Walsingham

Mmmm... Polish beer.

It really is damned catchy, isn't it? I keep wanting to buy it, but don't know any way to do so. The EDL are an interesting bunch. Bonkers, but interesting. The irony is that by attacking Muslims they are helping cement AlQ propaganda. AlQ would dearly love for everyone to think all Muslims are evil, because then all Muslims would have little choice but to get behind AlQ's take-over-the-world-or-die agenda. Anyway, not the place for that discussion.

Bad day with my back. Am listening to 1940s music which is surprisingly analgesic.

Gotta love that movie.

According to the review of the relationsip in the book Razor's Edge, Hugh Bicheno describes a lot of near misses and frankly mental behaviour on both sides. Makes me angry when I think how much of our country's international behaviour up to and including war comes down to the gossamer imaginings of convinced pacifists, communists and pan-Europeans. Britain has a significant weight in world affairs, both economically and militarily, and I just want to grab people by the lapels and shout at them to try a bit bloody harder.

If you've got a strong historical case for the plot then I'd say run with it. Parrallels with Apocalypse Now may turn people off but it will turn others on. I'd guess it'd be a crapshoot how those numbers balance out. I also don't know how many man hours it will take for you to do the book. Keep us posted. Sounds fun.

It's probably worth adding that while there's a very strong thread of pro-US thinking in the UK upper echelons, popular culture is sickeningly racist about the US as fat warmongers and fools. It wouldn't take much to shift the UK away from the US. One populist PM. Milliband or Nick Clegg. Take us straight into the EU camp. *bitter laugh* Nonetheless, I hope it won't happen. Whatever troubles we face with Europe an Atlantic perspective is our best bet for maintaining our independence and prosperity. I reckon.

Correct me if I'm wrong here but isn't the All Blacks in the World Cup Final a little like the Yankees in the World Series, it's sort of where everyone expects them to be? I love the Maori war dance they do before every match. Very cool. Speaking of rude gestures and angry faces, how come the Yankees don't do this before matches? They don't need to, there are enough "rude gestures" coming from the fans in the stands.

You don't really think that restriction is going to last, do you? Soon to be followed by Wookie and Jawa romance options... I'm fairly sure at least two of my ex-girlfriends actually WERE jawas.

I came to terms with Fallout 3 when I realised it was a fantasy game draped in a thin layer of guns and radiation. Case in point: Reilly's Rangers. It's properly weakass, but it can be enjoyed if you don't want anything worthwhile. Like twinkies.

Correct me if I'm wrong here but isn't the All Blacks in the World Cup Final a little like the Yankees in the World Series, it's sort of where everyone expects them to be? I love the Maori war dance they do before every match. Very cool. Speaking of rude gestures and angry faces, how come the Yankees don't do this before matches?

I get annoyed about abbrevitions as much (if not more) than the next man. But surely a couple paragraphs of explanation is sufficient?

Metric craptonne to do today, probably at my desk until 2100. Found the perfect tune to kick me off. EDIT: spelling

I suspect that there is room. Start at the beginning and follow the instructions.

I'm no civil war expert. But I'm not convinced that a 19th century 'posh' army would sanction murdering officers who were inconvenient. They were very very keen on things being done by the book (for officers). Also, it all sounds Apocalypse Now. You may be very distinct, and even better, but that's what people will say. On the other hand, there's a big appetite for civil war material. So that's good. ~~ Purely as a creative stab, what if you shifted it to just before the war, or the opening stages? Target some fellah hunting runaway slaves. Obviously a 'baddie'. Turn it into a story about duty and so honour compelling good men to do bad things.

Can we set up some sort of mirror?

I'm not sure how much of that 'anti-British' bias was simply a bias gainst Gordon Brown. If so, then your President is even smarter than he looks. The man was a titanic imbecile. And I voted for him*. Malc, I'm not sure if a bias is good per se. But considering that I can't think of a single adventure of the US' that we haven't backed them on up to the hilt, you'd think we would have got a more consistent return on the friendship. *Brown was never elected to be Prime Minister. But I seriusly thought he knew what was doing with the economy, back hundreds of years ago when I was younger and stupid. In spite of people I kno w who knew him telling me categorically that he was a bloody fool. >_<

There has been cooperation, obviously. But until recently Assad has been walking a tightrope. Just enough coperation with everyone (including the Israelis) that it doesn't suit anybody to have him gone. In my opinion, the dynamic has changed recently. he needs partners who don't baulk when he kills a couple of thousand citizens. Iran's a perfect match.

We could ping him the 'best of' in the forum. But I honestly wouldn't know what to put in! Anyway, obviously thinking of him. Main thing seems to be his depressed immune system. Try to get his morale up. Thought: he could set us challenges. Whatever he likes.

Not really trying to. Just suggesting that there is more than one way of attacking the problem of the bad guys having more and better guns than the cops. Either take away their guns or take away their money so they can't buy any. Gallardo was a clever bastard building the original seven cartels as "wholesalers", which means they get most of the money and very little of the risk, since most crackdowns targets the visible distribution network (which in this case would small fish to expendable middle men). There are days where martial law and dispensing with normal legal procedures seems less unattractive. The cops may be outgunned on the street, but I doubt they have SAM emplacements on their HQ buildings and command centres. Nuke them from orbit so to speak. Alternatively, close off the borders completely, cold war Albania style, and bleed them out of their money, seize their assets and start harassing their bank accounts. Well, yes. But the thing is that if you cut off the guns they stil have money. Cut off the money and the guns become unusable because they haven't got any shooters or bullets for them. Keep in mind that if they did lose the guns then you might end up worse off. They could well switch to an entirely home made weapon system like bombs. And that would probably kill even MORE civilian bystanders. They have already used bombs successfully, so it wouldn't be much of a stretch. EDIT: Actually, a far more dangerous possiblity (from a drug control perspective) is that currently you've got a lot of armed cartels. Complicate and restrict the flow of weaponry to just those cartels who have the capacity to source guns from elsewhere, and you will probably just contract the competition. Then a handful of groups would be capable of arming themselves, and wouldn't have to be distracted by smaller groups looking to ante up, and could concentrate more on running drugs and destablising the country. But I'm speculating wildly here. It's quite fun.

So far you win the prize for doing something on an iPad I actually am impressed by.

I know, they sell a lot from Arizona too. I'll spare you a tl;dr; list of links and simply suggest a google search for 'mexican drug war guns' or 'Project Gunrunner ATF' (thats the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) Depending on which sources you trust or distrust, from CBS to Wired, the general tune is that so far an estimated 70000 guns have been shipped, from Belgian 'cop killer' pistols to assault rifles with enough armour piercing ammo to last a very long time. 90% coming from Texas and surroundings. I don't want to sound snobby. But I don't trust mainstream media as far as I can kick them when it comes to this sort of thing. Most western media outlets are too chicken**** to actually send anyone out to invetsigate so they rely on a tiny handful of extremely courageous locals. These guys in turn are often hampered by trivial things like trying not to get killed, and report what scraps they hoover up from loose lips. ATF, by contrast, has a specific agenda of trying to justify its existence. I'm not accusing them of lying, but of choosing to analyse the problem one specific way, and not to question data hich backs up tehir reason for being. The point is that tackling US dealers will simply make life a tiny fraction more complicated and less efficient than it is at present. Rather than shipping drugs one way and guns the other they will have to ship guns in from the same direction as the drugs. You can't ask me to believe that the guns will be significantly worse. Not trying to block down your argument. It's interesting. But you haven't convinced me yet.

I just sneezed so violently I hurt my back. *sobs* I'm a cripple!

Another good reason not to live in London.

Maybe he didn't want to go down in history as the first defence secretary to lose a war to Argentina over the Falklands? You guys sold off your navy and such at some point in time, didn't you? Well, as I said before that really depends on the USA. I don't think anyone can say for sure who Obama/Clinton would back if the Argentine _government_ invaded. I stress government because I fidn it hard to believe that the normal people of Argentina woudl want t ogo to war over a scrap of land where the inhabitants freely vote to be British.