Dear SPQR,

You're entitled to imagine whatever you want.
Wherever your fantasy takes you about me.
I wouldn't dream of trying to correct or
stop you old chap.
I'm too busy being fabulous.

Hi there STEELEREDUX...

I reckon you should calm down a bit ol' man ? It appears you're getting a little bit animated, all because other people are expressing an opinion that's apparently antithetical to yours ? I've always held the view, regardless how spirited a discussion may've become, at the end of it all, you're a reasonably composed, measured gentleman ?

However, in response to my rather minuscule, and relatively innocuous piece you've stridently alleged, that I've said something along the lines of;
'...banging on with my mates on how little esteem I hold for indigenous people...' and later, '...you're going to sort me out, or summon security...' ?

I'd not expect you to become quite so aggressive old fella ? I realise I've not read all the threads thus far, but someone has obviously pressed your buttons STEELEREDUX ? Is it because, you're pained, at the apparent loss of the point you've attempted to make, and you now feel a little impotent in terms that, you'd dearly like to grab one the vocal protagonists amongst the dissenters, and give them a good flogging, is that it STEELEREDUX ?

Perhaps a nice cup of tea or coffee, might just be the elixir or tincture of choice that'll soothe a bruised ego ?

Dear o sung wu,

At first glance I did not have a single clue what you were talking about but on a second reading I get it. I am about to head out to a dinner but had to reply to correct the record.

The 'you' I was referring to was not an o sung wu you, (as neat as that sounds) by purely me putting a scenario.

I will state for the record I have not seen you pen derogatory comments about our indigenous folk and do not regard you as having racist views in this regard. Indeed you might recall me confessing to that sort of behaviour in my own youth.

The reason why I raised that scenario to you was because of the legal/enforcement implications. Police have the power to address those who use profanities in public places. Racist inflammatory remarks made in public and directed at minorities should be actionable.

As the Sen-Constable said "As a multicultural society, we should take a very dim view of this sort of behaviour."

But I am going to acknowledge my words have been taken by you in a context that was not my intention. I apologise to you for any distress they may have caused and will endeavour to be more concise in the future.

Kind regards,

Steeleredux

SteeleRedux "What use to be an interesting place of fairly civil discussion has turned into trench warfare."

You mean a place of mutual progressive arse-kissing has been taken over by the enemy.
Poor baby.

Expect the same in society at large.
We are winning. You are losing.
Your ludicrous experiment was doomed to fail, sooner or later.

As o sung wu says "the more you compel people, the greater the resistance will become."

Your kind has been push, push, pushing multi down our throats for decades.
This creates a backlash, resistance, hostility.
You see this and push, push, push a little more.

Our throats can't take any more. We're throwing it all back up.

You don't need state *laws* controlling speech for the footy security to act.
That depends on the policies of those running the stadium.

"Why are they different? One word – Kristallnacht."

Is this a response to another thread?
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=6323&page=0

I have no idea what point you're making.
Kristallnacht is the worst thing in history, eh (before the Holocaust)?

Steele,
All acts of vandalism and graffiti are to be condemmed. Like you, I am a bigot who thinks such should not be tolerated. There are many things in our society we should be intolerant about. I will not tolerate thieves, murderers, rapists, extortionists or home invaders for example. Nor the bribers and gate crashers that invade our country and gain illegal entry, then lie to our officials. Don't you agree that we should not tolerate them?

Foxy,
You said, "People who are in denial about racism in this country
are simply ignorant. Lets look at the facts - we imprison
brown asylum seekers, we once celebrated our national day
with a white racist riot. There were assaults on Indian
students, a little political organisation called
One Nation, and of course "the intervention" - the heraldic
beak on our long hawkish treatment of Indigenous Australians".

Very impressive list of 'facts', except they are not factual evidence of racism. For a librarian your concept of racism appears to be way off course. Perhaps you need a new dictionary.

Can you show evidence of racism and please do not quote Phillip Adams or New Matilda?

Dear rehctub,

I agree with you that Muslims are discriminated against
because of their religion. I don't think anyone is
disputing that fact. However in our democratic society
it should not be acceptable to point to any religion
as the basis of prejudice and discrimination. And what
the critics of Islam ignore is the behaviour of other
religions and concentrate on attacking Muslims because
this plays well in the current political environment.
They largely seem to ignore what Christians and others do.

Here's an interesting article that gives food for thought:

http://theconversation.com/its-not-just-islam-most-religions-are-discriminatory-13817