No limits to immigration

[Errata]

Errata, you're marrying one but you won't sit next to one?

I just hope your wedding night goes OK.

my wedding night will probably be like the rest of my life... disappointment, confusion, and a lot of apologizing

I think we have conflicting mental pictures here. Lets say I walk into a bar, or get on an airplane. If I can sit alone, I will sit alone. I am a luggage based human and I like to spread things out. However, if there is one free seat next to a white Christian, and one free seat next an African Muslim, I'm taking the seat next to the African Muslim. I don't often get to talk to African Muslims, and I deal with white Christians every day. I am not going to choose the same experiences over and over again.

I am not going to wedge myself in next to an African Muslim just to avoid a white Christian. Nor will I turn and leave if my only option is a white Christian. And of course if the white Christian is say, David Bowie or the Pope or Robert DeNiro, well I will probably then sit next to white Christian. I'd probably step out of the plane in midair for David Bowie... Booowie...

It's not that I have a problem with white Christians. I just have enough of them in my life that I would prefer to hang out with other kinds of people when I get a chance (which is really not all that often). Hear new stories. Learn new things.

My fiance would like me to correct myself and tell you that he is not a Christian, but agnostic. I disagree, but it's a nitpicking definition type disagreement, so I'll let him have this one.

[Bob Hinton]

. And there was I thinking that all immigrants to the UK were Brit-hating scroungers and law breakers.

Caz
X

I don't know why you should think that Caz, it's certainly not a belief I subscribe to.

[Bob Hinton]

Really?

It's all getting a wee bit: "I'm not bigoted, I even talk to the natives/blacks/gays/women." Good for you, Bob. Good for you.

Caz
X

So let me see if I have this straight. Someone accuse me of being a xenophobe, the definition of which is: A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.

I point out that I have absolutely no fear or contempt for that which is foreign and back it up with proof that I am in fact widely travelled and have many friends of all nationalities, races and creeds. However I am then accused of being some sort of ‘undercover’ xenophobe who goes around the world travelling and meeting people just so I can secretly hold them in contempt.

Then you come up with the rather sneering remark posted above, which seems to imply that I really am a bigot, in spite of absolute proof to the contrary!

So it seems that to smear someone’s reputation all that is necessary is for someone to stick a label on a person and that is that. Rather a bigoted attitude if you don’t mind me saying!

So in this La La land the only people who aren't bigots are the ones who go around accusing everyone else!

[Bob Hinton]

Oh don't be so ridiculous!

All this 'the PC brigade have banned this and the PC brigade have banned that' stuff is so overblown and most of it is myth.

Really? That's funny didn't someone point out recently that the attempts to ban Christmas were not the work of immigrants but of PC brigade council officials.

Interesting brigade this, appears and disappears at will!

[Bob Hinton]

I would like to point out that, unlike Bob with his xenophobic peregrinations and his racist overseas charity work, I have never been abroad in my life and am therefore a cosmopolitan internationalist with unimpeachable liberal credentials.

Oi! That's a bit low. I have nothing against the peregrisn uh pregerss uh perfges oh bugger - well whoever they are!

[Robert]

"My fiance would like me to correct myself and tell you that he is not a Christian, but agnostic. I disagree, but it's a nitpicking definition type disagreement, so I'll let him have this one."

Yes, let him have this one - there are thousands that you won't be letting him have, in the years ahead.

[Errata]

"My fiance would like me to correct myself and tell you that he is not a Christian, but agnostic. I disagree, but it's a nitpicking definition type disagreement, so I'll let him have this one."

Yes, let him have this one - there are thousands that you won't be letting him have, in the years ahead.

*snicker*

I make it a point to let him be right once a month.

[Errata]

Really? That's funny didn't someone point out recently that the attempts to ban Christmas were not the work of immigrants but of PC brigade council officials.

Interesting brigade this, appears and disappears at will!

Okay, I don't want to derail or anything, but we had this problem here. Suddenly it was "holiday break" or "winter break" instead of Christmas break, holiday trees, happy holidays instead of merry Christmas...

Which would have been fine, but four times out of five Hannukah is over long before Christmas (never mind being a holiday of little to no importance), Kwanzaa is not a religious celebration, and even Yule never falls on or about Christmas because of the calendar switch a few hundred years ago.

So then instead of being inclusive, it just makes people look ignorant. "Happy Holidays!" "You know Hannukah has been over for six weeks now, right?" "Oh.."

Pretty much the Jewish community (the only community particularly invested) had to say thanks, but no thanks. Give us a Menorah for Hannukah where you put your tree for Christmas, and you can have your Christmas season back.

Happy Holidays... jeez. It's nice they recognize that there is in fact a Jewish community here, and I appreciate they want to do something for us, but keeping Christmas and stop telling your believers that we killed Christ would be slightly more meaningful and inclusive than "Happy Holidays".

rant over.

[Limehouse]

Okay, I don't want to derail or anything, but we had this problem here. Suddenly it was "holiday break" or "winter break" instead of Christmas break, holiday trees, happy holidays instead of merry Christmas...

Which would have been fine, but four times out of five Hannukah is over long before Christmas (never mind being a holiday of little to no importance), Kwanzaa is not a religious celebration, and even Yule never falls on or about Christmas because of the calendar switch a few hundred years ago.

So then instead of being inclusive, it just makes people look ignorant. "Happy Holidays!" "You know Hannukah has been over for six weeks now, right?" "Oh.."

Pretty much the Jewish community (the only community particularly invested) had to say thanks, but no thanks. Give us a Menorah for Hannukah where you put your tree for Christmas, and you can have your Christmas season back.

Happy Holidays... jeez. It's nice they recognize that there is in fact a Jewish community here, and I appreciate they want to do something for us, but keeping Christmas and stop telling your believers that we killed Christ would be slightly more meaningful and inclusive than "Happy Holidays".rant over.

Strictly speaking - didn't the Romans kill Christ?

[Stephen Thomas]

Strictly speaking - didn't the Romans kill Christ?

No, the Jews did or rather they didn't because he never existed.

[Errata]

Strictly speaking - didn't the Romans kill Christ?

Right? But there is some wacky story about how the Romans let the Jews choose one man to be pardoned and evidently we chose some murderer over Jesus, so now it's our fault. Cause god forbid we don't choose to pardon a crazy Roman collaborator with delusions of divinity.

[TomTomKent]

Right? But there is some wacky story about how the Romans let the Jews choose one man to be pardoned and evidently we chose some murderer over Jesus, so now it's our fault. Cause god forbid we don't choose to pardon a crazy Roman collaborator with delusions of divinity.

I thought the Jewish chorus chose the thief Jesus Barbarossa?

[caz]

Welease Woger!

[Zodiac]

Welease Woderick!

[Errata]

I thought the Jewish chorus chose the thief Jesus Barbarossa?

I gotta admit, the New Testament ain't exactly my bag, but that sounds about right.