h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I would like to see a cessation of shouting at the other side of the driver/cycling debate - both sides are responsible, a lack of care by drivers meets the same from cyclists (who also frequently don't wear helmets, and the fact that there is no quality control for them either)

The "other side" is not always evil and either Green/Nazi

Hoo: we're well over halfway there. But don't forget - it's the parents' faults their kids behave badly

Mol

Does that mean i can discipline with force my parents if they start behaving badly?

I wasn't blaming the kids. There comes a point where you can start blaming the kids, but I'd put that somewhere about sixteen or seventeen, and even then if they're completely feral while it is their FAULT, one of the reasons for it is lack of parenting.

>> Parents who impose *any* kind of discipline on their children or ever refuse them anything for any reason will come to be regularly compared to Nazis or similar.<<

People will have no idea what Nazis are in 50 years. They might possibly still use the word, although this might even have been stamped out, but they won't know where it comes from.

Of course people will still know what Nazis are in 50 years.

Of course, the definition will have changed to "that thing that people compare you to in arguments which means they've lost".

And in reality, while there's a Jew on this planet with breath in their body then at least one television channel somewhere will be broadcasting a finger-wagging documentary about the Holocaust. That's one thing I really don't think will change.

What I think *might* change is that in fifty years there won't be anyone still alive with any direct experience of it, so it's possible that it may become acceptable for people to observe the fact that:
(a) the Nazis didn't uniquely persecute Jews and
(b) persecutions and systematic genocide have been perpetrated since, but to people without rich relatives in Europe and the USA who can spend the next few decades making films and television shows about it, and that "Never again" turned out to be "Never US again".

Hmm yes, Rwana and the DRC (amongst far too many others) never quite garner the same coverage

And while we're on comparing people to Nazis, I'd like Godwin's law to be codified so that breaching it is illegal by international law

>> And in reality, while there's a Jew on this planet with breath in their body then at least one television channel somewhere will be broadcasting a finger-wagging documentary about the Holocaust. That's one thing I really don't think will change. << hoovooloo

There is something about that remark that bothers me. I don't think I like the tone of it. I am sure that you meant well, hoovooloo, but it does come off to me as somewhat critical of Jews, insinuating that they are whining or something. Is that what you meant? If not, what DID you mean?

>> But cake made with wholesome ingredients is effectively brown bread, ie, not cake. << Mol

It turns out that what makes cake cake is the texture of the flour not whether or not it is whole or not; in other words, whole wheat pastry flour makes magnificently light cakes! So does almond flour and rice flour! And the other ingredients being organic make the cake taste better too! Eggs, honey, baking powder, vanilla, butter and all the other things one may use in a cake, if they are whole and organic, actually make the cake more nourishing than additive infested store-bought breads.

If the ingredients are healthy then the foods will be too. So we can have healthy treats to give out at Hallowe'en and we can have delicate, light, frothy desserts and know they are good for us. Here, have some celery!

"what DID you mean?"

Not a great deal more nor less than I said - the media seem fixated on the Holocaust and most as a unique event (which it's not) and a specifically and exclusively Jewish experience (which it wasn't). Can't see how it can be interpreted as critical of Jews, unless you're one of those tinfoilhatters who believes all the media are controlled by them. Are you?

The fact is if it wasn't for sharks and the Final Solution, hundreds of cable channels would have nothing to make programmes about.

btw, I love the self-righteous passive-aggressiveness of " I don't think I like the tone of it." (this is not sarcasm, I really do like it)

You don't *think* you like the tone of it? Really? Gosh, well, get back to me when you've made up your mind, huh?

>> a specifically and exclusively Jewish experience (which it wasn't) <<

When Pope John Paul was criticised for not mentioning 'the Jews'
when he visited one of the more notorious concentration camps in
his native Poland, the Vatican pointed out that fewer than 15% of
the victims there were actually Jews, adding that since this was
"a statistically insignificant" percentage of the total numbers such
an omission was hardly blame-worthy even by the most Jewish of
accounting methods.


~jwf~

< the Vatican pointed out that fewer than 15% of
the victims there were actually Jews, adding that since this was
"a statistically insignificant" percentage of the total numbers such
an omission was hardly blame-worthy even by the most Jewish of
accounting methods.>

Is that the same reasoning the Vatican used for saying no priests had fiddled with kids...it was only a wafer thin statistical insignificance.

The interesting thing about the sexy schoolgirls as lust objects for men being all about the nostalgia of first love/lust is that as far as I know sexy schoolboys are not one of the archetypal lust objects for women. I could be wrong, but isn't that supposed to be, I dunno, sexy firemen or something? So there we have big strong protective men for women and little innocent weak girls for men. Sounds like conditioning to me, really.

Did y'all know that the Holocaust is either the only topic, or one of two topics (I forget which) which it is compulsory to teach in British school history classes? But there's no need to look for conspiracy theories about why it is still in the forefront of popular consciousness in the UK at least. Many British schools, by a sort of accident of curriculum planning, teach Nazi history for five years straight, and breaking this habit is quite tricky when, after this, it is also a popular university topic, meaning that when graduates become history teachers.... Did y'all also know the German Ambassador to the UK has complained about this?

Clare, why is almond flour or rice flour more healthy than white wheat flour?

Why does baking powder not count as an additive?

The urge to mix together a Devil's Food Cake for this Halloween is becoming strangely compelling.

Mol

Something to do with gluten? I know with kids you are supposed to find alternatives too too much wheat for fear of the kidlet developing gluten intolerances. Or were. That might not be this year's fad.

I think I'm searching for something more than that - but then, I started my kids on rusks dissolved in cows milk at 10 weeks, which is probably a criminal offence now.

Mol

Burn the witch. Etc etc etc.

Exactly. Although, for all the flack I got from the health visitor, I must have done something right, because my kids (now 15, 13 and 10) eat healthily, aren't picky, and are all perfectly-formed (ie not overweight or underweight).

Mol