When it failed, they've decided to bring in someone else, in preparation. — Agustino

In preparation for what? You had already said you had left for good before we took Hanover on. We didn't expect you to come crawling back into our warm embrace. (L) ;)

Second the motion. Never liked this blue theme either...

Gotcha.

Don't know. Can we fire him for laziness @jamalrob?

Don't expect an answer to any question that puts me in the position of having to compliment Hanover..

Danish?? I'm Irish. Maybe you mean Benkei who's Dutch and no longer a mod. Anyway 5:3 Europe : Non-Europe. Not a huge imbalance, I'd say.

We need to introduce tutorials or something now that we're getting all diverse and stuff. ;)

Why was Hanover given moderator powers? Has he even used them? — Heister Eggcart

I wouldn't worry. Up until today he didn't even know how to delete a post.

Ha Ha Ha! And when was Hanover made a mod? Exactly when I left. To be able to give a flimsy reason like this that no one actually believes. — Agustino

Well, we can't win then can we? If we don't bring on more mods with different perspectives, we lack diversity; if we do, it's just a ploy to trick people into thinking we want more diversity. Well, let us know when you finally figure out what you want. Cheers. (Y)

Because philosophers and those interested in philosophy such as you would find on a philosophy forum tend to be less religious than the general public. If you did a poll of the members on this forum, for example, I would expect most members to declare themselves lacking in religious conviction.

Well, to answer your point, not all the mods are lefty. Most are irreligious I guess although I can't speak for all. But then that's hardly a surprise on a philosophy forum is it?

all the mods appear to be irreligious lefties — Thorongil

@Hanover is an irreligious lefty?...Maybe there is hope for our relationship yet! (Y)

(And note the irony of you accusing someone else of "Playing the victim much"!)

Apparently I can't answer TimeLine, but she gets to slander me in public, no repercussions. — Agustino

I deleted your last post directed at her and her last post directed at you. Seems fair to me.

Right, make a note of it, and start doing it now. That's exactly what you did with me. — Agustino

? Your posts had no political content. One started with:

LOOOOOOOL >:O >:O Playing the victim much?
... — Agustino

and the other with:

Sappy, first delete that 1GB of porn on your computer, close your subscription to NaughtyAmerica, and live without masturbation for 21 days, and then let's talk again... — Agustino

So, as amusing as your accusations are, all you need to really do is grow up and follow the posting guidelines.

I haven't noticed Baden ever picking on right-wingers just for being right-wing — jamalrob

Ironic hearing that coming from Thorongil, one of the site's major right wingers who I never even remember moderating. Although I think his comment was directled at the mod team in general. When was the last time you think you were moderated for being right wing @Thorongil?

I suggest the solution to issues like this in future is simple @Agustino, stay on topic.

I've now deleted Noble Dust's comments too by the way as they're also replies to your deleted comment.

A short personal argument may be tolerated in a discussion but if it goes on too long, it's going to be cut off. — Baden

Isn't the answer obvious? Send a PM. A short personal argument may be tolerated in a discussion but if it goes on too long, it's going to be cut off. I deleted Timeline's last response to you too. The difference being that she immediately understood why and didn't complain about it.

May I know the reason for their removal? — Agustino

Two I remember deleting. The continuation of the argument against Timeline was deleted for being off-topic and derailing. The joke in the pornography discussion was deleted for being gratuitously lengthy and inane. Don't expect a lengthy debate on every routine moderating decision by the way. Your constant attention seeking is boring. And I have better things to do.

O:) (Y)

So, are we at the core of Jesus's teaching yet? (Compare and contrast.)

Blow-Up: And other stories - Julio Cortazar

Stephen Fry was very recently investigated for blasphemy in Ireland. He could have faced a criminal prosecution. Thankfully the case was dropped as "not enough people were outraged" and the law stipulates widespread outrage as a prerequisite for an infringement having taken place. Unfortunately, therein lies the difference.

Hanover's senile blatherings have got me worried. As a solution, can we make the writing on the card VERY big. I guess Medicare will take care of the rest. (Oh, and feel free to punch him if you think that will help).

I'm a bit confused now. Has Hanover funded a cancer ward or opened a soup kitchen or what? And I take it due to age and infirmity he's retiring? We don't really do gold watches...Can someone just send him a card or something? And make the writing nice and big so he can read it. Cheers (Y)

I'm pretty sure he meant the bit about not coming back. In which case the horse has bolted, and there's not much point playing around with the stable door.

Only it's not. The French for "simplicity" is "simplicité". This is possibly why @Bitter Crank prefaced his claim with "How's your French Hanover"? ;)

Well Robert, in terms of your answer, which while the contrary of which would have been more of a welcome alternative on which I was hoping to, so to speak, lay my fingers - fingers which I may add have been, while not exactly at the ready for such an occasion, at least to some degree anticipatory of becoming engaged in the activity of responsiveness - I nevertheless acquiesce to your acquiescence of the situation at hand, which does show on your part some level of - if not exactly acceptance of our justifications of the case - an understanding at least of the nature of its mutual intransigence from our respective viewpoints.

In short, good luck.

(And no, "simplicitude" is not a word, but maybe stick a fiver on her for the next National! ;))

I wouldn't like you to leave on bad terms like that, particularly as I don't think the issue is necessarily intractable. To me it seems to be mostly that you are not considering the reader when you write. With an OP, the idea is to clearly express an idea for others to grapple with. And your style has not been conducive to that. It's not like the Shoutbox where little is at stake and posters are fairly free to self-indulge. For example, few seem to appreciate and even fewer understand quine's cryptic comments there, but we don't moderate them because there's nothing at stake - there isn't a coherent discussion that the comments need to give birth to. But with an OP, that development is the whole point, and if you confuse people too much, it's unlikely to take place. As a result, the discussion is likely to get deleted. To put it another way, your style tends to obscure your meaning, which is the opposite of what is expected in a good OP. That expectation is not going to change, so in order to write a successful OP, you would have to modify your style.

Have you tried more than one browser?

There's lots of "evidence" of witchcraft, sorcery and magic from various sources from the end of the middle ages right up until the present where these beliefs still pervade less developed countries in Africa and elsewhere. In these cases, the Catholic church have often been on the "right" side of the equation because they have had an obvious interest in divesting people of traditional paganistic beliefs. Of course, they have also had an interest in replacing this natural thirst for the supernatural with their own version in the form of "miracles". So, I don't see any reason to take these reports seriously. The claim "it's a miracle" is just a stand in for "it's unexplained", and the more scientific ignorance shrinks the more the world of "miracles" does.

Car saleswoman in a showroom :) And thanks! More shall I inflict on ye anon. ;)

True story!

When I Looked Upon a Car

Oh, prim witch, can you not uncrack your smile to make a sale? Your fault-lined face jagged and spiked. Did no one oil you up today? The clickings in your head buzz dry. What inner static stiffs you so?

(Why did I come here anyway? All metal and wheels and shine. Suffer me the steel-laden air...)

But wait, Judge Jaded, my inner wretch, what causes this riff, this nasty bass? As if her face forever frowned. But maybe, in a lick of light, a change of mood could take her flight and we’d cheery talk of life gone spare, words a-bounce like tennis balls, we’d float a sea with salty tales, we’d bang our heads on wordy walls, and spin the breeze ‘til it sucked us up, and off to Kansas in a tick ‘til Oz surrenders and we crack the whip. There’s no place like...

….this model though we only have white or black unless you’re...
...over 5 years but the interest would be slightly higher…

She’s not biting I see. My hooks spin above her murky pond. Her eely eyes can’t trace their trails, and so I respond minus the fat as lean and white and black as...

...Thanks for that. I’ll have a think.

Then off and out into the city’s stink.

Nice thing (Y)

So, if we discover a planet where the quality of life is significantly worse than here, we should all have as many kids as possible?

I personally won't create a child and I don't understand why the world isn't a good place because surely parents should only bring children into a good world? For example if I complain about poverty then I would try and end poverty before creating more people. — Andrew4Handel

The anti-natalist would eliminate poverty by eliminating people. Which I suppose is a perfect solution. But a world without people is not a world at all.

Nice. I've been getting that on Google HK for a while but not on the others. It will probably go up and down. But in any case I think few would deny us a pat on our own backs for this after just 18 months or so up and running. Well done us (and I include everyone in that) (Y).

I think the objects of your criticism stem from modern consumer culture, which is an offshoot of western culture but not the root. At root western culture is enlightenment culture and encourages questioning, innovation and change as @Chany pointed to. It is, unlike most cultures that have ever existed, by nature dynamic rather than static and on the whole that's a good thing. But because of it's dynamism and openness it has led to the growth of consumer culture, which propagates a warped view of life along the lines of:

1) Work (=pain=bad).
2) Consumption and leisure (=pleasure=good).
3) Do 1) if and only if it's necessary to facilitate 2).

Which leads to confusion, angst and so on. (I have all these things but I'm not happy.Why oh why? I better consume some therapy or drugs or...and so on)

On talk, people tend to talk about crap because we're programmed to. The stuff that was on our minds over evolutionary time: "That plant is poisonous", "This is where the berries are", "Jim is unstrustworthy" tended to be worth repeating - it was often a matter of life and death. But we're now stuck with a reward system designed for low volume relatively high quality information in a context of high volume relatively low quality information. Cue lots of perverse conditioning towards pointless verbal interactions that eventually lead to feelings of emptiness and dissatisfaction.

And the same principle applies to just about everything we consume. We weren't supposed to have so much of it, and our bodies can only produce so much pleasure for us before they become exhausted or damaged etc.

And what's the cure for this? Well, work. But when it's work we don't identify with or, to put it another way, is not essential enough to who we are for us to want to identify with, we're likely only to do enough to refresh our systems for the next battering of low quality material and informational intake.

In short, we need to short circuit our own psychologies in order to negotiate a set-up that is designed to make us miserable, and that set-up is modern consumer culture, a product of, but certainly not limited to, western culture.