Col: You may be a reasonably nice bloke yet you do come over as an arrogant, know-all boor.

You make very nasty comments about others at the same time get most upset if any one does the same to you.

As I have said before, I would strongly suggest that you begin taking your medication once again.

I find myself feeling sorry for you actually.(this is not meant to be, I think what is termed a flame, if I have used the wrong terminology you can 'get me' col. numbat

Numbat

One has to wonder at someone who believes he/she is presenting cogent argument while peppering his/her posts with invective and insults. Check out the insults I received for my post in Clive Hamilton’s article at http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=3715#13113

all I did was announce that I had lost my job. I received a stream of unwarranted insults. I do not wish them deleted as I prefer Col’s true nature to be on display. Therefore, it is not necessary to respond to Col's invective with insults of your own - he/she brings about his/her own disparagement.

I disagree with many (not all) of Col's arguments as they are not compatible with human nature - we are social creatures, we are successful as a species due to our ability to cooperate with one another. We are intelligent enough to know that we do harm if we do not assist each other. Col's 'survival of the fittest' ideology works only in extreme circumstances (eg War). For us to socially evolve requires cooperation not coercion. While there will always be a minority who will milk any form of welfare, it is not just to punish the majority who wish to work and who wish to contribute to our society.

I have no doubt that I will receive a stream of invective questioning my intelligence and abilities - or can Col actually engage in civilised debate?

Numbat I note the first thing you said when you initiated statement exchanges with me was

“Col Rouge: What arrant nonsense you spouted in your donation to this discussion.”

And now you go on like some pious priest, full of righteousness and who has never expressed a harsh word with suggestions that

“You make very nasty comments about others at the same time get most upset if any one does the same to you.”

I would suggest before you bother trying to admonish me, you look to yourself and humbly beg apology from the other posters for your own tendency to “come over as an arrogant, know-all boor.” (another expression which you have just used in your flaming attacks).

You might as well get this straight right here and now –

I respond in a manner I see fit, based on how people address me.

Hence whilst I disagree with many posters here on a range of topics, I do not get down and dirty with them (for example – Timkins and I disagreed recently on the matter of abortion, yet he did not denigrate me with personal attack and I did not use anything but objective argument in any response to him).

However, weasels like you who come out with “What arrant nonsense you spouted in your donation to this discussion.”” just do not understand why I respond with what is less than “politically correct”.

You are so arrogant – you just cannot see it – your pious selfrighteousness must be choking.

So I suggest, if you wish to avoid the sharper side of my vocabulary, you exercise some restraint with your own posts and stop behaving like an absolute hypocrite.

Trinity – more whine

A little while ago I was told of a worker in a large corporate company who was given the sack.

No gentle let down, no political correctness, no offer of counselling. The management didn't fulfill their responsibility to assist the worker find work elsewhere in the company (thereby fulfilling the their contract). The worker was laid off because of a restucture. By all accounts, the worker was a conscientious person and a competent worker. The management left the worker with no hope.

The worker, who was in their late twenties, walked out of the room and later jumped to their death.

Apparently, there have been other tragedies like this elsewhere in the country in that organisation.

In these times where the third-world lifestyle is just a few lost pay days away for some, where collecting the dole is seen as some sort of crime - there is a great need for folk to treat those in dire situations with utmost respect. I thought that was firmly embedded in the Australian tradition of mateship

Col: Go on give me a giggle lets have the sharper side of your vocabulary - please. numbat

I have come to the conclusion that few people understand the realities faced by some people in finding work.
For example - the seriously mentally ill.

The disability support pension supposedly exists for those who are too sick to work. The reality is that many mentally ill people simply cannot get the DSP. They have to be able to apply - and for some this is not possible in the state they are in. Secondly, to apply one must have a treating doctor that knows you well enough to fill in the treating doctor's paperwork - unfortunately, many of the mentally do not have a treating doctor at all - or only has someone who sees them occasionally.

Then there is all of centrelink's ridiculous criteria that are designed for physical disabilities and are extremely difficult to apply to psychiatric disabilities. Eg a psychiatrist may admit that there is a chance a person may be able to return to work within two years - however, they are not really given a chance to emphasize that while they may be able to work, that it may only be for a short time.

If a person is rejected for the disability pension, then they are left with few options. Most are forced on to newstart or youth allowance, requiring them look for work or have their payment cut off. Many are too ill to even look for work and are punished for it.

A big problem is that most people assume that if a person is not receiving the pension that they must automatically be able to work - they cannot conceive the reality that centrelink denies the pension to many very ill people who cannot work. Because assume a person is able to work, anyone who doesn't is a "bludger".

So, unfortunately for a large group of people who are unable to work, they are firstly punished by being denied the welfare they deserve and then further punished by ignorant people who call them bludgers.

this is the society we live in - where the most vulnerable are punished and forgotten.