Canny lass

... and one other thing: Nobel prizes being mentioned does not mean that a Nobel Prize will be given. They are mentioned almost daily in this household but neither myself nor the old man have one.

"I didn't read this link either. If you'd like to know why then I suggest you google 'Gatestone Institute'." Ad-hominem? If you consider this to be an 'ad-hominem' attack then you are clearly feeling more threatened than I thought. What's the "Torygraph"?

You've lost me there, I'm afraid. I don't know what any of this has to do with my finding the Sicilian people charming. I did in fact ask about unemployment while I was in Sicily. It would appear to be roughly the same as most other places in Europe - if I'm to believe the few people I talked to. They weren't too happy to talk about the 'connections' bit though. Pity! I would have liked to hear more about it. Immigrants and refugees are not always one and the same thing. You can be an immigrant - like yourself and myself - without being a refugee.

My mother always baked biscuits called Anzacs but she always made them for Easter. I understood they were something to do with the Australian army but don't know what.

If you like history, nature, good food and good wine then you’ll love Sicily. There’s a lot to see and do but if you take a few hours and plan your visit it’s surprising just how much you can achieve in just one week. We booked a hotel in Aci Trezza, just 20km from Catania airport, for one night but extended it to three as we thought it was a good base for visits to Etna and Taormina – with a fantastic Greek/Roman theatre. Book a walking tour with a guide around a couple of Etna’s craters. You can do that on site much cheaper than from the hotels. You won’t be disappointed! South from Aci Trezza you’ll find Siracusa. A visit to Parco Archeologico is a must before moving on to the island of Ortygia. Heading west toward central Sicily you’ll find Piazza Amerina and the roman Villa del Casale with it’s wonderful mosaics. Thank you ExBedlingtonian for that tip. It was a joy to visit! Driving south west from Piazza Amerina towards the coast you reach Agrigento. Stop off en route and take a slow walk through the Valley of the Temples ‘Valle di Templi’. There are a half dozen temples, some dating back to before Christ and in surprisingly good condition. It’s well signposted. You can hire a guide here as well but it’s an easy walk in a straight line so just buy a little cheap guide book and go by yourself. Follow the coast northwest from Agrigento through sloping vineyards towards Marsala and on the way take a few hours to visit the small medieval town of Erice. It’s a hair raising drive that takes you to a height of 750m above the sea but well worth the journey. It’s strewn with beautiful, small piazzas and some of the most wonderful courtyards I’ve ever seen. The views are out of this world! From there, cut across the north west tip of the island towards the capital, Palermo. Just enjoy wandering around the town. We visited the Capella Paletina which, if we understood the guide book correctly, is the chapel of the royal palace of the Norman kings. It’s very beautiful and extremely interesting both from a historical and religious point of view. From Palermo it’s just a short distance to Monreale, another small, old and very picturesque old town. Leaving Palermo follow the coast eastwards towards the small, medieval fishing village of Cefalu - dominated by a huge rock and a huge, Norman cathedral. Close up it’s not so huge. It’s just built on a bit of a hill in the town centre. We had hoped to make it to Messina but were a bit short of time so we drove directly from Cefalu to the airport in Catania. 3g was right about the mosquitos. They can be a bit of a pain in the evenings but their ‘bark’ was worse than their bite – so to speak. Their whining can get on your nerves but I didn’t get bitten until I got on the plane for the homeward journey! If I was to give any more advice on Sicily it would be: Buy a guidebook and guide yourself. It's much cheaper and you can do it at your own pace. Hire the smallest car you possibly can. Driving in Sicily is a pleasure until you hit the towns and villages where the roads are the narrowest I’ve ever seen and parking is a nightmare! Both as a driver and a pedestrian proceed with caution at all traffic lights. Why Italy has chosen red and green among its flag colours I do not know as Italians clearly can’t distinguish one from the other! Hire a room on the outskirts of town and the use public transport within the town. This way you'll avoid some of the frustration of parking the car. If you only speak English avoid talking to the elderly.They don't seem to have any knowledge of the language. They understood Spanish but answer in what I assume to be Sicillian. Drink wine instead of water. They are both the same price.

I wouldn,t know, 3g. I've only lived here 30 years. That doesn't make me an expert. I found the Sicilian people charming. I also, based on the couple of dozen or so with whom I had any in-depth conversation, found them to be extremely tolerant and respectful of others. They seem to be very proud of this tolerance and respect - pointing out that it's a long tradition dating back to Sicily's time as an Arab (Muslim) country. I asked a waiter in a restaurant if they minded that a clearly north African male came in to beg for money among their customers. His answer: "Why should I do that? He's only trying to make a living - same as I am." We could learn a lot from the Sicilians. I didn't read this link either. If you'd like to know why then I suggest you google 'Gatestone Institute'.

You fear my answers are too straight for me. Which answers? I haven't had any! I don't recall making any ad-hominem attacks on any person or thing. I try to be objective in all my remarks. I make statements, sometimes provacative, but I try, especially when challenged, to support those statements with information from credit-worthy sources - experts if you like, the type of opinion that would be acceptable in a British court of law. I find that it usually makes for a good debate. I understand that you may feel threatened by this and in that case I'm truly sorry. Perhaps you could quote me on some of my ad hominem attacks so that we can discuss them? That offer is open to anyone who may feel they have been attacked in personal or subjective manner by me.

You were certainly interested in the appearance of a male Muslim on December 20th 2015, 12.30am, topic: Sunni side of the street. Indeed you thought that I should be quaking in my boots on seeing one thus inferring that they were instantly recognisable.

Sharia law is no more British' law' than are the 10 commandments as dictated in the Christian bible (Exodus 20: 2-17 and, just in case we didn't get the message first time round, repeated in Deuteronomy 5:4-21). Both are codes of conduct for a religious group and in no way judiciary. I'm sure you are familiar with the decalogue - that text that starts with something like 'you shall have no other gods before me' (that rings a bell from somewhere else). It's not legally binding. Should we perhaps start to persecute christians as well? They didn't ask to have these commandments imposed upon them. To judge by the number of divorces granted on grounds of adultery, I doesn't appear that too many people feel bound to follow them. Neither are they legally obliged to do so.

Did you ever use the word replaced? You used a derivitive - replacement (December 26 2015, page 2 of this topic). Nominalization of the verb replace to produce a noun replacement, in no way detracts from the intrinsic meaning of the root. It's similar to your verbalization of ghetto to produce ghettoize. "The present influx is about cultural replacement" has exactly the same semantic content as 'The present influx is about culture being replaced*. You are circumventing the obstacle to avoid answering.

QUOTE: On 2016-04-18 at 10.09, threegee said: " Please provide the source of your definition of a "true refugee" "Why don't you define it too? Then, any reader of this thread can determine for themselves if my understanding is more in accord with what they consider fair and reasonable than yours". REPLY: Again, 3g, I can only repeat what I've already said. OALD defines a refugee as "a person who has been forced to leave their country, home etc. and seel refuge, esp. from political or religious persecution". Another source, the good old Oxford Concise, also encompasses the notions of forced leaving in order to seek refuge and escape persecution. I can't in any way disagree with that. To do so would be subjective. More on that later.

QUOTE: On 2016-04-18 at 10.09, threegee said: "What do you understand by the word ghetto? I used the word ghettoise. That's the process of proceeding toward ghetto conditions. I suspect you want me to point to an outdated formal definition in order to "surprise" me with the inconsistency. I didn't say we had ghettos - yet; so going there is a diversion. Trevor Philips has recently said "A Nation within a Nation", and he's very right - except it won't stop there. I bet you didn't even look at that Burnley video!" REPLY: You used the word ghettoise, meaning "the process of proceeding toward ghetto conditions". I gave you two differing but very credit-worthy definitions of the word. If I am to understand the point you are so obviously trying to make It would help if I knew what you are referring to so, I'll ask you again: what do you understand by the word ghetto? I do not wish you to point to any outdated formal definition. The etymology of the word would serve no useful purpose as we are talking about the here and now. Correct I did not look at the Burnley video. It was of no relevance to know how two people, not involved in this dicussion, would define the word ghetto. It's you I'm trying to understand, not two people in Burnley.

No. I mean that you haven't answered my questions. You have merely skirted around them.

.... and me! better late than never as the saying goes.

chummings, onsetters, dish, kip, timber-leading, caunches"! I thought you'd taken to writing in greek for a minute!

Thanks for this detailed description, HPW.

Using the quote system worked fine until I tried to post a quote and got a repeat of my first quote. That's why I wrote "Sorry! I don't know how this happened! Move on to the next post to follow the discussion". Unfortunately, after that, the same thing happened on every quote I tried to make using 'the system'. The 'system only repeated the same qoute and post every time. I solved the problem by painstakingly writing out every quote. Look again. My replies are ALL outside of the quoted text. The quoted text is that text inside the quotation marks - you know those double inverted commas that mark the beginning and end of just a quote. Just saying.

I think you misunderstood my question. I asked that you give me the SOURCE of the definition. I did not ask that you expound, once again, another of your home-spun philosophies. A refugee is: a person who has Sorry! I don't know how this happened! Move on to the next post to follow the discussion.

I think you misunderstood my question. I asked that you give me the SOURCE of the definition. I did not ask that you expound, once again, another of your home-spun philosophies. A refugee is: a person who has been forced to leave his country, home etc and seek refuge, esp from political or religious persecution". The source for that definition, in this instance, is the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. The attrubute 'true' according to the same source means "agreeing with correct principles or accepted standards". No mention anywhere of temporary, minded to return from whence they came, peoples mind set, imposing of lunacy or taking holidays in the home country - or anywhere else for that matter. So, I'm asking you once again for the SOURCE of the definition you gave. I see nothing of common sense in the definition.

I am not commenting on semantic correctness. Neither am I a "stickler" for it. My speciality is syntax. It reveals far more about the way a person thinks than does semantics. I am not a jot interested in which definitions of ghetto two Burnley ladies would recognise. Two Burnley ladies are not involved in this discussion. You and I are. I would still like an answer to the question. Have you taken the trouble to inflect the word ghetto to produce ghettoise then you clearly have an understanding of what the word means. I am politely asking you to share your understanding of the word with me. Let me make it easy for you. Most dictionaries give two descriptions of the semantic content of the word ghetto. Here they are: 1. Historically, the Jewish quarter of a city. 2. A part of a city lived in by any minority national social group, typically crowded and with poor housing conditions. Which one best fits the picture you have?

I have looked at most of them. I don't see any great differences: High rise offices, -hotels, -housing and -places of worship (bell towers, minnarets and the likes). Places of worship have long been part of the British culture. Take Stonehenge, just as an example. Worship is an integral part of religion and in Britain we - and everybody else - has a legal right to practice their own religion so it stands to reason there will be different places of worship. Therefore, no part of British culture has been replaced. Worrying about the safety of your children does not belong to culture. It belongs to parenthood. The majority of parents, regardless of their religious persuasion, have concerns about their children's safety - from all sorts of things. British tolerance? Is that really part of British culture and if so has it been replaced?

You are imposing your own incapabilities on the entire British nation! "Many of them were already british citizens". HELLO! A british citizen can NOT seek asylum in his own country which makes the term "genuine refugee" sound just a tad comical. Many Syriens are better educated than some of us British and speaking good English on arrival has never been a condition of entry to Britain. As for the "belief set" - If it's Islam you are referring to it doesn't require the elimination of all other belief sets either. "Supressed figures"? If you know they are being supressed you clearly have inside info on the real figures. Let's see them - with their source, please.