I can see this very thread perhaps getting deleted too, if things carry on, but before it does Flood, can I respectfully mention this please…

I have worked on the assumption that the reason no reason was to be given (in the forums Code of Conduct) was because, in many cases, the reason is usually blatantly obvious – the thread had gone off topic, or it was an attempt at flaming or attacking someone, that sort of thing. Flood

It may be obvious to the moderator and those involved or watching at the time, but for those following a thread who are not present when a squabble breaks out and it is pulled, it is definately not obvious. I didn’t see any of the threads that have caused so much trouble lately and so don’t understand what really went on. Some good threads I have followed in the past have, to my point of view, vanished when I return to check posts because in the intervening time trouble has broken out. Do you see what I mean? It is not always blatantly obvious because when you last looked an interesting and vibrant debate may have been going on, or lots of good info coming forth, and then when the threads are deleted, sometimes valuable info goes with them. And cannot be found again if a member tries to search for a vanished thread.

Mark 12 has in the past taken the policy of deleting posts (not threads) and PM’ing the perpertrator/s to explain why, with a warning, leaving the thread there for others. He did this to me once, though I wasn’t deliberately making trouble, and I thanked him for his effort in pointing out I may be getting near slandering someone without realising, and a responce to this had jeopardised the thread. My post and that response was removed, both we contributors were happy, and the thread continued and stayed on track. This is a good policy. I know it may be dificult in GD, and I am not trying to tell anyone what they should do, I just hope it is ok to point out it is not always obvious what happened to a thread gone west. Thanks.

Daz, all those parents need to do is learn some old fashioned parenting skills, and stop feeding their fat little brats oodles of junk food.

Cookies, I will add, are not junk food. People have been eating biscuits for centuries, some people like sailors and soldiers have lived on them. Give them wholsesome cookies like ANZAC Biscuits – one of the greatest recipes devised – they are tasty and very good for you. Muesli bars are also good. But give them as a treat, not a meal. It seems simple but many parents are that daft they don’t seem to know you need to feed kids vegetables, fruit and proper meat (not burgers or KFC) for healthy living, and then make them do something with the enrgy that good food gives them.

Kids need much more excercise. Even here in NZ where we are apparently one of the highest ‘outdoors’ and ‘sporty’ nations, kids have become lethargic fat sloths, just like American kidswe hear so much about.

As I see it a handful of factors have caused this. The excessive intake of junk food and poor quality food mainly caused by the fact that most parents are either both working, or it’s a single parent who works so they have no time to cook proper meals – coupled with the now readily available everywhere of rubbish food like McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut and Subway. And if they’re eating junk food for meals they have to snack in between to stop the hunger, making things worse.

Another is Playstation, where kids dull their brains, get permanent wrist and eye strains and sit on their fat backsides for far, far too long when they should be outdoors actually doing the stuff they think they’re doing on the screen. I admit it is fun, and kids should be allowed it if their parents can afford it, but the excessive overuse of these games is causing terrible problems. I worked in a video store where we rented out games and there are many kids addicted to this stuff, and the only exercise they get is going from the car to the shop to change their games. Adults too for that matter. Use these machines in moderation and play properly with your kids, running round, kicking a ball, playing pirates or cowboys, whatever, but you develop their imagination (unlike Playstation which is all mapped out for them) and also their muscles.

And that leads to another worng – videos, once an occasional treat for all the family in my childhood, now used as a parenting device to distract the kids. I lost count of how many mothers would get stacks and stacks of kids videos, and they’d say that the kids will watch them over and over all day.

This to me says boldly that the parents seem to have far too much else to do than to sit and talk or to play with and teach their kids, the old fashioned way, using interaction to stimulate their minds and help them grow in a healthily way. I noticed most of the kids of those mothers were right little brats with no social skills. In fact, hasn’t ADD and other child mental illnesses seemingly developed only in recent decades along with this style of parenting?

The VCR is now a child minder, day in and day out, for some of these mothers. And the kid sits all day without a thought for running round outside in the fresh air or any one to one stimulation with a human.

Another thing, don’t give them cell phones and make-up till they are old enough (16+) – there’s an infuriating advert here right now for mobile phones that can be used like walkie talkies and they used 8-10 year old boys to advertise it pretending to be truckies. What are people thinking – phones are not toys, and all this will do is run up debt on the bills for parents. Are parents really that mindless to give a cellphone to their 8 year old to play with??

And for goodness sake, while I am on my high horse about kids today (sounding like an old grandad!) – bring back proper discipline, and as part of this, bring back smacking. It works, it works well if not abused. I don’t condone in any way parents who beat their kids, just a short sharp smack with a growl works absolute wonders. After one or two the very mention of a possible smack will stop the kid from playing up usually.

It is so much more effective than the lilly-livered namby pamby woosy ways they have to do it now, playing mind games and screwing the kids up till they realise they are not actually getting punished for being naughty and therefore can get away with murder because their parents don’t punish them.

I wonder how many generations are left in the human race. The people of this country and many others, especially Britain, were at their finest just 60 years ago. A war was won, to fight for freedom and a better world. I really think that it wasn’t worth the waste of all those lives now. There is more greed, more suffering, more idiots all round. I doubt many of those who died would agree we live in a better place than they did, even those from third world countries, not just the west. And as we grow more and more “politically correct” we lose more and more of the strengths we once had, giving away traditions and ciulture built up over thousands of years that had prove to be fine. The human species grows weaker and weaker in spirit and continues to find more and more ways to kill each other, wars, diseases, you name it. I doubt we’ll see another millenium out.

Just a thought. Did they firmly establish whether the pilot even got the message to land elsewhere? Perhaps his radio was shot up or damaged? Maybe he never got the message? Though I guess there would have been ground signals too, but maybe they didn’t see them till the last minute?

Wow, I am amazed at how common it is (or is becoming…).

What are these Waitrose double yolked eggs? Are they specially fed chickens that produce guarenteed double yolks? Or do they select them using xray on the inspection line? What’s this all about??

Speaking of language, I just realised I’ve been typing yoke, which of course is part of a horse’s harness for plough work. I should have typed yolk, which doesn’t seem to look right to me!

Ah, thanks Vicbitter, I didn’t realise the rest of the world don’t call hens chooks – it is a Kiwi word too.

An interesting aside – I was just listening on the radio tonight about the new Oxford Dictionary of New Zealand Language, and apparently much of our language is shared with Aussie and no-one else, but we also have at least 10,000 uniquely Kiwi words too. Did you know the word Diggers, for soldiers, was a Kiwi word first?? It was first applied to members of the Maori Pioneer Battalion in WWI who were called ‘The Diggers’ because of the great speed they dug trenches in compared with everyone else. It was then used generally to describe NZ soldiers soon after, and about two years later in 1917 began being applied to Australian soldiers too (probably because the English can never tell us apart!). Nowadays you never hear of Kiwi soldiers being referred to as Diggers, it’s almost exclusively referring to Aussies. I find the history of language and its continuing changes interesting.

Now, back to chooks and their googs (or hen’s eggs!)