SPQR wrote: "Isn’t funny how every time you scratch the vanish off a asylum scammer sympathizer and get down to the heartwood (riddled with dry-rot and worms) you find a deep disdain for the West, esp. the US!"

My comment that the US has a high crime rate /prison population is fact and it is probable that this is related to social inequities. This does not mean I have 'deep disdain' for the West. I just have balanced view: all human and human societies are mixed, including Western societies. Identifying and analysing problems in your own society as well as others is a first step towards finding solutions.

None of my posts contain the personal abuse like that I've been receiving, and which I've commented on before. (I apologise for the implications of the words wishy-washy and do-gooders). I would take different opinions much more seriously if they weren't wrapped up in rudeness and sarcasm. Basically, when you resort to such tactics you undermine your argument.

Cossomby,

You're a class act.

It's rather refreshing on a thread like this.

: )

The new Immigration Minister Tony Burke and PM Rudd have both said that the previous policies of the Labor/greens government were wrong.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1785366/Labor%27s-past-stance-on-offshore-processing-was-wrong:-Burke

Foreign Minister Carr and the PM have commented on economic migrants, in fact illegal migrants, who abuse the system and deny refugees a fair go. Economic migrants have shoved refugees out of the queue. Down to the criminal act of putting children on boats to win family reunification later.

Aren't the priorities to put refugees first and destroy the business model of the criminal gangs involved in people smuggling?

The odd man out is Sarah Hyphen-Young of the feckless Greens Protest Party, who are putting politics ahead of helping refugees and preventing deaths at sea. That is no surprise because the Greens have frustrated Labor all the way along.

When will the Greens be held accountable?

Cossomby,

It is a little hard to take you seriously. From your very first post on this thread you had already formed the view that only one side in this debate could sin:
<<I have pretty much given up on The Forum because of the unpleasant language - it's one thing to have different opinions, quite another to insult and belittle those who disagree with you. My advice to Suzie,Lexi, Paul etc. - just stop posting and leave>>

The implication in these lines is very clearly that Suzie,Lexi [&] Paul had never used insults or and belittlement --either you hadn't read their previous posts (on this and other threads), or you read them with only one eye open.

<<I would take different opinions much more seriously if they weren't wrapped up in rudeness and sarcasm>>
Well, I have long since moved on from the naive belief that anything I might write on this forum will change any of my opponents views.
And, when someone is told that the Refugee Convention is NOT an avenue for economic migration and then tries to twist-things-six-ways-to-Sunday to make it so <<What's wrong with economic migrants?...The ones who sit around patiently in a refugee camp for decades>>
Even the most saintly among us tends to lose patience.

And as for this statement:
<<there's a more than could be said re robbing Fort Knox - eg why the US has such a high crime/imprisonment rate - extremes of poverty, class and race>>
Did I misread your meaning/intent? It's possible.I am so used to seeing similar as a lead in to the standard diatribe about white racism and white privilege --and all the other evils that only whites can exhibit that I assumed it was another.

Only time will tell. If you stick around to post -- in an unguarded moment, among like posters-- my early call might still be shown to be correct.

Cheers

sounds like Cossomby is having a hissy fit.

Last two posts - just prove my point.