No doubt it is about the message. But the grammar too is important. That's why people go to school to learn things like classical rhetorics, etc.

Anyway, you're right. The message is clear;

Our teachers did not lie to us. They didn't have a clue what they were talking about.

Our father's (IBB/Buhari's) generation failed us. Most of them would pass on in ignominy, unsung and unheralded.

Sadly, we too have failed ourselves by not rising up above their stench. But all is not yet lost.

The important thing now is to figure out how to act so that we also do not fail our children's and yet-to-be-born generations.

^^ Dont let ignorance rule you brother. Just accept the correction and learn from it.

JeSoul:

ouch!  men, that's harsh but considering this: (remixes italized)
  Prostitution and Politics. Very closely related indeed.

Ouch! - I can't fault the remix o

Anyway the latest now is that Obama and Palin are related. Boy, aren't they all the same eh? - I can see the resemblance now

phantom:

lol, 66/2=33

and the plot thickens

mikeansy:

and the rescue operation started on 13/10/10 which adds up to 13 + 10 + 10 = 33

hmmmmmm

Last night I dreamt that 33 Nigerian Miners  were trapped underground and the govt sent a capsule down to rescue them one after the other, but the rescue had to be called off as the trapped miners could not agree amongst themselves on who goes first. Zoning was suggested but they could not agree on which zone will go first. Eventually in a struggle to all board at the same time, the capsule was damaged leading to the call off.
Oh dear. Sorry it was only a nightmare. In fact the real problem was that FEC awarded the capsule contract to Ibori and we are still awaiting delivery 3 mths later. There is a probe going on to unravel this and retrieve the award sum before we get to the issue of what formula to adopt for the rescue and which miner comes out first. Meanwhile traditional rulers from the miners' towns are paying solidarity visits to the President to thank him for his efforts to rescue the miners.
And the First lady has just invited the wives of the Nigerian miners to Abuja for dinner at the Hilton! The first ladies from the 36 states will also be in attendance. All including the wives of the miners will wear the Goodluck for President Ankara.
CNN reported early this morning that after 10mths underground all the 33 Nigerian miners have died and the Nigerian govt has declared 7 days of mourning during which the Nigerian flag will be flown at half mast.

Sad but probably true

Manchin is appealing to his audience's emotions. He has studied his audience (west virginia voters) and has decided to tell them what they want to hear in order to get their votes.

Cmarketer:

This is a call for all Christians who have been touched by this man's ministry to start praying for him. The truth is that he is a good Christian who spend most of his good fortune in God's assignment. He is not as greedy as others who were selfish. Think of the inspirational TV, daily guide, etc. Lets be praying for God's mercy for him.

What ministry?

^^^ That same paragraph stuck out to me too.

IBEXY:

Alas this story is mirrored everyday all around us. There are thousands of ladies (and a few men) like this. There are plenty of selfish "men of God" who mislead young people with their fake wisdom. The issue does not only apply to meeting the opposite gender and getting married, it involves you surrendering all your hard earned money as well every sunday to people who intimidate and tell you exactly what you want to hear. The pastor may have even wanted her for himself - who knows. Sheer jealousy could have motivated his actions.

In my experience I have met at least two ladies who live exactly like this. One eventually married. The other one is still parambulating up and down at nearly 50yrs old. Infact I thought she wrote this story because she is in the same age bracket. What man wants a woman who would call your every move "devilish". I still remember her now:

- She does not watch movies,
- no music is good except gospel songs (only the ones she likes)
- no parties, or eating out
- no sexy clothing (its all garish long skirt and scarves no makeup either)
- She condemns all your clothes as devilish - you should be on suits 24/7
- You must read the bible all the time - get rid of every other books
- Sleep and wake to the sound of a christian chorus.
- Above all, you are not allowed to touch her or any other girl despite you have been dating for nearly a year.
- And then, you must leave every other church and join hers - to worship her pastor as an equal to Christ.
- Contribute a massive chunk of my salary to the church every month

You guessed right, I left her. The pressure was too much. I was becoming an extremist and begining to forget how to enjoy life. Today I met and married a fellow "sinner" and we live happily.  Extremism works out badly in the end. You loose social skills, friends and forget how to live and enjoy life. You cannot spiritualise the physical without suffering the consequance.

The worst part is you will see people coming to this thread to encourage her to keep praying instead of arranging a man for her. What she needs is not more prayers. God already answered those prayers by sending men but her selfish pastor sent them away. What she needs now is a man. Am therefore appealing to any unmarried nairalander to consider this open hearted application in good faith.

Excellent point sand very true. Me too I've met one or two like that in my time. No gumption

pres-elect:

na wa o this thread don derail. Moderator!!!!!!!!

hahaha, Pres no vex o

make we continue to dey bash democratic PR machine.

Hopefully sha, now wey Rahm don comot, maybe dis new guy go help Obama restructure im operations and messaging. Fingers crossed.

See, Thread back on track, no wahala

Amen and Amen!

Thank you

JeSoul:

Brilliant it was sir . Dunno about recharged and ready to go but we'll see. . .

You're doing great so far.

Lol. Posh and double-barreled? if we do a quick poll how do you think the voting will go? 

Ah my dear, we both know better than to trust the polls and pollsters o - depends on how we frame the question . They told us Obama was going to win NH in the primaries 

Good points. You're right a few on the left 'demonize' the entire bunch and call them all "lazy" and "irresponsible". But my dude, I know better. I have been fortunate to live, work and volunteer amongst the "urban" generation (hate that term) and[b] I know[/b] that many times its not as simple or straightforward as "they don't want to work". People are truly destitute and down-trodden, hopeless in every sense of the word. Poor, insecure, live in terrible neighborhoods, no hope for the future. I was almost in tears last night watching the news of a mother and her 2yr old gunned down 2 days ago in Boston. These are not the people drawing my ire or that of others. I also see daily, teenage mothers with 3 kids, whose only source of income comes from the govt. They laugh about it, saying they will have more so they can get more money. How is a hardworking citizen of this country who feeds her supposed to react to that?

I agree completely and I share your empathy towards the downtrodden. Naturally the hardworking citizens react to the cheats with anger and justifiably so.

  I have seen both sides, and this is how I also know its frustrating to those on the other side when many liberals will not acknowledge that the system is terribly broken and needs fixing. They dismiss it as "just a few bad eggs". When people suggest and criticize the elements taking advantage of it, they are labelled right away (as evidenced in this thread) as selfish and don't want to help the poor. So of course they only dig they feet deeper into the sand in defense mode.
Excellent point. And for people in this situation I daresay is the point of welfare in the first place. A temporary fix to a temporary problem. Not a permanent source of income for a certain class of society, which is what it has mostly become.
Very well said again. And I never advocated letting the kids starve by the way, just that some measure of accountability be levied on the parents. I believe that if we continue to hand out checks no questions asked, we're directly sanctioning and nourishing this endless cycle. And also because the system as it is cannot be sustained long-term.
I don't think its even in the fore now at all. It just happened to come up in the course of the conversation. At least I haven't heard it being discussed on a national level.
  I personally haven't heard anyone attack the poor. Infact just the opposite. The national anger has by far and far being directed at the CEO's and "fat-cats" of wall street, not main street.

Some of the rhetoric may have been directed at the CEOs and fat-cats but none of the policies have really affected them directly. All the spending freeze debates, current tax rate debates, etc all hit the poor disproportionately more than the rich. Personally, if I were a wall street CEO, I wouldn't mind much being called a fat-cat and having much of the verbal anger directed at me as long as they didn't enact policies that touched my bottomline, raised my taxes, etc. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words . . . . .

  Overall, nicely done Omo~fat. Very nice. You brought some balance I didn't think to mention before. Kudos.

Muchos gracias mi amiga. You are fine fine lady Ma'am.

When I do finally take the plunge, I would sincerely hope and pray that the Mrs would have and exhibit half the grace and charm you display on here daily.

Please help me. Why has God abandoned me to suffer this shame? I did everything He asked me to do.

God didn't abandon you o.

You were spiritualising natural things and didn't apply wisdom to your daily living.

"If I come as an immigrant, you have the obligation to make me a citizen"  Shocked  Shocked she is poster child for the level of entitlement many illegal immigrants feel america owes them. Make una watch . . .

. . . . .   The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof.
. . . . .   Wheresoever the sole of your foot shall thread, I have given to thee for an inheritance.

Don't blame her jo    

JeSoul:

I'm tired.

Ahh,  Don't be tired o. Today is a new day,  Hope you had a brilliant evening, are recharged and rearing to go 

  (which kin name be omo~fat  self)?

Na correct double barrelled, posh, respectable name o,  You no see how e just dey roll off of your tongue eh ? 

---

But seriously, of course the welfare system could do with being tidied up some. And we can look at constructive ways to do that. But most conservative commentators always pivot to the ridiculous by constantly suggesting that all welfare recipients somehow are lazy and theiving lowlives. Like I mentioned earlier, the problem with demonizing them as such is that we as a society end up allowing those who are truly in need of it to suffer. Public policy isn't something that is implemented with fullproof plans so I personally would err on the side of allowing one or two crooks slip through while helping out the majority of truly needful. Ofcourse, tighten the enforcement too where you can (but then again, if we were talking about enforcement in certain other areas, then the same conservatives would be yelling BIG GOVERNMENT!, INTRUSION!!, FREEDOMS!!!".

The main thing is helping people to regain their self-esteem, sense of self worth, job creation, helping them find jobs and positively empowering them. We all know of people who lose their jobs and end up in desperate situations who would still refuse to sign up for welfare because of the stigma attached and their sense of pride. And when they do end up on it, you can bet your top dollar that they are most uncomfortable and desirous of getting out of it. They shouldn't be lampooned too.

Now you have some communities of people, examples of where 3 generations of families have lived on welfare (probably shuniqua types of this world with 5 kids). Sadly but understandably, most of those kids grow up thinking that's the only way. These are the ones that need to helped out and they are much better ways of doing it than allowing them to starve cuz that's what the Bible says. So fine Shuniqua is an irresponsible parent. Should we allow her five "innocent" kids die of starvation too? - The problem of trying to figure out who is genuine and who is irresponsible a non-trivial problem and one that we likely won't resolve on the fine pages of nairaland.

Welfare isn't an isolated issue. The main reason it's come to the fore now is because of the current bad and unhealthy state of the economy. It's poor people who are on welfare. They are the easy target. Everyone is angry about the economy so let's channel our anger on the poor people claiming welfare who are draining the system; never mind that they aren't really the ones who put us in this mess in the first place. Nope, those were the rich fat cats in high places. But no one wants to talk about those. They're untouchable. It's the big fat elephant in the room and it's pink too!

That's not fair. While it's true that some people cheat the welfare system, the truth is that the majority of people who get welfare are good for it - People in dire and severe straights. To tar all welfare recipients as crooks or a shuniqua with 6 kids because of the actions of a minority is unfair.

There are a lot more innocent people who would suffer than crooks who would benefit from the system.

There's too much common sense being exhibited on this thread so far.

I would say do the birthday jo. The one year old would be traumatised for life if he doesn't have his party.

The step child can always take a year out and do work experience.

JeSoul:

You make it sound so negative  '47% did not vote for him', there, that's better 
I hope you're wrong in the long run, though better judgement tells me otherwise.
Lol.  one thing's for sure, the percentage of loonies on the right is no greater than on the left - and you can take that to any bank mr (any bank not already receving bailout funds that is).

Always love reading your replies 

I get the general gist of your position (over multiple threads) that no one side (right or left) has a monopoly on bad behaviour - all politicians lie, all media outlets spin, etcetera etcetera. I agree! Mostly true!

But

In my opinion, the degree of "badness" on the right far far far outweighs anything coming from the left (atleast over the last 20 years). Unfortunately, I got no more stats to back that assertion up than you have to back up your "right-left-loonie-equality" theorem - just my gut

JeSoul:

Please let someone shout this from the rooftops and declare it in every valley. Prez, may God bless you 

  The same america that voted him into power, is now suddenly racist
  The same america that chose him is now suddenly "silly and irrational"

Strictly speaking, not totally accurate. Dude only won 53% of the popular vote, which means 47% of the country voted against him.

That country has been polarised beyond repair.

The racist, silly and irrational folk have always been there - a subset of the 47%

Odunnu:

I'm afraid for my country!
Ths isnt the country I grew up in!

This is the same country we all grew up in o - I'm not sure what generation you are sha but let's not romanticize our youth.

Secondary school students were burning principal's office in Federal Govt Colleges in the early 90s to destroy documents.

Yes - for the gf sef

JeSoul:

   I will refrain from giving you "one issue", for one simple reason - its a matter of perspective and we see the world through the lens of our prejudices.

  Cite the stimulus for example -
Democrats will say "it stopped us from going over the egde and pulled us back from the brink of a severe recession.
Republicans will says "how do you know? you said unemployment would not go past 9%, here we sit at greater than 10%, 13 - 14% in crucial states, how is the stimulus working?"
  and so on and so forth. Each side is so wrapped up and consumed in their "rightness" and the other sides "wrongness" that they hardly notice when they've crossed over into the ridiculous.

  Now omofat look at this statement again, and please tell me if you honestly think this is true -
'Republicans are always wrong and generally racist. Democrats are always right, they just don't know how to communicate'

  if you still do, then I wish you godspeed my brother, godspeed .

Haba, of course strictly speaking, that statement that all republicans are always wrong and democrats always right cannot be true. I thought you were being facetious about it.

However, I would have to disagree and say that in more generally terms that the republican position is quite frankly wrong. Of course, that's my opinion probably as a result of the lens through which I see the issues.

Take for instance:

Waterboarding - when the Japs did it, it was bad but we can do it?
War in Iraq - it's ok to kill lots and lots of brown people for no reason right ?
Detention without trial - lets just tear up the bill of rights shall we
Gun control - folks dying in their hundreds and thousands but the NRA are big and powerful so its all good.
Wiretapping - see bill or rights above - from the same folks who scream about FREEDOMS ??
Healthcare - Let poor people die? and ppl be denied healthcare willy nilly?
Voting against letting women despoiled by folks in companies like blackwater sue - are you serious ?


Like you say, we can discuss subjective things like the economy and whether or not the stimulus worked or whether we could have done with more stimulus money, etc but voting to give corporations the rights like individuals ?

I would alter the statement slightly and say on the "balance of probabilities and in the general interest of humanity, the republicans generally tend to stand on the wrong side of most issues".

Then again, you can just as well counter and argue that I am only spewing democratic talking points.

Godspeed my sister, Godspeed  

^^^ My dear JeSoul,

Please tell me one issue the republicans have been right on in lets say the last 5 years ?

, and I will recant my erroneous position

I know this isn't much of an analysis but quite ALOT of americans really are stupid.

Consistently like voting against their interests.

The democrats don't help themselves with their chicken behaviour either. No backbone.

Love or hate the GOP, they sure know how to make their case - even if they don't have the facts on their side.

The Dems have the facts (plus common sense) on their side and they still manage to make a meal of the whole thing.

DGI-PLUS:

@Poster & co,

Who controls the wind?

How come the wind parted the sea just b4 pharaoh could catch up with the Israelites?

Think!

That's why it's a miracle duh