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Post by floplexter on Aug 11, 2011 7:04:26 GMT
I didn't elect that smug cunt.
I don't know the ins and outs of what you're saying, being far removed as you might say, but I lay any money each looter has designer gear and a shit-hot mobile phone. Because that's what they expect.
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Post by hornet on Aug 11, 2011 7:56:56 GMT
I don't know the ins and outs of what you're saying, being far removed as you might say, but I lay any money each looter has designer gear and a shit-hot mobile phone. Because that's what they expect. a) I lay any money that some do but some don't. That's exactly the kind of sweeping conclusion that the media have been encouraging us to for at least a decade. b) That changes my general point in what way? People complain about kids being lazy and entitled. And some kids are, obviously. But even if every one of the 2.5 million unemployed (plus God-knows how many 17-year-olds who are out of school but aren't working and don't count on those figures) was the go-iest getter in the history of all things, there are only 300,000 jobs available. What are they supposed to do, share one job between eight of them? To repeat myself, no obviously it's not an excuse for smashing up shops and taking what you want. But if you want to stop it happening again, advocating turning the army loose to further brutalise a bunch of people who already feel (with some justification) like society's got it in for them is not. Fucking. Helpful.
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Post by coffers on Aug 11, 2011 8:06:59 GMT
I didn't elect that smug cunt. I don't know the ins and outs of what you're saying, being far removed as you might say, but I lay any money each looter has designer gear and a shit-hot mobile phone. Because that's what they expect. And Sky TV and blackberries........ And don't talk to me about being poor, been there, didn't riot, didn't loot, neither did my parents or any of their family nor my grandparents or their families. My mother's mother brought up 5 children on her own when her husband died at the age of 36 with lung cancer. Trouble is now the culture is I want it and I want it now, if you won't give it to me I'll take it. Simplistic view as are my previous statements, as is yours. But many of the people in the rioting just don't have any sense of respect for others at all. As for politicians, they are all smug fookwits, yes all of them.
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Post by floplexter on Aug 11, 2011 8:36:06 GMT
You can socially justify it until you're blue in the face and politicise it and talk about disenfranchised youth and of course there is governmental blame... I saw four rioters interviewed. Every single one of them saw nothing wrong in what they had done because "someone else" had let them down and not "given" them a job.
Not posting any more about it. Sorry.
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Post by floplexter on Aug 11, 2011 8:38:45 GMT
And yes, I've been poor and shopped with my pregnant wife in the bin-end bashed tin shelves of Tesco on a Friday evening in my £3 jeans, but I didn't blame any other fucker for it. We dealt with it, got our heads down and deserve what we have, without getting on the social handout wheel.
Again, sorry.
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Post by hornet on Aug 11, 2011 9:44:47 GMT
And yes, I've been poor and shopped with my pregnant wife in the bin-end bashed tin shelves of Tesco on a Friday evening in my £3 jeans, but I didn't blame any other fucker for it. We dealt with it, got our heads down and deserve what we have, without getting on the social handout wheel. Again, sorry. Not wanting to repeat myself, but I really don't see any other response: 2,500,000 unemployed. 300,000 jobs. How the fuck are, in the absolute best case scenario, 2.2 million people supposed to "deal with it and get their heads down" and get by without benefits when they've literally no chance of getting a job? Render as much smug judgement as you like, but the fact is these kids HAVE been let down. They're NOT getting the help they need to find work, although that wouldn't make a lot of difference because even if they were there isn't any work for them to get. Counteranecdote to you and Coffers yelling "BOOTSTRAPS! BOOOOOTSTRAAAAAPS!!!" - I was out of work for eighteen months. It is fucking horrible. It's a fucking desperate life. Constant rejection ate at me and made me feel more and more listless, apathetic and worthless. And I was a middle-class white guy with a hatful of GCSEs and A-Levels trying to find work in a semi-decent economy with a wife who a decently-paid job. I can only imagine what it must be like with no education, no money and no fucking hope. And repeating myself again - no, OBVIOUSLY that's not an excuse for smashing up your neighbourhood. But if we let a torrent of vicious, privilaged, reactionary Daily Mail horseshit distract us from the root cause of what's happened - specifically, the ever-increasing gap between rich and poor in this country - then not only are we not going to solve this problem, we're actively going to make it worse. Yeah, that's me done with this topic too.
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Post by floplexter on Aug 11, 2011 10:03:00 GMT
Fuck it.
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Post by coffers on Aug 11, 2011 11:31:11 GMT
And me, I was out of work for 15 months too, in an area of crap unemployment prospects and no prospects of any employment either, yes it's shit but sometimes just sometimes things don't land on a plate.
And I'm done too.
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Post by DC on Aug 13, 2011 17:43:32 GMT
I like to turn up late for these things.
I'll talk about it in a different way though.
At the moment I have the Yank with me, as you all probably know, who is being pestered by family as to what she thinks of the riots etc and her response is to ask me, as she honestly doesn't know what to think. She's generally confused at the best of times, but this kind of behaviour (and her general cynical state of mind) means her already tarnished view of "chavs" is sullied that little bit more. She also has a bit of a foggy memory, so she forgets that there have been several instances of rioting in the US over the last decade (the spill over from the G8 and the Pro-Anarchy movements for starters).
I've explained that what we have experienced are ultimately tiny, extremely small, pockets of dedicated disorder by a fringe of society, with a batch of opportunistic looters joining in the "fun". There's no protest or political statement, no rights being fought for, and no greater scheme at play (unlike the LA Rots, G8, Student protests etc).
I accept Horns statements regarding 2,500,000 unemployed and only 300,000 jobs. But I counter by pointing out that 2.5m people didn't riot. A few thousand did. How many of those are unemployed or unemployable is arguable given we've had examples of teachers, law students, civil servants, posh kids, single mums, entire families etc involved. The only thing that has surprised me is that we haven't seen examples of the Emergency Services joining in. This is not just rioting and looting by the disaffected youth with no hopes, dreams or aspirations, this is rioting and looting by a bunch of unprincipled scumbags and opportunists. Probably the same people that don't hand in wallets, take up two seats on trains, talk too loudly on their mobile, and talk throughout movies. Y'know, pricks. But this is not our first sample of looting is it?
Last year we had the scandal with Politicians expenses....effectively a kind of posh looting. Over the last 10 years we've heard of stories (however tedious, or unverified) of people on the dole taking hundreds of thousands out of the system....a kind of systematic looting. Then you have the bankers, drawing out their huge pay-cheques as businesses crumble based on their fannying around with our pensions and mortgages....another form of looting if you ask me.
The only difference is how these people go about satisfying their "wants", and who they're willing to screw over to do it. Each justifies it in their own way. Their remorse is normally related to being caught.
If it was just a riot by the poor and disaffected, St Helens, Wigan, Watford, Luton, Newcastle, Glasgow would all be burning. If it was (as dickward Starkey stated) all about "black culture" then we'd see all those convicted fit into the very specific assertion he was making. We wouldn't have seen a bit of wet weather stopping it either.
Anyone who hangs around Liverpool on a Bonfire night will know exactly what a riot looks like. The only difference between Bonfire night in Liverpool and the "riots" in the last week are the other 20,000 kids who didn't go out taking part, and the absence of looting.
The riots have allowed the media, politicans etc to turn the cameras on certain sections of society and they will use it to force through some form of ineffectual law change that will end up being abused by being used on legal peaceful protests instead.
I agree with Horn, they aren't going to solve the root issue - and I agree that the situation in inner city London / Manchester etc is awful in terms of prospects for those stuck in the pretty much perpetual whirlpool of skullduggery. But I would argue that Coffers is closer to the truth in terms of what actually is the root issue of these riots - they're a bunch of fuckwits.
No matter the support structure or state support, some small percentage would likely always have joined in. And some bystanders and otherwise "normal" people would have taken advantage and succumbed to their own base desires in grabbing a free tv. No matter how much on a plate you put everything, some people will always throw it down the drain. And when the situation is less than ideal (as it currently is in this economic climate) it simply accelerates any responses.
On a side note a big chunk of the looting up north, particularly in Liverpool, but also seen in London, was organised crime involving vehicles and dozens of people fully motivated to taking advantage of riots elsewhere in the city, or purposefully starting trouble elsewhere to take advantage in another location. Again, these are the criminal underclass. For that dedicated minority the only solution would be to have their hands sawn off and replaced with Dildo's so that they can go fuck themselves.
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Post by floplexter on Aug 28, 2011 8:46:44 GMT
Under the "Doesn't Fit Anwhere Else" banner- loved this tweet this morning:
BBC Headline: "Gaddafi may have slipped into Jordan".... does the woman have no shame?
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Post by coffers on Aug 28, 2011 12:05:04 GMT
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Post by coffers on Feb 24, 2012 11:32:20 GMT
My company was taken over by another Merican company last week, we're all in a bit of a state of flux. I think my job will be ok for now as the product I'm working on doesn't quite have any comparisons in their business models. So they'll need people who know the product. That said some were laid off in the US who had crossover expertise in a hosting environment. They're merging their Irish office with our Irish office and closing our old office down. Existing staff can move, commute or telecommute.
Interesting times. There is a all hands meeting down sarf next week. to tell us what they did in 2011 and their goals for this year.
If I can make it to 2014 my mortgage will be paid off and I can go work in Asda or somewhere less stressful, maybe.
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Post by floplexter on Feb 24, 2012 11:53:13 GMT
"Interesting times" They are officially Arse.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Feb 29, 2012 13:54:13 GMT
What the hell : I always put my birthday down as Feb 29 so the forums that send out birthday mails only get to do so once every four years... Clearly I'm a trend setter.
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Post by floplexter on Feb 29, 2012 14:26:33 GMT
Or a weirdo. There are always two ways of looking at things.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Feb 29, 2012 14:29:12 GMT
I'm ugly in both ways.
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Post by coffers on Feb 29, 2012 17:07:04 GMT
Mrs C's sister actually has a real birthday today, and no she isn't samson.
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Post by coffers on Mar 19, 2012 9:26:06 GMT
"Interesting times" They are officially Arse. I'll second that, the new company wants to make us all Dilbert's. Jesus they suck. I may well be looking to move on if they get what they want. They don't give a shit about customers or people, they just want to screw as much out of customer as they can. No wonder they lost so much custom to us.
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Post by floplexter on May 4, 2012 9:55:01 GMT
Wearing my t-shirt today in honour of Star Wars day:
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Post by coffers on May 4, 2012 10:08:39 GMT
Today is the 30th anniversary of the Argentine hit on HMS Sheffield in the Falklands war, which ultimately led to it's sinking.
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Post by hornet on May 4, 2012 11:29:32 GMT
Wearing my t-shirt today in honour of Star Wars day: That's excellent. I had a shirt with that logo and "The Galactic Empire - Ruling By Supreme Authority" on it and wore it till it almost literally fell apart.
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Post by floplexter on May 4, 2012 11:41:21 GMT
Have you met Buzz Killington, coffs?
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Post by coffers on May 4, 2012 12:17:48 GMT
Met him, I didn't know who he was until I just looked him up. Class, I think I'd like him. :checkit:
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Post by floplexter on May 4, 2012 12:38:25 GMT
He is a quality individual.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on May 16, 2012 12:06:25 GMT
Promising start to the day today - got up at 5am as I have to go to New Jersey, to find that the Jedi has been screwing with the interior lights in the car, leaving them all on and the car won't start.
Jump the car off the Yachsmith's only to discover I have empty tanks... so I drive to the Shell in town and fill up, but then the car won't start again and the only car on the forecourt is a black and white... so I get a jump start off a cop.
Then I'm driving to the park and ride to meet my new director as I start my new job today and I'm going to carpool in with him... get there bang on time, but don't see anyone. Five minutes later I call him and I'm at x40 on route 15 and he's at x40 on i95.
Promising start.
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