On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 09:39:45 +0000, MM wrote:
>On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:43:34 +0000, Cynic
>wrote:
>
>>On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:24:08 GMT, Palindrome wrote:
>>
>>>If he can't tell the difference between adults and children than yes,
>>>maybe he had better stick with the Littlewoods (or Ann Summers)
>>>Catalogue - or anything else available without resorting to dubious
>>>websites.
>>
>>I think we need to separate two entirely different things. One is
>>whether the law is necessary or goes too far and/or is often applied
>>incorrectly, and the other is the stupidity of a person who, knowing
>>how the law is applied and the penalties, does things that could land
>>him/her in trouble.
>>
>>At one time the penalty for being a witch was a horrible execution.
>>We now believe that that law was very wrong because there is no such
>>thing as witches with magical powers, therefore the harm that was
>>thought they could cause, and the reason it was believed society
>>needed protecting from them by harsh punishments was a complete
>>nonsense.
>
>Has America got beyond the McCarthy era and do most Americans now
>believe it was entirely unjust in its persecution of Communists? I
>don't think it has. John Bolton, for example, is a rabid
>anti-Communist. Our (in Britain) continual hyping of the so-called
>stranger danger effect on children might well be seen in future
>decades as Britain's equivalent witch-hunt era.
>
>>That is different to the question of whether those women convicted of
>>witchcraft had brought it upon themselves by doing things that they
>>ought to have known was likely to bring the law down upon them.
>
>I expect, as ever, it all came down to hatred for someone who kicked
>against the pricks, who appeared to have a happy-go-lucky life when
>most had a mundane struggle possibly of their own making to contend
>with. It's why Bill Gates and others can have custard pies thrown at
>them.
>
>>
>>So had you lived in those times, when hearing a comment about a woman
>>who was burnt at the stake, you may well have quite correctly
>>commented that the foolish woman brought it upon herself by spurning
>>the advances of a witch-sniffer, or dressing unconventionally, or
>>owning too many black cats.
>
>In Nazi Germany, accusations of lesbianism due to the frequency of
>female visitors caused the persecution of at least one non-Jewish
>citizen through a net curtain peeper with too much time on her hands.
>In Britain today, given the thrill that denunciation brings to some
>sorry souls, it would be dead easy to get one's collar felt. On the
>bus you might be overheard to say to your fellow passenger, "I quite
>like Boyes, myself." Boyes is a small chain of shops in Lincolnshire.
Actually a chain of shops from Hexham to Lincoln. AFAIAA still owned
by the Boyes family
|