SAJO... of course you should have an opinion..

I don't know what your 'shouldn't have an opinion' came from but maybe it was my '"maybe we should keep this thread 'men only'" ?
I wasn't serious there, I was alluding to the idea that maybe females would not 'get' the mental processes that go on in males on this issue, unless they do so in a clinical manner with reference to some psychology theory. I personally honestly do not understand some female mental processes, but would be totally lost without them.

I would not recommend boxing unless it was very well supervised, used the correct sparring equipment, and limited the number of actual bouts to a bare minimum. The techniques are more important than a ring track record. Other forms of self defence usually involve some offensive moves 'should they be neccessary'. Boxing, when viewed as 'self defense' is basically about disabling your opponent quickly to prevent attack. A person intent on harming you will not cease such an attack just because you get him in a headlock or something, he needed to be disabled temporarily. Boxing is very useful for this and with the right technique, 2 well place punches are sufficient.

PEDANT. picky picky picky :) what a nagger.. ok.. I CONFESS.. when others were enoying the delights of 'Shelly and Tennyson' I was in the machine shop :)

Point of order though. (my turn to be pedantic) We cannot 'separate' "love the Lord your God etc" from "Looking after ones family" because the second is a consequence/result of the first.
Or.. perhaps more accurately, they are inseparable-and-gotogether, (like that word) A bit like James 'faith without works is dead' teaching.

Umm Pedant, may I ask, do you have a personal faith in Christ ? and if so, which tradition are u involved in ?

BOAZ_David,

Guilty as charged re pickiness ;-)

And I STILL don't agree that a man has some "special" Biblical job to look after his household and that it's the most important thing in the Bible. In fact, every person has a "special" Biblical job to look after every other person, it's called "love your neighbour" [and neighbour includes enemies] and this is considered the second most important thing after loving God. It's got nothing to do with whether one is male or female. So yes, "love your family", is important, but it CAN be separated because it is not as important as loving God and loving everybody. And I WON'T stop telling you that you're wrong regarding this fixed nature of the male idea.... you can keep calling me a nagger it doesn't bother me cause I have a warm smug pedantic glow tee hee ;-)

For an example look at Matthew 12:46-50: "While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.". He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?". Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.". Regarding your question, I'm a Christian.

Regarding the Macquarie Fields riots:

Of course the rioting stopped when the police left, that is because in the absence of the police all the anti-social types who had been attacking the police could resume their normal criminal and anti-social activities, like car theft, burglary and vandalism, which is what triggered the riot in the first place.

Whistle, by your reference to "The police were well armoured against damage by rocks thrown at them" you implying that the people throwing the rocks were just playing and that the police had nothing to fear.

May I challenge you to put standard police riot gear on and then let some fit young thugs throw half bricks at you? I daresay that you would not enjoy the experience.

Maybe you would like having a molotov cocktail explode at your feet spraying burning petrol in the spaces between the armour, or just under your face mask?

Or maybe you would consider it okay for your car to be stolen by someone who is a serial offender?

Or have you also forgotten that a police vehicle was attacked by 'young offenders' with chlorine bombs right outsode the Macquarie Fields police station?

The Police were not responsible for the riot, they were doing what the rest of the law abiding community were expecting them to do.

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