The World is Absurd Thread.

[Audley Strange]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19438343

Now THAT is what I call victim blaming.

[FBM]

...the fuck is wrong with us as a species?

[Audley Strange]

Personally it seems that language has a symbiotic perhaps even synergistic relationship with some but for many it can be parasitical and is causing psychosomatic perceptual and behavioural dysfunctions until they are akin to screaming apes with rabies and heavy weaponry.

We're still in the dark ages.

[FBM]

Let's ban language, then.


Seriously, though, I agree that we've gone so far off the deep end that we reify and blindly obey abstract linguistic conventions as if they were more powerful than observation and common sense. I don't see a cure.

[JimC]

Certainly a bizarre perversion of legal process. However, I suspect it will be quashed fairly soon...

[Audley Strange]

Let's ban language, then.


Seriously, though, I agree that we've gone so far off the deep end that we reify and blindly obey abstract linguistic conventions as if they were more powerful than observation and common sense. I don't see a cure.

Perhaps E-Prime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime

Perhaps.

[FBM]

Let's ban language, then.


Seriously, though, I agree that we've gone so far off the deep end that we reify and blindly obey abstract linguistic conventions as if they were more powerful than observation and common sense. I don't see a cure.

Perhaps E-Prime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime

Perhaps.

A very good start, at least. I might try that as an exercise with my Eng. Comp. students. By damn, I will...

[Horwood Beer-Master]

...State prosecutors charged the miners under the apartheid-era "common purpose" doctrine...

"Meet the new boss..."

[Tyrannical]

I thought those striking miners murdered and mutilated several people with their spears and machetes already?
Oh well, at least Lieutenants Bromhead and Chard got things back under control

[mistermack]

I can see where they are coming from with those charges.

If the police were GENUINELY forced to fire on the crowd, in fear of their lives, then the crowd caused the deaths of the people killed. If you take part in a riot, then you share the blame for what carnage the riot causes.
I'm not a lover of police by any means, by you have to give them the right to save their own lives.

If the miners were tooled up with machetes and traditional weapons, they had the means to kill the police, and going by the reports, two police and a number of security guards had already been hacked to death in an earlier action.

In those circumstances, if I was the chief of police, I would have instructed the police to shoot if they felt a genuine fear of their lives. And that seems to be what happened.

It all depends on what the situation really was, but going on the earlier killings, I would guess that the police did the right thing, which is protect their own lives. And it's very hard to stop shooting, once you start, especially if you're shit scared.

If those were the circumstances, then I would certainly charge them with the killings, if that law is available.

[JimC]

I can see where they are coming from with those charges.

If the police were GENUINELY forced to fire on the crowd, in fear of their lives, then the crowd caused the deaths of the people killed. If you take part in a riot, then you share the blame for what carnage the riot causes.
I'm not a lover of police by any means, by you have to give them the right to save their own lives.

If the miners were tooled up with machetes and traditional weapons, they had the means to kill the police, and going by the reports, two police and a number of security guards had already been hacked to death in an earlier action.

In those circumstances, if I was the chief of police, I would have instructed the police to shoot if they felt a genuine fear of their lives. And that seems to be what happened.

It all depends on what the situation really was, but going on the earlier killings, I would guess that the police did the right thing, which is protect their own lives. And it's very hard to stop shooting, once you start, especially if you're shit scared.

If those were the circumstances, then I would certainly charge them with the killings, if that law is available.

If they were indeed the circumstances, then it would absolve the police from blame - they would have been acting in self defence.

However, it is a big stretch to charge the other miners with the murder of their comrades. A charge of threatening behaviour or rioting et. would certainly be valid if the circumstances were as above, but not murder, IMO...

Then, of course, there is the real possibility that the circumstances were not exactly as painted by the police - they are not exactly disinterested, objective observers in a situation like this...

[mistermack]

If they were indeed the circumstances, then it would absolve the police from blame - they would have been acting in self defence.

However, it is a big stretch to charge the other miners with the murder of their comrades. A charge of threatening behaviour or rioting et. would certainly be valid if the circumstances were as above, but not murder, IMO...

Then, of course, there is the real possibility that the circumstances were not exactly as painted by the police - they are not exactly disinterested, objective observers in a situation like this...

Agreed with all of that. BUT, if you go on a demonstration, you don't need lethal weapons like machetes etc.
If you include the context of the previous killings, then a mob with machetes and spears etc. can't be taken lightly.
If you are facing a mob like that, you have to be aware that you could be dead within seconds.

I hope that a warning was broadcast etc. But even if it wasn't, common sense should have told them that after the previous killings, the police would open fire, if they felt threatened.
If I was a striking miner, there's no way I would have been marching or confronting the police after the previous killings, warning or not.
If the police saw spears and machetes, in those circumstances, they're going to fire, if you keep coming.

If I was South African, I would want to see anybody who riots with spears and machetes locked up for a long time, so I wouldn't complain about the use of this law if they were proved guilty.

It's not a fair law, but in a country like South Africa, it's probably a necessary deterrent. After all, at present, a riot in South Africa is a very different thing to a riot in London. The laws need to reflect that.

[Audley Strange]

More Absurdity.

http://www.onemillionmoms.com/issues/di ... ittles-ad/

[Audley Strange]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19684708

I don't know whether to laugh or sigh.

[Bella Fortuna]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19684708

I don't know whether to laugh or sigh.

How bizarre...