The Isolated Blurt Thread XXIII: For Argument's Sake; Why Do Humans Feel Compelled...

Status
Not open for further replies.
Ah so it has begun. Nope not a terrorist, just a mentally ill white dude.

no "hulking demon."

no "those people are typically violent in their own community."

no "their religion teaches them hate in their scripture."

Nice privilege if you can born with it!
 


Britain's Last Mine



The last deep pit coal mine in northern England closes next month, marking the death of an industry that has fueled area towns for decades. Miners are angry the government didn't do more to help them.




LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Britain's last deep coal mine will be closing in a few weeks' time. It marks the death of a centuries-old industry that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution and build an empire. But stations are now buying cheaper fuel from abroad, and British coal miners say they feel betrayed by their government. NPR's Leila Fadel visited that last mine.

LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: The parking lot of Kellingley Colliery in northern Yorkshire is almost empty. A solitary miner leans out from the top of one of the buildings. In its heyday, Kellingley employed more than 2,500 people. But on December 18, this mine will close. Chris Kitchen, the general secretary of the National Union of Mine Workers, meet us just outside the mine.

CHRIS KITCHEN: There just doesn't seem to be a political will to do anything to assist coal.

FADEL: Kitchen is dressed in a three-piece suit. He wears a button from the miner's strike in the 1980s.

KITCHEN: So it seems like all the basic foundation industries that you would need to rebuild a manufacturing economy, the UK government's just not interested in protecting. And they're prepared to see them go to the wall because, in essence, they're trying to run a country like a business, and you cannot run a country like a business.

FADEL: Standing nearby is Keith Paulson. He's one of the last miners in an industry that once employed over a million people. When he loses his job at the end of the year, he'll be 55.

KEITH PAULSON: What's going to happen to us? Basically we've been thrown onto the scrap heap. Why are we doing this? Why are we smashing our industries? You can't understand it. You can't understand it.

FADEL: Britain was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, and now it's come full circle. Like in other developed countries, Britain is closing its coal mines and turning to cheap imports and alternative energy. Julian Hoppit, a historian at University College London, says Kellingley is a symbol of the death of industry in Britain.

JULIAN HOPPIT: The closure of the last mine is the closure of a long episode in British history.

FADEL: Britain led the world in manufacturing in the 1700s and 1800s, using coal to power steam engines and heat homes. But in the 20th century, as labor costs grew and coal became more and more expensive to dig up, Britain, like most developed economies, couldn't compete on the global market. In the 1980s, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher went after the coal miners union.

HOPPIT: There's a sense in which the crucial moment was under Margaret Thatcher's government, when she took on the trade unions, the mining unions and tried and succeeded to force market pressures to work much more directly upon the way the industry worked.

FADEL: Today, Britain is only dependent on manufacturing for about 10 percent of its economy. And the scars of the closures are apparent. Back in northern England, 20 miles from Kellingley, lies the former mining town of Goldthorpe. In 2013, people burned an effigy of Thatcher when she died. They blamed her for killing the coal industry and this once-buzzing mining town. Most storefronts in Goldthorpe are shuttered. The streets are quiet. At a local pub, the afternoon drinkers are mostly former miners. Peter Cooper chats with friends over a pint. He lost his mining job in 1987.

PETER COOPER: Within a 10-mile radius of this village there were 17 comma. It's crucified the place. You've seen it, haven't you? There's nothing here. Nobody's in work.

FADEL: These men say that the coal industry kept Britain fighting through two World Wars. And now, they say the country has forgotten them. Leila Fadel, NPR News, London.




 
Ah so it has begun. Nope not a terrorist, just a mentally ill white dude.

I fear this will be the new normal for all of us. At least for the immediate future or until we all let our guards down again. I think that's so disheartening.

To be fair, if I knew you'd be in your jammies, I'd show up two hours early myself! :D

They're lucky I answered the phone telling me they were 10 minutes out. It gave me time to throw something decent on.
 
I just ended a friendship with someone posting about the silver lining of disrupting an abortion clinic. Are you fucking kidding me?

The tweets and comments on news articles are atrocious. This terrorist gets a hero celebration by many.
 
I just ended a friendship with someone posting about the silver lining of disrupting an abortion clinic. Are you fucking kidding me?

The tweets and comments on news articles are atrocious. This terrorist gets a hero celebration by many.

there's your silver lining - you discover the true, malicious feelings of people on your list
 
I fear this will be the new normal for all of us. At least for the immediate future or until we all let our guards down again. I think that's so disheartening.



They're lucky I answered the phone telling me they were 10 minutes out. It gave me time to throw something decent on.

Even though it can make one feel as if they are in a Wodehouse novel, a formal bathrobe can always help. I have a long white one terry one with navy trim that I can throw over my night clothes or whatever rather quickly. I often look more put together than my visitors, it's amusing.

It's one of the changes I made after Byron died because people kept showing up at the door when I didn't want to leave my bed. I also started wearing actual night shirts instead of stretch out holey super large tee shirts that cut the necks off which I got from volunteering at conventions. Nightshirts all have some blue in them.
 
I just ended a friendship with someone posting about the silver lining of disrupting an abortion clinic. Are you fucking kidding me?

The tweets and comments on news articles are atrocious. This terrorist gets a hero celebration by many.

Ending toxic friendships are hard for me. When pushed, I'll do it. It always makes me sad to lose a friend, though, regardless of why.
 
Ending toxic friendships are hard for me. When pushed, I'll do it. It always makes me sad to lose a friend, though, regardless of why.

Me, too. I've often held on far longer than I should, though. Toxic is the right word, and for this one in particular, this was just the final straw.
 
Ending toxic friendships are hard for me. When pushed, I'll do it. It always makes me sad to lose a friend, though, regardless of why.

True, I hate to do it, but there is only so much a person can handle. I usually give a person a few chances, but if they persist or they are getting dangerous it's time to go.
 
Even though it can make one feel as if they are in a Wodehouse novel, a formal bathrobe can always help. I have a long white one terry one with navy trim that I can throw over my night clothes or whatever rather quickly. I often look more put together than my visitors, it's amusing.

It's one of the changes I made after Byron died because people kept showing up at the door when I didn't want to leave my bed. I also started wearing actual night shirts instead of stretch out holey super large tee shirts that cut the necks off which I got from volunteering at conventions. Nightshirts all have some blue in them.

It's never been that kind of issue for me, Noor. It happens very rarely. I just throw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. My hair? Meh...take it messy like it is. Bedhead!
 
Ending toxic friendships are hard for me. When pushed, I'll do it. It always makes me sad to lose a friend, though, regardless of why.

ending friendships is hard, no doubt. when i start to see the toxicity start to rear its ugly head, be it a nasty comment or an off-putting FB post, i pull back and put distance btwn us. sometimes things improve but most times, not. :(
 
It's never been that kind of issue for me, Noor. It happens very rarely. I just throw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. My hair? Meh...take it messy like it is. Bedhead!

I hope you never have that kind of issue. I switched to holey tee shirts when I broke my leg because it was easier, plus I seem to get an endless supply of volunteer T-shirts.

Messy hair? You are preaching to the choir here ;) I, rarely, if ever, wear makeup, so no need for me to worry about that.
 
I just invented a scent that I will call "Introverted Reactionary"**.



** yeah, I farted (rainbow unicorn farts, if eyer happens to read this.)
 
ending friendships is hard, no doubt. when i start to see the toxicity start to rear its ugly head, be it a nasty comment or an off-putting FB post, i pull back and put distance btwn us. sometimes things improve but most times, not. :(


When it comes to family, you have to give a lot of leeway when it comes to offensive and stupid shit -- and that's frankly most of my family, apart from my siblings.

Differences on politics aren't really dealbreakers for me, because that's no way to go through life. Where I usually draw the line is if something is said proving to me that your moral compass is broken.
 
When it comes to family, you have to give a lot of leeway when it comes to offensive and stupid shit -- and that's frankly most of my family, apart from my siblings.

Differences on politics aren't really dealbreakers for me, because that's no way to go through life. Where I usually draw the line is if something is said proving to me that your moral compass is broken.

true, family can be tougher to deal with on touchy issues

with 2 of my brothers, all we can talk about is books and movies. anything remotely political, or religious, and its meltdown time

but with friends, bigotry or similar hateful thoughts will force me to cut ties. :(
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top