Breaking News - Allegedly 10 people killed at office of satirical magazine in Paris

I think that the hate-Muslims thing is beginning to show up in lots of people and articles.

The veneer is slipping.

OK then , please clarify why Pope Francis, who is generally seen to be one of the most "human" religious leaders today, should be obliged to resign in your opinion? And what does having a "clean" or otherwise mind have to do with anything????

Sara Khan has been on Tv quite a lot lately, and I like most of what she says, a brave woman. soon could you stop distorting this discussion with your talk of the Pope?

Definition of "snookered himself" (for soontobe who has not heard that term) -

In a game of snooker - Subject (oneself or one’s opponent) to a snooker:
"He potted yellow and green, and then snookered Davis on the brown" "Hendry led, but then snookered himself"

General - Leave (someone) in a difficult position; thwart: "I managed to lose my flat keys—that was me snookered"

No double meaning, soontobe, so your clean mind doesn't have to worry.

Oh good Elegran. Thanks.

"it is fatuous to pretend that there is anything such as unbridled free speech." I agree with that. The question is, should there be? I think not.

Her stance that those who take advantage of the freedoms in the west, but persist in feeling that they are hard done by, should take themselves off somewhere that accords better with their views, is fine and understandable, but can they escape the western view of democracy anywhere? Historically and currently we challenge those countries where reason and democracy have been supplanted by primitive prejudice, sometimes using propaganda and sometimes with bombs. It is a small world now, and they cannot escape the west's reach - we cannot turn the other cheek to the point of ignoring the atrocities, particularly towards women. Is that what we should be doing? - ejecting them and leaving their cruel societies to flourish while we look the other way?

And as for global economic interests - what a can of worms is that.

Sometimes I wish that international travel and communications had never been invented, then ignorance could be bliss.

There is nothing simple about this conundrum.

I responded to NFK about the pope Gill. That is all.
Believe me, I dont wish some of the conversations to be all about what I wrote either.
But people respond, and there doesnt appear to be any way to stop that.
So if you have an idea, please feel free to tell me what it is.
Otherwise, I do suppose I have the option to be rude and not reply to some questions that are put to me. Perhaps that is what I should do? I have been pondering that for a while, but hate to be or appear to be rude to people.

Gill, gransnet have said that they dont mind that people ask me questions on a thread that is not much about the thread. So I dont feel that I have anywhere to go on the issue.

So I think you and Mishap and others are going to have to put up with it.

Soutra, I think you need to reread better what I wrote about the pope.

Soon - there is nothing for me to put up with - I think you are mixing me up with someone else - I have not criticised your contributions.

You don't have to reply if you don't want to - often a reply doesn't appear until the conversation has moved on, so it leads to confusion. Leaving it even later means that no-one will even notice if you don't send it at all.

Oh. Sorry. That is good. Thanks.

My reply was to Mishap but it equally applies to Elegran's post!

All soontobe meant about the pope was that he might have to resign because he seemed to advocate biffing on the chin anyone who insults one's mother. (good for him. quite right too)

Oh heck! Missed off the oh-so-important and !

soontobe I agree with your post of 12:15:52 today. "The veneer is slipping".

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2913242/BREAKING-NEWS-New-Paris-hostage-terror-Gunman-claiming-armed-grenades-Kalashnikov-takes-two-people-captive-post-office.html

Kicking off again??

Hear, hear about Pope Francis's comment. I'd like to think any child of mine would stand up for me but don't understand why soontobe had to go all round the houses. Sounded like anti-Catholic point scoring and yet another example of ill- informed speaking first and thinking second.
I read exactlly what you said about the Pope and found it a cheap jibe.

^I wonder if the Pope will have to end up stop (sic) being Pope. (I don't know if the Catholic church works that way)
I think that he has totally snookered himself with that comment.^

There is little ambiguity in your remark
So what and why?

Don't talk such bollocks about people hating Muslims. There is no suggestion of that in any of the articles. It's hatred of oppression, which at the moment seems to be centred in Islamist thought, that is the issue. Describing something as "Islamist" or "jihadist" is a completely different thing from hating Muslims.

As if one could hate all Muslims anyway. That's a stupid idea.

I can hate aspects of the Catholic Church without hating a single Catholic person. Same applies to any other religion. It doesn't even mean I hate everything about the Catholic Church, just some things.

soon you didn't answer my question about the Pope (Benedict) - not that you're obliged to of course!

Maybe silence speaks volumes -or alternatively egg on face?

I am not anti catholic.

I dont see how the pope can preach about 1/2 of his sermons from now on after talking about punching someone.

No ambiguity either. I cant see how he can carry on being pope.

Riverwalk - apparently I can ignore everyone if I so choose
Benedict resigned of his own accord.
The pope may end up getting pushed out? I dont know if that can happen in the Catholic church?

stop being so silly soon. This is a serious subject on this thread.