Walsingham

For realsies? I'm talking how they sell themselves, you goon.

It's OK. If we ever have an Obs tour of England we should stop by.

LOL. The last time I actually went there was around the time they were filming.

It's an interesting one, really. Logically if you vote him in with a mandate and he does something else then how can it be your fault? But yes, I think it comes back to this neo-tribal notion. You didn't mandate Obama. You joined his neo-democro-tribe. Maybe because the two main parties are so 'big tent' now that they are almost meaningless. I mean what is the GOP, if not privilege and advancement? What are the democrats, if not intellectualism and progress? And really what is the presidential candidate in either case, but a spokesperson? Like the face of L'Oreal.

LIke hell I will! It's ****tails at the Ritz. High tea is consumed at the Randolph in Oxford.

But not even as closely as fun as to what today's Anglo-Saxon axis is propagating. You ****ing love it. Muahahahaha.

Why in the name of incredibly aggresive neurotoxic death would you mither a black mamba? I ****ing hate videos like that because some poor fool is going to see that and think it's safe to poke venomous snakes with a stick. EDIT: I just realised that my heart rate jumped and is only just subsiding after watching that.

I met a young journalist a couple of weeks ago. I honestly thought for a while that I was talking to a chap with a mental disorder.

I'm currently wearing merino wool bridgedales with about 15 patches of special macguffin on them. It's like having my feet in the mouth of God.

What I don't really understand is why we'd send guns. Surely a more media friendly and all round more economical option would be to send things to improve their survivability. Body armour, bandages, hand sterilizer. Keeping the rebels in the fight is a force multiplier, and it;s one they don't have currently. Whereas they seem to be armed to the teeth with guns already. Plus, it occurs to me that the jifs would enjoy body armour the least, and that's always pleasing.

I think it's a bit naive to suggest we should intervene. Turkey's a NATO member and very long term ally. Plus the man was freely (so far as I know) elected. We're perfectly entitled to think the man's a douche. We can even say so. But changing what's going on is really something which should happen at the Turkish ballot box.

Well, Zor, thinking about it some more I don't think it's detestable to maintain some loyalty to the candidate you voted in, as a form of credit. But I personally always thought crap like this would happen. Obama's too weak personally not to try and appear strong administratively. Ultimately, Obama didn't have the courage to lose his first term, making all the moves he said he would. He would have been blocked, and lives would have been lost security wise. But he'd have done the job honestly. Which is surely the 'change' he sold to the public.

To be fair, as much as there are Republicans who're up in arms mainly because it's Obama and who defended Bush for doing similar things there are also more than a few Democrats who would have been incandescent with rage had this come out during Bush's term who are either quiet or defending it under Obama because he's their guy. If it had been Bush bugging reporters and having the IRS 'independently' decide to investigate his political opponents the internet would be replete with Bu$Hitler's and the like every bit as much. Looking at the poll results on the issue, it was only about a 10% switch for either side. The rest of repubs/dems stuck to their guns. Of course, since both parties were at least within 10 percentage points of for/against, to someone without an understanding of statistics, it looks like dems and repubs completely switched positions on the issue, instead of only 10% switching their opinion. Whichever way you slice it, it shows how far we've moved from reasoned politics to neo-tribalism.

He has stated that he is considering to call in the army if things don't quiet down. With the unions joining the protest this week, things don't look to be doing that though. And the police union is unhappy as well, with six suicides and apparently a thousand resignations. Source on those resignations? I don't know enough about Turkey to guage the significance of the unions either. My feeling is that Erdogan's supporters are likely to be non-unionised. This doesn't threaten his power directly, surely? The man may have claws but he always seems to prefer wits. Just my ill-educated impression. And I think he can weather this storm easily enough with a degree of firm restraint.

Too late I hardly think so. It's serious unrest, but i don't see Erdogan wanting to push for bombs and bullets, and tbh I don't think the protesters have the manpower or the mentality to force it from their end.

Sweet jesus. Can't you get hepatitis from human faeces? Not to mention seven kinds of exploding intestine. I can shut off squeamishness about poop in a good cause, but sleeping in it? It's the kind of thing I'd do to my worst enemy, but no one else. Come to think of it, isn't there a buddhist hell a lot like your festival? Being boiled in crap...

I'm a fan of Mr. Darwin. I should be careful saying that if I was you. He may seek to meet you in person to thank for your support.

I walk almost everywhere so socks and shoes are my biggest extravagance after booze.

I can't get scones any more. Grandmothers and mum are dead. And before anyone says it: I'm not baking my own scones. If I'm going to go gay it'll be done properly, with plenty of drugs and parties.

That Brazilian spider had better be called the 'jumping knob jockey'.

It's called 'phlegm'. You should try some with lime juice. It beats poisonous depression all to hell.

Got to love all the chortling in the comments. This isn't even news. I have books from the _90s_ in my library talking about eavesdropping at these sorts of meetings. In fact there was a woman who whistleblew on GCHQ about five years ago, doing exactly this. We discussed it _on this forum_. People still turn up. It seems the slack jawed mandarins who attend have also learned nothing about security. I'm sure it goes even further than the 90s, and while I agree that this isn't really a smoking gun - possibly due to the stuff Guardian chose not to publish at this time - I think it's only a matter of time before they link Prism to this type of more banal espionage. And then you start having trouble with your moral justification, when all the curtailing of liberties that has taken place during both the past two administrations (I'd like to point out before the hypocritical Republican strike team arrives) has had it's justification in "stopping terror". While both you and I know, I'm sure, that it's at best only a part of the reason for the measures, I assume that it plays a big part in convincing Joe Sixpack of the necessity of these measures, since they keep repeating it ad nauseam. Or maybe it's just how Morpheus posits in Deus Ex, people need to be watched to feel special. Well, there just wasn't the data processing back in the day. Nor of course the widespread of electronic digital communications on which to graze. I feel I have to keep repeating I think this isn't justified already. For the simple reason that we aren't DOING anything useful with the information. There are literally thousands of malevolent bastards who we know full well mean us harm and are guilty of a dozen criminal acts of conspiracy and we have neither the will or the means to tackle them. What's the point of knowing about more? I don't mind being spied on in a good cause, so to speak. But I'm buggered if I'll be happy about it for no goddamn reason.

Welcome to Glasgow. Best headline ever. This should be the strapline for convicing the English to retain Scotland as part of the UK.

Got to love all the chortling in the comments. This isn't even news. I have books from the _90s_ in my library talking about eavesdropping at these sorts of meetings. In fact there was a woman who whistleblew on GCHQ about five years ago, doing exactly this. We discussed it _on this forum_. People still turn up. It seems the slack jawed mandarins who attend have also learned nothing about security.

Gorth makes some interesting points. I think the most likely outcome is: - The USA and UK register profound disquiet, but blame inaction on Russian air defences; get out of domestic jail free, point finger sat Kremlin hurrah - Russia is happy with a naval base and client state in the Med, and Syrian crude selling through Russian companies or not at all. - Iran/Rouhani is happy because he has a live issue to scare Israel with, and look tough - Israel is reassured that they live in a dangerous neighbourhood and can't possibly give ground - The jifs are happy because they have a real live war to play with minus Coalition intelligence and drones - Assad is happy because he has stayed the course The only people I can see being upset by all this are the poor bloody ordinary Syrians.