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[Kay12]

We had something potentially even more violent than king of the hill. Basically, the class was divided between two teams and each side had a king. This was the setup and every recess we'd run out and wrestle each other trying to capture the opposing king. However, it's not as bad as it sounds - we were all friends despite the game, and no one ever got hurt playing it. I was almost exclusively the king of my team, because I was good at making myself scarce but too lightly built to wrestle anyone.

On the other hand, KoTH was the king in the wintertime. But it's very dangerous for sure. Falling backwards down a hill isn't exactly the most neck-friendly experience there is.

[Phmcw]

Nothing surprising about the riot : England's social situation is dire and youngs rightly hate the police there.
I now expect another round of students riot.

But organizing a serious political opposition to their government would be more productive.

On the hate speech discussion a while back : well, for starter, in Belgium we have laws against hate speech, and it never devolved into political censorship. Why? Because it's pretty focused, and because if you can prove your claims you're out of trouble.
What did it achieve? Racism and homophobia are even more despised because we can use the appeal to law fallacy.
Basically, it's so bad it's illegal, so what kind of madman would defend it?
So racism has been replaced by anti immigrationism, who isn't as bad, and homophobia is about to disappear from public discourse (one of our top politician is gay).
The aim of these law is the public discourse, not the private one. Right wing forum are left alone, but don't try to have it printed in a newspaper, and don't go tell it into people faces or you'll be in trouble.

[Gamerlord]

On the playground thing:

Most violent game I ever played? British Bulldog, on a giant trampoline-pillow thingy, with both teams of kids not only knowing Taekwondo, more than happy to use it to win. Oh that do was epic, for I saw an eight year old pull a flying sidekick into the chest of a kid twice his age.

Then again, I am probably not that normal when it comes to violence: I play DF.

This morning my mum found out about the stuff happening in Britain and she was bloody speechless. She was born there, and grew up there, and I think it shocked her.

[Siquo]

Aaand... someone died. Which is sad, but:

Let the perfidious Albion burn. The last few governments haven't exactly been nice guys. V for Vendetta isn't placed in the UK by accident.

Here, some music while you look at the pictures.

[RedKing]

We used to do mosh-pit pillow fights in the basement of my dorm during finals. GREAT stress reliever. Crank Nine Inch Nails up to 11, tie some pillows and couch cushions to your body, and hurl yourself at each other. Good times. 


Okay, so maybe there's a social discontent element to the riots, but it just seems out of proportion. I mean, how bad are things in Britain? I know Cameron et. al. have cut back social services, but Britain is still a commie pinko welfare state compared to the US.

@Siquo: Sorry, I'm not feeling the riot love. Kinda hard to sympathize when you have people in Syria being gunned down en masse by their own government, and they're not retaliating like this. Britain has its problems, but it's no fucking police state.

[Gamerlord]

Aaand... someone died. Which is sad, but:

Let the perfidious Albion burn. The last few governments haven't exactly been nice guys. V for Vendetta isn't placed in the UK by accident.

Here, some music while you look at the pictures.

Don't insult my birthplace.

[Siquo]

Don't insult my birthplace.

Oh, it's so common it's no longer an insult (Since 1200-something) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfidious_Albion. 

[Phmcw]

Aaand... someone died. Which is sad, but:

Let the perfidious Albion burn. The last few governments haven't exactly been nice guys. V for Vendetta isn't placed in the UK by accident.

Here, some music while you look at the pictures.

Don't insult my birthplace.

No he's right, England has taken a bad turn. Those riot aren't there by chance, and the student's movement , who has been completely ignored, was there for a reason as well.
But they really ought to attack the government directly, instead of doing it at random. The problem is that the political world is completely discredited, and therefore I don't think this movement will politically structure himself.
Now shall we take bet on who will burst next? France or Italy? Or Spain maybe?

Edit : http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/07/7292281-the-sad-truth-behind-london-riot Here's a better explanation.

[Virex]

After the Arab spring revolutions we're getting the British Rage Riots it seems. Wonder if this is how the Junta from V for Vendetta rose to power...

[Phmcw]

After the Arab spring revolutions we're getting the British Rage Riots it seems. Wonder if this is how the Junta from V for Vendetta rose to power...

Hu? Hav you been in Europe these last years? We also had French social riots, Greek anarchist rage, Italian lazy riot, Spanish indigniciados or something, and we will soon have Belgian internal struggle of history (Who are the greatest? Waals or Flemish? It will surly keep you riled up! What? you don't care? But ... Flemish have been fierce warriors and woolworkers who once ruled on land bigger than... your average city maybe. And ... wait... there is more... don't go. Please. Those two are completely legitimate nation and that struggle is important for... Europe... well... not really, especially considering that Europe will assume most Federal role in a near future... but wait ,don't leave...

[Leafsnail]

The riots are clearly nothing to do with hating the police, or the government, or anything else.  If you look at a map of the riots, all the targets are basically shops with stuff that people might want to steal (unless JD Sports, H&M and Tesco are somehow symbols of the government's oppression).  It's opportunistic theft and vandalism on a grand scale (with some random attacks on the emergency services thrown in).

For instance, there are also ideas floating around that women can't rape men, or that a man having sex with an inebriated woman is rape (which is obviously a good point), but that a woman having sex with an inebriated man is not, or that if they're both drunk, the man specifically is still at fault (which is degrading to both genders involved).

As a side note - under UK law, it is in fact impossible for a woman to be a rapist.  They can be convicted of other sexual attacks and being accessory to rape though.  Probably another aspect of rape law here that needs to change...

[Virex]

For instance, there are also ideas floating around that women can't rape men, or that a man having sex with an inebriated woman is rape (which is obviously a good point), but that a woman having sex with an inebriated man is not, or that if they're both drunk, the man specifically is still at fault (which is degrading to both genders involved).

As a side note - under UK law, it is in fact impossible for a woman to be a rapist.  They can be convicted of other sexual attacks and being accessory to rape though.  Probably another aspect of rape law here that needs to change...

I can't imagine it being common enough for the hassle that such a law change would entail though?

[Truean]

I have no idea how to respond to the "mapping" thing, but my body tells me I should have breasts and my chest feels empty without them.

I find this part interesting, and somewhat confusing, as nobody is born with developed breasts and I'm really not sure why your body would feel that way. I mean, developed breasts aren't really a major neurological thing, just redepositing of fat and shaping of tissue that's already there. I'm not saying I don't believe you, just that it sounds like a rather odd phenomenon, almost like your body telling you that your legs should be longer or something rather than having a part it doesn't. Again, I believe you, but I'm very curious how that works, and that's obviously something neither of us can answer and is probably too complex on a psychological and neurological level in a way that those fields don't understand yet.

The answer is closer than it is too far. Talk to anyone who has been forced to undergo a mastectomy (surgical removal of the breast, as in breast cancer). I get that I never [ahem] "had" them, but I have used false ones and I miss the extra weight on my chest. It's comforting to me when I do have them and while people have been utterly mean bastards while I've "been a woman" the best times of my entire life have occurred when I was able to be like that. Spending time with my best friends as "one of the girls," being with my boyfriend, having my best friend's mother say it was alright and that I had done nothing wrong. I just want what it costs everyone else nothing for me to have....

Yup basically ditto. Thank you for that .... All the same I'd happily take it. Anything is better than this....

On a personal note: I used to be less accepting of sexual reassignment, because I thought it just amounted to people wanting to change their physical sex, as if it were the same as someone feeling like they should be a different species or have a different skin color or number of limbs or something else arbitrary like that (there was a very stupid and heavy-handed South Park episode to that effect a long time ago). However, the more I learned about it, the more it seemed like something else entirely: That the people who felt they needed it didn't do so out of simple desire, but because there was a serious issue going on, probably regarding sexual development, that resulted in their bodies simply not feeling right no matter what. It's no surprise that this can happen, either. After all, we start out pretty much the same at one point in the womb and diverge from there, so it shouldn't be a great shock that sometimes, that process can go off-kilter or become inconsistent in some way or another.

[nod nod] I've always known I should've been a girl, even as a small child. I just denied it/insisted it wasn't true....

Your honesty and use of the past tense about not being accepting are entirely appreciated . I'm very aware of that south park episode and the one where Garrison "changes back" to become male again. I take it with a grain of salt; they make fun of absolutely everyone where it hurts the most as a rule.
As for the rest, ditto and given the human mind is the most complex thing in existence, there is a lot that can easily go wrong. This may be one of them....

Your post just made me think of a documentary I saw about "wannabe amputees". One guy in the USA took his left leg off with a shotgun, because he always hated that particular leg, felt like it didn't belong, not sure why. He states he's much happier now. Maybe related to brain=>body mapping?? The doco kind of freaked me out.

Yeah, on Wikipedia you can look up "Body Integrity Identity Disorder", which is the name for that sort of thing. It's a rather controversial issue in terms of whether or not you allow surgeons to remove body parts for that reason, probably because it's an ill-understood condition.

I believe Supernumerary Phantom Limbs were mentioned in this thread, too, which is basically the opposite thing: Feeling the presence of a body part, such as an extra arm, that isn't actually there and never was.

[/quote]

Yeah, I've actually read about the two conditions being compared long ago. I'm not sure how true this is, but it went something like, pointing out six differences and calling us both crazy but transsexuals less so: 1.) The transsexual has often felt this way the entirety or majority of their life and the delusion is incredibly persistent, 2.) the transsexual's "delusional plan" (I remember that phrase ) is more detailed and thought out, having an endpoint that replaces the parts with a surgically viable conclusion, 3.) the transsexual has no desire for pain but rather retains an aversion, 4.) the transsexual's desires (grumble grumble...) have been accepted by the medical community, 5.) beyond reproduction the transsexual loses no functionality of the body, 6.) While the [incredibly derogatory word for those with Body Integrity Identity Disorder] have no uniformity to their desire, the transsexuals are all in agreement exactly what their delusions desire the doctors to do. The medical article then went on to compare us to all sorts of things, in horrid ways as a rule. [sigh]

I have no idea why I haven't subscribed to this thread before.

well now I have.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the one and only, Japa who along with jonask84 and others is a driving force behind Stonesense. We're happy to have you sir.

[Stuff on Riots]

This is hearsay by definition but.... I talk to a nice young man in Britain on messenger. He said something about how they were promised the good life through university but that now they've gone and made that impossible by doubling or sometimes tripling the price of university. The sentiment seems to be "we're damned after all so screw it."

I'm not justifying their actions but one wonders if crafty thieves don't steer protests towards their targets as cover. That's part of exactly what I'd do in that situation from an operations PoV. Granted we're not talking about being right here, just being effective. Having a pissed off crowd that's willing to fight the police to get lost in is a smart thief's dream come true.

Question becomes, are the rioters in on or part of the scam or not. Who knows.

[Heron TSG]

For instance, there are also ideas floating around that women can't rape men, or that a man having sex with an inebriated woman is rape (which is obviously a good point), but that a woman having sex with an inebriated man is not, or that if they're both drunk, the man specifically is still at fault (which is degrading to both genders involved).

As a side note - under UK law, it is in fact impossible for a woman to be a rapist.  They can be convicted of other sexual attacks and being accessory to rape though.  Probably another aspect of rape law here that needs to change...

I can't imagine it being common enough for the hassle that such a law change would entail though?

What. Are you saying that because there are fewer male rapes, it's too much of a hassle to make them illegal? And they're not actually all that uncommon, from what I have heard, though men tend to report them less. Why? Because the police usually don't believe them, or because they don't want to let it be known that they were raped.

[Phmcw]

To clarify : loot in riot is common, but looter alone could hardly sustain the riot without A)looters, AKA poor people without respect for poperty ---> bad social management from the gov B) Other poeple rioting too -----> other underlying causes.

I think it's shortsighted to see these riot as criminally driven only.

@Virex : no, no and no. Rape by female is not all that uncommon, and you have not thought this out. A few girl harassing another and vaginally penetrating her for the purpose of humiliation would not be counted as rape (if I understand it well) that's unacceptable. But keep in mind that most rape happen within the family, often on younger people. How would you feel if you happen to learn that, say, your aunt had non-consensual sex with your ten year old brother and that it's not considered rape?