Well. Say something to my last you grubs.

I'd especially like to hear from the Premier about this one; inputs from statistics.
If I was lucky enough to be the Queensland Caesar, I'd import one thousand elephants, let them wander the streets of BrisBore and have put to death any householder who let them be drowned in their swimming pools.
Mind you, if Bligh did that there might be another issue about the disappearance of coconuts - with no Christian to blame.

Come on. What is this?
Is there no one out there with a sense of humour or understanding of history - or has Jughead, Teacup, or whatever, driven them elsewhere?

A NON FARMER:

So you want a response from us "grubs" do you?

What about a suggestion that attitudes of people like yourself are
classic reasons why the citizens of Australia are gradually having all their rights and freedoms gradually eliminated, and totalitarian would-be "Politicians" (and that`s using the term loosely) are implementing more ways of bastardizing the community after each and every Election!

You seem to think that an individual is a "grub" for speaking out about an issue that he or she considers to be wrong,....in this case the issue is simply the gradual transferrance and removal of personal responsibility away from parents with regard to the behaviour and resultant safety of their offspring,...MEANING that these same children are now placed "at risk" from the many and varied dangers that exist, and have always existed within the confines of our society!

I reiterate that my wife and I have raised four children ( all now in their fifties ) without any of the modern day pampering and financial
handouts that do little or nothing to instill responsibility in these new generations. Our children were taught to swim very early in life ( swimming is "staying alive in the water") and were educated to the many and varied risks that could threaten their well-being as they progressed through life,.....THIS IS A BASIC RESPONSIBILTY OF SOUND PARENTHOOD!

Children will unfortunately and sadly continue to drown, regardless of the protective measures in place,....this is the fatal attraction of water to a child....the answer is to teach them to SWIM at as young an age as possible, (as is advocated by Lawrie Lawrence), or until that time the parents SHOULD exercise full control and be aware of the exact wherabouts of their offspring at ALL TIMES!

Teaching a child to swim involves some time and input from parents, who themselves in some cases cannot be bothered, thus we have a child or children placed physically and morally "at risk" by the abrogation of that/those parents personal responsibilty in accepting one of their necessities in the life of their children....to learn to swim!

Foxy,

'And if bringing in these laws will mean saving even
one child's life - won't it be worth it?'

In this case. Possibly.

But in general I object to that sort of emotional plea of 'save the children' to argue everything. I'm wondering how far as a society we will go to protect against any risk to children, or any risk at all really. There are many examples where the richness and fullness of life have been scewered by those with an unhealthy attitude to risk.

Like it or not, a lot of things in life that are risky are also fun. A lot of things in life are risky for very few people and fun for very many people. I see a strong trend to always protect the few at the expense of fun for the many. It leads to a sterile, boring, cocooned society who cant accept that death, or fear of death is part of life. I don't want to live in a world where kids aren't allowed to climb trees because it might hurt the tree, or they might fall and hurt themselves.

Why not learn to read?
In 1980 I wrote a treatise to the Royal College of Surgeons that resulted in Queensland motorcyclists having the right to wear black helmets. God knows why I bothered because black fibreglass gets hot in the noon sun!
I used an argument then, mirroring the argument I used in this thread - Reductio ad absurdum. - Go google its meaning, please.

Back then the surgeons insisted they wanted to interfere with the rights of motorists by making a fair proportion of them look like modern traffic cops - flashing lights - day glo vests, you name it.
To sum it up some surgeon dill had a gripe against some biker and wanted to make it stick because he believed he could.
I proved him wrong.

My argument was if some idiot on a Harley wasn't already bloody obvious enough crashing his aggressive way through traffic - then what in hell's chance would a kid, or 'titzwobble the pet poodle' have negotiating the road. Furthermore with all the additional sensory overload - how would the reasonably proficient driver get to see potholes, nails dropped planks and the like in time to avoid them?
In short - if one is stupid enough to regulate society to act like a swarm of Lemmings - then they surely will.
Now I have written, and written again trying to get you lot to read some sense or at least ignite your self interest.
But all is lost. You already act like a swarm of Lemmings!
I'll write to Ms Bligh this weekend and ask for Monday as D-Day.
I understand the 1000 feral elephants will be seeking out suburban pools before Xmas day.

My Dear Cuphandle,
In your last I could hear your pride having survived well and having raised your four.
There are many things I could say about forty to fifty years ago being a better time to raise kids than now.
I happen to know because I was one of them.
I can remember some of the things we had to survive like one or two of your generation plinking at us with the farm self-loading 22. (as it turns out my 'Ging' was more powerful and more accurate.)
Anyway - all strength and long life to you on that score since we both survived
.
It does however amuse me to find your interpretation of my intentions as being in support of the decline of our liberties. There you do have it very wrong.
When one is forced to address corruption in the modern state, then 'one' is usually the loser.
I say this assuming that you too have had enough of the 'bullsh' of mindless further legislation.
God's sake - even Beattie had to run away from that futility - but on the well founded 'Tiberius Principle' chose a successor who inevitably continued the same.
Why don't we get into that issue together?

But perhaps I'm talking over y'r head?
Space is limited so we have to use these slogans - but please let me know.

A NON FARMER:

If you would like to check back over my many and varied submissions to this Forum, you would see that there is a general underlying
indication that I am opposed to any form of increased control over our civil rights and liberties as we are being drawn inexorably toward a totalitarian "Big Brother-1984" (New World Order) type of society!

I cannot and will not gracefully accept that this country has been gradually changed from a situation of being as close to paradise in the 1950`s, to what we are now seeing around us in this so-called "brave new world" where the greed for money and power rules supreme, as each individual is forced, due to economic circumstance, to battle and scheme to obtain his or her niche in life!

We are now witnessing the emerging reality of Capitalism as it suffers it`s own fate of too much for too long, with the ensuing meltdown that no amount of the injection of Monopoly money can
prevent....This has been coming for a long time and the warning lights have been flashing, but the greed-mongers have been blinded by the glinting of the gold bars!

We have recently witnessed a spate of Police shootings, where the offenders have been shot to death! Nobody asks why these so-called guardians of the law are such poor shots that they cannot shoot to wound the offender, however the you may have noticed that the "relatively harmless" Tazers will be phased in for the New Year!
Maybe we should be issuing the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq with these new Tazers to prevent "collateral damage" (the deaths of innocent civilians)?

Thankfully I will NOT be around in another 50 years, and will not have to live like a rat in a cage, devoid of all thought and feeling, save for what is implanted in the brain by our new ever-caring masters of the universe!