The Batlord

We should give Bush a medal for doing 9/11.

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Cuthbert

The 21 people who were murdered weren't occupying anything but I'm glad to hear the well informed, expert opinion from the forum's plastic Paddy.

Frownland

Eh, that depends on if they paid taxes or not.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

The Batlord

If one of my minions hands me a severed head of a person they've murdered and I eat its brains am I innocent? If way back in the day those 21 people's ancestors had just said no to invading Ireland and left it independent would those 21 people still be dead?

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Lisnaholic

^ This seems like a good starting point from which to condemn acts of terrorism in general.

^ I can't see how this is relevent.

In Britain they operate a Pay As You Earn tax system. That means if you have a job, your employer automatically deducts your taxes and then gives you what's left over as your paycheck. If you gas up your car, eat in a restaurant or buy anything apart from life's essentials, a tax called Value Added Tax is already there in the price you pay at the counter. So unless you live totally off-grid, paying taxes is difficult to avoid.

Fluff could give us the up-to-date info, but in all my years as a taxpayer, I never had to tick a box that said, "As a UK taxpayer I agree with the occupation of Northern Ireland and accept that I may therefore be the target of a terrorist attack."

^ Well, as nations, both Britain and US have done some indefensible things in the past. Luckily for us, one of the better bits of the bible suggests that it's unfair for the sins of the fathers to be visited on the children. That's in our legal codes as well: should I be locked up if my dad is a murderer? Surely the only fair answer to that question is "No".

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Frownland

Taxes funded the people that did it so...

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Lisnaholic

^ Yes, I agree elphenor.

Most of us in US or Britain have a moral obligation to make amends of some kind, the US to the native population and the Brits to the Irish. In both cases though, those amends are never going to be, "Give the land back to the people it originally belonged to" or "Give the governance back to the people it originally belonged too". I can't see those kind of solutions happening without other social groups, other generations losing their own inheritances.

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

The Batlord

So the Conservatives and Scottish Nationalists win big. Pretty soon it's just gonna be England and N. Ireland standing around holding each others' dicks.

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Psy-Fi

Conservatives win landslide majority in UK election

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She's a Brick House

Psy-Fi

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She's a Brick House