A quick post for now [Edit: What can I say?] as I still have to do some more work. Knowing me, I\'ll probably write some more long-winded stuff later after a few wind-down beers. Before I get in that frame of mind just want to say...
RexBanner: Meant to send you a PM but thanks very much for your post. It was very much appreciated.
Jayse: Too many good points to even comment on. I am just really pleased I have never made a mistake or written atrocious posts on a forum

. (I have done my fair share.)
WALLACE: Great story. Really enjoyed the read. I have a similar one so know what you are talking about.
Zizzle: Thanks for taking the time to find that link. As for us concluding we thought it was justified sending you to war B), I think this hit you so hard, you forgot our reasoning. Without going into detail, we weren\'t convinced with what the governments were telling us but we were convinced that a lot of people were suffering. Doing something (at the time) we thought was the right thing to do. Ignoring the suffering was not the right thing to do. You may or may not remember that I would prefer to see useless old bastards like myself being sent to war rather than young healthy buggers like yourself. No easy answers on this issue but that whole conversation was all about making a
conscious decision to do something or nothing. Most \'doing nothing\' decisions are made unconsciously and they have tremendous ramifications. Conscious, active decisions by an individual can make a big difference. That conversation we had ended up asking you if you would be prepared to make a decision to shoot down a plane full of 200 passengers that was about to crash into a building and kill thousands. You were paralysed by this decision and refused to shoot the plane down. There might be good reasons for doing this but avoiding responsibility is not one. A lot of people will go to great lengths to avoid responsibility. My opinion, as I said on that day, was that people who avoid responsibility are more dangerous than what we might call \"evil\" people. A \'mass\' of irresponsible people are what allow evil people to reign.
That is what we were talking about.
staggalee: I could try and source the date etc of that A Current Affairs program. The guy\'s picture is actually in Post #11 of
this thread. (Sorry, direct link wouldn\'t work.) He\'s in one of the later pictures, the guy in the red T-shirt. My old neighbour and a lovely bloke. From memory, I didn\'t believe him at the time and he pulled out an old photo album that I am sure had proof - lol!
But, there was a Media Watch program about four years ago that showed how one of those programs did exactly what you were referring to. On one \"show\" they had \"John\" telling everyone how much viagra or whatever had changed his life. A year later, \"John\" was now \"Bob\" and was telling us how some weight loss pill had changed his life.
Seriously, just download say the last four programs of Media Watch and you will see the proof. Maybe search for Kate Ritchie\'s \"wedding.\" That will give you a bit of an idea about what the media gets away with but there are a lot more serious issues at stake...
Zizzle's link takes two minutes to watch. Two minutes watching that is a lot more worthwhile than reading my posts which must take ten minutes to read :huh:.
Apologies that this short post wasn\'t one. Apologies to those who have written some great posts here for not saying, \"That was an excellent post!\"
Better go and finish my work now but one final apology...
A lot of my posts do require a lot of time and thinking by me. My intentions when starting a post are always pretty altruistic. I usually start them while having a beer and winding down. I have often stuffed them up in the end after the hundredth re-write. This is because, after a few beers, I am far more interested
sometimes in making myself look altruistic, intelligent, good or right etc., or sometimes just get plain exhausted or frustrated trying to get it right.
I have done this a tad in this thread as well I think (especially on Saturday when my posts were written after a Christmas Party that started at midday.)
Hope I got a bit right and more importantly, thanks for all your good posts/reads. I have no idea how you guys manage to make great points in a tenth of the space that I flounder around in.
Maybe you guys stop and think before you post?
:blink: Pat