ok, for the pedants amongst you I'll be more specific:
Cottonwood tree; genus populus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populus_sect._Aegiros

Predictably, some of you also fell for the stereotype and totally failed to see what came next, or my train of thought that followed the line of what the 'stereotype' was all about, and not to pay it much attention, given that it is a 'stereotype' and though based in some truth, anyone with half a brain knows a stereotype for what it is... or do I need to post the dictionary definition of 'stereotype' also, and how it applies here?

I see you don't discount it completely then.

My point was about how the south regards it as unfair (as I understood the situation) to be stereotyped as racist rednecks, when they have a past in which they were exactly that - there was a civil war over (in part) wanting to keep blacks as slaves, as 'untermenschen', with the south demanding that right, was there not?.
Just because these things don't really happen any more now, does not make a stereotype any less valid. My intent was not to make 'the south' out to be some sort of evil place we should all shun and revile above or beyond any other place, as backward and lacking in basic humanity, but to highlight the history of the region and use that to illustrate a point about how people make generalisations based upon truth and in part, irony, and how that relates to the original article and the film posted on youtube and subsequent comments posted both here and in the forum/article linked that we all read.

Surely you can see that (surely you can see that now?) I was not expressing a personal opinion or judgement of the region or its people, but making an observation of its history as it had bearing to the topic?

That goes for you too Flopper.

Clearly there's some quite raw nerves concerning segregation/racism in American history, I suspect the same as there are about the windrush era in the UK and also the influx of pakistani/indian migrants to the UK and today's issues of the BNP and immigration.
I had a mate who once told me that he wasn't a racist, "because one of my best friends is a 'paki'." He never could see what I found slightly objectionable to that statement. But I, like all of you, don't make a distinction over whether or not a friend has a specific skin colour or ethnic background, they are just 'friends'.
I strongly suspect that levels of indignation demonstrated here, stem from that very fact we have in common.

Tater, I think I'm missing something, what do the Germans or the holocaust have to do with parochial northern english towns, where if you're not a 'northerner' you stand a good chance of getting a pasting just because you come from somewhere else and talk/look different?
Or are you inferring that the mechanised murder of millions of innocents is somehow more dastardly than the killing of a few 'slaves'?
I once made a comparison between hitler and stalin and the numbers of people they each had murdered, it made sense at the time as the disparity between the numbers of his own people stalin had 'removed' and those hitler had 'solved', but murder is still murder. The same as there's no real difference between the loss of the life of a child compared to an adult. A life is lost. It's just the perception that a child has more of a future to loose and is therefore somehow more precious.
But I digress, possibly a little confrontationally too, and for that I apologise.

Generally speaking I try to avoid anyone who thinks it's ok to take aggressive action towards an individual or group, just because they are different, either by race/colour or culture or by local or national or other geographic separation. You know the sort: you're minding your own business when you get challenged/accosted by someone who wants to fight you for no clear reason you can understand. Unless you actually want to fight them, no amount of politeness or reasoning will delay the inevitable confrontation, so it's best to learn to avoid such situations before they develop.

Misunderstanding often leads to the same thing... but you have to risk that once in a while or you'd never talk to anyone ever again. :hmm2:

Now we're talking about valid stereotypes, smart guy?

For every situation, there are rules.
For every rule, there are exceptions.

Flopper, you go right ahead and see what you want to see.
I've tried to be polite and explain my intent in a civil manner in order to show there is no ill regard where it is perhaps not immediately clear.
If your only recourse to that is to tell me to bite your balls, right from the outset, then I'll oblige, but with one proviso: I first remove them with a spoon.

:O:

I'm only joking fella.

But seriously, if you cannot see what I'm trying to say, don't engage me with insults because you feel that I'm somehow trying to do the same (I get that impression from you).

I'm not. Far from it. Why else would I go through the trouble to attempt to explain myself in my last post? Certainly not to elicit abuse from you, or anyone else for that matter.

You know, the very concept of this thread's title screams ignorance.

How about this: how about we all post singular, isolated examples of bad things that has happened recently in some region, than go on to expand them into large generalizations to justify a rationale of wishing to avoid said region.

:down:

Tates, I said! And good luck with that proviso. :haha:

Points made, PERHAPS, and time to move on, I believe.

Amen.

lol no worries fella, my mistake :up:
marris pipers, or king edwards then? Good for roasties or a stew.
:arrgh!: you got me thinking now...
Bah! perhaps 02:05 on monday morning is the wrong time for thinking about cooking a roast dinner.

Yes, you don't want to wake up at 5:45 to the sound of the smoke alarm, and the whole house covered in ash. Have some chips instead, or what are they over there... crisps?

Hah! been there done that - lesson learned, leave drinking the wine until the food is ready. Those little smoky carbon things in the bottom of the oven looked so forlorn, once the billowing fumes had cleared at any rate.
yer 'chips' is where it's at. I think I've got some of those potato wedge oven chips in the freezer.
potato chips is what you guys call crisps, right? Like er.. dorritos (nachos) but potato instead of flavoured corn snacks?

Chips are made of corn or potato, thinly sliced (in the case of potatos) that we cram into our faces, unless you're in Vegas in which case the chips are an inedible, nutrition-less currency. Nachos, on the other hand, are not nachos without refried beans, jalapenos, diced tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and sliced black olives... although one can save themselves the trouble by visiting a convenience store and drizzling orangey-yellow processed cheese sauce over a pile of corn chips. Bon apetite! :DL

Chips are french fries in your neck of the woods, aren't they? :06:

hhmm nachos...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgV6RHpo-Us

from a police beating, to stereotypes...to nachos?

sounds like a YouTube flame war I've seen far too often.

Like, watching a video about yuri gagarin and scrolling down to read the latest hypothesis on 9/11 :nope:

needless to say though, I like nachos. :D
OH! and 99cent chicken burritos from Taco Bell

mmm processed cheese sauce drizzle...

Yer, french fries are 'chips' over here, but with one slight difference: Chips are generally thick sliced, manly sized fried potato slices, whereas french fries is what you get with a MacyDee, being thin sliced and covered in loads of salt. Both of which would go down a treat right now hehe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5kewcC7uaw mmmmm scacrelicious.

:woot:

So then "Fish and Chips" would be "Fish and Tater Wedges" here. Hrm... sounds kinda good right now, actually. :DL

Just out of curiosity, how much is a liter of fuel going for over there these days? I got into a discussion about this on a different forum back in '03 after the Leeroy Jenkins Affair started. Leeroy Jenkins... rofl. That still cracks me up. :rotfl2:

Anyway, at the time I estimated that a gallon of fuel over there would cost approx. 12-15 dollars US, and then wondered why I was whining about the $2 or so that it cost me.

http://www.petrolprices.com/

I'm not sure what the difference between a US gallon and an imperial gallon is, but the last time I filled up (a couple of weeks back - I shopped around to find the cheapest filling station as prices can vary as much as 2 ppl depending on the outlet) it was 115.9 pence per litre. I put 60 quids worth of diesel into the tank and got just over 51 litres, or thereabouts. The .9 decimal figure confuses the issue.
I've not filled the tank full to the brim (89 litres) for more than a year now.
They say the price of a barrel of oil has gone down, but our fuel prices only go up... the excuse this time is that sterling is not worth much right now.
We've just had the annual budget here, when they were due to increase the duty (tax to the government) on all fuel by 3 pence per litre.
http://www.petrolprices.com/fuel-tax.html
http://www.petrolprices.com/price-of-petrol.html

:down: booo-hiss

mmmmm Beer battered Germans.:har:

This was too good not to share.

So im sitting here at the computer looking through my business ledger double checking to make sure all the fuel and maintenance invoices have been entered, which got me to thinking... Did any bills come in yesterday?

as i had not checked the mail, I asked my wife if she had.

She slaps down in front of me 2 envelopes addressed to my business and a black shrink wrapped magazine.

this can only mean one thing.

I toss the bills into the in box and rip open the plastic, revealing the pleasant odor of a freshly opened May 2010 Playboy.

So, first things first: Playboy's party Jokes

A few zingers... like "Two rednecks were fishing together, one asked the other 'If i sleep with your wife would that make us relatives?' the other replied 'nope... it'd make us even though."

ok... second things second: Cartoons

A couple of neat ones.

Third things third! find an article that appeals to me:

So what do my eyes behold?

"Area Two" by Hillel Levin and John Conroy

Area Two reports the story of Police Lieutenant Jon Burge who was responsible for numerous unspeakable torture incedents in the late seventies and early eighties.

where did all of this take place?

The Area Two in the title refers to a 60 square mile area of Southern Chicago, Illinois where Lieutenant Job Burge held command.

I guess i have another reason never to go to Chicago if i can avoid it. :DL

cause surely all the cops there torture people.







right? :06:

Was that the braille version or the regular one?:hmmm:

regular lol