BruceVC

Nice, we expecting some new, cool meal recipes and in the Food Thread Can you post a photo of your grill so I can see what it looks like, in SA people dont generally use grills but use a Weber for braais\barbecues and they look like the photos below . I admire the way you have these elaborate grills in the USA https://www.amazon.com/Weber-14402001-Original-Premium-Charcoal/dp/B00N65ADP8/ref=asc_df_B00N65ADP8/?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid={creative}&hvpos={adposition}&hvnetw=o&hvrand={random}&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl={devicemodel}&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583932699077443&psc=1

This has been raised several times by political analysts and its an interesting question, why indeed does Trump embarrassingly and disconcerting seem to publicly endorse and have such nice things to say about many dictators and strongmen around the world? There are several theories, I think its primarily because he literally admires the concept and thought of leaders who are not accountable and answerable to citizens and Democratic institutions like the media and independent courts. He feels he would be a more effective leader without political transparency and also that there are groups of people in modern Democracies who " conspire " against him like the " evil, fake news media" But I also consider most dictators as dysfunctional sociopaths and the countries they govern are overall much worse places to live in than the USA so Trump is delusional and confused about his admiration for strongmen because the things he likes about there policies would ultimately lead to the collapse of the USA and degrading of overall quality of life for all Americans...including Trump. " In the land of the blind the one -eyed man is king " https://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/16/world/trump-strongmen-erdogan-visit/index.html

Yeah, I also noticed this today..Im very excited

You right and this is often overlooked, fireworks can distress human beings due to a myriad of reasons and on a number of levels and is another justification to limit there usage

This is a common issue we see in SA and often hotly debated. We always use to make use of fireworks at Guy Fawkes but from about 15 years the general sentiment has changed because of the real harm and distress it causes to animals. Personally no one I know uses fireworks anymore but its still allowed on certain celebrations like Diwali which is a Hindu religious celebration but even then using fireworks is vastly reduced. I dont see any contradiction with changing your view on this as that's one of the reasons we grow as a society...we learn how to be better and adopt new views if they are constructive and positive. You should call the police and report the usage of illegal fireworks because its the law and the right thing to do Here is a good article that explains why fireworks are so harmful to dogs and other animals https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1777150/fireworks-the-unnecessary-implications-of-celebrations/

Good point Gorthfuscious, when the southern border is brutally and inexorably attacked by the immigrant families....unleash the tanks !!!!

As usual you have provided a very comprehension answer that makes sense based on facts and historical precedent, I now understand several core criticisms that I heard This is about Trump hubris and the adding of tanks and other military paraphernalia is both unnecessary and misplaced

I watch adult movies sometimes but not because I want to...I do it because Im a nice person and I want to support the porn stars in there jobs. If people like me didnt support there movies they wouldnt have jobs and I dont want people to lose there jobs especially in this difficult climate where retrenchments and job losses occur...so I do as much as I can in my own small way Im all about the hugz and feelz

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/07/01/president-donald-trump-get-tanks-july-4-celebration-dc/1621331001/ Trumps getting lambasted for arranging tanks and planes for the 4th July , I like military parades and I like tanks so Im not sure I understand this criticism

Volo...the only reason you like Kristin Stewart as an actress is because she is hoooooot Thats wrong volo , you mustn't objectify women, thats naziish approach ...you must judge people on there merit and not there looks

It is brilliant, haunting and moving. Great series I am watching Tell Me a Story, very entertaining psychological series about the stories of different people and how certain events have parallels to fairy tales but its set in modern day New York https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_Me_a_Story_(TV_series)

You cant enforce an undemocratic system on an established historic Democracy, its going to get huge push back because people prefer Democracy and things like a fair and transparent judicial system, human rights and freedom to criticize your government China doesnt believe and allow these things and is slowly trying to change HK to there ways..its never going to be accepted

https://www.independent.ie/world-news/hong-kong-protesters-take-over-legislative-chamber-on-handover-anniversary-38270002.html HK heating up again as protesters have taken over the legislative building in the city...China is going to battle to control this city in there normal undemocratic way

On a tangent not related to the doings of the Cristian churches here, how would you, generic you, not Hurlshot you, measure most persecuted anyway? Number of individuals? Degree of persecution (i.e. being fed to lions or just not being allowed to stone women who get raped or by duration? In which case the Jews probably wins). Most persecution of Christians these days is done by other Christian denominations. Notable exceptions being places like Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt and Nigeria where the persecution is done by Muslims. Gorthfuscious why you trying to destroy Christianity? Empires have attempted that and it has failed ....look at the Vikings and the Romans, eventually they converted Its easy to sometimes misunderstand where someones post was directed towards, so Hurlshot was making the point towards sharp but you raised an interesting broader question about religious prosecution in the modern world ...how do we define it and where the issues lies? I dont want to look at this historically because of the complexity and numerous factors....for example some religions and or ethic groups in ancient times were effectively obliterated based primarily on there religious beliefs. We could argue historically they were the most prosecuted, like the Babylonians. So lets discuss this in the last 30 years or so as we have the most information and active data both anecdotal and easily accessible It is relevant as you mentioned to define " persecution " in the context of religious persecution. I would break it into " hard " and " soft " persecution to answer that So " hard " persecution would for example be killings, new laws being interacted specifically targeting the religion , denying someone access to courts and or someone not being able to practice there religion meaningfully in any country because they represent a certain religious group Christians nowadays are subjected to this in some places like targeted attacks from ISIS throughout the ME, violence in Africa where groups like Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab attempt to single out Christians only and generally end up killing all innocents in there typical appalling logic and the reality of being able to be Christian and how to practice it in parts of India and or China But Muslims surely face the most hard persecution and there are many examples of this like Myanmar, huge targeting of Chinese Muslims by the Chinese government and then the killing of Muslims by ISIS in the ME. However it is also self-inflicted meaning Muslims and most deaths are caused within the Muslim community....like the Shia/Sunni conflict and the violence we see through the outcomes of the Arab Spring. This is Muslims killing Muslims " Soft " persecution I define as where nowadays we see attempts to undermine or legally change religious values or religious culture that has always existed in a particular country. And ironically this seems to be more common in " Western " Christian countries which have the greatest freedoms, I think it is wrong and divisive So trying to stop people celebrating or openly supporting Xmas in countries where most people are Christian is wrong ( they even celebrate Xmas in parts of the UAE), stopping schools from singing Christian hymns in a predominantly Christian school seems misplaced and illogical ....you cant force someone to sing but you shouldn't stop people who want to. And then when people want to criticize how intolerant religion is they generally bring up examples of certain Christian churches...as if Christianity is the problem compared to all religions when in fact I can give many other examples of how intolerant other religions are throughout the world. So it creates this view its easy to criticize Christianity because Christians will just accept it in the interests of freedom of speech. And I am not suggesting we shouldnt raise valid issues with religion and that religions shouldnt be progressive in certain ways but the narrative should be balanced and not target one group Interesting topic to debate, I look forward to your comments and other peoples views

I call those statistics nonsense and lacking in real analysis on outcomes, DUI checkpoints really work and are both a deterrent and a way to enforce the law I live in a country where we see real carnage on the roads and drunk driving is a major contributor towards this. I speak directly from my own experience and many people I know, about 10 years ago it was normal to drink and drive...not inebriated but still over the limit. We dont do that anymore and now use Uber to go to social functions or stay over at friends houses if we drinking Roadblocks are the main reason for this as they have been implemented in many places strictly and also we want to be better citizens So the guy protesting the DUI roadblock is just wasting everyone's time with some pointless and counter productive social justice experiment when the real question he should be asking is " is this a deterrent to drunk driving " and it is

I have had an extremely busy work week but its been very constructive as I learn the customer landscape in CPT, its interesting but CPT doesnt have the head offices of any of the major SA banks but it does have large insurance, retirement fund HQ and investment managers so the work is similar to what I did in JHB and so is the expected projects and methodology around specific deliverable's Tomorrow Im working from lunchtime and then Sunday I'm seeing some of family for lunch so its going to be a relaxed but good weekend

I have to say Hoonding makes me laugh because of his studious attempts to be controversial and provocative For example when he said the UK needs more Muslim members of parliament and he would vote for a Muslim representative....no he wouldnt

I watched the last episode, Valery Legasov was very brave for the position he took at the trial. I admire him and the ultimate sacrifice many others made to address the numerous problems created by the meltdown I found it both reassuring and sad that it was his suicide that finally made the USSR make the necessary changes to the nuclear rods to avoid another potential disaster but at least they made the required changes Again, what a brilliant and captivating series

Drones are very expensive hardware devices and when one is shot down over international waters it is considered an aggressive act, yes its not the same as shooting down a plane and killing pilots but its still considered a belligerent act

Iran or rather the more influential conservatism element ,who has the real power in Iran, like the Republican Guard have always been in contempt of the previous Nuclear deal Remember they agreed after much USA flag burning and belligerent anti-Western rhetoric to the Nuclear deal in 2015 and then continued to destabilize the region through proxy wars, funding brutal dictatorships like Syria and deploying there Quds special forces. But worst of all after agreeing to not develop Nuclear they tested Ballistic missiles....how is this in keeping with the spirit of peace and regional stability in the region? https://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/23/middleeast/iran-ballistic-missile-test/index.html https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-30/did-iran-just-break-nuclear-deal-again-ballistic-missile-test-launch I agree that Iran will continue to push the boundaries but they also seem to want to provoke the USA so as I mentioned earlier whatever happens is on them No you not crazy but merely mistaken, you dont need irrefutable evidence when Iran is clearly disinterested in peace and stability in the region as we can see from there actions over the last 2-3 years

I just watched a really entertaining series, called Charite at War , its a true story about a hospital and its staff who operate in Berlin during WW2 So you get to experience several aspects of life under the Nazis like eugenics and the utter intolerance for what the Nazis considered anathema and should be exterminated, like homosexuals. But its really about the amazing job numerous doctors did under terrible conditions. Well worth watching

I have just watched an interview with Trump where Justin Trudeau was present, Trump was asked several questions around this incident and he actually played it down He made several comments like " people must wait for his response " , " its not the same as USA soldiers being attacked as its basically a robot " and " it was probably a mistake from Iran and they didnt mean to it " So we will have to see how this unfolds ....but it was a mistake from Iran on several levels. They not in a position to be over-zealous and jingoistic with the USA, why provoke countries you cant possibly win a war against. That kind of hubris is really counter productive to Irans future

Iran claims the drone was over there territory, the Pentagon says it wasn't. Either way Iran shouldn't have shot down the drone I believe the Pentagon, lets see how it unfolds but the Revolutionary Guard is not thinking clearly to provoke the USA like this and whatever happens is on them

I see its on Netflix, is it worth watching. How would you compare it to ?

I dont think Trump is very religious at all, I think he adopted a " renewal\belief " in faith because he wanted to connect to part of his base to gain support and win the 2016 election. Trump is someone who can read successfully certain voting patterns and peoples concerns and he knows how to reach out to those groups and what they want to hear him say It helped him win in 2016 but its uncertain if the same methodology will help him win in 2020 ?