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Messages - Reelya

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17146
General Discussion / Re: PoH's Calm and Cool Progressive Expression Thread
« on: March 17, 2012, 02:11:42 am »
Quote from: justinlee999 on March 17, 2012, 01:47:47 am
Quote from: Truean on March 16, 2012, 05:00:56 pm
In other news, more details of what's beginning to look like police covering up; shit is surfacing:
http://news.yahoo.com/family-slain-black-fla-teen-hear-911-calls-013325111.html
The article says white person, then later in the article it says the murderer was Hispanic.

What!?

I doubt american's differentiate hispanics based on racial origins, e.g. Brazillian businessman Ricardo Semler would be considered hispanic in the USA, even though his family came from Austria. So it in no way delineates a racial boundary.

17147
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Word association game
« on: March 16, 2012, 05:40:37 am »
Nyan Cat

17148
General Discussion / Re: PoH's Calm and Cool Progressive Expression Thread
« on: March 14, 2012, 09:21:52 pm »
The whole thing is just playing on the "ick" factor. But showing someones grandparents "doin' the do" is pretty "ick" too, yet nobody would take that to mean it should be illegal.

17149
General Discussion / Re: PoH's Calm and Cool Progressive Expression Thread
« on: March 14, 2012, 07:48:23 pm »
Quote from: Max White on March 14, 2012, 07:08:01 pm
Quote from: Sirus on March 14, 2012, 07:00:57 pm
Yay, America isn't the only Western society with irrational homophobia!
The best bit is that the guy running the ads half brother is gay...

The story's not all bad, since Queensland is the closest place that Australia has to Alabama, and the LNP is the major right wing party there, and even their state leader supports gay marriage. Bob Katter is a renegade from that party with more extreme views.

And both major parties are going "omg there was an attack ad!". Such ads would be de rigueur in the USA i think. Attack ads are known here but not to the same level of viciousness:

Quote
Labor Premier Anna Bligh said the ad was “bizarre'' and “way, way beyond what we expect in a political campaign''.

17150
General Discussion / Re: PoH's Calm and Cool Progressive Expression Thread
« on: March 13, 2012, 07:57:03 pm »
Quote from: Virex on March 13, 2012, 07:47:21 pm
In other words, in the 4th generation, 66% of the population will be able to trace their linage to at least 1 convict.

Unfortunately, that's factually incorrect as far as actual Australians go. Which shows there's a flaw in one of the assumptions.

Closest figure i can find is that between 5% - 22% of Australians have a convict in their family tree.

17151
General Discussion / Re: PoH's Calm and Cool Progressive Expression Thread
« on: March 13, 2012, 07:09:49 pm »
Quote from: Sirus on March 13, 2012, 05:45:45 pm
Quote from: Truean on March 13, 2012, 05:37:14 pm
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/rush-limbaugh-calls-national-organization-women-nags-204036024.html

Really? He just keeps on goin' doesn't he....
Dem comments, man...I'm assuming for my Faith in Humanity Meter(tm) that at least half of them are trolls.

Sorry, to burst your bubble, but look at the politics board of Yahoo Answers :-

http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/index?link=list&sid=396545450

Not trolls, at least not in thr way you think.

"Who are Obama's top adiviser " TO BOMB SYRIA "...... ALL jEWS .... OR MAJORITY jEWS?"

"What r the % of Jews on the Federal Reverse + Supreme Court + Presidential Advisers?"

etc

Comments on the news section of Yahoo don't phase me, they're normal compared to Yahoo Answers / Politics

17152
General Discussion / Re: American Election Megathread
« on: March 13, 2012, 02:16:09 pm »
"Those living on or near the Gulf Coast in particular know the impact these extreme environmental positions can have on the region's economy."

Ummm...yeah is the GOP memory on Gulf environmental problems really that short...it seems it is. ;_;

17153
General Discussion / Re: PoH's Calm and Cool Progressive Expression Thread
« on: March 13, 2012, 01:28:34 pm »
Quote from: RedKing on March 13, 2012, 01:09:30 pm
I can't help but LOL that the guy who's talking about Muslims not being an integral part of the community is named Emil Sremchevich. I'm guessing the Sremcheviches didn't come over in chains from Old Mother England.

Funnily enough, when you add up all the people who actually came " in chains from Old Mother England" and compare to non-convict settlers, even in the same time period (let along 20th century), the amount is best described as "not many".

Though it's exceeding trendy to claim (one) convict ancestor in old-money families.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convicts_in_Australia

Quote
Over the 80 years more than 165,000 convicts were transported to Australia.[...]The number of convicts pales in comparison to the immigrants who arrived in Australia in the 1851-1871 gold rush. In 1852 alone, 370,000 immigrants arrived in Australia. By 1871 the total population had nearly quadrupled from 430,000 to 1.7 million people.

Even the population by 1850 was 405,000 which is more than double the number of total convicts. And there was a large influx of immigrants after World War II from all over Europe, and Asia, etc.

So the odds of any particular person in Australia being able to claim a convict ancestor is surprisingly low, even for those who's family has been here 6 generations or more.

17154
General Discussion / Re: PoH's Calm and Cool Progressive Expression Thread
« on: March 13, 2012, 12:50:01 pm »
It's the same city, and the state commisioner involved said "he rejected plans for the school on Burragorang Rd because the development would not be in keeping with Camden’s rural character and heritage".

So he claimed Camden, as a whole, was not "in keeping" with a large high-school. Then they dropped that logic because it was a Catholic school.

The council / state can still refuse the Catholic school, regardless of zoning. Hell, technically, you need council planning approval for a garden shed.

For the Islamic school, they said other factors, other than the site's zoning were relevant : specifically as i said above "Camden’s rural character and heritage" wasn't compatible with a high-school.

17155
General Discussion / Re: PoH's Calm and Cool Progressive Expression Thread
« on: March 13, 2012, 12:31:45 pm »
See my edit, i just found out they built a catholic school in the place where they had riots about an Islamic one.

There's quite a bit of racism amongst some Australians. Especially in rural areas.

The paranoia they hold is so great, that some people in a related news article said they feared revenge attacks for opposing the Islamic school in Camden. e.g. these people in a farming town outside the city, think they're going to be personally targeted by Islamic terrorists.

17156
General Discussion / Re: PoH's Calm and Cool Progressive Expression Thread
« on: March 13, 2012, 12:26:22 pm »
A lot of Christians here got angry when some Muslims wanted to build their own private school under the religious school laws which allow Catholics and Anglicans to run schools. Very angry.

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=14173

Quote
After months of controversy, the NSW Land and Environment Court has rejected the Quranic Society's application to build a $19 million school for 900 students in a rural area near Camden south-west of Sydney.

The court found that the plans were inconsistent with the site's zoning restrictions, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Camden City Council cited planning arguments when it first blocked the proposal a year ago.

But fierce community opposition to the project often relied on racial and religious arguments.

At the hearing in April, the council's evidence included a letter signed by four Christian churches stating that Islam espoused views that were "incompatible with the Australian way of life".
The council's legal team also presented a DVD featuring the views of concerned residents, one of whom said the school would be a "breeding ground for terrorists".

However the council insisted its refusal was based on planning grounds, arguing it was incompatible with the rural zoning and would cause problems for traffic and neighbouring farms.

But then ...

http://cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=8931

Quote
Months after turning down a proposal for a Muslim school, residents of Camden in Sydney's west have welcomed plans for a Catholic school in the historic town.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the Camden/Macarthur Residents' Group that fought a Muslim proposal for a school in rural Camden has welcomed Catholic plans to build a school nearby because "Catholics are part of our community."

Residents group president, Emil Sremchevich, said the Catholic school plan "ticked all the right boxes", even though he is yet to see its development application.

"Catholics are part of our community so we should be supporting it on this basis alone. We have to welcome them," Mr Sremchevich told the Herald.


"To become part of a community, you need to live in the community. You can't just turn up."

The Quranic Society said Mr Sremchevich's comments were racist but he rejected that tag.

"Why is that racist? Why is it discriminatory? It's very simple: people like some things but don't like other things. Some of us like blondes, some of us like brunettes. Some of us like Fords, some of us like Holdens. Why is it xenophobic just because I want to make a choice? If I want to like some people and not like other people, that's the nature of the beast."

Mr Sremchevich was among those who applauded a Camden Council decision in May to reject the Quranic Society's application to build a 1,200 student school at Burragorang Road, Cawdor.

Now the Catholic Education Office of Wollongong has bought the 150 student Mater Dei special needs school in Macquarie Grove Road.

It wants to retain Mater Dei and build a 1,000 student high school on the same plot, which is already zoned for a school.

The Quranic Society application would have required rezoning.

A spokesman for the Quranic Society, Issam Obeid, said: "Everyone can see there is a double standard ... No one knows anything about the Catholic school and they say, 'Yeah, give it a tick already.' I think racism is affecting this."

A spokesman for Wollongong's Catholic Education Office, Peter McPherson, said more schools were needed in south-west Sydney to cope with population growth.

"Our site is currently a school zoning so we don't believe we will have any problems with rural zoning issues," he said.

17157
General Discussion / Re: PoH's Calm and Cool Progressive Expression Thread
« on: March 13, 2012, 10:28:12 am »
Well, i was a little tongue in cheek with the "creepy" comment xD we only hear about home-schoolers in related to American religious extremists here who want to avoid teaching their kids evolution, etc. I don't think I ever met a home-schooled person, to be honest. And, i did some checking around and the largest advocacy group in the USA sells the idea on the anti-evolution band-wagon, secular home-schoolers were complaining about that, which makes them look bad, i can accept that.

Australia's doing a lot better in the PISA rankings than USA, so I'd merit public education in Australia is a notch above that of the United States. Certainly with a free, universal, and top-notch system like Australia, i would never consider using home-schooling here for my kids if I had any.

But the argument about relative school quality can work both ways for home-schooling. You might say given the appalling public system in the United States, that home-schooling is the way to go, but that can only ever be a stop-gap measure. I'd say that if you feel compelled to home-school it just means you should start advocating for a decent school system instead, then home-schooling wouldn't be needed.

17158
General Discussion / Re: PoH's Calm and Cool Progressive Expression Thread
« on: March 13, 2012, 09:19:12 am »
Quote from: GlyphGryph on March 13, 2012, 09:01:17 am
This... actually really worries me. And was part of why I was talking about the spread earlier. Finland's system seems keen on pulling up the underachievers, but what about those who could excel? Are they being failed, is their potential being cut off for the benefit of the others? I'm not sure that sort of thing sits well with me. Quite a few things of Finland's system don't, looking at it more in depth. I certainly explains why they are doing well - they seem to CARE about doing well, but I'm not sure the goals they have would be my own.
Since they're topping the world tests, I'd say they're doing ok across the board, although in the articles they do talk about targeted programs to push the top students further.

Quote from: GlyphGryph on March 13, 2012, 09:01:17 am
Also, the wonder of the Finnish system in no way proves a lack of reason to homeschool in places that are, ya know, NOT Finland.

Homeschooling is just creepy. Sorry. Very few countries even allow it. Almost all of them are from us in-bred English-speaking nations. Most non-English speaking nations aren't crazy enough to allow it, except for some third-world places which haven't invented school yet.

"Countries with the most prevalent home education movements include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. ".

17159
General Discussion / Re: PoH's Calm and Cool Progressive Expression Thread
« on: March 13, 2012, 07:13:23 am »
No savings, no assets, low income and debt. American minimum wage of only $7.25.

What don't you understand about net worth? Assets minus liabilities.

You might have $300 in cash but $1000 in debts. Which gives you a net worth less than zero. These people with  negative net worth balance out a few with positive net worth, and the average is $5.

17160
General Discussion / Re: PoH's Calm and Cool Progressive Expression Thread
« on: March 13, 2012, 06:30:43 am »
Actually this was the older report, but the data was from 2007, BEFORE the crisis, so they speculate it's actually worse now.

One site trying to debunk the study, said "in the original it said 'women of color' not 'black' women" and acted like that means the whole things a fraud. When, in fact, that means even more women are affected by this issue than otherwise.

Perhaps 'women of color' was a euphemism.

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