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Re: General Discussions

Reply #1890 –
Quote from: PaulP – on
I'm not so sure myself that these people would choose prison over the streets. They can get themselves into prison pretty easily if they wanted. There's little doubt in my mind that part of the reason for this legislation is to funnel homeless people into the American, for-profit prison system, where they can be blatantly and shamelessly exploited as free or dirt cheap slave labor. I've seen reports of one prisoner being paid 13 cents an hour for their work. Every aspect of prison life is privatized - food, medicine, communication etc.

Americans didn't abolish slavery.
They privatised it.

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1891 –
I'm pretty sure that locally vagrancy was still a crime at least until recently, it just wasn't enforced by police forces, maybe it is still illegal and just not enforced but I think it's one of the 19th century laws Andrews kyboshed a year or two back.

Humans are horribly conflicted, some of the very same people that are champions of the homeless and downtrodden openly believe it's OK to jail a female for having an abortion. Your rights are your rights unless I say otherwise!
"Extremists on either side will always meet in the Middle!"

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1892 –
Quote from: Thryleon – on
you know society is bereft of morals and values when they criminalise homelessness which most people have minimal control over.  I haven't met someone who's homeless who said I just didn't want to live in a house anymore.  They are the down trodden victims of social disorder resulting in a spiral of hopelessness and a cycle of poverty that would be difficult to break out of.  Yes someone them have made some really poor choices but these people would probably choose prison over the streets.  At least they will. Know where their next meal comes from.

Some make a slightly different choice though, some will choose to live on the street so they have more disposable income to spend on alcohol and drugs.
Let’s go BIG !

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1893 –
Quote from: northernblue – on
Some make a slightly different choice though, some will choose to live on the street so they have more disposable income to spend on alcohol and drugs.

I'd be wary of "squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline", as Bono puts it.  Far too many homeless are trapped between a god awful past and a non existent future. If your only options are to return to a violent, abusive past life, or live on the streets, that choice is not really a choice. I'm not sure too many make the decision because they love the lifestyle. I watch a YouTube channel called Invisible People, and have watched it for a few years. The resilience shown by these people is quite remarkable, but most are there because of poor choices, bad luck, or because the other options are worse.

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1894 –
Quote from: PaulP – on
I'd be wary of "squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline", as Bono puts it.  Far too many homeless are trapped between a god awful past and a non existent future. If your only options are to return to a violent, abusive past life, or live on the streets, that choice is not really a choice. I'm not sure too many make the decision because they love the lifestyle. I watch a YouTube channel called Invisible People, and have watched it for a few years. The resilience shown by these people is quite remarkable, but most are there because of poor choices, bad luck, or because the other options are worse.
I've spent some time in Atlanta, which can be bitterly cold in winter, so much so many people working in the CBD commute between buildings via enclosed elevated walkways set up floors above the ground.

The ground is the domain of the homeless and transport, they camp around huge air-conditioning vents that extract excess heat from the high-rise buildings even in winter the buildings generate excess heat. While I was there an associate saw me pondering the plight of the homeless from a restaurant window some 10 floors above. When I mentioned the situation he told me the problem is more complex than people can imagine. The city mandates that hotels and other accommodation allocate a percentage of rooms for the homeless over winter, apparently this meant more rooms were available than homeless to use them but it allowed flexibility so venues could distribute the load as needed. However, the vast majority of rooms weren't being used. The problem, the dealers and pimps that supply the bulk of the homeless with either cash for drugs or drugs to buy weren't allowed in the same venues or feared entering them under observation, no access to cash for drugs or the drugs to spend it on so the homeless won't stay there. Instead they spend the night on the street where they can find what they are looking for!
"Extremists on either side will always meet in the Middle!"

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1895 –
Quote from: northernblue – on
Some make a slightly different choice though, some will choose to live on the street so they have more disposable income to spend on alcohol and drugs.

Key word here, NB, is choice. Is it a fully conscious, aware and informed choice, to live from fix to fix? Nuh... as soon as you mention drugs and alcohol, I think addiction. And there goes conscious, aware and informed choice/will. Why and how they became addicts is complex and multi-layered. Drugs and alcohol run their lives, not healthy, informed choices.
And let's not forget the number of mentally ill folks roaming the streets, those not ill enough to be in hospital, but not well enough to fend for themselves or be blessed with a family equipped to care for them.
Only our ruthless best, from Board to bootstudders will get us no. 17

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1896 –
I don’t disagree with you, baggers and Paul.
The whole situation is complex and not simple, yet we allow these people to make choices.
We understand that the majority of their choices will not be good for them and maybe us, yet we allow them still…
Darwin is a great climate to live on the streets and is well taken advantage of.

I was fueling up my van the other day when a (white) guy approached me wanting to sell me his basics card…
Let’s go BIG !

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1897 –
The woke world has properly gone mad.

I just heard on radio that a new federal study into women's health, stuff like the growing epidemic of endometriosis and also early onset menopause, will include individuals who "Identify as Female"

FFS, that's our tax dollars at work!
"Extremists on either side will always meet in the Middle!"
 

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1898 –
Surely it is more important to focus on problems of women's and men's health issues, especially endometriosis and early onset menopause, than focusing on the marginal issue of gender identification. People are like Pavlov's dogs, they hear some words and they get distracted from the main issues. The use of words like, Woke, Political Correctness, the Nanny State and Cancel Culture is just sledging when people don't have reasons for opposing something.

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1899 –
Quote from: Blue Moon – on
Surely it is more important to focus on problems of women's and men's health issues, especially endometriosis and early onset menopause, than focusing on the marginal issue of gender identification. People are like Pavlov's dogs, they hear some words and they get distracted from the main issues. The use of words like, Woke, Political Correctness, the Nanny State and Cancel Culture is just sledging when people don't have reasons for opposing something.
No, every tax dollar we waste in R&D is worth about $30 in the general economy. Investigating and / or treating superfluous health conditions with wasted tax dollars is a tragedy. It's woke madness.

The researchers are begging for funds, and now they have to allocate hard funding for waste targets just to avoid being labelled discriminatory.

Further, it will completely distort / bias double blind trials, because some targets aren't genuinely afflicted and never could be afflicted by real world conditions.

The extremism inflicting humanity is unquestionable, many called it alarmist when people rallied against transgender in sport, and yet the protestors are and were correct.

Given the opportunity, eventually there will be some "bloke" somewhere who mounts a legal challenge claiming being excluded from a women's health trial is discriminatory, this is the way humanity behaves and there is no point denying it! Actually, it could well be more valid to include people who "Identify as Male" than those who identify as Female"!

PS; Identify as "Kangaroo", my sexuality "Indeterminate", so my pronouns are "Flyer or Boomer" My family has been here on this land the longest of any, and my ancestors were slaughtered by the 1st human arrivals, I'll be filing for compensation shortly!
"Extremists on either side will always meet in the Middle!"

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1900 –
Come off it Pat. That reply 1897 is margin alarmism at its finest.

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1901 –
Quote from: PaulP – on
Come off it Pat. That reply 1897 is margin alarmism at its finest.
Australia is already poorly funded for Research and R&D, every dollar is critical, we can't afford to waste them.

Repeat that scenario across similar activities, and it adds up, much of it because of some demand for a pronoun, or robbing hard fought research funds to cover for mental health issue. It's a proper tragedy

PS; Now I'm a rose petal, I demand equal funding for research into my botrytis blight!
"Extremists on either side will always meet in the Middle!"

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1902 –
Quote from: LP – on
Australia is already poorly funded for Research and R&D, every dollar is critical, we can't afford to waste them.

Repeat that scenario across similar activities, and it adds up, much of it because of some demand for a pronoun, or robbing hard fought research funds to cover for mental health issue. It's a proper tragedy

PS; Now I'm a rose petal, I demand equal funding for research into my botrytis blight!

None of which has any bearing on the handful of folks who would fail to match your exacting criteria for identifying as a female, and would according to you, be diverting funds from........what exactly ? Let me guess. "Real women" ? I'm really not sure why you or anyone else feels qualified to judge someone else's gender identity or sexual orientation. I guess social media has seen an unprecedented increase in the rise of the insta-expert.

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1903 –
Quote from: PaulP – on
None of which has any bearing on the handful of folks who would fail to match your exacting criteria for identifying as a female, and would according to you, be diverting funds from........what exactly ? Let me guess. "Real women" ? I'm really not sure why you or anyone else feels qualified to judge someone else's gender identity or sexual orientation. I guess social media has seen an unprecedented increase in the rise of the insta-expert.
Paul, I'm sensitive to the plight of transgender folk.

Asking to participate in a study on menopause helps absolutely nobody unless they're a biological woman identifying as a male.

If they're a biological male identifying as female they're useless to the study.
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: General Discussions

Reply #1904 –
Quote from: PaulP – on
None of which has any bearing on the handful of folks who would fail to match your exacting criteria for identifying as a female, and would according to you, be diverting funds from........what exactly ? Let me guess. "Real women" ? I'm really not sure why you or anyone else feels qualified to judge someone else's gender identity or sexual orientation. I guess social media has seen an unprecedented increase in the rise of the insta-expert.
Why would you conflate a request to avoid wasting taxpayer funds with some sort of gender prejudice.

Surely, for the purposes of a female health study, you are not asserting somebody is genuinely female just because they can label themselves as female, even if they have no womb and suffer no menopause?

On the flipside, as with the transgender in sport debate, how is this fair to females who suffer endometriosis or early onset menopause?

This isn't an equality, it's a waste of funds through deception.

If someone who isn't female but identifies as female, genuinely feel they are suffering endometriosis or early onset menopause, it's likely that condition is psychiatric not physical and they need mental health assistance not physiotherapy. I have full sympathy for them, but they shouldn't be wasting funds to research physical health issues.

This isn't a study into people who "Think they have endometriosis", maybe if the study included hypochondria it's valid!
"Extremists on either side will always meet in the Middle!"