BS: Common sense

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Charmion
Date: 26 Mar 21 - 09:11 PM

Common sense is distinguishing shit from Shinola and knowing how many beans make five.

It took me the better part of forty years to master both skills. And four years of solid work at a rather good university.

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Mar 21 - 10:42 AM

The blokes. Sorry.

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Mar 21 - 10:40 AM

When. I was a student working on the parks in the summer holidays, one year one of blokes entertained himself by giving all us students GBH of the ear'ole by telling us that he'd got by in life very well without wasting time going to colleges and getting all them degrees and whatnot. He, said he, tapping his temple, had common sense instead, wot he asserted was wot we did not 'ave.

Three months later I heard that he'd drunk himself to death.

.

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: BobL
Date: 26 Mar 21 - 03:32 AM

The common man is chiefly to be distinguished by his plentiful lack of common sense -- H.L.Mencken.

If common sense were really that common, you wouldn't notice it -- unknown.

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: leeneia
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 12:21 PM

About common sense. I went to amazon's site and looked for books on common sense. There were none. Oh, there were books with those words in the title ("Common Sense Investing") but none on common sense per se.

With the Sunday paper I get a small magazine called Parade, and one day several years ago a columnist in Parade was asked why schools don't teach common sense. The columnist said that we have to learn common sense from our families. Since then, I've wished I could read more about that.

What do you think are the elements of common sense? I start with:
       risk versus reward
       science versus rumor.

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Mar 21 - 01:28 PM

I was horribly wrong about the Downing Street pad. It was the conference room that was costing all those millions. His pad is costing around £200,000. Sorry about that.

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 07:52 AM

Your antennae should be waggling just as much as mine. Complacency is the enemy of democracy...

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 07:46 AM

Really?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 07:26 AM

Concerning the recent protests on Clapham Common.

Boris Johnson thinks he can get away with anything. The success of the vaccination programme has let him off so many hooks (so far...)

He employed Priti Patel, a thoroughly devious, dishonest and unprofessional bully. Getting away with it.

He ignored the science and screwed up the lockdowns. Tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths. Getting away with it.

He allowed untested old people to go from hospital into care homes, resulting in thousands of infections and deaths. Getting away with it.

He's reigned over the complete balls up over PPE. Getting away with it.

He reneged on his promise to pay the nurses their agreed rise. Getting away with it.

Etcetera.

And now he thinks he can get away with spending millions doing up his Downing Street pad, and he thinks he can get away with denying the democratic human right to protest. He's behaving in an increasingly autocratic manner, because he gets away with it, and we should be worried. The fact that we have no opposition to speak of (I did try to tell you...) is hardly helping.

When you try to prevent people from expressing their anger and frustration about injustices, as Priti Patel wanted to do (remember her stance on Black Lives Matter?), people take things into their own hands. We see it in Hong Kong and Burma right now and we've seen it many times before. I notice that there is consternation being expressed in high places now about these attempts to vilify and prevent legitimate protest. Let's hope he doesn't get away with this as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 06:44 AM

I'm not wound up at all, we are having a good laugh at a thoroughly awful video of a thoroughly awful folk singer!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Helen
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 06:22 AM

Well, that was fun, winding up the Bonzo and watching it spin. What's the next project on the list? :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 05:22 AM

Gets all you disbelievers going!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 05:00 AM

.... it appears to originate from one of Sarah's friends.


So, it could be genuine or it could be a complete work of fiction.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 04:30 AM

Bonzo,women suffer more from domestic violence than men. the removal of public phone boxes has not helped, one of the controlling aspects of domestic violence is the control over the womans mobile phone , where can they then go to get help? no public phone boxes any more.why .. profit is more important than the social welfare of abuse victims
Bonzo i am very tempted to tell you to fuck off , but i shall refrain

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 04:25 AM

No, Google is your best friend.

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 04:06 AM

Do you have the figures for how many men and women were raped, Bonzo?

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Jos
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 06:49 PM

I noticed that a lot of the talk around the subject was about whether women feel safe on the streets.
Surely what is important is not so much whether men and women to FEEL safe, but whether they ARE safe.

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 06:12 PM

And domestic and sexual abuse...? There is a bigger picture...

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 05:40 PM

Women do not get killed more than men. There were 695 victims of homicide in England and Wales in the year ending March 2020??. Four fifths of these victims were male.

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 05:37 PM

When Mrs Steve and I heard about the vigil we both railed against it and we thought that the organisers calling it off had shown good judgement. Then the women went ahead anyway - with a determination for it to be peaceful. The groundswell of emotion, frustration and outrage about the way our society fails to take the abuse of women seriously was impossible to ignore, and, despite the clumsy and insensitive actions of Cressida Dick and her police, I believe that the message has gone a long way towards getting across. There's a long tradition of getting out on to the streets, the world over, in spite of bad laws, to make the humanitarian case and the call for justice. That's what those women were doing. Getting all technical about their breaking the rules seems to me to be missing a big point.

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 04:50 PM

Try to see a bigger picture, Bonzo.

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 04:49 PM

Under the current lockdown rules two people can meet for recreation outside, which can include "coffee on a bench". I'm not entirely sure that this vigil fell within that rule!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 02:10 PM

The Metropolitan Police, by any chance?

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 01:29 PM

It came via one of my relatives, and it appears to originate from one of Sarah's friends.

The vigil, which up to a point was apparently peaceful, seems to have been hijacked by troublemakers with their own agenda to disrupt.

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 12:22 PM

So where did that come from? And who hijacked the vigil (which started off peacefully), do you suppose?

Subject: RE: BS: Common sense
From: leeneia
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 12:11 PM

You have my sympathy. I'm sorry you lost your friend.

Subject: BS: Common sense
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 10:09 AM

Forwarded to me:

"Since we learned of Sarah’s disappearance, this experience has been hard to put into words. It’s not something anyone would ever imagine having to deal with. But now, as brutal as the outcome is, we have some answers. It’s shocking and devastating. But I would rather know than never find out what happened to her, so we can begin the long, painful grieving process.

When I first heard of the vigil for Sarah on Clapham Common I was looking forward to attending – it felt good to be able to ‘do something’ and express my love for Sarah and my sorrow for what has happened to her. Less than a day later, I decided not to attend, as have many of her friends. I can’t speak for all of them, but my reason for not attending is this: my friend’s tragic death has been hijacked. It is not a tribute to her any more, it’s about something else – and I don’t like what it has become.

Sarah was a victim of one of the most horrific crimes imaginable. She was extremely unlucky – that is all there is to it.

Her abduction and murder is not, in my opinion, a symptom of a sexist, dangerous society. When something awful like this happens there is a rush to look for reasons and apportion blame. If the suspect police officer in custody is eventually tried and found guilty of her murder, then I will hold him alone responsible. I will not be blaming ‘men’ or ‘the police’ for the actions of one individual. There will always be the odd psychopath out there – male or female – and there can be no accounting for that fact.

Sarah had many wonderful men in her life. Several of them were absolutely instrumental in the hunt for her, raising awareness online and in the local area, and out physically searching for her at the beginning. They are just as horrified as everyone else by what has happened.

I don’t think Sarah would have wanted them, or men in general, to be smeared with the same brush as her attacker. Most people, and indeed men, are good. They would never wish harm on anyone else, let alone attack or kill someone. Despite what has happened to Sarah allegedly at the hands of this man, I will continue to believe that.

The suggestion by a Green Party peer, that all men should be under curfew after dark to help women feel safer on the streets, is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. I would have laughed at it if it wasn’t such an utterly awful situation. Sarah was a humble, private and sensible person (among many other things!), and I feel certain she would not agree with the circumstances of her disappearance being used to promote these kinds of ideas.

I also wish to publicly praise the police conducting this investigation. They have done their job brilliantly, and although sadly it is too late for Sarah, I am grateful they are finding us some of the answers that we so desperately need. I am sure they are equally stunned and appalled that this awful crime seems to have been perpetrated by one of their own.

As for us, her friends? Let us grieve for our loved one, brutally taken in such an awful way. The public reaction to her death has been overwhelming, and for the most part very touching. But be assured, the misuse of it by those with an ‘agenda’ is not a comfort to us.

As a 33-year-old woman, what will I take from this? I am reminded that life is short, and I will try to live mine to the full. Of course, I will be sensible and maybe take a few more taxis than I used to. But I will not live in fear. As soon as lockdown is over, I am going to go out, celebrate, get drunk with my mates in a pub. I will dance, laugh, cry, hug people and be grateful that I am alive. I will miss my friend deeply. I am so sad she will never see the end of lockdown and, as her friends, we will never get to enjoy these experiences with her again.”

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Breaks added for readability. ---mudelf