posted
There are some absolute gems on the BBC's "Have Your Say" page at the moment, in a thread about whether the law should be changed to ensure parents are told if their under-16 daughter is having an abortion...
quote:You can't buy a packet of cigarettes and smoke, but you can have an operation. No wonder this country is the laughing stock of the world. We have less moral or ethical backbone than any other nation, anywhere in the world." Keith Hutchinson, Sunderland
It gets off to a great start in the first sentence which plays on the supposed absurdity that an under sixteen year old can't smoke, yet can have an operation. Of course this juxtaposition only works if you believe that 'having an operation' is somehow worse than smoking, which is kind of stupid. And by 'kind of' I mean 'very'. Imagine: "Oh yeah - you keep having a go at me about my smoking, but let's not forget that earlier in the year you had an operation! So!"
The second sentence comes out of nowhere - a product of total paranoia and insecurity. I can't think of any examples of the UK being 'the laughing stock of the world', except maybe at brief points in the past during disastrous sports tournaments. Keith strikes me as one of those people, who whenever he hears people laughing, imagines they're laughing at him.
My favourite, though, is the final statement, which ramps the stakes absolutely sky high. "We have less moral or ethical backbone than any other nation, anywhere in the world". Regardless of how you define 'moral or ethical backbone' (and lets remember that deciding to allow teenage girls to have this operation in privacy actually represents a strong ethical decision on the part of the medical profession), I think Keith's assertion is open to question. Maybe we should move Keith to Somalia, for example, a country that has lack effective central government since the nineties (I'm sure of my facts on this - it was in Black Hawk Down), where warlords train children to fight in their militia, where food is hoarded and starvation of the population is used as a weapon, and Keith can asses whether this represents a stronger moral backbone than a health system trying to help teenagers in trouble.
I nicked this next one from Monkey Susan...
quote:The real reason why a waiting list for, say, a hip operation is so long is because the said specialist is too busy performing abortions. Why is the human race so consistently disappointing?
quote:186,000 babies killed last year and only a tiny fraction imperfect. The official immigration figure for last year is almost the same number. We are told we need foreign doctors and nurses because of a shortfall. Hardly surprising when the willingness to violate the Hippocratic oath and kill healthy babies in the womb is a career requirement. I wait thirteen weeks before I can see a consultant, presumably because the rest are too busy either killing babies or doing fertility treatments. Surreal.
rob brownell, colchester
I really like that last bit that tries to mesh ideas about doctors performing abortions, with doctors doing fertility treatment. What's his point? That somehow if we stopped abortions and fertility treatment then it would all come out in the wash? That individual circumstances are irrelevant in the face of a net gain to society of healthy babies? Also - what's to do with that figure on the immigrants coming into the country? Is he suggesting that we're getting in immigrants to stop the gap created by teenage girls killing their babies? That if we didn't allow abortions, than we wouldn't have to allow immigrants and refugees into the country.
Here's one of my favourites:
quote:"When kids drive a car and kill someone. They should be heald responsible. This should be the case with underage sex."
This next one is actually very sensible, though the last line reminds me of the bit in Starship Troopers where the verteran with no arms or legs sighs nostalgically "Mobile infantry made me the man I am today!"...
quote:'When I was 16, I had an abortion. I didn't tell my family at the time as my Dad’s reaction scared me more than the procedure itself. 5 years later, I told my Mum - she thanked me for not telling her. She said I couldn't have coped on my own – she’d have had to help. She said she’d have been forced to tell my Dad - something that would have been catastrophic for our relationship. If there had been a risk to my confidentiality – It would have been even worse - I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Name Withheld, Reading, Berkshire
So there you have it - a catalogue of stupidity from Britain today. You can debate the issue yourselves if that's what makes you happy, or post your own snippets of idiocy from elsewhere on the internet. Really, though I think you should just applaud me for wittily putting down people who can't answer me back, when all they've done is express an opinion on an emotive subject.
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posted
well done thorn! Your trademark vitriolic humour certainly makes those people look foolish. If only they knew! They think that they're making a good point, but by humourously critiquing their opinions, you've not just proved that the vast majority of people stupid, but more importantly, that you are clever.
posted
I can only reiterate what Thorn said and add that if he'd watched Black Hawk Down more carefully he'd have realised that War is Cool. Especially on 2 disk special edition DVD with the scrumptious licakable desert camouflage sleeve. Oh yes.
If I may be serious for a moment.
In the mind of a teenager would it not seem to be more preferable to visit a backstreet abortionist than to have one's parents discover you'd starting having a sex life before *golly gosh* the age of 30?
Again, like Thorn, I have truly inadequate points of reference: Alfie (Micheal Caine version).
That and perhaps the enormous mental trauma abortion causes a women related to me by 2 previous girlfriends (as a result of relations sometime before they met me).
What a girl or young woman needs is only for them to decide. If they want their parents to know about an abortion, should that not be thier decision to make?
posted
I-I've no idea. It's quite dark in here and I was just absentmindedly stroking the keys on my keyboard. You know when you're hovering over a post and you press the shift button like five times or something and the Word paperclip asks you if you are trying to use stick keys to access the treasure map template? It was like that, but I've no idea what combination of keystrokes made it happen.
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posted
I love it when people moan about 'foreign people coming over here, taking our jobs' when the majority of british people I see in the hospital spit on the walls, hide in the toilets to smoke or in some cases, steal portable toilets.
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: I-I've no idea. It's quite dark in here and I was just absentmindedly stroking the keys on my keyboard. You know when you're hovering over a post and you press the shift button like five times or something and the Word paperclip asks you if you are trying to use stick keys to access the treasure map template? It was like that, but I've no idea what combination of keystrokes made it happen.
quote:Originally posted by Abby: I have seen two (2) dead cockroaches in the coridor of my hospital. They were British cockroaches.
How do you know? They could be skanky foreign roaches stealing dirt and medical waste from our sturdy native kind.
-------------------- What I object to is the colour of some of these wheelie bins and where they are left, in some areas outside all week in the front garden. Posts: 4941
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posted
Interesting that the UK is singled out when the US had the same laws (I think recently they passed the parent notification requirement). Plus, we let kids die for their country before they can get drunk, which seems a bit more backwards.
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posted
Tommy Lee is rocking Hoxton tomorrow night, doing his bit towards stopping this ID card madness.
And no, parents shouldn't be informed. What if it's the Dad or Uncle or Brother that's the father? Or - even worse - what if it's that horrific Mum that splashed her daughter's privacy over the Daily Mail ?
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quote:Originally posted by Gordon T Gofer: You probaby be descrating dead ethnic minorities with bacon.
The other day, I took my eldest into school and one of her classmates had a ham sandwich for breakfast (better than the regular donut and bag of wotsits)...
Anyway, she started chasing this little muslim girl around with the sandwich going, "You want some ham? You know you want some ham! HAHA"
Now, I don't know if she was doing it in that 'lets be an obnoxious kid' way or 'you towlhead, I'm gonna rub pork on you' way... But, it made me giggle. Then I felt bad.
Then I giggled again.
[ 08.11.2005, 17:49: Message edited by: sabian ]
-------------------- Evil isn't what you've done, it's feeling bad about it afterwards... Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again. Posts: 3793
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posted
I overheard some girls at work the other day fretting about seeing their tutor after missing a lecture. Until one of them came up with a bright idea.
-- O, tell him it was Eid! that's what I told my tutor, about how it's really important to my family and my culture, all that? He totally went for it?
posted
they don't believe me. i'm inventing a life i don't have. the most exciting thing in my days is the thought of expression of proteins detected by immunostaining.
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posted
Ick. I've just looked at the 'Have Your Say' comments on recently deceased author John Fowles> I didn't actually expect them to print my sarcastic tribute, but they did.
"I only recently discovered the work of John Fowles, reading The Magus out in Spain. The language was absolutely beautiful, but it got kind of repetitive after a while. No-one else I lent it to liked it much either.
quote:Originally posted by Roy: That should go on his gravestone.
I reckon the words "a bit bad" should go on my own gravestone.
Anyway - on today's have your say, the topic is about the findings that having kids reduces testosterone. Keith Hutchinson from Sunderland opens his trap on this one, too. I'm getting to like him, now, mind...
quote:From personal experience most of the fathers who fit into the category of yob continue in this brain dead state, and in most cases bring up their kids in the same way. Both should be destroyed. The kid to prevent future criminal activity, the parent to prevent any further spread of their genes.
Keith Hutchinson, Sunderland, United Kingdom
I reckon Keith would actually make quite a good suitor for VP.
If anyone was in doubt about the findings, Steve from London lays it on the line:
quote:Prior to the birth of my son I was an unprincipled, vicious thug. Since my son's birth I've found I'm much more calm, reasonable and tolerant - sounds like the research is right.
Steve, London
Elsewhere, other contibutors are getting right to the heart of the matter with pin point clarity:
quote:Flintstones did not have children. Civil is a subject of great contradiction for any. Even the politicians gets wiped out in the wrong field when if comes to making them civilians or civilised. These days’ fathers have to learn the Windows and close the doors of the DTP. Quite a big responsibility. Why attach more?
In fairness - that contributor was actually from Dar Es Salaam. So what excuse does this next guy have?
quote:And I'd add this to all the cynics out there: you can't deny the findings - all you can do is question the conclusions. It's a bit like denying the existence of UFOs: of course they exist - by definition they are 'unidentified' flying objects. Sure, they might not be extra-terrestrial, but that's not the point...
quote:Originally posted by doc d: i tell people its my culture to turn up drunk and/or hungover at least once a week.
I claim the communion wine is potent stuff. Then I blame the teachers.
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Octavia
I hate Valentine's Day. Stupid commercialised crap
posted
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Ick. I've just looked at the 'Have Your Say' comments on recently deceased author John Fowles> I didn't actually expect them to print my sarcastic tribute, but they did.
"I only recently discovered the work of John Fowles, reading The Magus out in Spain. The language was absolutely beautiful, but it got kind of repetitive after a while. No-one else I lent it to liked it much either.
quote:Added: Thursday, 10 November, 2005, 09:47 GMT 09:47 UK I would like to know how many of the MP's that voted last night use public transport? Who are they to go against professional advice by the police? The next terrorist attack, should the MP'S that were against the 90 day containment be held responsible? I can tell you if any of my family, friends are effected in anyway by a terror attack i will! Mr Blair is trying to do anything in his power to stop 7/9 happening again and receiving no help from his so called colleagues. May be Mr Howard should call for the resignation of all the back benchers. It will be the only way Conservative will get in to power!
posted
It's good to see that American stand up comedians turned sitcom actor turned voice over artists are taking an interest though. It's a sign of a healthy democracy.
[ 10.11.2005, 09:47: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: It's good to see that American stand up comedians turned sitcom actors turned voice over artists are taking an interest though. It's a sign of a healthy democracy.
But he's also an ex coke addict and convicted felon. Is this the kind of people we want in our so-called healthy democracy?
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