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War: what is it good for?
More tea vicar?
Is sex with animals always wrong?
How to beat speed cameras
How not to be eaten by aliens
The Civilized States of America and Jesusland
Religious indoctrination is child abuse
Buckingham Palace admits Princes Charles and Edward are gay
Advice to the young
Martin, |
That is disgusting. Of course it should not have been capitalized. A god. Just like a king. If you can't use a lower case g for it in that case when can you? And if you can't use a lower case g at all why is it in the dictionary with a lower case g and why do spell checkers allow you to spell it with a lower case g?
God should only be capitalized when it is the name of "the one true god" but it is also (in my opinion) misused deliberately by Christians and others in theological discussions to refer to any form of one god.
In this case it is clear that nobody intended it to refer to the only god.
Compact Oxford English Dictionary:
God
• noun 1 (in Christianity and other monotheistic religions) the creator and supreme ruler of the universe. 2 (god) a superhuman being or spirit worshipped as having power over nature and human fortunes. 3 (god) a greatly admired or influential person. 4 (the gods) informal the gallery in a theatre.
• exclamation used to express surprise, anger, etc. or for emphasis.
— PHRASES God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (in Christian doctrine) the persons of the Trinity. God Save the Queen (or King) the British national anthem.
— DERIVATIVES godhood noun godlike adjective godward adjective & adverb.
— ORIGIN Old English.
This was clearly used in the second definition, which Oxford shows as being correctly written with a lowercase g.
Appeal. Take it all the way. Ask for the most grovelling apology possible from the teacher.
--
Martin Willett
http://mwillett.org
Thanks for your quick response Martin. I probably won't go
in quite that aggressively. As long as she corrects her Error,
I mean error, I won't get her to grovel. |
http://mwillett.org/mind/skate.htm How dare you discriminate skateboarders in such a profound manner. This "product" does not lack any legitimate function. It is quite evident that your time on a skateboard was short, and you never experienced the feeling of landing a trick. As far as injuring other people, I cannot say there have been no injuries towards other people, but I can't imagine there have been many - and when they did, it was definitely an honest accident - I can speak on behalf of 99.9% of skateboarders by saying "we're NOT out there to get you". Not to mention how many cars injure pedestrians every day due to carelessness? A thousand? Two thousand? Why not outlaw cars? I can picture someone with your views saying this: "Because people have reasons to drive cars - skateboarders don't have a reason to skateboard" First of all, saying skateboarders don't have a reason to skate is like saying painters don't have a reason to paint. Skateboarding is a form of expression mixed with exercise. Secondly, you can't say every driver has a reason to drive. Sunday night cruises, joy rides, and 3 minute drives to Sev' don't seem very necessary to me. Your attitude towards skateboarders clearly proves that you have never actually been in a skateboarders shoes (maybe physically, but certainly not metaphorically). "Modern urban heroes"? Are you serious? I skateboard because I love skateboarding, not because it puts me on a higher level. What kind of "higher level" gets discriminated on by everyone, feels unwelcome wherever you go, and judged purely on "Tony Hawks Pro Skater" views... "Can you do a 900º?" Next time you put down a specific culture, make sure you have actually seen it. Buying a skateboard and partaking for a couple years and saying you've seen what skateboarding is all about is about as wild as buying a guitar and playing for a couple years and saying you know what the music industry is all about. People don't realize that they discriminate skateboarders every day. Skateboarders aren't out to destroy benches, hurt other people or cause beef with the police - we're out to skate. Feel free to watch one time if you don't believe me. Sincerely Max Bennett |
Do you skate on private land you own or have the express permission to skate from the landowner?
Not everywhere I skate is the same. Most often, it's in a public park, where no one is, so no one is bothered. Sometimes in a parking lot or a courtyard, but nowhere where anyone is - if there are people in the way, you can't skate it. The point is, we're not doing anybody any harm, so why do people get so mad at us? |
You do not have permission to do what you are doing. You dominate the space you are in with your noise and movement, staking out a large piece of public space.
What would you think if you came across a man exercising an eagle in the public park? Or playing baseball in the courtyard? Or rehearsing an opera on those steps? Or a dozen swimmers doing synchronized swimming in the public swimming pool on a Saturday afternoon in June?
Skateboarding has very similar effects. People don't want to come near, they feel intimidated, threatened, usurped and embarrassed. They feel their space has been stolen from them. They don't want their ankles broken by a runaway board. They don't want to be knocked over by a skateboarder. They don't want a mouthful of abuse for having the temerity to walk through a public space, put a hand on a hand rail, step on steps or sit on a bench.
Go and do your tricks on private land with the permission of the land owner or in a dedicated public space and nobody will be bothered by them.
Nobody wants the paint ground off their hand rails and chunks knocked out of their benches. Nobody wants no-go areas in public parks. Nobody wants disagreements over the use of public spaces.
If parks want skateboarders they set up areas with fences around them and landscape the area to keep in the shrieks and yells, minimize the possibility of skateboards flying and hitting people and screen off the area so that the entire community does not have to witness the testosterone-fuelled spotty spectacle of adolescent posturing.
If skateboarders gave something back to the community things might be different but the relationship is all one-way. Skateboarders claim to be part of the public when they claim the right to be in public places but the public is "The Man" to them. The public get in their way. The public disapprove. The public don't like them and the feeling seems to be mutual.
Skateboarding is parasitic. It steals public space from the public. It is time that somebody defended the rights of the vast majority who don't skateboard in public places and don't want you to do it either.
So I admit, where we skate bothers people, and it's not entirely "moral". Nobody's perfect, and hey, if we get caught we deal with the consequences - and believe me, there are consequences. Don't forget - where we skate had little to nothing to do with what I emailed you about. If you truly are a master-debater, then let's have a debate. When I read your article for the first time, the thing that stuck out in my mind is how bad of an image of a skateboarder you were putting in somebody's mind. You made skateboarders sound like vicious savages - out to kill and leave no mercy. When you stated the attitudes of a "modern urban hero", you made skateboarders sound like a group of uneducated, hypocritical, bastardly hippies! Not to mention the statement "I spend all my money on drugs". I am surprised that in this day and age, people are still blatantly discriminating people. Don't we know by now that you can't judge an entire culture on a stereotypical view? As a skateboarder, it's getting harder and harder to practice the art you love. When articles like this get published, it causes skateboarders to go insane - this doesn't help us at all. It especially hurts when you insult us and make us look like fools. I'm looking forward to seeing your opinion. Max -PS I was inspired by the "Modern Urban Hero" title you gave us, and named my new website after it. www.members.shaw.ca/urbanheroes enjoy |
I wrote the article to annoy people into a response and to attract people to my page. You are spoiling it now by being reasonable. The plan was to get inarticulate sk8r d00dz to respond so I could have fun running intellectual rings round them, with kick-flips. Ah well, there's plenty of time for that later.
If you want a debate try the debate forum http://mwillett.org/Debate/index.php
I'm busy at the moment launching a whole new website.
More comment on skateboarding
I enjoyed reading your website and some of your views are
interesting. I did wander if you have ever actually read about
and understand any political ideology. I suspect not. Your attack
on Nationalism being bankrupt is naïve to say the least,
it is infact growing in popularity as the indigenous people of
England and many other european nations (not states, do you know
the difference?) are being disposesed of their homeland by Liberal
Fascists. You also state that you would like to be part of a
federal world the reality of which is a sterile cultural desert
that will not function only in the minds of liberals, go have
a look at what federalism has done for Africa and then tell me
it is a good thing, tell all the waring tribes of Nigeria that
they have no right to their own nations only the enforced liberal
state. You see Liberals are arrogant in their denial of the rights
af a people to live in their own land under their own system
of culture values and shared kinship (again go ask a jew) I would
recommend you go explore your politics and culture again and
see if you come up with a more than half hearted attemp to understand
yourself and your people (not trying to insult or offend you
just being truthfull) |
My degree is in politics, I have been studying politics since 1981.
It seems to me that you have a very strange idea that there is such a thing as "a people" rather than people. Such an idea has no basis in biology. Nationalism is an ideology used to use the power of the masses to enrich an elite.
Ask a Nigerian does he really give a fuck whether it is a white man or a black man who is making his life miserable and getting him to risk his life in a war he does not understand. And if he does, why? It makes no sense. Why should any serf fight for any warlord?
Why would it matter to you what race or nationality the ruling elite is in the place you call your country? Why would that be more important than the way you are treated? Why should you risk your life to replace a foreign benign ruler with a native despot? Seriously I want your explanation.
Fascist leaders have a clear agenda of self-improvement, they want to be the elite. Fascist followers tend to be easily-led arseholes who want to have fun beating people up.
Is America a sterile cultural desert? OK bad example. But is America a stale cultural desert because of federalism? Just because the arseholes you want to follow don't think they can make it on the world stage you don't have to see your dreams be as limited as theirs. Why think so small? The only unit that can address global issues has to operate on a global scale. Why leave operating on a global scale to a tyrants' trade union?
The only units that make sense on a biological basis are bands and sub-clans too small to be economically viable units. All bigger units have no basis in biology, there is no good biological reason ever to risk your life for a village, town, city, nation or race. To do so merely shows your willingness to be used as a tool for the ambitions of people who cannot possibly repay you for the sacrifices they demand from you.
Would my Queen and country die for me? Like fuck they would. So why should I die for them? It makes no sense on a biological scale. Nationalism is a bankrupt ideology that does not make sense for anybody except the elites of the nations. From the fact that you have time to email me I assume you ain't in no kind of elite.
Whatever gave you the impression that I don't feel English? I am completely English. Just because I don't include bulldog-tattooed thugs and skinhead arseholes in my idea about what Englishness is don't you dare make out that I don't care to be English.