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You know what Murihiku? You are definitely not intruding. It is always lovely to see you here.

Maybe if you don't have anything to add to the conversation you could just use a smiley, so we know you are around?

Do Australian smileys exist?

With Vegemite labels on them?

^ Reminds me of the Vegemite Song:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aix0cEp0N_0[/youtube]

Thanks, Mooms. It's really nice seeing you and everyone else here, too.

If all else fails, I'll probably just keep adding random YouTube videos. Goodness knows I do it often enough here.
Is your iPad still not letting you see them, Mooms?

Nope. Big blank space as usual. I usually read what people have written and decide if I can be bothered to 'quote, copy and paste' the link.

^^^I wonder what the Hon. Winston Churchill would have thought of your signature.

It kind of fits in with the "never give up" theme.

It's an old reel, but I thought that was a pretty good Vegemite jingle, up above there. Color me impressed with Australian advertizing!

Still have to find some of that, or some Marmite. I just got back from another short trip!

Enviro, do you know if it's true that Churchill really gave a speech that consisted only of "NEVER. NEVER. NEVER GIVE UP!!"

Probably one of my favorite speeches. More relevant than ever.

It's aimed at my dance. I get so frustrated when things don't go perfectly. This is to remind me not to give up, as I am getting better. I really need to start watching videos of people a little bit better than me for inspiration, rather than international champions which just shows up all the things I can't do.

One of my favourite Churchill quotes is "if you're going through hell, keep going'.

^^^ Why don't you watch some videos of some dancers a little bit worse than you, so you can say "at least I've reached a higher level of proficiency than they have."

Is there anyone of Churchill's calibre around in leadership today?

I think it's a different era, and our leaders are not as dynamic and iconic as Churcill exactly, but we have some quite good ones out there.

Of people who enough of us would recognize internationally, I would nominate:
Malala Yousafzai
"Yeb" Saño
Bill McKibben
Pope Francis
Elizabeth Warren

And although I'm sure he's not perfect, I'm watching Xi Jinping, China's President. He's made some strong moves to root out and reform corruption, seems to be amenable to peaking China's coal use and reducing it, and it also appears that he has a policy of treating Tibet significantly better than his predecessors (though he obviously isn't supporting independence). I'd at least include him on a list of leaders who are doing important work to steer their nations in a "less bad" direction.

I have both good and bad things to say about our (the US's) President. He's actually still easily my favorite US President in my lifetime, but he's a mixed bag, in that I think he has caved to supporting a few policies he shouldn't (being a little too accepting of "collateral damage" in his use of drones and air strikes, coddling the oil and gas industries and corporatism in general too much... the TPP is a horrible thing coming up on the horizon), but he's also had a very tough "row to hoe". He's President of a very divided nation, and I deeply sympathize with him for being handed a situation in which we have problems coming out our ears and he can't seem to make anyone happy... not to mention all the prejudice, threats and petty posturing leveled against him. Nevertheless, he's managed to do his part to keep the country from totally falling apart, and we're at least not all standing in bread lines every day... though I suspect he had to make a few deals with the devil in order to accomplish that. He's taken some important first steps toward US environmental responsibility through the EPA and so forth. He needs to go further though in supporting solutions. I try not to abandon him, badmouth him or be a fair-weather supporter, and I like him as a person and his ideals, but I do have some real concerns about his administration in practice.

I'd heard some good things mentioned about Brazil's President, but it appears she's had some direct past involvements with violent militancy, which is pretty much an automatic disqualification in my mind, no matter who they represent. And she's supporting hydroelectric projects which would flood parts of the Amazon. Not good for species diversity, plus I am learning that dams surprisingly produce a lot of greenhouse gasses, due to methane release from organic material that builds up behind the dam, sitting and rotting.

^^^ Do you think Elizabeth Warren stands a good chance should she run for President?

Although I'm not American I think the US needs someone with fresh and new ideas, not someone like Hillary Clinton who has baggage from previous administrations.

I sure hope so, she's my favorite potential candidate to have emerged so far, definitely!

I'm with you, I'm not crazy about family dynasties in politics either. I'm glad our leadership over the past 26 years hasn't been nothing but Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton.

More importantly though, I think Hillary Clinton is too corporate-cozy. I think many presidents have had a tendency to create massive giveaways for corporations as a quick-fix for boosting the economy and the incumbent's popularity. As a result though, corporations and government have gotten closer and closer, and corporations have gotten more and more powerful. They are now openly calling the shots in our politics at times.

Elizabeth Warren is pretty bold about confronting such issues. I would be really excited to see her elected.

I guess we're hijacking a thread with a PPR topic, but is she definitely in the race? None of the Republican hopefuls I've heard about seem very suitable for the top, and I doubt they stand a good chance to win the Presidency back even with the problems of the Obama administration.

Better stop now before a mod decides to move this thread to PPR...

Ok good point, yeah, I'll stop, haha.

Just to answer though, I wasn't sure so I just looked it up, and it sounds like she's not running.

Well, maybe she can do just as much good where she's at!

We need another topic now there then, lol. Ummm, what's new in Qogqolobqo?

Last edited by ThetaIn3D on 07 Oct 2014, 3:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Not really much... quite a good place to live if you're tired of the US..

The Chancellor can't be blamed for the weather though...

That's a nice arrangement!

I never managed to investigate this before, but is Qogqolobqo just an alternate name for South Africa, or is it somewhere else, or is it a fictional place?

Basically, tell me all about it, I'm all ears.

^ I now have a picture in my head of Theta made entirely out of ears.

That's a great idea. If I can find any.