Gas Masks/Nuclear War!!

[Mima]

Have been reading with interest in the papers the last few days about the panic buying in both British and US shops for gas masks and I wondered if any Mumsnet members are "panicking" and buying such things. Also just heard on the news about people stocking up on such things as long life milk and tinned goods. Just wonder what other members views are on these things. Incidentally most of the British shops have ran out of gas masks!

I think one of the great strengths of Americans is that in times of great trouble they consider themselves Americans first and then whatever else claim they want to make be it hang-gliding mooney or cuban/afro-caribean nun. If you see what I'm trying to get at. They are such a young nation - globally speaking - they don't have the ancient festering schisms that Europe is afflicted by, so they don't seem to want categorising themselves by specific culture, creed or belief as a primary identifier. Any dead bodies coming back from afghanistan are not going to be considered anything other than Americans. This is a simplistic viewpoint I know, however the saying 'only in America' has to have had its roots somewhere!

Surely the concept of a "race nation" is broadly accepted as far as racism is concerned. The alternative would mean that otherwise, in today's multicultural world only the Jews would have a legitimate claim to being victims of racism if the strictest definition of race was adhered to.

According to the definition of race used in the UK as far as racism legislation is concerned, it is nationality, country of origin, colour or ancestry. It is nonsense to suggest that Americans aren't a race in this context. In view of your previously self-righteous messages Minx, I find it odd that you apparently seem to dismiss the US as having clain to nationhood. One of the most fascinating aspects of the post Sept 11 environment has been the surfacing of thinly-veiled anti-American prejudice.

Minx me darling,
D'you fancy making a pact not to contribute to this thread again? I'm getting soooo bored of it and really feel it's past its sell by date a bit.
I don't want you to feel unsupported, though because:

1. I usually agree with you
2. I really appreciated you and others sticking up for me and my old man lower down
3. I love Billy Bragg and wouldn't want to leave a fellow fan in the lurch! What I really like about Mumsnet is the mummy and kids bit though and on balance I'd rather leave this sort of discussion for other sites now. What do you think? Okapi (the mum formerly known as Scummyfluffs).

Okapi, you change your name more frequently than dh changes his pants!
I didn't fancy the mudslinging on this thread so stayed out of it, but think you could be right.

Okapi, What I like about Mumsnet is this sort of discussion - when it doesn't go wrong! Not to undermine the the mummy and kids bit at all. I just need both. Internet virgin that I am, I get the impression that other parent/child sites are mostly just that, with far less depth to them.

PS does anyone know of any good general discussion sites?

On second thoughts, Tigermoth has a point. Nothing wrong with a good juicy discussion without the bitchyness.

Okapi, out of interest, I've just checked the dictionary for the definition of your new nickname. It says: large browsing mammal of the giraffe family. Would you say this is an accurate representation of yourself?

You'll always be Scummy to me, Okapi!

I thought it was Scrummymummy, perhaps I need to brush up on my reading skills.

Yes Mooma I would! Well, actually maybe not but I do like okapi. Every okapi has a uniquely striped bottom which their kids use to recognise them by. How cool is that? They've got huge brown eyes and a very long black tongue too!
Tigermoth- I completely agree with you. Mumsnet is easily the best parenting site I've found and probably the fact that we all get so passionate about all kinds of issues contributes to that. I love a good juicy discussion too but I think this particular one is getting a bit stale and less than juicy. Thanks for thinking I was scrummy Joe, but Lizzer's right- I'm a scummy okapi! Lordy, this nickname business is getting a bit surreal!

Okapi - agreed. I think I'm out of this site now. Posted a different response before but it's not showing for some reason.

3 questions for Minx and the nickname formerly known as Scummymummy:

Minx: is it stale because everyone's calmed down and there's no insulting going on? Is that why you're off to pastures new?

Why do you keep changing your name Scummymummy?

Why don't you 2 just e-mail each other direct?

Just to point out that while it may be stale for some of you, the reason that I and (I suspect) many others didn't join in earlier is because of the personal and insulting nature of many of the comments. Those of us who have contributing to Mumsnet for a long time have often had passionate debates in the past without resorting to comments on other peoples' intelligence and so on.

I think it's great that you can come onto a site like this and have a discussion about something other than being a mum. Trouble is, as I've said before, email is not the best means of communication as things do get misunderstood because we cannot see the person's face or hear the tone of their voice, so we don't know if someone is joking or not. Things do get said in the heat of a debate that might not be meant deliberately.

I think it's time that we now laid this one to rest as there is no debating now, just people covering the same points over and over. Unless someone can think of a new topic of discussion that is ...

I'm as guilty as anyone of saying the thread stinks for the reasons I've given before, but if people still want to contribute then let them. Start another thread, God knows, I do it all the time! I've been working like a blue arsed fly this week to get people to stop talking about anthrax - especially as I open the boss's mail.

I agree with Croppy that many people didn't like the attitude/content of some of the posters and decided to keep a watching brief till peace was regained. For what it's worth, I believe the stirrers actually know one another anyway.

I've taken about 10 minutes to get this e-mail in terms in which I'm satisfied, changing it time and time again. But I make the effort because I value people's opinions - whether they agree with me or not. I can accept a Kia that's crap because from anyone. What I cannot accept is Kia because you made that statement which I think is crap, that now makes you crap too!

But what do I know, being a mere home-maker?! Ouch! Who threw that?!

Hmmm, Kia that reminds me of a posting I saw on Mumsnet a few days ago by someone who shall remain anonymous, but she knows who she is, which started off saying how she had a friend who she thought was really nice, until her friend told her that she didn't agree with women priests, and now she says that she no longer thinks that friend is very nice at all. I was tempted to reply but didn't want to create trouble as I was very angry by this sort of predjudice and so decided to let it lie. I think we've all come across those people who cannot accept that your opinions differ from theirs, and judge you accordingly.

In any case, those who trade personal insults only do so because they have nothing intelligent to say. And I find that 'mere home-makers' like you and me, Kia, are very articulate, interesting and intelligent people! Talk about blowing my own trumpet!!!

Just to inject some humour into all of this, did anyone see 'Have I got news for you'? It was so refreshing to see light being made of a situation like this, you feel much better about things once you are able to have a good laugh about them!

Many moons ago, when the world was young, I among some others was interviewed by the local rag as a member of a return to work group about how wonderful it all was, our expectations blah blah blah. The journalist who interviewed us patronised the hell out of us all, and we having spent the better part of a year in each others pockets had the same instant thought and insisted on being called 'home makers' to extract as much michael as possible from this silly young woman who thought we were playing at being 'real working women' like herself. Any woman reading that interview would recognise that we were having a bit of a laugh at Ms Professional's expense - it went woosh over her head though. I often wanted to stand at her bedside in the labour ward and say what price my experience or your degree now sweetie - but that's another story! that's bad, sorry to all journos and anyone else who's offended - pink handbags at dawn. Sorry, but I've had a day of trading insults and I've started to react which is a v v bad sign. Off to bed, where's teddy?