GwynO

DARK is good sometimes. How about a long drop with a twist.. use a bungie rope That would make for a viral you tube clip till the bounce runs out, then the PC sensors would probably cut the footage. "Never could figure out the need for the alcohol swab, when giving a Lethal Injection" PMSL. I don't understand the whole idea of lethal injections anyway, it's like an attempt to sanitise what will always be a harsh thing which is the termination of a human life. The inherent flaw with trying to get non medical people to administer three injections into a presumably uncooperative "patient" in stressful conditions could be avoided by injecting a super powerful toxin like blue ring octopus venom, cobra venom , funnel web venom, or any number of similar substances which would only require a sub cutaneous injection at best. If the idea is to make it "humane" then they could just give them the mother of all morphine ODs. In such cases where the guilt is absolutely beyond doubt, with incontrovertible evidence, and seeing the scale of the crime I don't see why anyone should bother to make it painless. Circumstances like this surely warrant extreme measures.

Righteous!!

I was disappointed that neither David Dimbleby nor Jeremy Paxman, let alone Andrew Neil, didn't pick up on the hilarious irony that was the graphic projection on Big Ben http://news.bbc.co.u...010/8656578.stm (can't find a close up, so you'll have to squint to make out the bulbous detail at the end of the lines if your eye sight's anything like mine) Whoever came up with the graphic symbol must have been aware of its resemblance to a prophylactic coated phallus, and the very idea that the three parties were battling it out to make their phallus grow the longest in a two stud battle for a "hung parliament" could have been milked for all it's worth. On second thoughts Ewww

As we know, sadly young American servicemen were killed even on the last day, by NVA rocket fire. I know the U.S.A. left and that decision was made by the politicians, but none the less it could hardly be described as an amicable truce. It's a shame to see so many missed opportunities left hanging in that conflict that could have resolved it much earlier. Even sadder is the hegemony of popular belief in the U.K. at least, that the U.S. were the big villains in the picture and that the poor old Vietnamese all just wanted to be communist and the Yanks wouldn't let it happen. That view infuriates me so much, not just because it is ignorant of the facts that the communists were prepared to kidnap, torture and mass murder whole swathes of the country if they even suspected them of not "voting" for them, or that the South were just as bad in many respects such as corruption and civil rights (e.g. banning Vesak flags in a majority Buddhist country) but the worst thing about most of those with strong feelings about that war in this country is how unwilling they are to even consider that there were any atrocities on the Vietnamese sides, or that there could have possibly been any other reason for Americans being there other than stamping their authority. The armchair critics with no connection to the country or conflict, who are so certain in their cynicism of any Western power exerting power would be totally opposed to the extreme persecution employed by those tyrannical regimes, yet somehow manage to be wilfully ignorant of any evidence from any source that paints "them" out in a bad light. By them, I mean any second or third world regime because the cynicism is reserved for the first world along with an assumption that "we" must be bad because "we" have a history of colonialism, slavery and general being baad; which according to their blinkered naivety means "they" must be good because no one who suffers from colonialism could ever be bad right? They as victims must be somehow saintly, pious defenders of the freedom and rights of their people. It just really irks me so much that the spirit of Enlightenment, of people challenging hegemony and thinking for themselves has diminished so much in self described "intellectual" circles that anyone even daring to breath a word in defence of U.S. intervention in Vietnam, or even intimates that anyone should for one minute go and look up the possibility that Vietnamese groups conducted activities that warranted intervention in the first place, must immediately recant and apologise as if they just spoke up for paedophilia. The very subject got me virtually pilloried for months after it came up in discussion with colleagues in the education sector, heaven forbid if a child asked the wrong question in a class room, no doubt my educational colleagues would seek to re educate the poor child until they too are in accord with hegemony, or at the least learn that "Good people can't have those opinions (or challenge the prescribed one)". In a similar way it is with regard to Israel in the U.K. education sector, as I found out much to my disadvantage when daring to challenge the dominant view in my workplace, that Hamas was a natural and forgiveable result of Israeli "persecution"!! Bearing in mind I was training to be a Religious Education specialist entrusted with the moral instruction of young people, I was castigated for not towing the line that suicide bombing was an understandable last resort and that "our" responsibility is to put pressure on Israel and seek "understanding" and to "work with" Hamas! Made me wonder if this is the reason I was terminated yet given a good reference, as if to say "You are a good teacher Mr. Owen, it's just your views are out of step with our dogma". Bloody hegemony.

There are fates worse than death that should rightfully reserved for scum like this. The oubliette in medieval dungeons for example, meant that the person had to live with themselves until such mercy as starvation let them out of the prison cell of their mind. I would much rather see the person sent to an ultra max style prison and kept going indefinitely rather than give him the possibility of thinking in his last moments that he is a martyr and therefore won, or for others to see this as a martyrdom. However, the argument that keeping him alive could result in kidnappers using this as a bargaining chip for his release is understandable. I wonder what they'll do with his body seeing as Pakistan don't want it back. Pig feed?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8652301.stm What in the name of...

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2954310/Gran-and-grandson-to-have-baby.html Icky.

I normally wouldn't wipe my arse with it, but now and then boredom leads one to desperate sources of internet tripe for kicks. Roll on Tuesday when job hunting can commence again. The Sun, Jeremy Kyle, Antique House Swap and all the rest of that futile crud seems to numb the pain in the meantime. Learning about the craziness in other people's lives makes you feel better for whatever remnants of sanity remain in your own I guess At least no matter what happens tonight, I won't be wondering what Gran's trying to say when she asks "where's the Steradent dear?"

NVA captured Saigon.

Intriguing isn't it :) Maybe they were in on it? Or..

Seems likely, building fail would explain why the rear of the car seems undamaged unlike if it had revered through the wall. Even if the wall did give way though, the car should still have had the handbrake on surely. Given the height, it is highly unlikely the car flew into the wall, which leaves me wondering if it's some kind of conceptual art work or gimmick.

Having worked in security as well I concur that the system is messed up. But the employers share a responsibility in how much they let the system infringe on what's common sense. Before apprehending a shoplifter and detaining them under section 24 PACE Act 1984 (Citizens arrest), we had an acronym drilled into us which makes a mockery of the wording of the act. According to SCONE, we have to have "S"een the person with our own eyes, witnessed the person "C"oncealing an item or otherwise doing something to it to avoid payment e.g. removing tags, kept the person under continuous "O"bservation at all times, effect "N"one payment, and "E"xit the final point at which a sale could be made. This lunatic policy means that if a shoplifter looses you by going into a toilet, constant observation is lost, if they make it out of the shop they are no longer on your property of the store so the security firm or store won't cover you if something happens to you, but if you make the arrest inside the shop the person can turn around and say they still had opportunity to pay and intended to do so when you arrested them. It is a mine field of litigation opportunities that could favour the thieves. I say could, because than God, almost all the stores and businesses I worked for were more than happy to apply the letter of the law instead i.e "Anyone who is without doubt in the act of committing an offence, or whom the arrestor has reasonable grounds for suspecting to be in the act of committing an offence, and Where an offence has been committed without doubt, anyone who is without doubt guilty of that offence or whom the arrestor has reasonable grounds for suspecting to be guilty of it In order for the arrest to be lawful, the following two conditions must also be satisfied: It appears to the person making the arrest that it is not reasonably practicable for a constable to make the arrest instead The arrestor has reasonable grounds for believing that the arrest is necessary to prevent one of the following:The person causing physical injury to himself or others The person suffering physical injury The person causing loss of or damage to property The person absconding before a constable can assume responsibility for him" A few notable exceptions though, like the idiot manager of one store who went nose to nose with me trying to get me to stand down, convinced he could get me fired by the end of the working day.. my "crime" had been to question a group of youths who had been pointed out to me by store staff as removing security tags from bottles of vodka, the suspects made a series of turns through the clothing department where detagged bottles were later found, on challenging them at the door they volunteered to show me inside their coats and as they had nothing got off with an "unofficial" and general warning from me e.g. "Whether you did or you didn't do anything wrong, understand that going into a store with your hood up and picking up bottles when your under-age will get you noticed". Apparently I was wrong to challenge them because I didn't see them de-tag with my own eyes, and the word of two store staff eyewitnesses is not enough to constitute "reasonable grounds", besides which it wasn't store policy to apply that part of the law and I should only apply SCONE. Luckily, my line manager put the store manager in his place and I kept my job because store policy or not I had not broken any laws, plus according to store policy I was only supposed to adhere to SCONE when making an arrest which was null and void in this case as a simple follow and challenge resolved the issue. I have known many security officers to have much less support, especially when things go to court though, that's how one particular security firm (cough) CHUBB came to be known by many as Could Help You, But Bollocks. Sprint did not have to fire these guys, they should have unofficially given them a bonus or some other recognition and then sent them for a training course or some other. No harm came to the suspect, no broken bones, and if the States have a similar "reasonable grounds" clause it could be argued that no laws were broken either. At the most, they could have been suspended pending an internal investigation, but to just fire them smells like chicken to me on the part of the managers.

I've no idea who Carl Vinson was but I'm off to wikipedia to have a look. You can understand why Reagan though, the man was a legend, end of the Cold War, Star Wars, Reaganomics, War on Drugs, the guy had a lot of very good ideas and motives.

An elbow to the face can be a good deflection. I'm not short on physical matter myself, but women can make just as determined attackers as men. In a perfect world, psychos would wear green hats or something to warn you in advance, unfortunately sometimes the true colours of men and women aren't revealed until it is sometimes tragically too late, take the example of women or men who harm their own children either to get attention for themselves or to get back at their partners. Sometimes, a good kick in the ass is not only justified but laudable conduct, regardless of race, sex, or any other thing, that is true equality.

I have to say I have changed my opinion regarding men hitting women recently, having shared a house with a psycho girl and meeting her then boyfriend who moved in with us. He is one of the kindest and decent guys I have ever met, proper decent Navy lad. The "girl", if I can call her that, played psychological mind games with him for ages and eventually got physical, culminating in a savage attack that left him with a permanent scar to his face. I've seen this guy on his knees in tears before, not because of pain but because he loved her and could not understand why she could be so cold, and not once did he raise his fist to her. After the final incident, needless to say he left, but we still remain good friends. The domestic violence police contact dealing with the case said that she has never before said this but in all her experience she has never met a guy who could have taken all that without hitting back. Here is how the newspapers reported it http://www.thisisply...il/article.html What they failed to report are that the phone was his phone that he was paying for on his name, and that she left scars not just on his face, but his shoulders and back as well, all with her teeth. I concluded that if in a similar situation, right or wrong, I would not, indeed could not, allow that to happen to me. Sometimes equal rights for men and women means an equal right to a good kicking, I do not discriminate between men and women in such situations, if either sex tried to bite chunks of my body and face off, they would suddenly find themselves lacking their front teeth and tasting my elbow or knee instead. Because of this one stupid girl, and because of my friends honourable attitude, he carries a scar that reminds him of her every single time he looks in the mirror. Sorry if I seem to be ranting, the thread just resonates with me at this time.

Great idea for SF2. A campaign with Iran involved would be very interesting with all the extra equipment and technology they would bring, but as Silverbolt points out, they aren't Arabs indeed they spent a great many years fighting the pan Arab movement of Saddam Hussein. Syria on the other hand would be a perfect candidate for a pan Arab campaign. I wonder how the West would deal with Iran in that situation, i.e. if the pan Arab Baath movement in Syria went ape just like under Saddam in Iraq during the 1980s, I guess there wouldn't be much choice other than support Iran in their fight against them.. but what happens after? I think you may have stumbled on a very interesting context for a SF2 campaign there Eddie, it has legs. You might want to read a bit more widely about some facts yourself Raden, that incubator story has been widely discredited for the best part of 20 years. http://en.wikipedia....i/Nurse_Nayirah As for Ottomans not persecuting the Europeans they ruled over for so many years, just ask any Greek, Bulgarian, Spanish about that! Seriously

Is it this one, cos this looks way more up to date than AF http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbR38S6h9VA

That's one way to do it! There's also the hidden stuff, like where did the oil that fuelled the cargo vessels our goods were transported in come from, where did the oil that produced our plastics come from, it's a sure bet that somewhere in our day to day life, our oil dependence means that money has gone to places we would rather it didn't. One way to totally eradicate the market sustaining fundamentalism in the Gulf, is to make oil globally obsolete so that no one needs it, no one buys it, even better if the alternative is cleaner and more importantly something that friendly nations produce. I hope somewhere "behind the green door" someone is working on a solution to this.

I'm talking about the people I work with, the people I have worked with and the people around me in the community. Most people I know are so fed up of all the Global Warming flanel that they have totally forgot about pollution, or worse, think it is the same thing because it sounds like it comes from the same people.. "yea man! save the trees, free the pandas" That just makes some people so mad they will turn up their energy consumption, use more plastic bags, and do anything they can to justify running an uneconomical car just as a way of throwing two fingers up at the Global Warming, Vegitarian, Ethnic handbag, Libertarian hippies that they think it will ultimately annoy. Those people are the ones that I have the hardest time trying to convince of the case for going for an alternative to oil, they don't care, they are not interested, because they think it all comes down to saving the rainforest or whatever else fashionable cause that trendy people go for. The point is though, progress out of dependence on a dirty product, funding dirtier regimes and fundamentalists.

Super Bowl XXXI, classic! Must find a DVD somewhere. And like Rugby Union in my homeland, many years ago, a community doing it for love of the game!

That's what I'm hoping! If the alternative to oil is uranium, and they find themselves sitting on a load of it, we would be back to square one, handing over trillions of dollars of hard earned cash from the fruit of intellect; to fund regimes that have absolutely no reason whatsoever to encourage their own people to think and act for themselves. It's scary how like a black flag operation for oil, the Global Warming spokesmen have almost destroyed the argument for evolving our technology beyond fossil fuel. Vocal elements hijacked, corrupted and derailed the argument against pollution that was based on solid evidence. Just like smoking producing tangible results such as cancer, fossil fuel does the same as anyone can see in the industrial badlands, but to argue that the main reason to give it up is because it gives off too much CO2 is just going to make people think "what a lame argument" and thereby keep the status quo which is good for oil, good for short term gain on the stock markets, and bloody marvellous for Al Qaeda and friends. (Note: I am not advocating any kind of conspiracy theory, I'm just saying that people should think who really benefits from oil, who really benefits from Global Warming, and who would benefit from a cleaner planet run on e.g. home grown fuel) But enough of my ranting, I should be lesson planning. Just one more thing though, seriously, whenever you touch a plastic bag, or see a car pull off, or smell the petrol at the station; every time you realise just how dependent we are on a small number of undeserving petroleum rich nations, think. If you live in Europe, every time you turn on the gas tap, can you smell the new Tzar's bank balance? Every time anyone sees an oil slick, or feels sick from fumes, ask yourself who needs it this way? Go Green! (Bay packers)

"we'd still need to get off it or one day everything will grind to a halt." That is what should be the scariest part of all this, if one day the oil does start to become ever more noticeably scarce, the Gulf will have the world by the softies, and the whole world would be fighting each other, them, everyone would be fighting to control the precious oil. I don't want that to happen, better to switch to soya, or nuclear, or anything than let that happen! I'd rather be an arsehole about it and let the Gulf grind to a halt first than let that happen. The silly greens, like Al Gore are ironically serving to promote oil with their silly nonsense. The Eco warriors are making going green such an unfashionable thing that they are in a way responsible for the continuing reliance on oil, and the resulting pollution and terror funding. If anyone who reads this who previously thought that going "green" ideas like abandoning oil was a load of bollocks, please, please think again! By replacing oil with something home grown, we could make the major fundamentalists bankrupt.