I can't do this anymore... election season needs to end

[Felch]

Not what I was getting at: how many black people from black families have been disowned for being black ? As a Nigerian woman was saying to me only this week, if your son or daughter is gay or lesbian they are still flesh of your flesh- you don't disown them.


Considering she's a Pentecostalist that's quite something for her to say.

How many gay people have been disowned by their gay families for being gay?

[Al B. Sure!]

Please, tell me more about how multicultural your surroundings are.

[C0ckney]

Doesn't matter that you can name a bunch of educated elite. Does that speak to the majority? Does Scotland's contributions of a few literati say anything about the general education and culture of the populace?

culture, before the advert of popular culture, was almost exclusively the preserve of the elite.

if you're talking about the culture and education of the peasants, then what makes you think that the peasants in northern england and scotland (and it's worth pointing out that northern england is different to lowland scotland, which was itself very different to highland scotland, and even this is vastly oversimplifying), were any less educated or cultured than peasants in other parts of europe.

[dannubis]

Please, tell me more about how multicultural your surroundings are.

My my. That assraping still hurts, does it ?

[molly bloom]

Please, tell me more about how multicultural your surroundings are.

There's a reason I mentioned her nationality- as well as her religion. If you knew anything about modern African politics you would know too. And really, it's not as if Nigerians are in short supply in this part of London- the charity I volunteer at is run by Nigerian expatriates, and there are several nearby churches that have mainly Nigerian congregations.


What may be exotic for you is not for me.

[molly bloom]

Doesn't matter that you can name a bunch of educated elite. Does that speak to the majority? Does Scotland's contributions of a few literati say anything about the general education and culture of the populace?

Amaze me with your in depth knowledge of 18th Century Scotland's educational facilities and practice.

I just picked a few representative examples- and David Hume is fairly well known worldwide as a leading philosopher of the Enlightenment. I could also have mentioned Adam Smith and Robert Adam, the contribution of Scottish scientists of the 18th Century to modern science...

There was a good reason Edinburgh was called the Athens of the North. And this was before the advent of the kebab shop.

This is the World Heritage guide to Georgian Edinburgh- one of the cultural jewels of these isles:

http://www.ewht.org.uk/visit/trails/athens-of-the-north

This is from the BBC:

Responding to these multiple problems, in an act of outstanding vision, the Town Council of Edinburgh, under the leadership of Provost George Drummond, announced an architectural competition to design a New Town for Edinburgh.

First proposed in 1752, the intention was to create a new and spacious cityscape of wide, symmetrical street, terraced town-houses, specialised shopping facilities and open squares and gardens on a separate green-field site immediately to the north.

The Old and New Towns were separated by a body of water known as the 'Nor Loch'. This was crossed by the construction of an artificial 'Mound' - using the excavated earth from the basements of new buildings - and was eventually drained to create Princes Street Gardens.

The New Town project was designed to house the wealthy, and to attract back to Scotland the absentee noblemen who now lived in London. These people, it was hoped, would spend their money in Scotland and support the kinds of luxury businesses and modern commerce that would bring much-needed prestige and prosperity to the capital city.

It was a patriotic project, with the names of the streets and the squares chosen to celebrate the Union and the Hanoverian monarchy, as well as the culture of Scotland. It was also designed to reflect new aspirations, as Scotland - following the blue-print described by Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations - sought to enter the modern market age.

...the New Town of Edinburgh was the largest planned city development in the world at that time...

Built in several stages from the 1760s to the 1830s, the New Town of Edinburgh was the largest planned city development in the world at that time, and it proved an outstanding success in bringing commercial and cultural dynamism to the city.

The demand for luxury products to furnish the new houses supported a range of fine shops on Princes Street. Carriage-makers flourished since the broad, straight streets were now able to support a more sophisticated wheeled traffic than was ever possible in the Old Town.

The Carron Iron Company near Falkirk - the largest business in Scotland - produced an array of fancy domestic iron wares for the New Town, including cast iron grates to designs by Robert Adam. All of these developments generated a significant surge in well-paid working class employment. There was a parallel demand for professional people, many of whom lived in the New Town.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/scotland_edinburgh_01.shtml

You'll note the references to the well paid working classes, and the demand for luxury products- the latter indicative of people with time and money to spend on things other than simply getting by.

Other than urging you to read Hume's 'A Treatise On Human Nature' and Boswell's Journals, I leave the discovery of 18th Century Scottish contributions to world culture entirely to your own discretion.

blah blah blah pretentious British idiot

Oh dear, I'm so hurt. Does this mean I know a few things you don't ?

Well, that ain't news.

[regexcellent]

Anything you know that Alby doesn't is worthless trivial details about things nobody cares about. Alby is smarter than you and has a much better capacity for critical thinking than you do.

[-Jrabbit]

[regexcellent]

Hey I ddin't say he has better judgment, just that he has better critical thinking.

[DaShi]

To be fair, he has better critical thinking than you too.

[-Jrabbit]

Hey I ddin't say he has better judgment, just that he has better critical thinking.

Actually, you said he has the *capacity* for better critical thinking, which I guess I must cede, as anything is possible. You also said he's more intelligent than molly b, which is something I doubt you can prove.

[Hauldren Collider]

Since molly is basically a google-bot, it is not hard to have better critical thinking and intelligence than him. The only thing he has going for him is the ability to pull up tangentially related facts on command.

[DaShi]

[Asher]

Hey Al, maybe this is why you have a hard time finding pro-GOP people.

http://www.ukprogressive.co.uk/breaking-retired-nsa-analyst-proves-gop-is-stealing-elections/article20598.html

[giblets]

Princeton Election Consortium: Obama has 97% chance of winning.

http://election.princeton.edu/electoral-college-map/

Prepare yourself for four more years