Walsingham

No argument from me there, Krez. Viva life!

Labour are the beneficiaries in most of those councils, though. Basically there's big swathes of what one chap I knew at school would have called 'jealous peasants', and it is right and proper that they should have a political party to represent them. A lot of whingeing thieving middle class people (who were actually what one might call a 'balsamic' peasant) switched to the LibDems when Labour got into power and didn't siphon enough money their way. Even though Labour created quodzillions of government non-jobs which naturally went to overeducated layabouts - i.e. balsamic peasants. Good lord, I really am going right wing these days. Oh well.

Overachieving no-mates Nick Clegg appears to have hit ahttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13297573"] political banana[/url] placed next to a roller skate at the top of some ornamental stairs. Except the stairs are his own face, and his feet are actually his lunatic party wearing high heels made from modern journalism. EDIT: My cheery morning has been cheered further by the thought that he's probably already had a good cry about it.

So.. using my long dead journalistic instincts for twisting a story upside down... you're saying that if we understood anti-matter there's a possibilty we'd know how the expansion of the universe works, and potentially let SCIENTISTS STOP THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE.

Yes, but you weren't informed of them. Now stop fishing for comments. I thought I was pretty clear. Strategic intent must be factored into "is it OK?" If you zoom in and concentrate on just what people are doing tactically then a surgeon is the same as an axe-murderer, because they both knock people unconscious then cut them open.

Aren't those just exit polls? The first guy was as I was going INTO the poll. The Labour guys were actually better described as party activists than pollsters. Don't get me wrong. I've worked on a hard fought election campaign team and I know how people get over excited and do the wrong thing. BUt as a great man once said "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." There's something deeply creepy about people turning up at your house and writing down who you vote for.

*peers at Monte* lol

Nice segue into maudlin hippy glibness from testosterocious fighter jets, and saying that Chechens enjoy fighting. At least Onur the Courageous' threads were funny.

For us thickies, this means what, exactly? Antimatter being a big deal I get only because it's tier 6 in Masters of Orion tech tree.

Appreciate the post, Hilde. I'll read it when I have time.

Had colic today, like some sort of outlandish baby. Was also accosted outside polling centre by party nutloop who demanded to know if he could take a not of my voting card number. I politley informed him that I felt this was 'inappropriate' and that there was no way on Earth I'd let him know my voting details. This made me so angry I didn't even realise until about ten minutes later! Surely this is the kind of thing that happens in banana dictatorships? Then I found out my friend had Labour pollsters actually come to his house and demand to know how he'd voted. WTF????!

BBC does a quick review of some other special operations. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13287133 Even mentions 14 Coy.!

That was kind of beside my point. Oh, I see. You mean the rotation aspect?

Could have been an operational reason. Maybe a surveillance radar was down for repairs or something. Maybe it was just a good clear night. Incidentally, if anyone finds the whole notion terribly thrilling I'd recommend the book Special Operations Warfare; theory and practice, by William H. McRaven. It's interesting and it will make you appreciate what happened that bit more.

14 Int Coy. was very much more sneaky beaky than bangy shooty, if I recall. I may look it up later, if you're interested. My library is extremely well stocked on that count.

Interesting. Source? If you have a moment. Just googling seals afghanistan delta iraq brings up a surprising amount of info. But lmgtfy: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/05/03/...ls_8446533.html Individual burnout after only three years? I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. I know the SAS would envy having a big enough pool to draw on to get replacements every three years. But surely you'd be losing a lot of skills with each transfer out. *shrugs* Horses for courses, I suppose.

Interesting. Source? If you have a moment.

I get that I should be doing it, I mean I really want to do it. I want to be the best teacher I can, of course. I just feel like I have no feasible shot at success. I could do it with 20 students per class and about half the amount of curriculum. That's why I enjoyed teaching summer school, I had half the kids and I was only expected to cover one unit. I hope I didn't sound critcial of you. I think it says a lot that you even bring it up here. Your kids are obviously important to you. For me this episode is getting filed under "Bureaucrats force everyone into same size and shape shoe again".

I don't see that as necessarily sinister. It's very normal to keep tabs on a high value individual, even in civilian police work. You want to see who drops round for tea and biscuits. We might have got Bin Laden and Zawahiri if we'd got lucky. So, yeah, thanks wikileaks. Nice one.

War goes bang, and as much as I'd like it not to civilians get hurt. However, I doubt whether there has ever been a war machine that makes as much effort to avoid hitting civilians as the NATO pact. That is tactically in terms of the soldiers and airmen, operationally in terms of the planning and approval of attacks, or strategically in terms of the precision and design of the munitions. I was trained as a signaller, and so was exposed to a lot of HQ shenanigans even in my brief stint. If the output of that process does not meet your personal moral standards then I congratulate you on having high standards. But your lofty moral perch should not render the distance nil between our efforts and those of organisations whose entire raison d'etre is murdering civilians.

You heard it here first: I think Osama actually killed Obama in the war room, and has taken his face. Obama's body was the one which was put into the sea on Monday. ~~ Aside: US carriers have nuclear steam catapults for flinging fast jets off the deck. Use your imagination...

So you're calling it terrorism because you don't like it? That's not very helpful in communicating your point. I think you can see why I was confused. Whether your perception is accurate or not is something we've discussed already ad nauseam.

ROFL. I gotta say I think you're right. More bombs, LoF, more bombs!

Of course Al Qaida's methods evolved since the 80s to now days, it would be foolish of them if it didn't. While fighting the Soviets Islamic fighters used suicide bombers, IED and ambushes as pretty much the main technique of resistance. Afghan geographical landscape and Soviet inferior coverage and surveillance in the air compared to the present of the US allowed the Islamic forces to operate and engage the Soviets in countryside on a much larger scale then they do now. Such strategy can't work for example in Iraq due to the terrain and other factors. Hence the movement of operations to urban areas. When I talk about anti - US forces in Iraq and comparing them to those of anti - Soviet I do so for the insurgent groups that target US military targets, not the ones that deliberatly target civilians in order to spread chaos. But for many all anti -US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are put in the same basket of terrorist&Al Qaida. For me that isn't the case. And I wouldn't say by far the comparison for the war in Korea nor do I see the label that connects it to the comparison I have made here. If you have any evidence that there's is any real distinction between groups attacking military tragets and those attacking civilian targets then I'd dearly love to see it. Feel free to PM.