by sandy82 » September 13th, 2005, 7:59 pm
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Welcome back, Mike, after your absence! I'm glad to see you. Also relieved that it's the same you that we all know.
For everybody's benefit, I think I'm the evil tool that uses paragraphs. :)
I'd like to keep to the thread today. Which is..... WOW!
Studies show that the effects of television, including even Sesame Street, action thrillers with quick frame-changes while Son of Sylvester says "Duh", schools that don't teach but try to entertain....these and additional factors are all contributing to ever shorter attention spans.
Sometimes, it takes others to see us properly. That was true in this thread. North American-'Roo-Kiwi-Comp state schools are among the most expensive in the world, and the quality of the education is declining. Sadly enough, the results show.
"WOW." Along with a note that says, "Sometimes I use this when I can't think of anything else to say"--or words to that effect. Indeed so.
Attention spans. Can't think. Ever shorter. Ever harder. Ego bruises. Emotional compensation.
You see where we're headed. From WOW we first move to WO.
And from there--
Do you solemnly swear........ "No, the right hand!"
We get
[size=28] [color=red]W![/color] [/size]
Has that scared anyone into trying to concentrate for longer periods? :P
- - - - -
Somewhat different topic. I have a genuine, Australian history question. About the mid-197/\[url=(https?:\/\/[^\s\[]+):$uid\](.*?)\[\/url:$uid\]/is, the Prime Minister was a Labourite named Gough Whitlam. The Governor-General of Australia, appointed by the Queen, held a post that had become largely ceremonial. Nonetheless, it had a set of formally retained powers that were rarely...in fact, never...used. The G-G wore a perfectly pressed red jacket, looked decorative, and drank UK gin and UK scotch. (One could do worse.)
Then things changed. Suddenly. One day the Governor-General dusted off those old and nearly forgotten powers. He signed a document in the name of Queen Elizabeth II, and he fired the Prime Minister. It made no difference that Whitlam headed a duly constituted government. He was sacked. He was gone. The G-G didn't do that on his own. The Queen didn't make the actual decision, either. The UK prime minister presumably made the decision, possibly in consultation with the Defence Ministries and the intelligence services in both countries, and along with reliable and responsible Australians. If desperate acts require desperate measures; then surely desperate measures suggest prior desperate acts.
Question: What had Gough Whitlam done .... really done .... that he was fired by the Queen on the advice of the British prime minister?
I have never read the genuine cause of the sacking. Does anybody know the real details? It may be that they are complex and will require some thought and organization, but I can tell you the results of that effort:
[size=14] WOW. [/size] A useful time to use the word.
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