You're lucky you never had a Middles Ages in America !

[W7JZE]

We could handle the Middle Ages alright but "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

Fear and surprise, that's how we do it.

73,
Bill

"...and ruthless efficiency!"

It WAS brought back after M.P. mangled it . And recently too. More fun than a barrel full of heretics!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hEh2NH6teY

[K5FH]

Fear and surprise, that's how we do it.

Well, the IRS certainly does...

[AC4UT]

[QUOTE=G0GQK;2518363]A
e " A bye law in the 1630's prohibited "any suddaine outcry in the still of the night such as beating a wife to the disturbance of his neighbours" Seems that beating a wife was quite acceptable, but her cries of pain and anguish were unacceptable


I can't understand why they couldn't train their wives better, as in "don't complain whn I beat you or I will beat you more".

[N5PVL]

A recent book published in the Mother country, " Filth, Noise and Stench 1660-1770 " describes that neighbours in England in the 1300's were a lot more intrusive than they are today. This case appeared in 1333 at the London Assize of Nuisance. A couple took their neighbours to court for removing a screen from around their privy " so that the extremities of those sitting upon the privy can be seen, which is altogether intolerable " The neigbour in a counter claim told the court, that " they have a hole in their floor where they could observe his private business"

Not much had changed by 1660 when Samuel Pepys complained of his neighbours " foule water sluicing between the houses, even into his cellar where he found a great heap of turds which are not mine " A bye law in the 1630's prohibited "any suddaine outcry in the still of the night such as beating a wife to the disturbance of his neighbours" Seems that beating a wife was quite acceptable, but her cries of pain and anguish were unacceptable

Prying through peep holes (not peek holes) was common. Church Consistory Courts on Morals sat on an adulterous activity which reported that " a crowd of witnesses were invited to watch a wife and her husbands brother in the very act, in a very beastlie manner" The public spirited neighbours had peeped carefully at the activity for a quarter of an hour.

The British used to judge their neighbours by the quality and the whiteness of the washing they hung out to dry, today they are judged by the contents of their recycling bins, noting the clatter of the number of bottles as they are dropped, and what they contained.

So - What's the difference?

[AF6LJ]

The universe doesn't care, it has already programmed the earth to be destroyed by our sun in around 4 billion years give or take.

I know all about that........
I worked on the planetary steering committee. e in a past life.

[WF7A]

I can't understand why they couldn't train their wives better, as in "don't complain whn I beat you or I will beat you more".

From the Tasteless Humor collection:

Q: What do you say to a woman with two black eyes?
A: Nothing, you already told her twice!

[WF7A]

Dupe. Sorry.

[G0GQK]

You're right, we're moving back to the Middle Ages at a fair rate of knots. A good example is that having kept the unwashed masses under the heel for forty years, they buy a mobile phone, download Twitter and start not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but six revolutionary disturbances called The Arab Spring. Thousands die and the new fundamentalist Arab Brotherhood will soon be installing 14th century Sharia law.

The Middle Ages is now being installed in Greece, thousands of illegal immigrants from everywhere are descending/have descended, on Greece, no money, no food, no shelter, living in the centre of Athens, different gangs attacking each other and Athenians trying to make a living being assaulted in daytime, and the city at night, its now Mad Max Land. No cops, no money to pay them, no army, sitting in barracks playing cards.

Not quite as bad in Spain, yet, but despite what they say, almost 50% unemployment. no money to buy anything, people starving and two feet away from a revolution and telling the EU to er "go away " As Franco died some time ago it is not expected another Inquisition will be suggested in Spain, but the odds are that given half a chance a Court of Inquisition would be installed outside the German Chancellery in Berlin

[G4ALA]

Thank goodness for free comunication. Thank goodness for education and freedom from ignorance. Thank goodness for years rather than decades or centuries to be needed for change.

The whole world has changed in the last twenty years, and very much for the better. G0GQK uses a general ironical approach, where what he says is in fact opoposite to his belief. I am not sure that this is perceived by too many.

Watch out those who suppress and opress. It will not be the same for you. It may take a while yet to happen, but it will. Look at Burma.

I was born long enough ago to have at least witnessed at a distance, and sometimes not at a disance, how the hegemony (there's a Sunday word) enables stealing from, browbeating and abusing so many individuals, familes, peoples and whole nations. This will all change. The voiceless invisible now have presence and voice.

The middles ages are retreating fast.

John G4ALA

[N0SYA]

"found a great heap of turds which are not mine ""