OzNana

we want our Australian decision makers hanging out with?

http://www.crikey.com.au/?p=452791

Not sure I do. Might have to swing 't'other way again next election......

Done a home exchange with visitors from overseas? If so, what was your experience like? How was their place? How well did they look after your place?

Is it happening here in Australia too? No wonder junk food tastes so awful!

http://qz.com/223742

Any advice much appreciated. Also, if anyone can tell me roughly how much you pay for prepaid phone, internet in the UK, that would be great too. Thanks folks!

A letter to the Sun Herald this morning quotes the following, from a question to George Cochrane "Your Question", June 1st. The questioner "has $50,000 in the bank, an investment property with a net worth of $262,000, $450,000 of bullion and a self-managed super fund worth at least $600,000. She is on Newstart Allowance. She has now inherited property worth almost $2 million, but apparently is still able to manipulate assets so that both she and her partner still remain eligible for Centrelink benefits."

Is this part of our problem? That people who are, to my mind, so affluent, still able to obtain benefits? What's going on here?

And I thought negative gearing was something we could do away with and instantly raise billions!!!!

Particularly the bit about girls being taken out of school to be married. Happening all the time in my area. I think the chattering classes need to really understand the attitudes and values of so many of the people we are all being so 'careful' about offending.

Check out this story.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-12/migrant-wome...

I may need to go there for about 6 months. What would be the average monthly rent, weekly grocery costs, electricity and other expenses could I expect in a major city, for, say, a one or two bedroomed furnished flat? ( Sorry, I asked this in wrong section before - stylus slipped)

Thanks folks

I may need to go there for about 6 months. What would be the average monthly rent, weekly grocery costs, electricity and other expenses could I expect in a major city, for, say, a one or two bedroomed furnished flat?

Thanks folks

I am curious. I know what most Australians will think of this. If Iraq passes this law, it means that:

1 9 year old girls can be married

2 Children over the age of two 'belong' to their fathers, and will always be put in the custody of their father if there's a divorce

3 Women will have no right to refuse sex to their husbands, whatever the circumstances

http://ab.co/1ckR1m9

Is this what we will now see in Afghanistan, after Karzai caves in to the Taliban?

Don't we think it's time that countries where there's been a crisis/ conflict etc should be occupied for a far greater length of time (think, Germany, post WWII), to allow a few decades to go by under a civilised education system? Why don't the UN consider that they go into these situations, but don't ever stay long enough to achieve any lasting improvement?

It seems that if this law is passed in Iraq, which is currently allegedly a secular state, it will allow the following:

1. 9 year old girls can be legally married

2. A child is the property of it's father over the age of two years, so fathers would automatically get custody following a divorce

3: A woman will never be allowed to refuse her husband sex, no matter what the circumstances

http://ab.co/1ckR1m9

Who thinks this is the sort of thing we're also going to see in Afghanistan now, after Karzai caves in to the Taliban?

I've been asking about this for days now, and I know you're all probably bored to death with this, but these are the facts:

I can read questions, write answers, but can't submit answers.

I can't thumbs up or thumbs down anything.

I can't give anyone a best answer to any of my questions, because when I try to click on best answer, nothing happens.

I've had good advice from everyone about how to fix this problem, and have tried it all, but nothing happens.

Even if I'd ruffled a few feathers, I find it hard to believe that absolutely EVERYONE had me blocked on this site.

I've tried going to YA computer section (where I got a few answers, but none worked).

Is there anywhere else that I can access any moderators, tech help or whatever?

I think YA Travel Australia mob will understand if I can't thumbs up your responses anymore.

Thanks folks.

OzNana

I'm still battling with this one, folks. Still no submit button for me to send my replies. I just did Sheila's spelling test and wanting to congratulate all you clever folks. I only scored 79. Got a bit bamboozled by the odd American spelling, and young person's words.

I've tried everything all you lovely people have suggested, and still no submit button, and still can't give you all the thumbs up for your spelling scores!!!

I've queried YA answers section too, but have got nowhere, despite a few good suggestions. I can't even choose a best answer, because it won't let me.......Is this the end for OzNana???

What's going on here? People have made various suggestions, but there's clearly some major glitch going on. I cant choose someone's answer as a best answer. Although I never/ very rarely do thumbs down (only the Indian prostitution service gets that), I often give thumbs up to answers I like, but today I can't click on the icons. I can't edit my own question to correct a typo. And I can't submit an answer, because there's no submit button any more.

I really don't get this.

This is very annoying. I type out my answer in full, then there's no way to send / submit it. Similarly, if I try to give a thumbs up (or down, I guess - I don't use them very often) to another person, it won't let me click on the icon. What's going on?

I mainly look at the Travel- Australia section. Is this problem just in our section, or other sections too?

I see that your perfectly reasonable question "two questions for atheists" has been reported before I'd finished answering it. This is my answer, anyway:

1) A lot of people who have been very talented inventors, artists, musicians, writers etc have also been a bit nutty in other ways. Some of the greatest composers, artists, writers etc have also been quite anti semitic, or have other odd beliefs. Being able to invent something, or do something that requires great skill doesn't mean that people with dotty religious beliefs are excluded. Talent has little to do with religious belief, on the whole. A lot of people don't like Harry Potter etc. They're entitled to their opinion, provided they don't start burning books or saying that books are evil etc. When people start banning books, it is a slippery slide to more serious acts of violence or abuse towards other groups of people. Hitler burned books.

2). What to really think of the bible. Well, it's a collection of very, very old texts, written by lots of different people, at different periods of time. Their target audience were largely uneducated, couldn't read or write themselves, and were very superstitious, because people didn't know any better at that time, and were only trying to make sense out of the world they lived in, and events that to them were inexplicable. Disease for example. We know what causes most diseases today. But they didn't then. So disease was either an act of god, or someone had put a spell on you, or it was demons, or you'd broken some religious rule.

Some people really need religion in their lives, and there's no doubt that it has and still does fulfil all sorts of social functions. But it is all invented by man. We are fallible creatures who don't always get it right. So different religious texts, different ideas about whether there's a god or gods or not, and the nature of these entities. Different ideas about the nature of god, whether gods are nasty, vengeful creatures, or kindly, loving entities. In some countries and times, gods can be all of these things. The people who liked to speculate or 'invent' these creatures liked to cover all bases. Religion is mostly about controlling people, telling them how to live their lives, what to do, who to obey, who to fight etc.

Why don't we have more discussion about world politics, such as what's going on in Syria, or what's going on in Central Africa? Or even, heaven forbid, what's going on in Australia or the UK?

to receive emails from other YA users (usually rude ones), when I thought my privacy settings didn't allow emails? How do other people adjust their privacy settings? Following the automated links from YA on these emails doesn't seem to work.

Further to my question about whether Aussie crocs were eating up our questions, which was subsequently reported, this is the result of my asking why in my appeal:

We're sorry, but upon review we found that the following question was indeed in violation of the Yahoo Answers Community Guidelines:

"Are our top end crocodiles eating up the questions again?"

Violation Reason: Violence & Threat of Violence

I had never realised that asking hypothetical questions about crocodiles was any sort of threat of violence!!! What do you all reckon, folks???