The one with the waggelly tail? Or one of the others?
I think we’re missing the real news item here -
Congrats on the job, dude!
Thanks! I was wondering when someone would notice. Glad it was you, Bob. 
Did you get a Lee-Enfield yet? 
On the Banana thing: I’ve never liked them. They make me violently ill at the best of times, and I often dream of a Stewie Griffin-esque Weather Machine with which to destroy the entire world’s Banana crops, eliminating the menace once and for all!
You are a moron and a muppet. Are you being serious or is it a feeble attempt at humour. Are you really saying that an exaggeration is the same as ‘overblown rhetoric’ ?
As for “It’s so embarrassing when one is attempting condescension towards another only to discover that one is not as correct as one thinks, is it not?” That may or may not be true, but it does not apply here.
As for “In other words, you were talking out your ass and you got called on it.”
No I did not.
I have not done an Australia-wide survey on bananas.
For those to feeble-minded to understand my OP, here is a short explanation. There was a cyclone that wiped out most of the Australian banana crop. The government refuses to let in banana imports. Thus bananas are scarce and expensive. I was asking why there could not be imports. When I asked, I made an exaggeration, which some yo-yos (muppets, call them what you will) think means I was using ‘overblown rhetoric’. The current muppet- Princhester- likes to say ‘talk out your ass’ to me. That means diddly squat.
Easy now, blinkingblinking. Remember this isn’t the Pit.
I understood and answered your question as you restate it. Anyone want to talk about the policy?
Care to defend this ridiculous overblown rhetoric? 
Yes, Hawthorne, I do. Every day, the F&V shops here have somewhat undersized but perfectly tasty bananas. They do not sell out of them before the end of the day if at all, and the next day they have more. That amounts to an unlimited supply for all practical purposes.
How did I go?
No. Did I say that? What I said was that one of the definitions of rhetoric was exaggerated language and empty speech, and that your statement in question qualified. Do you have any particular reason for saying that is incorrect, or do you think that insults and unreasoned expressions of disbelief count for something around here?
I see. So you said in the title and body of your OP that there are no bananas in Australia, and in a later post you said that in Australia you can’t buy bananas. Statements which are simply false (ie, in popular parlance, you were talking out your ass).
Others denied your statements (ie, in popular parlance, you were called on them).
But you did not talk out your ass and get called on it.
Fine. I’m a sucker for flat denials, myself. You make 'em, I’ll believe 'em.
90% of the crop was destroyed by Larry. (see here) No imports of fresh produce are allowed. According to your definition, there was unlimited supply before and there is unlimited supply now. Clearly, there has been no change in the supply characteristics of bananas. Of course, that’s silly. It’s not what you meant and I know it. We both know there is a temporary shortage of bananas and that the fact that the banana market is now orderly doesn’t make that untrue.
Focussing on whether you liked the way the OP was couched is not interesting. The policy question for debate is (slightly) interesting and was clearly visible through whatever infelicities of rhetoric there might have been in the OP. How about we talk about them? I already did. Does anyone want to take issue with what I said?
Holy shit that’s some expensive bananas. I mean, I don’t pay that much for pineapples (Which are definitely not grown locally) here in Michigan, and our bananas are about 50 cents per pound. I can’t imagine the hit my wallet would take at 6 - 12 bucks per kilo. My wife and daughter both love bananas.
Yes, we have no bananas. We have to bananas today.
rings through my head…
Banana allergies are not unknown. AFAIK, they are rarely life-threatening, which should be a relief if your food labeling laws are like ours (milk, wheat, soy, nuts… only the big allergies are on the label). My father says his mouth gets numb when he eats them, which I’d much prefer to your reaction.
No Enfield, got tires on the minivan instead 
I submit that there is a nearly unlimited supply of bananas, providing one is not in a hurry. However, ultimately the supply may be finite and could possibly come to an end sometime in the next 15 billion years (less if we don’t get off this planet). So, in fact, NOT unlimited.
You may not realise this, but Australia was isolated from the rest of the world for many years. In that time some rather nifty new species and entire ecosystems evolved, including several species of bananas found nowhere else on the planet.
Cultivated bannas carry numeorus diseases that could easily exterminate these native species and cause irreparable damage.
"nuff said.
Wow. Can I just say bananas in Orlando(ish) are about 19 cents a pound?
I had no idea bananas were a luxury food item in Australia. I take it you don’t eat a lot of banana splits over there?
Hawthorne, undoubtedly bananas (simpliciter) are not in unlimited supply. I never said they were. As I said, where I am (which is not Melbourne) undersized bananas seem to be in unlimited supply for practical purposes.
Some exaggeration in any debate is normal. But making several statements to the effect that bananas were not merely expensive and in short supply but actually unavailable went way beyond acceptable everyday exaggeration for the sake of making a point, and into the territory of being misleading and affecting views in the substantive debate. There are those, I suspect, who would be understanding of a degree of protectionism if the outcome was going to be temporarily expensive or undersized bananas, but who would not show that understanding if the protectionism meant quite simply that bananas could not be bought at all. Don’t forget, we are Australians on a US message board. Many participants would not be in a position to know that the OP was just exaggerating, and could well have taken his statements at face value.
Furthermore, I made one short comment pulling up the OP for his inaccurate statement. It wasn’t me who chose to go totally ballistic over the issue, to the extent of completely losing it, in GD.
Ivylass, bananas are a cheap staple here usually. There is just a particular supply issue at the moment.
Moderator’s Warning: Blinkingblinking, calm down and stop violating the rules of Great Debates. Personal insults like this are not allowed.
No, the Rottweiler.
It seems interesting to me, in passing, that the high price of bananas are one of the things, along with petrol, that were singled out as being responsible for the recent interest rate hikes. (Inflation due to the above, etc.)
With the Coalition in power, you’d think they would be scrambling for imported bananas (or some other banana price cutting measure) to keep the prices down, thus inflation low, thus interest rates low, thus living up to their shrill, scaremongering advertising pre the last election. Especially since they are coming up on more elections next year. (And I hope to be allowed to vote in those, my wait to be eligible for citizenship will be up around the same time!)
Though, on the other hand, the Nationals would have their hands full if they even had a fleeting thought of allowing mass banana imports, as QLDs banana growers would go off their heads! (As the upthread cite shows, the mere importing of Vietnamese bananas was nine day’s wonder.)
And oddly, banana prices have come down here in Sydney (at least where I shop, in the inner west) but as pointed out upthread, I suspect we’re getting Coffs bananas. But I haven’t had trouble finding any, although they haven’t been the half-ripe, perfectly yellow specimens I’d been used to seeing pre-Larry.
I seem to be wandering around a point here, but damned if I can find it.
Cheers,
G
Yes I understand that it is a rule here. It is hard not to insult someone idiotic enough to try to make a case of trying to accuse me of ‘overblown rhetoric’ when I made a simple exaggeration.
I am perfectly calm, thanks.
It is not hard at all. One simply looks at the text one has keyed, recognizes that one has used insulting language that violates the rules, and deletes that portion of the text before submitting the post.
Referring to another poster as “idiotic” when one has just been issued a warning for hurling personal insults, for example, is exactly trhe wrong sort of statement to post. I’m going to hold off issuing a new warning on the grounds that you may have just not understood MEBuckner’s point, but you will stop using personal insults in this Forum or you will stop posting here, at all.
[ /Moderating ]
Were you aware that the banana is the atheist’s nightmare according to evangelist Ray Comfort? It’s perfectly designed by God for easy insertion into bodily orifices.