Here is a recent decision by my council regarding dogs in cemeteries. I'd be furious if I went to visit a family grave and some excitable Spaniel came jumping up at me.
I think some dog owners simply cannot comprehend that not everyone loves their dog as much as they do, and that the world doesn't revolve around Rover.
More the shite. That decision did surprise me, even if the most famous denizen of an Edinburgh kirkyaird must have left many a turd in his time at Greyfriars. Maybe they can sell them to tourists?
“The word is going to go out from this court that that people who behave in this way are going to go to prison and going to go to prison for a considerable time,” he added.
We don't have pets, and I'm not a pet person. I put up a birdbox each spring, and that's about as far as I go.
But Mrs J is a cat lady, who has resisted getting a cat here in the UK because she knows she'll get more and more and more. But our son wants a cat as well, so we're going to get one or two.
I'm insisting that the cats have bells, to at least give wildlife a bit of a chance.
In general though, I see lots of selfishness in pet owners. We probably all like to think we'd look after our animals well, but we often do not. When I was in London, a friend of mine's dad kept greyhounds in a tower block flat. Dogs that are bred to run fast, kept in a small flat and allowed to run around a park once a day. IMV that's a big reason why many dogs become dangerous: they are kept locked up, when they should be running loose all day.
Go forth and ... Liz Truss still opinionating that Trump will probably win because of the economy.
(Burning my image quota for the day, and acknowledging @Foxy got there first, and slightly trimming on my temporary PB-break because we are having good posts / conversation.)
Just seems like simple harrassment?
Yes, a bit cruel.
It's humiliating enough to be speaking to an empty village hall, just 2 years after being Mistress of the Universe who was going to surprise on the upside.
And the robust freedom of speech answer is- if you don't like what LBD have done here, you are fully free to criticise them and think less of them.
And Truss ultimately has a decision to make. If she doesn't want the lettuce gags every time she speaks, it might be better all round for her to leaf the public eye for a bit.
Even if you agree with Truss's views, there are better spokespeople. Aren't there?
Not to worry, Reeves will have people sending her a bucket of shite when she leaves office.
She's already been handed a pretty massive bucket of shite thanks in no small part to Truss.
I disagree. Truss was an idiot who took on the markers and lost. She didn’t do much damage. Reeves’s inheritance is due to bad decisions from Brown and Osborne onwards
Is Goodwin still an academic? I wonder how BAME students of his feel. Can they be confident he will grade them fairly when he seems to think they have no business being in the country at all?
I don't think that's fair. He isn't a racist. Far from it.
Here is a recent decision by my council regarding dogs in cemeteries. I'd be furious if I went to visit a family grave and some excitable Spaniel came jumping up at me.
I think some dog owners simply cannot comprehend that not everyone loves their dog as much as they do, and that the world doesn't revolve around Rover.
Go forth and ... Liz Truss still opinionating that Trump will probably win because of the economy.
(Burning my image quota for the day, and acknowledging @Foxy got there first, and slightly trimming on my temporary PB-break because we are having good posts / conversation.)
Just seems like simple harrassment?
Yes, a bit cruel.
It's humiliating enough to be speaking to an empty village hall, just 2 years after being Mistress of the Universe who was going to surprise on the upside.
And the robust freedom of speech answer is- if you don't like what LBD have done here, you are fully free to criticise them and think less of them.
And Truss ultimately has a decision to make. If she doesn't want the lettuce gags every time she speaks, it might be better all round for her to leaf the public eye for a bit.
Even if you agree with Truss's views, there are better spokespeople. Aren't there?
Not to worry, Reeves will have people sending her a bucket of shite when she leaves office.
She's already been handed a pretty massive bucket of shite thanks in no small part to Truss.
Rofl, I thought dear teacher you went of the facts. She has been handed a mixed bag, reasonable growth, inflation backdown but a tight fiscal position. She has responded by undermining her credibility by lying on the size of that position and making it worse with inflationary pay rises.
Go forth and ... Liz Truss still opinionating that Trump will probably win because of the economy.
(Burning my image quota for the day, and acknowledging @Foxy got there first, and slightly trimming on my temporary PB-break because we are having good posts / conversation.)
Just seems like simple harrassment?
Yes, a bit cruel.
It's humiliating enough to be speaking to an empty village hall, just 2 years after being Mistress of the Universe who was going to surprise on the upside.
And the robust freedom of speech answer is- if you don't like what LBD have done here, you are fully free to criticise them and think less of them.
And Truss ultimately has a decision to make. If she doesn't want the lettuce gags every time she speaks, it might be better all round for her to leaf the public eye for a bit.
Even if you agree with Truss's views, there are better spokespeople. Aren't there?
Not to worry, Reeves will have people sending her a bucket of shite when she leaves office.
She's already been handed a pretty massive bucket of shite thanks in no small part to Truss.
I disagree. Truss was an idiot who took on the markers and lost. She didn’t do much damage. Reeves’s inheritance is due to bad decisions from Brown and Osborne onwards
Well, anyone who takes on us markers will lose eventually
It is true that it wasn't just her. And indeed, we could debate that this goes back to poor decisions from the mid-70s on, if we liked. But her actions seemed to take no account of that situation and merely be driven by a naive belief that 'cut taxes=more growth.' Economically from the situation we were in that was simply suicidal.
Go forth and ... Liz Truss still opinionating that Trump will probably win because of the economy.
(Burning my image quota for the day, and acknowledging @Foxy got there first, and slightly trimming on my temporary PB-break because we are having good posts / conversation.)
Just seems like simple harrassment?
What woke nonsense.
It is a free speech issue.
I don’t deny anyone's right to call Liz Truss a lettuce. It seems very intrusive to hack or break in to her meeting room to mock her before an invited audience though. Whether it's illegal, I have no idea, but it's certainly worthy of criticism - that's me exercising my free speech.
Sure, but all TSE was doing was saying it was not harassment, which has specific legal meanings, in this country under the Prevention of Harassment Act and the Equality Act. It definitely doesn't fit the definition under the former (only one occurrence) and, unless some connection with a protected characteristic could be shown, the latter doesn't apply either.
Harris is now +9 in Wisconsin (51 to 42) on a head to head with Trump. The poll is by the Independent Center (no, me neither...)
That 9% lead is maintained if you include third parties (Kennedy Jnr gets only 3%).
Reminder, Biden won Wisconsin by just 0.63% in 2020.
I think that is a state where Walz (and Hope) has gone down particularly well. It is now solid. Pennsylvania remains the key and it is the only State where Trump is outspending the Harris campaign right now.
Which also shows Trump's other problem - he hasn't got the money Harris has got while having significant (legal) fees to pay as well.
Yes, and he still has a deferred sentence to deal with before the election, as well as a risk that one of his other trials may restart. But Harris has yet to do a serious interview since being nominated and has the risk of being accountable for some of the less successful parts of the Biden administration. And then there is the debate or debates. Trump wants 3 and Harris seems increasingly content with 1, which shows you who thinks the race is theirs to lose right now.
In her previous iteration she was a lousy debater. She may have improved.
Trump wants a debate on Fox, Harris is doing the sane thing and avoiding going within 1000 miles of a Fox TV studio..
Now there may be more than 1 debate but it's safe to say that Fox won't be hosting any of them..
Harris wants to keep it to ABC, where interestingly she has some very high placed friends...
As we're off topic onto pets I think I'll make a contribution as it's an area I'm familiar with:
Personally I wouldn't bother with any pets but we've got 2 horses, 3 cats, a rabbit (The last of 7 after his mum, sisters and brothers passed away), 3 chickens, 2 tanks full of fish and about 15 guinea pigs.
The horses are quite happily in a field. Ones too young to work with whilst the other is too old. Ragwort pulling is how I seem to spend most evenings at the moment... The chickens lay eggs. They probably could escape into the field like next door's ducks do but they've no inclination to do so. The pigs are very sociable animals and they're all in decent size hutches and runs - they value company more than freedom and make a right racquet if they think you're bringing food. The rabbit - well his mum (His last remaining relative) hopped out the run after a storm blew the lid off last year and was promptly torn to shreds by the local feral tomcat (It wasn't a fox or everything would have gone !). He's a bit sad to be on his own, but he's far too old for introducing any sort of friend now. The cats come and go (More or less) as they please. The oldest doesn't bother much now, and the youngest is daft so he's kept in during the day. The fish are well, fish.
Here's the prime hunter killer middle cat camouflaged amongst some old shoes and a pram base:
Here is a recent decision by my council regarding dogs in cemeteries. I'd be furious if I went to visit a family grave and some excitable Spaniel came jumping up at me.
I think some dog owners simply cannot comprehend that not everyone loves their dog as much as they do, and that the world doesn't revolve around Rover.
Harris is now +9 in Wisconsin (51 to 42) on a head to head with Trump. The poll is by the Independent Center (no, me neither...)
That 9% lead is maintained if you include third parties (Kennedy Jnr gets only 3%).
Reminder, Biden won Wisconsin by just 0.63% in 2020.
I think that is a state where Walz (and Hope) has gone down particularly well. It is now solid. Pennsylvania remains the key and it is the only State where Trump is outspending the Harris campaign right now.
Which also shows Trump's other problem - he hasn't got the money Harris has got while having significant (legal) fees to pay as well.
Yes, and he still has a deferred sentence to deal with before the election, as well as a risk that one of his other trials may restart. But Harris has yet to do a serious interview since being nominated and has the risk of being accountable for some of the less successful parts of the Biden administration. And then there is the debate or debates. Trump wants 3 and Harris seems increasingly content with 1, which shows you who thinks the race is theirs to lose right now.
In her previous iteration she was a lousy debater. She may have improved.
Trump wants a debate on Fox, Harris is doing the sane thing and avoiding going within 1000 miles of a Fox TV studio..
Now there may be more than 1 debate but it's safe to say that Fox won't be hosting any of them..
Harris wants to keep it to ABC, where interestingly she has some very high placed friends...
Here is a recent decision by my council regarding dogs in cemeteries. I'd be furious if I went to visit a family grave and some excitable Spaniel came jumping up at me.
I think some dog owners simply cannot comprehend that not everyone loves their dog as much as they do, and that the world doesn't revolve around Rover.
Go forth and ... Liz Truss still opinionating that Trump will probably win because of the economy.
(Burning my image quota for the day, and acknowledging @Foxy got there first, and slightly trimming on my temporary PB-break because we are having good posts / conversation.)
Just seems like simple harrassment?
What woke nonsense.
It is a free speech issue.
I don’t deny anyone's right to call Liz Truss a lettuce. It seems very intrusive to hack or break in to her meeting room to mock her before an invited audience though. Whether it's illegal, I have no idea, but it's certainly worthy of criticism - that's me exercising my free speech.
Sure, but all TSE was doing was saying it was not harassment, which has specific legal meanings, in this country under the Prevention of Harassment Act and the Equality Act. It definitely doesn't fit the definition under the former (only one occurrence) and, unless some connection with a protected characteristic could be shown, the latter doesn't apply either.
It also has a far wider meaning of being an unpleasant behaviour, which was what I meant, and why I questioned the forced hilarity of it all.
Go forth and ... Liz Truss still opinionating that Trump will probably win because of the economy.
(Burning my image quota for the day, and acknowledging @Foxy got there first, and slightly trimming on my temporary PB-break because we are having good posts / conversation.)
Just seems like simple harrassment?
Yes, a bit cruel.
It's humiliating enough to be speaking to an empty village hall, just 2 years after being Mistress of the Universe who was going to surprise on the upside.
And the robust freedom of speech answer is- if you don't like what LBD have done here, you are fully free to criticise them and think less of them.
And Truss ultimately has a decision to make. If she doesn't want the lettuce gags every time she speaks, it might be better all round for her to leaf the public eye for a bit.
Even if you agree with Truss's views, there are better spokespeople. Aren't there?
Not to worry, Reeves will have people sending her a bucket of shite when she leaves office.
She's already been handed a pretty massive bucket of shite thanks in no small part to Truss.
I disagree. Truss was an idiot who took on the markers and lost. She didn’t do much damage. Reeves’s inheritance is due to bad decisions from Brown and Osborne onwards
Well, anyone who takes on us markers will lose eventually
It is true that it wasn't just her. And indeed, we could debate that this goes back to poor decisions from the mid-70s on, if we liked. But her actions seemed to take no account of that situation and merely be driven by a naive belief that 'cut taxes=more growth.' Economically from the situation we were in that was simply suicidal.
Half of Truss's problem is that the timing of her changes were also at the point that the market were starting to seek revert to the pre 2008 market where borrowing money has a cost. The problem is she managed to create a scenario where what was going to occur slowly over 6-18 months was achieved in 6-18 days...
Go forth and ... Liz Truss still opinionating that Trump will probably win because of the economy.
(Burning my image quota for the day, and acknowledging @Foxy got there first, and slightly trimming on my temporary PB-break because we are having good posts / conversation.)
Guy on the right: what's a lettuce?
Its something you take off your burger before you eat it.
Here is a recent decision by my council regarding dogs in cemeteries. I'd be furious if I went to visit a family grave and some excitable Spaniel came jumping up at me.
I think some dog owners simply cannot comprehend that not everyone loves their dog as much as they do, and that the world doesn't revolve around Rover.
Dog owners are generally fine, it is cats and cat owners that are the problem.
One plus is this year I have not had any cat shit on my lawn. But my neighbours cats are going out of their homes less due to age.
The downside is in a couple of years they will have new cats who will be out dumping to their hearts content.
I cannot stand cats.
If you don't like cats shitting on your lawn you should get a cat.
Some of our neighbours have ultrasonic cat repelers in their gardens. At least I'm told they have; I can't hear them, but Mrs J and our son can, and find the noise almost intolerable as we walk past.
Without Leon, this place won't be as much fun, or as informative on crazy subjects that don't usually pop up. PB is a lesser place without him. I haven't gone through the last thread so don't know why he flounced, but I hope he comes back.
The dog eater thinks cat and dog owners are selfish lonely losers as their pets are ruining the environment.
He got into a huff when a few people pointed out if he was so concerned about the environment would he be giving up plane travel.
In short he’s just like Polly Toynbee.
He said that owning animals is bizarre and that pets do a lot of damage. Both uncontrovertible.
And then people unleashed their insecurities.
"owning animals is bizarre"...?
Enough of your animal rights wokist nonsense - humans have owned animals for 10,000 years, it's one of the things that define humans. Throughout history the vast majority of humans who reached adulthood have owned animals.
Harris is now +9 in Wisconsin (51 to 42) on a head to head with Trump. The poll is by the Independent Center (no, me neither...)
That 9% lead is maintained if you include third parties (Kennedy Jnr gets only 3%).
Reminder, Biden won Wisconsin by just 0.63% in 2020.
I think that is a state where Walz (and Hope) has gone down particularly well. It is now solid. Pennsylvania remains the key and it is the only State where Trump is outspending the Harris campaign right now.
Which also shows Trump's other problem - he hasn't got the money Harris has got while having significant (legal) fees to pay as well.
Yes, and he still has a deferred sentence to deal with before the election, as well as a risk that one of his other trials may restart. But Harris has yet to do a serious interview since being nominated and has the risk of being accountable for some of the less successful parts of the Biden administration. And then there is the debate or debates. Trump wants 3 and Harris seems increasingly content with 1, which shows you who thinks the race is theirs to lose right now.
In her previous iteration she was a lousy debater. She may have improved.
Trump wants a debate on Fox, Harris is doing the sane thing and avoiding going within 1000 miles of a Fox TV studio..
Now there may be more than 1 debate but it's safe to say that Fox won't be hosting any of them..
Harris wants to keep it to ABC, where interestingly she has some very high placed friends...
Without Leon, this place won't be as much fun, or as informative on crazy subjects that don't usually pop up. PB is a lesser place without him. I haven't gone through the last thread so don't know why he flounced, but I hope he comes back.
The dog eater thinks cat and dog owners are selfish lonely losers as their pets are ruining the environment.
He got into a huff when a few people pointed out if he was so concerned about the environment would he be giving up plane travel.
In short he’s just like Polly Toynbee.
He said that owning animals is bizarre and that pets do a lot of damage. Both uncontrovertible.
And then people unleashed their insecurities.
"owning animals is bizarre"...?
Enough of your animal rights wokist nonsense - humans have owned animals for 10,000 years, it's one of the things that define humans. Throughout history the vast majority of humans who reached adulthood have owned animals.
The majority in the UK still do
And the majority of the UK eat meat. But not dogs for some reason. It is bizarre.
So as a broad rule of thumb she's not doing as well in Sept 2024 as Biden did in Sept 2020, but she is doing as well (or a bit better) in Sept 2024 as Biden did in Nov 2020, so if she maintains or increases her lead she is the presumptive favourite.
However if her vote starts to decline and her lead dips under the presumed 3% Trump bonus (as a rule of thumb Trump outperforms his polls by about 2-3% nationwide) then Trump is the is the presumptive favourite.
Go forth and ... Liz Truss still opinionating that Trump will probably win because of the economy.
(Burning my image quota for the day, and acknowledging @Foxy got there first, and slightly trimming on my temporary PB-break because we are having good posts / conversation.)
oh the linky is definitely worth a watch for her reaction is icy(berg)..
Why on earth did she do that? I didn’t think the stunt was original or funny but she handled it very badly
We’ve all made mistakes in our job (except me of course), she made mistakes so bad in less than two months she became the shortest holder of her job, all in public view.
That must haunt you and possibly lead to you being in denial.
Nah if you were in denial you’d laugh and make a joke about it. It hurts because it has an element (only an element) of truth and she has no response
QED about pet owning/cruelty. That is one fat mother of a cat (assuming it is not genuinely - about to be - a mother).
Or in a tribute to Leon you've made AI create a huge fat cat.
He's quite big, yes. Not obese though. The photo pose rather accentuates his size.
One of our previous cats was always a touch on the large side. (OK very fat indeed). He did slim down to about 5 Kg in the end though, sadly this was due to terminal stomach cancer. Don't let @Topping fat shame your cat ^_^
QED about pet owning/cruelty. That is one fat mother of a cat (assuming it is not genuinely - about to be - a mother).
Or in a tribute to Leon you've made AI create a huge fat cat.
He's quite big, yes. Not obese though. The photo pose rather accentuates his size.
One of our previous cats was always a touch on the large side. (OK very fat indeed). He did slim down to about 5 Kg in the end though, sadly this was due to terminal stomach cancer. Don't let @Topping fat shame your cat ^_^
Without Leon, this place won't be as much fun, or as informative on crazy subjects that don't usually pop up. PB is a lesser place without him. I haven't gone through the last thread so don't know why he flounced, but I hope he comes back.
I certainly relied on him to keep me abreast of the latest thinking on the far-right fringes of Twitter!
He left because he was threatened with a ban for going on too much about pets.
Says he's definitely going for good this time. Apart from the odd holiday photo.
The holiday photos are his most worthwhile contribution. The rest is just cod racism, the latest conspiracy nonsense vomited up from the dark web, gratuitous unpleasantness, and invariably incorrect political predictions.
We don't have pets, and I'm not a pet person. I put up a birdbox each spring, and that's about as far as I go.
But Mrs J is a cat lady, who has resisted getting a cat here in the UK because she knows she'll get more and more and more. But our son wants a cat as well, so we're going to get one or two.
I'm insisting that the cats have bells, to at least give wildlife a bit of a chance.
In general though, I see lots of selfishness in pet owners. We probably all like to think we'd look after our animals well, but we often do not. When I was in London, a friend of mine's dad kept greyhounds in a tower block flat. Dogs that are bred to run fast, kept in a small flat and allowed to run around a park once a day. IMV that's a big reason why many dogs become dangerous: they are kept locked up, when they should be running loose all day.
Grrr, don't get me started on this. I spent yesterday afternoon trying to get some work done while the neighbour's day was barking and howling away. I could have strangled the bloody thing.
Don't get me wrong, I like dogs. I grew up in a rural setting surrounded by all manner of animals and, as a child, loved nothing more than play-fighting with our Alsatians. But that was in the country, where the dogs had space to run around.
Fast-forward to today and my suburban life. There is no way that I would get a dog. I know from experience how much of a responsibility they are, and it would simply be cruel to keep a dog in this environment. The poor dog next door is left on its own for hours at a stretch and is very vocal about its unhappiness. The neighbours claim it has "separation anxiety" as though it were some sort of psychiatric issue. Separation anxiety my arse. It's a dog. It's a pack animal, and when you're gone it thinks it's been lost by its pack and howls to be found.
And then there's the park. Lots of dogs there, mostly under control but sometimes not. More than once I've had some cur snapping round my ankles while the owner says, "oh, he's all right, just being friendly". It's no wonder that there are people I know who are too terrified to use the park at all because of the dogs. And then, of course, there's the shit.
Here is a recent decision by my council regarding dogs in cemeteries. I'd be furious if I went to visit a family grave and some excitable Spaniel came jumping up at me.
I think some dog owners simply cannot comprehend that not everyone loves their dog as much as they do, and that the world doesn't revolve around Rover.
Dog owners are generally fine, it is cats and cat owners that are the problem.
One plus is this year I have not had any cat shit on my lawn. But my neighbours cats are going out of their homes less due to age.
The downside is in a couple of years they will have new cats who will be out dumping to their hearts content.
I cannot stand cats.
If you don't like cats shitting on your lawn you should get a cat.
Some of our neighbours have ultrasonic cat repelers in their gardens. At least I'm told they have; I can't hear them, but Mrs J and our son can, and find the noise almost intolerable as we walk past.
This was our ultrasonic and strobe repellent to protect our raspberries from deer. My wife mowed it. Never seen the inside of a 9v battery before. I let the deer eat the raspberries now.
Go forth and ... Liz Truss still opinionating that Trump will probably win because of the economy.
(Burning my image quota for the day, and acknowledging @Foxy got there first, and slightly trimming on my temporary PB-break because we are having good posts / conversation.)
oh the linky is definitely worth a watch for her reaction is icy(berg)..
Why on earth did she do that? I didn’t think the stunt was original or funny but she handled it very badly
We’ve all made mistakes in our job (except me of course), she made mistakes so bad in less than two months she became the shortest holder of her job, all in public view.
That must haunt you and possibly lead to you being in denial.
Nah if you were in denial you’d laugh and make a joke about it. It hurts because it has an element (only an element) of truth and she has no response
Mene mene tekel upharsin
And that's where someone needs to put a firm, gentle, fundamentally loving hand on her shoulder and direct her somewhere else.
Because this isn't doing her or her cause any good.
(Same goes for Boris, by the way. And Trump, though in a slightly different way.)
QED about pet owning/cruelty. That is one fat mother of a cat (assuming it is not genuinely - about to be - a mother).
Or in a tribute to Leon you've made AI create a huge fat cat.
He's quite big, yes. Not obese though. The photo pose rather accentuates his size.
One of our previous cats was always a touch on the large side. (OK very fat indeed). He did slim down to about 5 Kg in the end though, sadly this was due to terminal stomach cancer. Don't let @Topping fat shame your cat ^_^
That cat, if real, is morbidly obese.
Many years ago, Worcester College got adopted by a cat. Old, and rather overweight.
So they tried a number of things. After putting up some notices and asking around, they discovered it had about 19 owners. Who were very loathe to stop feeding it.
They came to an interesting idea - they put a plastic tag on it's collar and wrote the time and date it had been fed on it, with indelible pen. Even the most soft hearted got the message, I believe.
Without Leon, this place won't be as much fun, or as informative on crazy subjects that don't usually pop up. PB is a lesser place without him. I haven't gone through the last thread so don't know why he flounced, but I hope he comes back.
I certainly relied on him to keep me abreast of the latest thinking on the far-right fringes of Twitter!
He left because he was threatened with a ban for going on too much about pets.
Says he's definitely going for good this time. Apart from the odd holiday photo.
The holiday photos are his most worthwhile contribution. The rest is just cod racism, the latest conspiracy nonsense vomited up from the dark web, gratuitous unpleasantness, and invariably incorrect political predictions.
Presumably you would include in the conspiracy nonsense his espousal of the lab leak theory explaining the origin of Covid-19, which the US authorities now accept as the likeliest explanation.
QED about pet owning/cruelty. That is one fat mother of a cat (assuming it is not genuinely - about to be - a mother).
Or in a tribute to Leon you've made AI create a huge fat cat.
He's quite big, yes. Not obese though. The photo pose rather accentuates his size.
One of our previous cats was always a touch on the large side. (OK very fat indeed). He did slim down to about 5 Kg in the end though, sadly this was due to terminal stomach cancer. Don't let @Topping fat shame your cat ^_^
That cat, if real, is morbidly obese.
Better for birds though. Can't see that fella jumping on a bird table or lying in wait on a branch.
Go forth and ... Liz Truss still opinionating that Trump will probably win because of the economy.
(Burning my image quota for the day, and acknowledging @Foxy got there first, and slightly trimming on my temporary PB-break because we are having good posts / conversation.)
Just seems like simple harrassment?
What woke nonsense.
It is a free speech issue.
I don’t deny anyone's right to call Liz Truss a lettuce. It seems very intrusive to hack or break in to her meeting room to mock her before an invited audience though. Whether it's illegal, I have no idea, but it's certainly worthy of criticism - that's me exercising my free speech.
Sure, but all TSE was doing was saying it was not harassment, which has specific legal meanings, in this country under the Prevention of Harassment Act and the Equality Act. It definitely doesn't fit the definition under the former (only one occurrence) and, unless some connection with a protected characteristic could be shown, the latter doesn't apply either.
At the moment, the events she's been doing seem rather dull and low-energy.
So there's got to be a reasonable chance that, by highlighting her notoriety, LBD are actually going to help her speaking career rather than harm it.
Without Leon, this place won't be as much fun, or as informative on crazy subjects that don't usually pop up. PB is a lesser place without him. I haven't gone through the last thread so don't know why he flounced, but I hope he comes back.
I certainly relied on him to keep me abreast of the latest thinking on the far-right fringes of Twitter!
He left because he was threatened with a ban for going on too much about pets.
Says he's definitely going for good this time. Apart from the odd holiday photo.
The holiday photos are his most worthwhile contribution. The rest is just cod racism, the latest conspiracy nonsense vomited up from the dark web, gratuitous unpleasantness, and invariably incorrect political predictions.
Presumably you would include in the conspiracy nonsense his espousal of the lab leak theory explaining the origin of Covid-19, which the US authorities now accept as the likeliest explanation.
Are you temporarily stepping into Leon's shoes while he is away?
QED about pet owning/cruelty. That is one fat mother of a cat (assuming it is not genuinely - about to be - a mother).
Or in a tribute to Leon you've made AI create a huge fat cat.
He's quite big, yes. Not obese though. The photo pose rather accentuates his size.
One of our previous cats was always a touch on the large side. (OK very fat indeed). He did slim down to about 5 Kg in the end though, sadly this was due to terminal stomach cancer. Don't let @Topping fat shame your cat ^_^
That cat, if real, is morbidly obese.
Better for birds though. Can't see that fella jumping on a bird table or lying in wait on a branch.
True. Not many branches thick enough for it.
But that aside, keeping a fat pet is cruel for all the same reasons as we shouldn't be overweight. And it's entirely within the owner's control. For all Kini's right on-ness about everything that is unforgiveable.
My first thought on hearing about dogs being allowed into a cemetery is that they're obviously going to end up pissing all over gravestones. Who wants that?
We don't have pets, and I'm not a pet person. I put up a birdbox each spring, and that's about as far as I go.
But Mrs J is a cat lady, who has resisted getting a cat here in the UK because she knows she'll get more and more and more. But our son wants a cat as well, so we're going to get one or two.
I'm insisting that the cats have bells, to at least give wildlife a bit of a chance.
In general though, I see lots of selfishness in pet owners. We probably all like to think we'd look after our animals well, but we often do not. When I was in London, a friend of mine's dad kept greyhounds in a tower block flat. Dogs that are bred to run fast, kept in a small flat and allowed to run around a park once a day. IMV that's a big reason why many dogs become dangerous: they are kept locked up, when they should be running loose all day.
Grrr, don't get me started on this. I spent yesterday afternoon trying to get some work done while the neighbour's day was barking and howling away. I could have strangled the bloody thing.
Don't get me wrong, I like dogs. I grew up in a rural setting surrounded by all manner of animals and, as a child, loved nothing more than play-fighting with our Alsatians. But that was in the country, where the dogs had space to run around.
Fast-forward to today and my suburban life. There is no way that I would get a dog. I know from experience how much of a responsibility they are, and it would simply be cruel to keep a dog in this environment. The poor dog next door is left on its own for hours at a stretch and is very vocal about its unhappiness. The neighbours claim it has "separation anxiety" as though it were some sort of psychiatric issue. Separation anxiety my arse. It's a dog. It's a pack animal, and when you're gone it thinks it's been lost by its pack and howls to be found.
And then there's the park. Lots of dogs there, mostly under control but sometimes not. More than once I've had some cur snapping round my ankles while the owner says, "oh, he's all right, just being friendly". It's no wonder that there are people I know who are too terrified to use the park at all because of the dogs. And then, of course, there's the shit.
The most bizarre behaviour I saw was at a small local park - more a rectangle of grass in-between the houses.
After a local campaign, it got tided up from being just a dog run. A path round the edge for kids to learn to cycle, and for the older people to walk around. Benches. And one corner was fenced off as a kids play area - complete with swings etc.
One or two dog owners refused to *not* take their dog inside the play area. Despite it being marked as no dogs. This was done, so that you didn't have to worry about toddlers in the grass etc.
It was a bizarre thing. They seemed to find the idea of a space that their dog was not allowed in, as a personal attack on them.
EDIT: They literally had 95% of the common for fido to run around in.
Is Goodwin still an academic? I wonder how BAME students of his feel. Can they be confident he will grade them fairly when he seems to think they have no business being in the country at all?
I don't think that's fair. He isn't a racist. Far from it.
Did you read that article? It's racist as fuck.
It seems intellectually confused, more than anything else, and full of straw men, such as "if the only thing which defines us is diversity..".
QED about pet owning/cruelty. That is one fat mother of a cat (assuming it is not genuinely - about to be - a mother).
Or in a tribute to Leon you've made AI create a huge fat cat.
He's quite big, yes. Not obese though. The photo pose rather accentuates his size.
One of our previous cats was always a touch on the large side. (OK very fat indeed). He did slim down to about 5 Kg in the end though, sadly this was due to terminal stomach cancer. Don't let @Topping fat shame your cat ^_^
No, I won't. Topping will not be coming between my and my cat.
We don't have pets, and I'm not a pet person. I put up a birdbox each spring, and that's about as far as I go.
But Mrs J is a cat lady, who has resisted getting a cat here in the UK because she knows she'll get more and more and more. But our son wants a cat as well, so we're going to get one or two.
I'm insisting that the cats have bells, to at least give wildlife a bit of a chance.
In general though, I see lots of selfishness in pet owners. We probably all like to think we'd look after our animals well, but we often do not. When I was in London, a friend of mine's dad kept greyhounds in a tower block flat. Dogs that are bred to run fast, kept in a small flat and allowed to run around a park once a day. IMV that's a big reason why many dogs become dangerous: they are kept locked up, when they should be running loose all day.
Greyhounds are sprinters, and actually very lazy. They need only short walks for mental stimulation. It's intelligent pastoral breeds that don't like being cooped up.
For those with an interest in the relationships between humans and animals including livestock, pets and the ethical dilemmas involved I recommend this thoughtful book.
On topic I have repeatedly cautioned that Trump was a long way from finished in this campaign and I stick by that. There are a whole range of things that could go wrong yet for Harris.
But I don't agree this is any longer Trump's election to lose. The recent polling in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan has been pretty solid for Harris and that is where this election is going to be won or lost. The fact that Hilary piled up mountains of votes inefficiently in California and New York does not mean that the same pattern will repeat. The Harris campaign seems much more focused on the swing states and may well have a more efficient vote distribution as a result.
Trump is the one who now needs a game changer. The current trends suit Harris just fine.
The polling does seem to show a more efficient Democratic Electoral College vote than in 2016 and 2020, though whether this is down to Harris campaign focusing on the swing states is debatable, to say the least (though her VP voice hasn't hurt). After all Biden 2020 focused on those states and the 2020 vote was, if anything, less efficient than the 2016 Dem vote. And tbf Clinton 2016 only ignored Wisconsin, where Biden improved the Dem-Republican margin by less than he did nationally.
As an aside, both Clinton 2016 and Trump 2016 paid more attention to Florida than any other state.
I think this is spot on: campaigns can make only modest differences to local outcomes.
That said, I think the reason why Walz was an inspired pick is that he's popular across the great lakes region: Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. That means the Democrats may have got a similar effect in marginal states to picking Shapiro, but without the inevitable negatives on youth (and Muslim) support.
Here is a recent decision by my council regarding dogs in cemeteries. I'd be furious if I went to visit a family grave and some excitable Spaniel came jumping up at me.
I think some dog owners simply cannot comprehend that not everyone loves their dog as much as they do, and that the world doesn't revolve around Rover.
Dog owners are generally fine, it is cats and cat owners that are the problem.
One plus is this year I have not had any cat shit on my lawn. But my neighbours cats are going out of their homes less due to age.
The downside is in a couple of years they will have new cats who will be out dumping to their hearts content.
I cannot stand cats.
If you don't like cats shitting on your lawn you should get a cat.
Some of our neighbours have ultrasonic cat repelers in their gardens. At least I'm told they have; I can't hear them, but Mrs J and our son can, and find the noise almost intolerable as we walk past.
This was our ultrasonic and strobe repellent to protect our raspberries from deer. My wife mowed it. Never seen the inside of a 9v battery before. I let the deer eat the raspberries now.
Without Leon, this place won't be as much fun, or as informative on crazy subjects that don't usually pop up. PB is a lesser place without him. I haven't gone through the last thread so don't know why he flounced, but I hope he comes back.
The dog eater thinks cat and dog owners are selfish lonely losers as their pets are ruining the environment.
He got into a huff when a few people pointed out if he was so concerned about the environment would he be giving up plane travel.
In short he’s just like Polly Toynbee.
He's much funnier than Polly Toynbee.
Plus Polly Toynbee loves and understands second homes.
Without Leon, this place won't be as much fun, or as informative on crazy subjects that don't usually pop up. PB is a lesser place without him. I haven't gone through the last thread so don't know why he flounced, but I hope he comes back.
The dog eater thinks cat and dog owners are selfish lonely losers as their pets are ruining the environment.
He got into a huff when a few people pointed out if he was so concerned about the environment would he be giving up plane travel.
In short he’s just like Polly Toynbee.
He said that owning animals is bizarre and that pets do a lot of damage. Both uncontrovertible.
And then people unleashed their insecurities.
Cycling in the New Forest yesterday I saw about 3 or 4 times as many bike trailers for stupid silly little dogs than I did for people's children. We might have been the only ones in fact.
It seems, in this country, people are far more interested in a dog or cat - who they freely let shit and wee everywhere with "oh, don't worry - he won't bite!" *SNAP* - than their own children, let alone anyone else's.
OTOH we had an otherwise excellent lunch at the Crab Shack Cafe in Wyke Regis ruined by a two year old brat on a neighbouring table who incessantly screamed at 80 dB for an hour and a half. Whatever happened to people keeping their kids under control?
(Ok, I exaggerate - we still had a great meal - and it must be bloody awful for the parents but jeez that kid was loud and persistent.)
Ask any restaurant owner - whatever kids do, adults will have done far worse.
I suppose it's a sign things aren't going quite to plan when a three day special military operation leads to Ukrainian tanks on your lawn a couple of years later.
On topic: I agree about Donald Trump. I'm looking forward (and hopefully soon) to being able to post with cheery conviction that he's TOAST but I can't quite do that yet. He's still in there with a puncher's chance.
Here is a recent decision by my council regarding dogs in cemeteries. I'd be furious if I went to visit a family grave and some excitable Spaniel came jumping up at me.
I think some dog owners simply cannot comprehend that not everyone loves their dog as much as they do, and that the world doesn't revolve around Rover.
Dog owners are generally fine, it is cats and cat owners that are the problem.
One plus is this year I have not had any cat shit on my lawn. But my neighbours cats are going out of their homes less due to age.
The downside is in a couple of years they will have new cats who will be out dumping to their hearts content.
I cannot stand cats.
If you don't like cats shitting on your lawn you should get a cat.
Some of our neighbours have ultrasonic cat repelers in their gardens. At least I'm told they have; I can't hear them, but Mrs J and our son can, and find the noise almost intolerable as we walk past.
This was our ultrasonic and strobe repellent to protect our raspberries from deer. My wife mowed it. Never seen the inside of a 9v battery before. I let the deer eat the raspberries now.
Are you sure kinablu's cat didn't sit on it ?
Possible, but my wife does have a reputation in the garden. Let's put it this way I wouldn't let her loose in the garden with a flame thrower.
The Truss stunt was absolutely hilarious. The stupid woman is still taking a fortune in taxpayers' money, so a bit of mirth at her expense at least provides some compensation. Of more pressing concern, can the Tories ever hope to be taken seriously again all the while she's on the scene? She's like a dark spirit looming over the political Right. Who will be able to enact the necessary exorcism? Is it even possible?
QED about pet owning/cruelty. That is one fat mother of a cat (assuming it is not genuinely - about to be - a mother).
Or in a tribute to Leon you've made AI create a huge fat cat.
He's quite big, yes. Not obese though. The photo pose rather accentuates his size.
Looks obese to me. That is pretty cruel. Time for a diet for Mr Moggikins or whatever you have called it.
But in the flesh you'd see that he isn't. He's substantial but he has a big frame so he carries it well. Bit like Ed Davey.
So you're saying it is all muscles under the flab? Is his name Boris?
The Great Man has gone to seed a bit, though, hasn't he. He's no longer the Charles Atlas type specimen he was when we had that legendary conversation.
Without Leon, this place won't be as much fun, or as informative on crazy subjects that don't usually pop up. PB is a lesser place without him. I haven't gone through the last thread so don't know why he flounced, but I hope he comes back.
I certainly relied on him to keep me abreast of the latest thinking on the far-right fringes of Twitter!
He left because he was threatened with a ban for going on too much about pets.
Says he's definitely going for good this time. Apart from the odd holiday photo.
The holiday photos are his most worthwhile contribution. The rest is just cod racism, the latest conspiracy nonsense vomited up from the dark web, gratuitous unpleasantness, and invariably incorrect political predictions.
Presumably you would include in the conspiracy nonsense his espousal of the lab leak theory explaining the origin of Covid-19, which the US authorities now accept as the likeliest explanation.
His problem on that is thinking the issue is proven one way or the other. And his reasoning in arriving at that conclusion.
The Trump campaign getting hacked because Roger Stone fell for a phishing email sent to the AOL account that he is still using in the year-of-our-Lord 2024 is incredibly on brand https://x.com/SwannMarcus89/status/1823238723502293331
Here is a recent decision by my council regarding dogs in cemeteries. I'd be furious if I went to visit a family grave and some excitable Spaniel came jumping up at me.
I think some dog owners simply cannot comprehend that not everyone loves their dog as much as they do, and that the world doesn't revolve around Rover.
She would be better advised to see the funny side, laugh it off, make a joke about herself and so on.
"I'm here, where is this mythical lettuce?" or something like that.
Storming off just gives people an incentive to do it again.
Letting it go water off a duck's back means it stops being funny.
A major problem for Truss was and is that she has literally no sense of humour.
Humour. Really.
Led By Donkeys are tedious wankers just going after a political irrelevance. She was a useless PM promoted way in excess of her abilities but this is verging on the bullying now.
on topic looking at Enten's 3 points in the first tweet in the header:
1. Biden 2020 Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin all had similar poll leads in August compared to eve of poll - and all 3 overestimated the actual lead by a wide margin. Clinton 2016 in those states is bit different, the poll lead in August was bigger than eve of poll, but the eve of poll averages also significantly overestimated her leads (she actually lost those states of course).
So if Enten's first point means anything more than "polls this far out aren't very predictive" then it means "polls tend to overstate Trump's opponents' poll leads". Which may be true, though just because it happened the last 2 times doesn't mean it will happen this time. Is there a specific problem with polling in those 3 states which will crop up again this time? Have pollsters tried to fix it? Are good questions.
2. Trump IS more popular this time, in the sense that his favorability polling isn't as bad this time compared to 2016 or 2020. I think this is something we should think about on this side of the Atlantic, as it's certainly surprising to me, and the consensus here is he is a much worse candidate in 2024 than the last 2 times.
3. I'm not sure this adds much. On Enten's poll certainty vote is still 1 point higher for Harris than for Trump, and for consistency he should be comparing those figures with 2020 and 2016.
She would be better advised to see the funny side, laugh it off, make a joke about herself and so on.
"I'm here, where is this mythical lettuce?" or something like that.
Storming off just gives people an incentive to do it again.
Letting it go water off a duck's back means it stops being funny.
A major problem for Truss was and is that she has literally no sense of humour.
Humour. Really.
Led By Donkeys are tedious wankers just going after a political irrelevance. She was a useless PM promoted way in excess of her abilities but this is verging on the bullying now.
Considering she's speaking about politics, no its not, its fair game.
If this was happening at a social/family event then that'd be a different matter.
The Trump campaign getting hacked because Roger Stone fell for a phishing email sent to the AOL account that he is still using in the year-of-our-Lord 2024 is incredibly on brand https://x.com/SwannMarcus89/status/1823238723502293331
She would be better advised to see the funny side, laugh it off, make a joke about herself and so on.
"I'm here, where is this mythical lettuce?" or something like that.
Storming off just gives people an incentive to do it again.
Letting it go water off a duck's back means it stops being funny.
A major problem for Truss was and is that she has literally no sense of humour.
Humour. Really.
Led By Donkeys are tedious wankers just going after a political irrelevance. She was a useless PM promoted way in excess of her abilities but this is verging on the bullying now.
Not quite clear. Seems he was threatened with the hammer if he kept going about cats and dogs and he got the huff.
Nah. He was talking about the ethics of owning animals and the damage pets do for the satisfaction of humans and people had a mini-pile on involving talk of being banned although no one said they wanted him banned for his opinions. Someone said, as a joke, that they wanted him banned for being a twat.
But as I started off by saying, almost whenever Leon has posted of late he has been subject to personal rancour by a number of posters who, I can only imagine, feel threatened by him/his lifestyle and conversely insecure and/or jealous. There really is no other explanation for the vituperation meted out to him.
And at the end of the exchanges yday he said fuck it, he'd had enough of the rancour towards him on PB.
These 2 Plymouth rioters have been convicted of 209 previous offences + they told the police they were rioting because immigrants cost the taxpayer too much money.
She would be better advised to see the funny side, laugh it off, make a joke about herself and so on.
"I'm here, where is this mythical lettuce?" or something like that.
Storming off just gives people an incentive to do it again.
Letting it go water off a duck's back means it stops being funny.
A major problem for Truss was and is that she has literally no sense of humour.
Humour. Really.
Led By Donkeys are tedious wankers just going after a political irrelevance. She was a useless PM promoted way in excess of her abilities but this is verging on the bullying now.
They're suffering from cognitive dissonance now their hero is in Number Ten...
Without Leon, this place won't be as much fun, or as informative on crazy subjects that don't usually pop up. PB is a lesser place without him. I haven't gone through the last thread so don't know why he flounced, but I hope he comes back.
The dog eater thinks cat and dog owners are selfish lonely losers as their pets are ruining the environment.
He got into a huff when a few people pointed out if he was so concerned about the environment would he be giving up plane travel.
In short he’s just like Polly Toynbee.
He said that owning animals is bizarre and that pets do a lot of damage. Both uncontrovertible.
And then people unleashed their insecurities.
Cycling in the New Forest yesterday I saw about 3 or 4 times as many bike trailers for stupid silly little dogs than I did for people's children. We might have been the only ones in fact.
It seems, in this country, people are far more interested in a dog or cat - who they freely let shit and wee everywhere with "oh, don't worry - he won't bite!" *SNAP* - than their own children, let alone anyone else's.
OTOH we had an otherwise excellent lunch at the Crab Shack Cafe in Wyke Regis ruined by a two year old brat on a neighbouring table who incessantly screamed at 80 dB for an hour and a half. Whatever happened to people keeping their kids under control?
(Ok, I exaggerate - we still had a great meal - and it must be bloody awful for the parents but jeez that kid was loud and persistent.)
You make my point for me. All parents struggle with this, and you will have been the same as a kid yourself. The parents will have been doing their best and as frustrated as anyone. But this sort of reaction is totally abnormal in the rest of Europe - where they love kids - as opposed to here where we hate them.
We just don't like other people very much, and need animals to project and express our emotions upon.
My, then very young, daughter once fell and hit her knee when we boarded a bus, and naturally enough wailed her lungs out, something I couldn't immediately do much about, having to focus on paying the bus fare and finding us a seat before the bus zoomed off.
A very kind lady swooped in and pressed a 50p coin to the hurt knee, explaining to my daughter that she should hold it in place and the cold of it would make the pain go away. I don't know whether this was true, or if it simply distracted my daughter, who also liked the idea of a shiny silver coin, but it worked. Tears stopped.
I remember it particularly because of how rare an occurrence it was. I think some people are more scared of intervening, than harbouring feelings of antipathy, but there certainly are plenty who wish that everyone else would stay out of their way, whether that is as other users of the road, children being children, or people in general being in the same general area.
On topic, I certainly agree that Harris should not be some kind of clear favourite. The US economy (like economies across the developed world) has not had a great four years, and people look back on the Trump years as a more prosperous time.
On the other hand, I agree with @ydoether that the ballot initiatives on abortion will harm Trump in a couple of swing states, and mean youth turnout will likely be meaningfully higher than would otherwise be the case.
My current gut is that Harris should be the narrow favourite, but I certainly wouldn't write Trump off.
Since most posters here have had their say about Leon, here's mine. He is (was?) the most iteresting poster by far. That includes my vicarious interest in his travel reports. Hopefully his Spectator pieces will continue, but they are no substitute for his more ad lib contributions here. The Paretian 80:20 rule applies here as in many areas of life and too many of the most interesting 20% have departed over the years. A bit more tolerance and give and take wouldn't go amiss, here and more generally
Without Leon, this place won't be as much fun, or as informative on crazy subjects that don't usually pop up. PB is a lesser place without him. I haven't gone through the last thread so don't know why he flounced, but I hope he comes back.
The dog eater thinks cat and dog owners are selfish lonely losers as their pets are ruining the environment.
He got into a huff when a few people pointed out if he was so concerned about the environment would he be giving up plane travel.
In short he’s just like Polly Toynbee.
He said that owning animals is bizarre and that pets do a lot of damage. Both uncontrovertible.
And then people unleashed their insecurities.
Cycling in the New Forest yesterday I saw about 3 or 4 times as many bike trailers for stupid silly little dogs than I did for people's children. We might have been the only ones in fact.
People with small dogs are likely to be people with small houses/gardens or flats, perhaps, or people who would be taken for a walk by the pooch if normal sized.
My favourite dog-with-cycle video is one where the dog only has a walk on part compared to the woman who uses an e-tricycle who is forced onto the road by unlawful barriers! There is also this one, where she is cycling her husband to the pub, with dog. Football supporters causing trouble. https://x.com/DTathletic/status/1392888768005279753
Obviously the most famous cycling cat is Sigrid the Norwegian Forest Cat, who has toured Europe and has a book, and 14k Youtube followers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExaeaayTfVs
She would be better advised to see the funny side, laugh it off, make a joke about herself and so on.
"I'm here, where is this mythical lettuce?" or something like that.
Storming off just gives people an incentive to do it again.
Letting it go water off a duck's back means it stops being funny.
A major problem for Truss was and is that she has literally no sense of humour.
Humour. Really.
Led By Donkeys are tedious wankers just going after a political irrelevance. She was a useless PM promoted way in excess of her abilities but this is verging on the bullying now.
She's still going around trying to be a massive influence on global politics - endorsing Trump, claiming that her approach to economics is the only good one, but was thwarted by a sinister cabal of Leftist puppet masters. This is serious stuff with consequences. She neither deserves, nor should be allowed, to go about unchallenged.
Comments
Fionna O'Leary, 🕯🇪🇺
@fascinatorfun
“The word is going to go out from this court that that people who behave in this way are going to go to prison and going to go to prison for a considerable time,” he added.
https://x.com/fascinatorfun/status/1823590825609097243
We don't have pets, and I'm not a pet person. I put up a birdbox each spring, and that's about as far as I go.
But Mrs J is a cat lady, who has resisted getting a cat here in the UK because she knows she'll get more and more and more. But our son wants a cat as well, so we're going to get one or two.
I'm insisting that the cats have bells, to at least give wildlife a bit of a chance.
In general though, I see lots of selfishness in pet owners. We probably all like to think we'd look after our animals well, but we often do not. When I was in London, a friend of mine's dad kept greyhounds in a tower block flat. Dogs that are bred to run fast, kept in a small flat and allowed to run around a park once a day. IMV that's a big reason why many dogs become dangerous: they are kept locked up, when they should be running loose all day.
One plus is this year I have not had any cat shit on my lawn. But my neighbours cats are going out of their homes less due to age.
The downside is in a couple of years they will have new cats who will be out dumping to their hearts content.
I cannot stand cats.
https://x.com/Judianna/status/1823531945713680533
Larry Tesler, inventor of the cut, copy and paste commands, dies at 74.
It is true that it wasn't just her. And indeed, we could debate that this goes back to poor decisions from the mid-70s on, if we liked. But her actions seemed to take no account of that situation and merely be driven by a naive belief that 'cut taxes=more growth.' Economically from the situation we were in that was simply suicidal.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/11/business/media/abc-debate-dana-walden-kamala-harris.html
Personally I wouldn't bother with any pets but we've got 2 horses, 3 cats, a rabbit (The last of 7 after his mum, sisters and brothers passed away), 3 chickens, 2 tanks full of fish and about 15 guinea pigs.
The horses are quite happily in a field. Ones too young to work with whilst the other is too old. Ragwort pulling is how I seem to spend most evenings at the moment...
The chickens lay eggs. They probably could escape into the field like next door's ducks do but they've no inclination to do so.
The pigs are very sociable animals and they're all in decent size hutches and runs - they value company more than freedom and make a right racquet if they think you're bringing food.
The rabbit - well his mum (His last remaining relative) hopped out the run after a storm blew the lid off last year and was promptly torn to shreds by the local feral tomcat (It wasn't a fox or everything would have gone !). He's a bit sad to be on his own, but he's far too old for introducing any sort of friend now.
The cats come and go (More or less) as they please. The oldest doesn't bother much now, and the youngest is daft so he's kept in during the day.
The fish are well, fish.
Here's the prime hunter killer middle cat camouflaged amongst some old shoes and a pram base:
Along with our toddler they all keep us busy !
Or in a tribute to Leon you've made AI create a huge fat cat.
He's not the one who can dictate terms any more. He won't like that one bit.
https://x.com/Judianna/status/1823531945713680533
Larry Tesler, inventor of the cut, copy and paste commands, dies at 74.
However if her vote starts to decline and her lead dips under the presumed 3% Trump bonus (as a rule of thumb Trump outperforms his polls by about 2-3% nationwide) then Trump is the is the presumptive favourite.
Mene mene tekel upharsin
Don't get me wrong, I like dogs. I grew up in a rural setting surrounded by all manner of animals and, as a child, loved nothing more than play-fighting with our Alsatians. But that was in the country, where the dogs had space to run around.
Fast-forward to today and my suburban life. There is no way that I would get a dog. I know from experience how much of a responsibility they are, and it would simply be cruel to keep a dog in this environment. The poor dog next door is left on its own for hours at a stretch and is very vocal about its unhappiness. The neighbours claim it has "separation anxiety" as though it were some sort of psychiatric issue. Separation anxiety my arse. It's a dog. It's a pack animal, and when you're gone it thinks it's been lost by its pack and howls to be found.
And then there's the park. Lots of dogs there, mostly under control but sometimes not. More than once I've had some cur snapping round my ankles while the owner says, "oh, he's all right, just being friendly". It's no wonder that there are people I know who are too terrified to use the park at all because of the dogs. And then, of course, there's the shit.
This was our ultrasonic and strobe repellent to protect our raspberries from deer. My wife mowed it. Never seen the inside of a 9v battery before. I let the deer eat the raspberries now.
Because this isn't doing her or her cause any good.
(Same goes for Boris, by the way. And Trump, though in a slightly different way.)
So they tried a number of things. After putting up some notices and asking around, they discovered it had about 19 owners. Who were very loathe to stop feeding it.
They came to an interesting idea - they put a plastic tag on it's collar and wrote the time and date it had been fed on it, with indelible pen. Even the most soft hearted got the message, I believe.
At the moment, the events she's been doing seem rather dull and low-energy.
So there's got to be a reasonable chance that, by highlighting her notoriety, LBD are actually going to help her speaking career rather than harm it.
But that aside, keeping a fat pet is cruel for all the same reasons as we shouldn't be overweight. And it's entirely within the owner's control. For all Kini's right on-ness about everything that is unforgiveable.
After a local campaign, it got tided up from being just a dog run. A path round the edge for kids to learn to cycle, and for the older people to walk around. Benches. And one corner was fenced off as a kids play area - complete with swings etc.
One or two dog owners refused to *not* take their dog inside the play area. Despite it being marked as no dogs. This was done, so that you didn't have to worry about toddlers in the grass etc.
It was a bizarre thing. They seemed to find the idea of a space that their dog was not allowed in, as a personal attack on them.
EDIT: They literally had 95% of the common for fido to run around in.
For those with an interest in the relationships between humans and animals including livestock, pets and the ethical dilemmas involved I recommend this thoughtful book.
How to Love Animals: In a Human-Shaped World https://amzn.eu/d/hFc0s1P
That said, I think the reason why Walz was an inspired pick is that he's popular across the great lakes region: Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. That means the Democrats may have got a similar effect in marginal states to picking Shapiro, but without the inevitable negatives on youth (and Muslim) support.
What went down
I suppose it's a sign things aren't going quite to plan when a three day special military operation leads to Ukrainian tanks on your lawn a couple of years later.
She storms off stage saying 'not funny'.
She would be better advised to see the funny side, laugh it off, make a joke about herself and so on.
"I'm here, where is this mythical lettuce?" or something like that.
I nearly forgot. Something for everyone.
Letting it go water off a duck's back means it stops being funny.
https://x.com/SwannMarcus89/status/1823238723502293331
Led By Donkeys are tedious wankers just going after a political irrelevance. She was a useless PM promoted way in excess of her abilities but this is verging on the bullying now.
1. Biden 2020 Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin all had similar poll leads in August compared to eve of poll - and all 3 overestimated the actual lead by a wide margin. Clinton 2016 in those states is bit different, the poll lead in August was bigger than eve of poll, but the eve of poll averages also significantly overestimated her leads (she actually lost those states of course).
So if Enten's first point means anything more than "polls this far out aren't very predictive" then it means "polls tend to overstate Trump's opponents' poll leads". Which may be true, though just because it happened the last 2 times doesn't mean it will happen this time. Is there a specific problem with polling in those 3 states which will crop up again this time? Have pollsters tried to fix it? Are good questions.
2. Trump IS more popular this time, in the sense that his favorability polling isn't as bad this time compared to 2016 or 2020. I think this is something we should think about on this side of the Atlantic, as it's certainly surprising to me, and the consensus here is he is a much worse candidate in 2024 than the last 2 times.
3. I'm not sure this adds much. On Enten's poll certainty vote is still 1 point higher for Harris than for Trump, and for consistency he should be comparing those figures with 2020 and 2016.
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/how-long-until-trump-fires-his-campaign
He was also in the movie Cats.
(Handsome beast, by the way.)
If this was happening at a social/family event then that'd be a different matter.
Free speech cuts both ways.
Yeh Gods.
But as I started off by saying, almost whenever Leon has posted of late he has been subject to personal rancour by a number of posters who, I can only imagine, feel threatened by him/his lifestyle and conversely insecure and/or jealous. There really is no other explanation for the vituperation meted out to him.
And at the end of the exchanges yday he said fuck it, he'd had enough of the rancour towards him on PB.
Judge Linford made them work out how much their offending had cost Britain's taxpayers over the last 38 years...
https://x.com/DrRebeccaTidy/status/1823618910102388771
A very kind lady swooped in and pressed a 50p coin to the hurt knee, explaining to my daughter that she should hold it in place and the cold of it would make the pain go away. I don't know whether this was true, or if it simply distracted my daughter, who also liked the idea of a shiny silver coin, but it worked. Tears stopped.
I remember it particularly because of how rare an occurrence it was. I think some people are more scared of intervening, than harbouring feelings of antipathy, but there certainly are plenty who wish that everyone else would stay out of their way, whether that is as other users of the road, children being children, or people in general being in the same general area.
On the other hand, I agree with @ydoether that the ballot initiatives on abortion will harm Trump in a couple of swing states, and mean youth turnout will likely be meaningfully higher than would otherwise be the case.
My current gut is that Harris should be the narrow favourite, but I certainly wouldn't write Trump off.
My favourite dog-with-cycle video is one where the dog only has a walk on part compared to the woman who uses an e-tricycle who is forced onto the road by unlawful barriers! There is also this one, where she is cycling her husband to the pub, with dog. Football supporters causing trouble.
https://x.com/DTathletic/status/1392888768005279753
Obviously the most famous cycling cat is Sigrid the Norwegian Forest Cat, who has toured Europe and has a book, and 14k Youtube followers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExaeaayTfVs