Chat Spot

[Steve Plonk]

Ron, do you vote in Australian elections? ...Or do you sit on your hands & let
others rule you?

[RonPrice]

Now, now, Steve, watch your manners. As I said: I did not vote since I am not an American and I have lived in Australia for more than 40 years. Baha'is take their civic responsibilities seriously and uphold the authority of established governments through loyalty and obedience to the laws of their country. While participating in elections for their government, they abstain from partisanship, and so do not join political parties or factions. Baha'is may serve their government in administrative posts but do not accept political appointments or run for elected office. Such service reflects the practice within the Baha'i community, which holds elections for its administrative councils that are entirely without nominations or campaigning. This view represents 99.9% of the Baha'is in the internation

[Steve Plonk]

Ron, I'm quite aware that you are an Australian currently. You dodged the
question...I asked you if you voted in the Australian elections. Simple as that.
I just would like a yea or a nay. Of course you couldn't vote in an American
electiion!

[RonPrice]

I've been voting for 50 years, Chat-Spot, since an election in Canada in the 1960s, but living in Australia since 1971 as I have---you need to keep in mind that voting in Australia is compulsory and one gets fined if one does not vote.

Australians generally, though, are not as polarized as Americans, and they don't take either religion or politics seriously. Tolerance is part of the "she'll be right mate" philosophy which is often just another word for indifference.

These comments of course are generalization and have many exceptions as most generalizations about religion and politics have. Politics is somewhat like alot of stuff on TV: it's a spectator sport here at best. The average Aussi does not take politics seriously. Sport, food, gardening, TV, health, making money are part of "the ground of their being," to choose a phrase from Paul Tillich's popular Protestant terminology.

I trust I have not dogged your question, Chat-Spot and I hope you can now go sailing along with your new President whose political messianism is somewhat tarnished after one term, but who is one of the best talkers I've heard in my 50 years of voting.-Ron

[Steve Plonk]

Ron, I wish that the government fined folks for not making efforts to vote in the USA!

Kind folks & gentle people, the psychics were right. The planets pointed the way...The public voted for Obama & Biden & against "Frickfrackianism". No matter
how much money the Koch Bros. threw in for the republicans, Obama came out on top with most of the Senate going back to the Democrats. Too bad the House of Representatives didn't follow suit... But it is over for a little while until 2014.
Then there is 2016, when I will be an ancient piece of baggage. Onward!

[RonPrice]

Not to worry, Chat Spot; all those who live into old age become "an ancient piece of baggage." The model of human development used by psychologists that I favor is the one in which old-age begins at 80. Until then, from 60 to 80, that model refers to those years as late adulthood. This gives me another dozen years to old age. How old are you, Steve/Chat Spot?-Ron
PS summer begins here in less than 3 weeks

[Steve Plonk]

Ron, It seems as though I'm in the year of my 24th anniversary of turning 39 years old. My seer, Jack Benny, used to pontificate thusly....All I need is a violin soundtrack. Yep...

For us, in the USA, winter is arriving around four or five days
before Christmas. I like the crisp weather in the autumn, etc. Summer is okay,
but it gets in the 90s degree farenheit around here & is quite humid in this part
of the mid-south USA. How is the weather in Tasmania in late spring?

[RonPrice]

Autumn was always my favorite season for climate in the years I lived in Canada(1944 to 1971); summer was my favorite for playing baseball and winter for hockey. Seems like another lifetime now that I near 70 with more than half my life lived in the Antipodes.....And good old Jack Benny, I remember him well in the 1950s before my mother sold our TV--wanting, as she did, to improve my academic studies in primary and secondary school---and it did.-Ron

[Steve Plonk]

Seasons Greetings! Happy Happy Joy Joy... Celebrate Life!

[Steve Plonk]

It's Twelve. Twelve. Twelve...12/12/12...Ding dong bell, Turkeys in the dell,
What's that smell? What's that smell? The smell of change is in the air,
Dial the Red Cross & rid the world of care. Dial UNICEF & save the children...
Pay your fair share of taxes. Smile & the world will smile with you...Be kind to animals...
Clean up the water & the air...It's 12.12.12, Gather like a bundle of sticks
which are better than one...Get moving new peace pilgrim(s).

Sing your new song!
"Further on is into Day!"
Gather together & have a toga party with pizza & cold drinks...Celebrate all creation!

Pray for our species of humankind as a whole. Keep watch over mother earth & father sky.
Once, a new star rose in the East & passed over to the West: Son of the Morning Star...
May your next harvest time be fruitful...May your new year be bright...Pray tonight...
Accept that we must peacefully coexist to better the planet...

[RonPrice]

It's utopia or oblivion as Buckminster Fuller once put it. There is little point in working for oblivion. Greetings from Australia on 12/12/'12.-Ron Price

[Steve Plonk]

Thanks, Ron. I try to think positively--no sense in negative thinking. Like you,
I think humankind has a chance, if we collectively come to our senses & respect creation. Further thoughts on 12.12.12...

[Steve Plonk]

Our year, 2013, is squeaky clean new...Does anyone have any New Year's resolutions?

[RonPrice]

I resolve to respond to all the posts of "chat-spot" on my threads in 2013, and this is the first---with more than 30 hours gone in this new year.-Ron Price, Tasmania

[Steve Plonk]

I resolve to lose a few more pounds, as they say, & to keep going to the gym.