Bruce Tuncks

I had been amazed at how youi suggests in their ads that you get a bigger and faster payout from them... I didn't know that they are all owned by the same lot, so thanks. Many years ago, I foolishly opined at a club meeting about how insurance companies were crooks. They made me Insurance Officer next time around, but I was as bad as anybody else. There is always the possibility that some fool might injure a young doctor in such a way that we needed insurance to pay out millions. You can be uninsured yourself because you have control all the time, but when you are relying on strangers to do the right thing, well the thought makes me at least, turn to water. I stopped insuring my gliders 30 years before retiring from flying them, and came out so far ahead that I wished I had banked the premiums. In any case, after 20 years, I was ahead financially. I don't know anybody who insures their expensive self-launch gliders these days. After all, they are just toys that you can live without and the premiums are too far removed from the actual risk that it is just poor business to pay.

Willedoo, I reckon that you are correct about the Prez being elected by the house of reps at 2/3. So that is why I voted "yes" all those years ago. But you voted "no" and I'm curious as to why. Of course the thing is all history now, but I was aghast at how an Irish-heritage guy I knew voted "no" because he aped an Abbott ad and said that he "didn't want a politicians republic." And no, I didn't read the whole thing carefully.

They could replace thousands of accountants and lawyers with a land tax, if this replaced all other taxes. The law could fit onto a single sheet of paper.

spacy, I read somewhere that it's a legal requirement to display prices properly.

I got the grandkids to take an interest in arithmetic by pointing out that if you couldn't count properly, you could hand over a $50 note and get change for a $5 note. It impressed them to know that there were indeed examples of this happening.

Hungary is a tragic place... I well remember the uprising ( 1954 I think) when the army supported the protesters and the russians came in brutally killing thousands. This led eventually to Aborigines being citizens, since the russians were ready and primed when Australia joined the chorus of complaints about their wicked ways. The worst-off ethnic group in the Soviet Union had better stats than the abos had in those days. Australians were on the nose for months after the russians pointed all this out. In my first job as an engineer, I worked with a Hungarian woman who said that their whole history was messed up with traitors of various types. I hope that she ( Viola) finished up alright. The other guy there was Frank the pole, who saved to go back to Poland where they couldn't understand his language. Frank was a smart draughtsman but hopeless as a linguist. We couldn't understand him either, he spoke such a heavily accented mixture of polish and english so as to be incomprehensible. ( he had left Poland in 1939 to work as a mechanic on spitfires)

I guess it's much easier to get into the EU than to get chucked out. How come Greece is still in there if they are so corrupt?

Interesting huh that an independent judiciary is very important for avoiding corruption. And here's me complaining how they are too easy-going ...

i always reckoned the "11th hr" stuff was too theatrical to like. What about the poor buggers who died on the tenth hour?

Yep, I notice that "treatment of minorities" was a condition of joining the EU. Turkey would fail for sure with the treatment of its Kurds.

Here's what I really don't understand.... why is not greed used AGAINST the druggies? For a small example, if there was a $1000 reward for dobbing in a drug seller, I bet we would all be out trying to buy drugs with noted money. Just try your friendly local cops to see if this is encouraged in your area. My only explanation is that corruption is at work, but I'm buggered if I can see how.

I always thought that Turkey was a backwards Islamic place. Is it corrupt too? And yes, you are right willedoo, the EU must have more up-to date stuff than I can get my hands on.

We sure are well-off. I saw a list of demands to make the world into a great place. These demands included enough food and education and housing for everybody, just like what I grew up with. Gosh, thought I, We really lived in a great place at the best of times. The next big thing is going to be real food shortages, brought about by climate change and over-population and resource depletion. Enough gloom and doom, though.... We won't be around to worry in ten years or so.

I was shocked on reading about corruption still existing in Ukraine. Previously, I thought that while it used to be corrupt, since Zelenskyy things have improved dramatically. Alas I now have my doubts. One of the worst things was reading that "most people" expected to have to bribe the police... gosh I hope that this was years ago and not now.

I reckon its amazing how authoritarian rule is so attractive to many people. Who wants to be a dictator's pawn? Lots apparently. You would think that the plight of Russians under Putin would cause people to choose democracy, but it seems not to.

You are supposed to hold a bit of beetroot on your fork when you ask the table" you can beat an egg but what can't you beat?" Lotsa people have never heard this before, or they pretend they never heard it. And, marty, I never heard the one about the egg in your shoe either. Maybe I had a protected childhood, old movie-wise anyway.

Those Germans took away all the sardines, the dairy and the petrol... so the Norwegians had to walk or cycle everywhere and eat cabbage. They hated it but they stopped having heart attacks.

The Norden bombsight set Pritikin off on his medical crusade. Pritikin was a pioneer in developing photo-etched glass, and this led directly to the integrated circuits we have today. The US lacked the manpower to etch glass ( elderly east europeans seem to be the only ones I see on the media doing it ) on an industrial scale. This made Pritikin a lot of money, but he was told he had a "bad heart " and needed to "take it easy " in his 40's ! So he used his top secret clearance to find out why, for example, the Norwegians lived a lot longer under German occupation than they did before, and the rest is history.

There was an ex-mayor looking at the shattered rubble that was a city in Germany. He said " Hitler said we would not recognize Germany in ten years time".

I reckon they ( the Israelis) could do a better job of at least warning the civilians to get out of the way first. AND I don't agree that bomber Harris was right even though he was provoked. I think that better-targetted bombs aimed at weakening Hitler's military was the way the yanks did it and I reckon they were right.

I absolutely agree williedoo. I am amazed that the Israeli response is playing into this scene, I hoped they were smarter than this.

Have you heard of the old scottish saying " a woman a dog and a walnut tree, The more you beat 'em the better they be" Braver that me, those old scots.

You will not be shot down by me Red. My heart is with you on this matter. But my head says that OME is right again. I reckon that the hamas lot are deliberately using civilians for hiding behind. Then they are poised to win the propoganda war, as night after night we will see the Israeli army destroying gaza. Here's a question which is bothering me right now.... If Gaza had a squillion people, why are they not in demand for industrial production? I read that Ukraine had a big business in making electrical looms for cars, the main requirement listed was a big population that would need little pay compared with other places. I would think that Gaza should be a good place to set up a factory, well not right now of course.

I agree that ev's need to be as cheap as the cheapest ic cars before they can be expected to take over. I still expect this to happen soon. ( ten years) Since converting a farm buggy to electric, I have noticed that electric SHOULD be a lot cheaper. It mainly needs cheaper batteries than the lithium types we have now.

That post about read and red reminds me of spelling reform1. There was a model plane magazine here in Aust where the editor unilaterally enacted sr1 which was to replace all the ea spelling with the hard "e" sound, so you would write that you red that book. Personally, I didn't like it even though I saw the logic. Anyway, the next editor gave up on the idea too. Esperanto was a better idea but it didn't take off , not that I would have helped much.