The Ranting Room

I used to go to the Midhants Railway (The Watercress Line) many years ago, by they kept getting rid of stuff and the stuff they still had took forever to get restored, but I don't blame them, they had (and probably still don't) much money.  Do you know if their situation has improved?  I was also a great fanatic of the Bulleid Pacific and the Midhants had about 3 or 4 at one point.

British India Line?

So you don't have a logbook of trains you've driven then?

Oh, the Canadian one... that's not a Bulleid... is that the Blue painted one in LMR colours?

That's what I thought.  The Midhants Merchant Navy is British India Line, but apparently they have another.  My knowledge has gotten rusty.

I've got an Airfix kit of a standard Bulleid Pacific.  It's supposed to be Battle of Britian Class Winston Churchill, but I changed it (I found a company that made brass plaques for them).  Think I made 257 Squadron, I can't quite remember.

Geck0 wrote: I wholeheartedly agree with you John, well said. I've been thinking over the past few years that intelligence is actually dying out.  Yes, you still get the extremely intelligent people, but it seems to me that there are more unintelligible people every day. I also don't believe University Education is all that special anymore.  A large majority of people go to University to have fun first and work hard second.  That's the way I unfortunately did it also, but hindsight has told me that I should have done it the other way around. Then when they do learn things, I don't always believe it's always to the high standard that people expect.  I had many inept lecturers who had no real clue how to teach.  They probably knew their subject, but they seem to be very poor at inter-personal skills. Am I alone in thinking this?

Different people's brains are obviously wired differently.  Some people take on life with an eye to the future and realize that tomorrow will indeed come and they need to do at least something to be prepared.  Others have absolutely no foresight and only live for today and don't think of the future at all.  Screw their fellow man, what can make them feel good today?  It all goes along with the sense of entitlement so many have.  When you accompany that with a huge section of the population that is absolutely mortified of what others think about them, it bodes ill for the masses.  They think, "not only am I entitled to a big SUV gas guzzler, but if I don't get one, I will be a lesser person than the guy next door.  And that guy will look down on me."  So screw the future, screw my bank account and screw the environment.

Every year at X-mas, my wife wants to decorate the hell out of the house.  I absolutely refuse to risk life and limb to get up on my roof and string up lights or any other decorations.  I don't give one rat's behind if others look down on that.  I have bigger fish to fry and it would be nice to have a lower electric bill than the sheep next door.  Does it cost me points? sure.  But I have to have some dignity and stand up for something.

johnobvious wrote: And now for something completely different.  True Story Here in my city, this lady and her boyfriend take the lady's 22-month old kid to an emergency room last night, but the kid is dead from internal injuries.  The boyfriend/a**hole (he is not the father) admits to kicking the kid around like a "soccer ball."  When asked how far the soccer ball would have traveled, the guy responds, "30 to 40 feet."  More joy for you all to digest during this holiday season.

I have deans at my high school. I don’t know why, they have no job. However, whenever a student leaves a paper tray next to an overflowing trash can, we get an announcement stating that certain privileges- ice cream, couches for seniors, and the like- are suspended until we start “acting like adults.” They accuse us of being lazy, but they drive around in golf carts and play online poker all day for a paycheck.

 

Speaking of privileges, I go to a private school, so my family spends a lot of money to send me there. If you have to pay for something, it isn’t a privilege, it is a right. A right can only be taken away if it violates the rights of another or it harms another. If you buy a car and you have a driver’s license, it is your right to drive. If you hit another person, your right has endangered another. I’m pretty sure a wayward tray isn’t going to irradiate the school.

 

You can’t take away everyone’s “privileges” for the transgressions of a few morons. Now, I do my best to follow the news closely, and I’ve never seen George Bush come out to a press conference and say “Three people were shot today, so I’m suspending gun usage for a month. Perhaps if you all can learn to show some restraint, we can all have our firearms back.” You know why I’ve never seen that, IT’S NEVER HAPPENED!!! That isn’t how the “real world” works. How stupid do they think we are? If “acting like an adult” means I have to oppress youth in retaliation for a failed existence, then call me Peter f*#$ing Pan.

I doesn't help that the media runs stories on rebellious yoth rather than report on real current events such as the steam kettle that is Israel right now. Whenever Americans do take five minutes to look at the Middle East, it's to Iraq. However, Israel's recent conflict with Lebanon and the current tension are far more serious than a teenager who spray paints lockers

I agree!

Down with Christmas!

I don't dislike the idea about this particular holiday season, it's a good idea and everything, but it shouldn't be so commercial and stressful!

I am more stressed at Christmas than any other time of the year!

I can never decide what to buy, so I buy my mother a CD and she never even bothers to play it.

That's the last time I buy her CDs or books (she never reads them either!).

As I said though, the idea of buying gifts for each other is nice, but it should be just that (not all these faerie lights, tinsel, trees and all that shabang).