Be a post whore!

[monster]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

I usually do too, and our library can use the funds...but that one hurt! I swore to the 'brarian i will not check out any more movies.

I told my family NO MORE MOVIES, but the sprogs got a Blu-Ray player for their new lounge/entertainment area and we don't have any Blu-Ray DVDs.......

[infinite monkey]

And I am already losing, buying these often second hand DVDs. At some point all will be higher tech than i got, like blue ray (what's after that some sort of beaming device?) And i don't think they will have the value of my brother's amazing record album collection.

But i love having them. I should count my dvds, right now!

[Lola Bunny]

Originally Posted by monster

I told my family NO MORE MOVIES, but the sprogs got a Blu-Ray player for their new lounge/entertainment area and we don't have any Blu-Ray DVDs.......

Do what I do, rent blu-ray dvds from redbox. Or shamelessly borrow blu-ray dvds from friends.

[infinite monkey]

Slightly over 160 movies.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Indeed, I think this brings up the strange reverence that many Americans have for the constitution. The Founding Fathers may well have been "right" for their time, but things change - technology, economics, culture, human behaviour.

What we are trying to avoid is becoming England, where they haul you in and fine you for calling your neighbor an asshole. That won't fly here.

[Aliantha]

You might not get booked for calling your neighbour and arsehole, but your neighbour might sue you for it anyway. Not sure which is worse to be honest.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

What we are trying to avoid is becoming England, where they haul you in and fine you for calling your neighbor an asshole. That won't fly here.

Explain this please?

[xoxoxoBruce]

As a regular follower of Arbroath, I regularly see stories of Brits being hit with ASBOs for stupid shit, like calling someone an asshole. Or the guy that was fined for littering because he dropped a 5£ note on the sidewalk (pavement) by accident. Just too bizarre stories, but they keep popping up.

[DanaC]

If someone's been hit with an asbo for calling someone an asshole, then some of the story is missing. Most likely the two or three years of antisocial behaviour leading up to the incident in the report.

It's not that easy to get an asbo on someone. Once they've got one it is painfully easy to extend or add more stuff (for apparent further breaches the standard of evidence required is pathetically low).

What you have to understand is that in the UK pretty much everybody lives cheek by jowl.

I don;t agree with the asbo system, I didn't agree with them when they were brought in a decade ago, but I recognise there needed to be some sort of recourse, particularly for people living on estates that were being made into hellholes by a few individuals or families.

[monster]

Originally Posted by Lola Bunny

Do what I do, rent blu-ray dvds from redbox. Or shamelessly borrow blu-ray dvds from friends.

How is this cheaper/better than borrowing them from the library at no charge?

[Lola Bunny]

Originally Posted by monster

How is this cheaper/better than borrowing them from the library at no charge?

I never knew we could borrow dvds at the library.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Or the guy that was fined for littering because he dropped a 5£ note on the sidewalk (pavement) by accident. Just too bizarre stories, but they keep popping up.

The chap that dropped £10 by mistake was a spun story. You have to remember what our press are like and once something has been mis-reported they all pick it up and run with it without checking the source...

The chap did drop £10, but also other litter. He happened to be in front of some police (perhaps PCSOs) who pointed this out. He picked up the money but then dropped the other litter back on the ground. He refused to pick up what he had dropped (deliberately this time) more than once, was warned, and then fined.

Don't get me wrong, there are some bizarre cases out there.
But I believe there are more tales twisted to raise outrage and make good headlines.

[DanaC]

Yeah, try to remember the nature of printed news in Britain. Newsnight runs a story without checking its facts and people end up resigning. But the papers can just make up whatever they want or take a little nugget of something and whip it into a story to outrage their readers.

Think Fox News in paper form and you have about 80% of the red tops and 30% of the broadsheets covered.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yeah, I'm aware Dana, most of the ridiculous shit he posts is from the US with an occasional Aussie thrown in. But this whole ASBO thing is pretty bizarre just for the fact that it exists. Antisocial Behavio(u)r is certainly one of the most subjective aspects of society, and this smacks of witch hunts.

[DanaC]

That was very much the fear when they were brought in. In truth the people most likely to find themselves caught up with asbos are youngsters who could most likely have been reached and diverted from criminality with better provision and support systems in place.

They're being phased out in favour of some new type of provision. Not sure how the new one works.

I was always against them myself, and considered them another rod to beat an already disenfranchised underclass, but then the people living on estates in the area I represented thought they were a good idea. They wanted to see them used more often and policed better. Their biggest complaint against asbos was that they didn't do what they were supposed to do (i.e keep the drug dealing burglar with a propensity to light fires away from their estate) because they were not sufficiently policed.