Just finished Steinbeck's "The Moon is Down". A fictional tale of how the German occupation of a Norwegian mining village affects all those involved and how ultimately futile it is for the occupiers, as they become progressively more violent - and hated.
Before that I was reading "Refiner's...
We are talking about deterrence.
And automatic mutual defence assistance is exactly what membership of NATO demands, of all its members. For Trump to complain about some members not spending the full 2% of GDP on their defence forces is fair enough, but for the most powerful member to tear up...
Which more often than not is the old trying to control the young.
Having now been both, I can understand how that happens. As your libido falls off you begin to see the snags of sexual encounter more prominently, I think. And there are snags, apart from the obvious one of unwanted pregnancy...
Yes, she was an Oxford chemist, at Somerville. I was (many years later) at Christ Church. My tutor claimed to know a few stories about Margaret Roberts. ;)
Thatcher, by the way, being a chemist, understood climate change immediately. Many on the Right who consider themselves her followers seem...
Analysis is not paralysis. A person with no analytical ability is an idiot.
"Analysis paralysis" is a phrase used to denote the tendency, in some situations, to go on analysing excessively, beyond the point of diminishing reurns, as a substitute for decisions or action.
Yes, twice actually, to the annoyance of my mother. I just remember the second occasion, which was redone when my father converted to Catholicism. Quite unnecessary of course and it rankled with my Anglican mother, but this was the 1950s when there was not nearly so much ecumenical respect...
I must be Dr Who, then. :) Thatcher died in 2013. I joined this forum on 24th April 2018, so unless I jumped in my Tardis and went back a few years, it wasn't me. You are evidently confusing me with somebody else.
I have always thought - and said - that much of what Thatcher did in her first...
My late father made the journey from Methodism to Catholicism. It was partly studying medieval history that did it, but I think he also wanted to get out of the shadow of his rather dominant father, who was a methodist minister.
Yes, just because it is hard to agree on what stage to draw the line does not mean it cannot be done, even if any given cutoff is somewhat arbitrary.
I certainly agree the best way to reduce the demand for abortions is better sex education for both sexes and easily availability of contraception.
To me, early abortion is little different from miscarriage, which frequently occurs naturally for a number of reasons when the pregnancy isn't going right or there is a genetic defect in the foetus. Inducing a miscarriage because the woman does not want the pregancy and/or the future child is...
But calling these groups pro-life suggest those who don't agree must be anti-life, which is equally absurd.
In fact, though, both sides of this issue resort to disingenuous oversimplication. The "woman's right to choose" glosses over the right to life of the foetus, just as the "pro-life"...
As someone starting out on a career in industry I saw it differently. When I started, in 1978, management was lazy, complacent and class-ridden* and the unions were bolshie and trying to bring the company down (Remember Red Robbo?). The problem was the government being seen as a bank to bail out...
Which is exactly what the electorate want right now. Nobody wants yet another "character" like Bozo, or mad Singapore-on-Thames zealots that crash the economy in a fortnight like Truss and Mr into-the-lamppost KwarTENGGG!! What we need now is a bit of solid, unflashy competence.