sheene

Sorry, that was not a personal slant - it was a comment on the general mood of the thread.

sheene

Hopefully that doesn't happen whilst you are driving.

Woodpigeon

Firstly, I apologise if I unintentionally offended anyone by refering to the Christchurch earthquake. My post was made in the heat of the moment and late at night. It wasn't my intention to compare the two situations, merely to show that people can have compassion and be concerned about people who live on opposite sides of the world (even if it might be just a two degrees of separation link). I lost a friend and an acquaintence in the earthquake; the friend was 'in the wrong place at the wrong time', and didn't even live in Christchurch much less have a personal reason for being in the CTV building.

If I knew people who lived near those incidents referred to in Nigeria and Italy, or if this was a Nigerian or Italian expat forum, then yes, I would probably have mentioned them. The stretch of road that this accident happened on is one of the main routes for commuters between Bridgwater and Taunton and many of my friends do shiftwork; it is also not that far from a town where I know a BE member lives. Given the popularity of the Bridgwater Carnival in the wider area, there was a high possibility that people known to members of this forum were in the crash area around that time. Perhaps I was wrong to include mention of my private concerns (i.e. my personal friends living in the area), but I believed that this incident could have directly impacted on BE members, so for that alone I believed it was worth making this thread.

In future I will try to remember to check with Charismatic as to whether he thinks a thread I am thinking of posting is appropriate and meets with his approval. Alternatively, if you read something that you have no interest in, you could try the novel approach of not returning to that thread, rather than picking on those for whom it is relevant, and making inflammatory posts.

Charismatic

Sounds analogues to the “Some of my friends are black, that proves I’m not racist” defense.
Post what you want, it’s a free forum. Just don’t always expect sympathy or acceptance from us if it’s irrational.

love30stm

Shut up Charismatic you really need to get out of your mothers basement sometimes

whitesand

Sounds a most horrific crash. Apparently, the fog came down so quickly from the river nearby that it didn't give much warmng to the cars. Dreadful scenes.

martyc

Charismatic,

Reading your responses on this thread and others I can see that there is a medical reason why you are devoid of emotion. If other people realsied this they might understand you a little better. To me it is obvious!

Rosemary

Emotions are part of the human condition, it is the difference between being a human being and being an animal. Luckily the vast majority of us have feelings and care about other human beings so maybe we all need to count our blessings and be very glad that we are different from lesser mortals such as him.

Rosemary

sheene

This is just a forum. How many people do you actually know? Charismatic might be the Dali Lama, or Aunt Mildred. All the other people on here, apart from you, might actually be just one person with different pseudonyms. Scratch away some of the tears, you may be surprised at what you find.

martyc

It dosn't make us less human. It just makes us different.

sheene

Which emotions do animals not possess? Are you one of those who assumes animals willingly go to the slaughterhouse, or are you a realist who hears the screams and watches them shit themselves with fear?

Humans have feelings when it suits.

lardyl

gotta agree on that.
plus typing is not really conversing as there are no visual clues.
so judging people in the manner I'm seeing above is tantamount to "sinking to their level"

in any case no one could wish that type of death or trauma (physical or otherwise) on anyone - seen the aftermath of people burning to death inside vehicles and it is not pretty

however, there are some very serious issues on this planet that we can do something (however small) about in our everday lives. perhaps charismatic has his emotions/thoughts more directed toward them.

lardyl

oh dear I feel a real debate coming

dilema - get stuck in or order pizza and sit back ??????

lardyl

indeed, if we take this definition then many people should not be considered fully human, and then we start to head down the way of Hitler, Stalin and the like......

you could start with people with Autism, Asperger's Syndrome and keep going from there. Are they "lesser" - I don't think so. The value of human life is not expressed in its ability to feel one or other emotion.

otherwise the female of the species should rule and I for one am not having that!!!!!

sheene

You must be starving by now - have the pizza.

A discussion on animal feelings would probably not go down too well in a forum for a country who's main industry is the slaughtering of said animals.

I will pop over the the OZ forum and try - then again, probably not!!