UKMT Autumn 2023 - Things have got worse. - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > UKMT Autumn 2023 - Things have got worse.

Tesseraction: Apr 5, 2009

OwlFancier posted:

Constant rolling thunder here, nice to have a break from the heat.

I was celebrating the cloudburst this afternoon and the 10 degree drop in weather, only for the humidity to skyrocket and the temperature return to 25�C with maximum humidity

# ? Sep 10, 2023 20:18

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# ? May 25, 2024 06:17

Flux Wildly: Dec 20, 2004; Welkum t� Zanydu!

smellmycheese posted:

https://twitter.com/dinosofos/status/1700899106799927540?s=46&t=m_nNbkNoHG4lLitcpyHReg

Had hoped this was a TBEU bit

# ? Sep 10, 2023 22:01

The Question IRL: Jun 8, 2013; Only two contestants left! Here is Doom's chance for revenge...

thebardyspoon posted:

Anyone familiar with the court system/jury system able to assuage my worry here?

So, yes you should tell them.

This exact scenario ("I have a holiday booked that might clash with the trial dates") is the type of things courts want to avoid.

It means putting you in, hearing the trial and then possibly losing you before deliberations.

Any judge will likely excuse your attendance for a long trial on that basis.
Also, if you say it publicly instead of saying it peivately to the judge, the Prosecution and Defence will know about it. And they will definitely want to exclude you, as both aides will assume you will probably hobble their case in an attempt to get a speedy verdict.

# ? Sep 10, 2023 23:50

thebardyspoon: Jun 30, 2005

The Question IRL posted:

So, yes you should tell them.

This exact scenario ("I have a holiday booked that might clash with the trial dates") is the type of things courts want to avoid.

It means putting you in, hearing the trial and then possibly losing you before deliberations.

Any judge will likely excuse your attendance for a long trial on that basis.
Also, if you say it publicly instead of saying it peivately to the judge, the Prosecution and Defence will know about it. And they will definitely want to exclude you, as both aides will assume you will probably hobble their case in an attempt to get a speedy verdict.

Cheers, that makes it a lot easier. I definitely wasn't going to not tell them but this makes me feel better that telling them will at least likely result in the outcome I'd prefer. Pretty annoying tbh cause I am relatively interested and usually 2 or 4 weeks wouldn't make a difference, this is just the first proper holiday I've had booked where I'm going somewhere else,for longer than a weekend in 15 years.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 00:15

Dead Goon: Dec 13, 2002; No Obvious Flaws

Tesseraction posted:

I was celebrating the cloudburst this afternoon and the 10 degree drop in weather, only for the humidity to skyrocket and the temperature return to 25�C with maximum humidity

# ? Sep 11, 2023 06:39

Pistol_Pete: Sep 15, 2007; Oven Wrangler

Weird, that arsehole Nick Timothy has written a column that I... mostly... agree with:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/10/worry-if-the-grown-ups-take-back-control/

quote:

If the grown-ups take back control, it really will be time to get worried

Centrists who claim to have moved beyond ideology are in practice the most enslaved to dogma

Look out: the technocrats and self-styled moderates are back. In the Conservative Party, liberal centrists warn against fighting the culture war and tell their colleagues to learn to love immigration. In the Labour Party, Keir Starmer is purging the hard Left and making weekly calls to Tony Blair.

Among those used to getting their way � until the Brexit referendum, which they sought to thwart, and the 2019 election, which stopped them doing so � the relief is palpable. In the words of Janan Ganesh, the Financial Times columnist, �the UK has become pragmatic again�, now it has party leaders he calls �conscientious adults who know that government is about trade-offs and half-loaves�.

This is, for liberals, a tempting narrative. It allows the crises Britain has faced in the past decade and a half to be blamed not on their beloved centrist experts and technocrats, but on the supposed demagogues and populists who committed the cardinal sin of listening to the masses. Not that anybody ever wants to put it that way, of course. It is far better to mutter about misinformation, dark money and fascism than be honest about elite distaste for public opinion.

Examine the narrative of crises and blame for just a moment and it becomes obvious that the truth is far more complex than the notion that the adults are returning to clear up the mess of a political experiment resembling the Lord of the Flies.

Just this month, we learnt that the British economy recovered far more strongly during Covid than official statistics had previously shown. Using more reliable mortality statistics, we now also know that Britain performed better through the pandemic than critics had claimed. The idea that �plague island� was an outlier � as liberal critics claimed � was debunked. Fewer excess deaths than Italy and America, better growth than Germany or Spain: we were, broadly speaking, average in our performance.

The same is true with various other hysterical narratives. Boris Johnson was widely condemned for not joining the European Union vaccine programme, but Britain�s own initiative proved more successful. Rishi Sunak was pilloried for blocking the Scottish Government�s transgender law, with critics saying he was stoking the culture war and playing into the hands of Nicola Sturgeon. But Scottish opinion backed Sunak, the Nationalists backed down, and within a month Sturgeon announced she was retiring.

And what of the track record of the so-called grown-ups? Included in their number are those who took Britain into not one but two intractable, unwinnable wars. In Iraq, we were given the dodgy dossier and the claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction against British forces within 45 minutes.

In Afghanistan, the defence secretary deployed British troops to Helmand, despite intelligence reports warning they would face fierce fighting, saying, �we would be perfectly happy to leave without firing one shot�.

The grown-ups deregulated the banks, dismantled the Bank of England�s oversight of the City, and ran a structural budget deficit. They let our manufacturing base wither, cosied up to China, and decided quaint concerns such as the trade deficit no longer mattered.

They wrote off technical education, hooked business on mass immigration, and passed the Human Rights Act. They gave us pension reforms which cut off investment in British equities, and funny money monetary policy, which inflated asset prices, hurt those with less, and slowed the circulation of money through the economy.

They decided against transitional immigration controls for central Europeans, reneged on their promise to hold a referendum on the European Constitution, eventually giving us one on the EU itself � before doing everything possible to overturn it.

The idea that technocracy means competence, or that centrism means common sense, is self-serving nonsense. It is, however, an old trick that has proved effective for many years. Those who belong to the centre, liberals say, stand for moderation, and those who �abandon� the centre-ground give in to extremists and ideologues, surrendering their right to hold power. But what is meant by the centre is in fact three different, contradictory, things.

First, the centre is taken to mean political moderation: a middle ground between Right and Left, in which experts pursue supposedly non-ideological, evidence-based policies. Second, the centre is used to mean majority, or mainstream opinion. And third, it is used to mean social and economic liberalism.

It is not difficult to see why liberals like to elide all three meanings. At once, their beliefs are deemed to be moderate, rejecting, as they say they do, more ideological alternatives. And popular, representing, as they claim, the beliefs of most voters. But this is nonsense. For as is now well-rehearsed, mainstream majority opinion actually lies slightly to the Left on economic questions like spending, and to the Right on issues of identity and culture � the precise opposite of social and economic liberalism.

And from the effects of mass immigration and the reality of global trade policies to the consequences of widespread low pay, we have seen how technocratic impact assessments � held up like holy scripture by many so-called centrists � are skewed by the ideological assumptions of their authors and the choice and availability of datasets included.

There is rarely a single �correct� answer in politics. Yet the greatest achievement of liberalism is the pretence of its neutrality and inevitability: the breathtaking claim that liberalism alone represents the world as it naturally is, not the world it has created, and that liberalism alone has the answers that others simply cannot provide.

To contest this claim is not to say that there is no place for experts, nor that liberals must always be wrong. But the idea that there is no alternative to liberal, technocratic presumptions � to mass immigration, for example, global free trade, a rehabilitative not punitive criminal justice system, and more � is simply not true.

On Right and Left, the answers to our problems lie in breaking out of our ideological box, not locking ourselves even more tightly within it.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 06:51

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

He seems to be writing a love letter to western liberal individualism while vigorously shaking his fist and shouting "liberals!"

# ? Sep 11, 2023 07:09

The Question IRL: Jun 8, 2013; Only two contestants left! Here is Doom's chance for revenge...

thebardyspoon posted:

Cheers, that makes it a lot easier. I definitely wasn't going to not tell them but this makes me feel better that telling them will at least likely result in the outcome I'd prefer. Pretty annoying tbh cause I am relatively interested and usually 2 or 4 weeks wouldn't make a difference, this is just the first proper holiday I've had booked where I'm going somewhere else,for longer than a weekend in 15 years.

If you want to, you can make it clear to the court that you'd be happy to sit on a jury trial, just that you'd have to be finished by X date. They might just kick you off the long trial, but still have shorter trials that need jurors for.

If that's what you want.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 07:22

DesperateDan: Dec 10, 2005; Where's my cow?

Is that my cow?

No it isn't, but it still tramples my bloody lavender.

never forgetti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSyrFuAydD4

# ? Sep 11, 2023 07:30

Sanford: Jun 30, 2007; ...and rarely post!

Suella Braverman pushes for ban of �lethal� American bully XL dogs

I think it�s the first thing I�ve ever heard from her that doesn�t immediately make me recoil in disgust. I suggest she releases two dozen of said dogs into Conservative HQ to prove how dangerous they are.

Edit: and for once I am very not on side with the charities. Dogs Trust says the focus should be on �early intervention� to prevent dog bites, so as long as your insane and aggressive hound hasn�t bitten anyone before, go ahead and release it into a field of children.

Sanford fucked around with this message at 08:16 on Sep 11, 2023

# ? Sep 11, 2023 08:13

Kin: Nov 4, 2003; Sometimes, in a city this dirty, you need a real hero.

Sanford posted:

Suella Braverman pushes for ban of ‘lethal’ American bully XL dogs

I think it’s the first thing I’ve ever heard from her that doesn’t immediately make me recoil in disgust. I suggest she releases two dozen of said dogs into Conservative HQ to prove how dangerous they are.

Edit: and for once I am very not on side with the charities. Dogs Trust says the focus should be on “early intervention” to prevent dog bites, so as long as your insane and aggressive hound hasn’t bitten anyone before, go ahead and release it into a field of children.

She means ban in the same way as banning migrants by taking them from their owners and sticking them on the barges with the asylum seekers.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 08:18

Microplastics: Jul 6, 2007; It's what's for dinner.

Kin posted:

banning migrants by taking them from their owners

How surprisingly abolishonist of her

# ? Sep 11, 2023 08:24

Sir Sidney Poitier: Aug 14, 2006; My favourite actor

I say ban the cunts who own them as a status symbol. They'll just find another breed.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 08:31

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

It's interesting what breeds get painted as "bred to kill".

During WWI and the 1920s it was German Shepherds, post WW2 it was Rottweilers and Dobermann Pinschers. Now it seems to always be poorly defined American dog breeds.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 08:34

kecske: Feb 28, 2011; it's round, like always

look the problem is a lax system of checks and balances on the types of people who own dogs and not the dogs themselves, I say as I struggle to restrain my Child Eviscerator XL on his leash

# ? Sep 11, 2023 08:53

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

Sanford posted:

Suella Braverman pushes for ban of �lethal� American bully XL dogs

I think it�s the first thing I�ve ever heard from her that doesn�t immediately make me recoil in disgust. I suggest she releases two dozen of said dogs into Conservative HQ to prove how dangerous they are.

Edit: and for once I am very not on side with the charities. Dogs Trust says the focus should be on �early intervention� to prevent dog bites, so as long as your insane and aggressive hound hasn�t bitten anyone before, go ahead and release it into a field of children.

Should just ban dogs tbh you wouldn't own a wolf

# ? Sep 11, 2023 09:00

Nuclear Spoon: Aug 18, 2010; I want to cry out
but I don’t scream and I don’t shout
And I feel so proud
to be alive

forkboy84 posted:

Should just ban dogs tbh you wouldn't own a wolf

you don't know me

# ? Sep 11, 2023 09:01

DesperateDan: Dec 10, 2005; Where's my cow?

Is that my cow?

No it isn't, but it still tramples my bloody lavender.

forkboy84 posted:

Should just ban dogs tbh you wouldn't own a wolf

council won't let me

not even an ocelot or a lynx

# ? Sep 11, 2023 09:04

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

kecske posted:

look the problem is a lax system of checks and balances on the types of people who own dogs and not the dogs themselves, I say as I struggle to restrain my Child Eviscerator XL on his leash

That's more a problem that people have with Boxers and Bullmastiffs, which were part of the moral dog panic in the 70s but nobody cares now.

Maybe they should bring back the Victorian era panic where it was scent hounds that were bred by malefactors to mercilessly stalk the innocent across forest and fell.

forkboy84 posted:

Should just ban dogs tbh you wouldn't own a wolf

That depends if he's a very good boy who's a good boy

# ? Sep 11, 2023 09:04

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

Fun and not totally predictable story from The Guardian

Voter ID in England lead to racial and disability discrimination, report finds

The authors found that �polling clerks are more likely to fail to compare a photo ID to the person presenting that document if the person is of a different ethnicity�.

They also highlighted the case of Andrea Barratt, who is immunocompromised and was blocked from entering a polling booth after refusing to remove her mask for an identification check.

The report says: �Their decision in that instance was � clearly discriminatory (and potentially unlawful) because they denied Andrea Barratt the right to cast a ballot purely on the basis of circumstances which arose as a direct result of a disability.�

# ? Sep 11, 2023 09:08

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

They should make it the law that if you pull out an uno reverse card then the polling official has to show you their photo ID instead.

Any complaints that this is "stupid as all poo poo" should be judged against the stupidity of the original law, by way of precedent.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 09:13

Bobby Deluxe: May 9, 2004

Guavanaut posted:

He seems to be writing a love letter to western liberal individualism while vigorously shaking his fist and shouting "liberals!"

That's the thing about political ideologies; there's the strictly defined ideology (what is a liberal*), and then there's the practical effects of how someone with that ideology will tend to behave.** And a lot of people are able to dodge the latter by clinging to the former.

* a miserable pile of compromises

**

# ? Sep 11, 2023 09:39

Mega Comrade: Apr 22, 2004; Listen buddy, we all got problems!

Guavanaut posted:

It's interesting what breeds get painted as "bred to kill".

During WWI and the 1920s it was German Shepherds, post WW2 it was Rottweilers and Dobermann Pinschers. Now it seems to always be poorly defined American dog breeds.

People were screaming for the Staffordshire bull terrier to be banned a couple years ago. Now the number of incidents linked to them has fallen despite their ownership numbers barely moving. Its now the Bully XL that has caught the Daily Mails eye.
It was Rottweilers and dobermans when I was growing up that was the evil dog breed.

There are certain types of owners who want strong powerful breeds and want them to act aggressive. You can't solve that problem with a banned breed list.

I don't know what the answer is but I agree with the RSPCA that the banned list is ineffective.

I'm biased though, I own this child gobler
https://i.imgur.com/arb2Glt.mp4

Mega Comrade fucked around with this message at 09:58 on Sep 11, 2023

# ? Sep 11, 2023 09:50

keep punching joe: Jan 22, 2006; Die Satan!

Ban all dogs that aren't goofy labrador retrievers IMHO.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 09:51

smellmycheese: Feb 1, 2016

A day when this poignant and moving video should be watched by all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4difPEQ8wA4

# ? Sep 11, 2023 09:53

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

Mega Comrade posted:

People were screaming for the Staffordshire bull terrier to be banned a couple years ago. Now the number of incidents linked to them has fallen despite their ownership numbers barely moving. Its now the Bully XL that has caught the Daily Mails eye.
It was Rottweilers and dobermans when I was growing up that was the evil dog breed.

There are certain types of owners who want strong powerful breeds and want them to act aggressive. You can't solve that problem with a banned breed list.

I don't know what the answer is but I agree with the RSPCA that the banned list is ineffective.

I've been bitten more by annoying little yappy dogs that were bred to chase hares and foxes for toffs than by pitbull and similar dogs.

Honestly, a lot of people shouldn't be allowed to own dogs, because they are too lazy or cruel or stupid or whatever. The breed is less the problem than the people.

Although I'm all in favour of banning the musician Pitbull

# ? Sep 11, 2023 09:58

History Comes Inside!: Nov 20, 2004

I live on a street where there aren�t any front gardens and for some reason the Royal Mail insisted that my next door neighbour have an external letterbox thing put in otherwise they wouldn�t deliver to them anymore, due to them owning a staffie.

I could understand it if they had a front garden where they let the dog roam and it could freely maul posties to death (even though they�re more likely to just get dribbled on to death because she�s a massive soft lump), but this was apparently just out of nowhere one day.

I didn�t even know they could do that in the first place tbh. So now they have all their letters delivered into a postbox about 2 feet to the left and in line with their actual letterbox.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 10:06

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

The Well Trained Dogs Act. You have to be either able to show your dog is well trained (eg responds to commands, not excessively aggressive, etc) or you are actively attending dog training. If your dog is reported as an issue and fails an obedience test then you have a defined period to attend classes and pass a retest, or you lose the dog.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 10:10

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

At least German Shepherds and Dobermanns look like they could leap over a fence and take a chunk out of you at any time, they're big and athletic and have long muzzles and a cultural history with prisons and security that might make people scared of them.

Every modern dog fear in the Mail looks like a sourdough loaf with little bow legs.

Mega Comrade posted:

I'm biased though, I own this child gobler
https://i.imgur.com/arb2Glt.mp4

# ? Sep 11, 2023 10:14

Jippa: Feb 13, 2009

Coincidentally I saw this on the local news just a day or so ago.

Content Warning: Dog attack/ Don't click unless you want to be depressed.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 10:15

smellmycheese: Feb 1, 2016

Another point is that, based on my personal experience at Battersea, 90% of the dogs you will see there are bull terriers of one sort or jack Russell�s, having a miserable time before eventually being destroyed - or they will be destroyed immediately upon showing any aggression because you can�t rehome aggressive dogs. Dog shelters are filled with these things - abandoned by lovely owners and unwanted for rehoming

# ? Sep 11, 2023 10:20

SpaceCommie: Oct 2, 2008; I'm escaping to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by Capitalism ...

SPACE!

Jippa posted:

Coincidentally I saw this on the local news just a day or so ago.

Content Warning: Dog attack/ Don't click unless you want to be depressed.

You might click the spoiler and see the photo and think the content warning is a joke (like I did). It isn't.

A friend of mine got a Rottweiler recently and she's just a giant softie who wants to lick everyone's face. COVID did make it harder to socalise her properly and she's nipped me occasionally (I've got a scar across the back of my ankle from when I first met her as a puppy) but they've been working hard on training her and she's so much better than she was. I had two terriers when I was younger and saw them both mauled by the neighbour's labrador and retriever (they survived). After that one got incredibly shy and the other would growl and snap at anyone except my Mum.

No bad dogs, only bad owners and all that.

SpaceCommie fucked around with this message at 10:37 on Sep 11, 2023

# ? Sep 11, 2023 10:21

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

smellmycheese posted:

or jack Russell�s

Yeah Jack Russells are behind the majority of all dog bite attacks that require first aid and/or hospital visit, but somehow never end up on the tabloid bred2kill list.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 10:26

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Mega Comrade posted:

People were screaming for the Staffordshire bull terrier to be banned a couple years ago. Now the number of incidents linked to them has fallen despite their ownership numbers barely moving. Its now the Bully XL that has caught the Daily Mails eye.
It was Rottweilers and dobermans when I was growing up that was the evil dog breed.

There are certain types of owners who want strong powerful breeds and want them to act aggressive. You can't solve that problem with a banned breed list.

I don't know what the answer is but I agree with the RSPCA that the banned list is ineffective.

I'm biased though, I own this child gobler
https://i.imgur.com/arb2Glt.mp4

The disappointment at expecting a belly-rub and yet being denied one is palpable.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 10:29

Marmaduke!: May 19, 2009; Why would it do that!?

Indeed, my sister was attacked by her own Jack Russell who bit her face, ended up in hospital.

Pablo Bluth posted:

The Well Trained Dogs Act. You have to be either able to show your dog is well trained (eg responds to commands, not excessively aggressive, etc) or you are actively attending dog training. If your dog is reported as an issue and fails an obedience test then you have a defined period to attend classes and pass a retest, or you lose the dog.

Without a functional enforcement process none of this will ever make a difference though :/

# ? Sep 11, 2023 10:32

JoylessJester: Sep 13, 2012

Dog owners 2 most used phrases:

"Oh don't worry he's just being friendly, he doesn't bite"

and

"oh my god He's never done that before!!!"

# ? Sep 11, 2023 10:47

sebzilla: Mar 17, 2009; Kid's blasting everything in sight with that new-fangled musket.

My dog is such a big soft idiot he managed to be attacked by a sheep last week. We were walking through a sheep field (on lead of course) and one wandered over and gave him a sniff, I was getting ready to take a picture because I thought it was cute but then it butted him over and we had to hustle out through the gate.

Roy you are supposed to be a sheep dog, what went wrong? He's also scared of rain despite being from Wales.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 10:47

Pantsmaster Bill: May 7, 2007

Anecdotally in our local area, the people with the least control over their dogs are the ones with cockapoos or similar. Tearing around the place with no control, no recall and jumping up at people and bothering other dogs. But they get away with it because they�re small.

My partner is a dog behaviourist and their most common issue currently is with cockapoos and cavapoos with aggression and resource guarding.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 11:08

Roller Coast Guard: Aug 27, 2006; With this magnificent aircraft,
and my magnificent facial hair,
the British Empire will never fall!

Labeling a particular breed a "dangerous dog" just makes them more attractive to the kind of dog owner who treats their dog as a penis extension rather than a pet and family member.

# ? Sep 11, 2023 11:09

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# ? May 25, 2024 06:17

Jakabite: Jul 31, 2010

Can we please not become the US though, where people aren�t allowed to have their dogs off leash anywhere but a �dog park� whatever that is

oh no a Labrador came and sniffed me how will I survive

# ? Sep 11, 2023 11:19

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > UKMT Autumn 2023 - Things have got worse.

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