their actions.

Doc Benway has always counseled (block)quoting the specific thing you wish to complain about. You are both surely right.

47. Girl, 17, killed in Iraq for loving a British soldier

Comment #172401 by phil rimmer on April 29, 2008 at 2:20 pm

Come on, the ladies totally would prefer the hat. "Ladies" being Sharon and I

Y'see, MPhil, they don't like the confidence. A little too challenging that top one......Is that an aura 'round your head?

48. Girl, 17, killed in Iraq for loving a British soldier

Comment #172377 by phil rimmer on April 29, 2008 at 2:05 pm

Al, Emmet, anyone.

After the Bunny fiasco (and I must apologize to Al for wrongly calling him on his commentary) I wonder if we shouldn't consider asking Josh to change the deleting/editing facility. Though I depend on it to fix my crappy spelling and mangled thinking, it would be a small price to pay to achieve a site that could be relied on to be a Site of Record.

I would propose time-stamped ADDITIONS as the only post editing option. This can allow acknowledgment of errors or changed views. Leaving our embarrassments on display might make us a little more thoughtful before posting....or maybe not.

I've tried of late not to delete some of my more shaming efforts and felt quite virtuous about it.

Al, I even think leaving your apology to Bunny would have been OK. I think it was noble that despite your earlier knowledge/experience you fully accepted (faked!) evidence and backed down.

Respec.

EDIT!

MPhil

Definitely the top one.

The bottom one is Cool but lacks confidence.

49. Girl, 17, killed in Iraq for loving a British soldier

Comment #171588 by phil rimmer on April 28, 2008 at 3:35 pm

Al,

I am not mystified any longer.

50. Girl, 17, killed in Iraq for loving a British soldier

Comment #171583 by phil rimmer on April 28, 2008 at 3:31 pm

Sadly, Bunny, the meaning was changed.

EDIT Perhaps it would have been better to acknowledge the possible misreading your text was open to and point to your tightening up of the language?