Walsingham

Actually there are a lot of people getting arrested for Islamist plots who subsequently get released. You get people living in close proximity who the police detain on grounds that they had to know about the bomb making or what have, but whom courts won't convict. I don't know whether that's lousy police work, or failed jurisprudence. Just interesting.

Paranoid much? Instead of moaning about other people's anti-Americanism, I'd instead be worried of how your country is perceived by foreigners. Absolutely. Racism has nothing to do with it. Stop being such a baby, a healthy dose of skepticism is in order towards the worlds only remaining superpower. When it comes to national imperatives and foreign policy we don't have to all get along. In fact we are guaranteed not to. Wikileaks might well be irresponsible, but they would cease to have a point if they held anything back, and it's still the 'little man' vs the system. Get your priorities straight, fight the power and all that. And I raise you an adolescent rebellion fantasy. Skepticism about US motives is perfectly sound and proper. If you go outside the law - democratic law - you aren't fighing the power. You're fighting the people. As for holding nothing back, just listen to yourself. I've been sparring with you for far too long to believe you buy that bull****. Secrecy is essential to certain actions. It is essential in opposed actions such as crime, terror or war. It is essential to achieve open honest negotiation between organisations. It is essential to ordinary people who have a right to privacy and security. This is precisely and emphatically the point of the original post. Assange and wikileaks aren't fighting for open information. They're breaking the law to push their own marginal view of the world onto everyone. It's a view some people support, but it's a view which most people either don't or really wouldn't like in action.

Fair questions. My answers: 1. Alcohol isn't easy to turn away from. IIRC it has a higher recidivism rate than heroin. 2. Heroin IS freely available. In some parts of the UK it's cheaper than a pint of beer. 3. You should care for the same reason I care: the damage done by organised crime controlling the drug trade is immense. It corrupts our institutions, it diverts policing, it provokes violence. 4. If you expand your thinking outwards then you see how millions of people suffer under narco-states and narco-terrorism. Neither of which could exist if supplies of the drug were made available at cost in the way Bob is suggesting. Mexico, Afghanistan, Colombia, Brazil, directly. Other countries suffer as transhipment points. 5. All these problems might be acceptable if prohibition stopped most people from getting the drugs. But this is not the case.

Agreed on Star Wars Rebellion (Supremacy in the UK). A game I enjoyed and played so much that I now actually understand the astromech droid bleeps.

I do think that the level of complaints surfacing is evidence of poor damage control on those bugs. But that's kind of what I'm arguing in favour of. If you can't stop the bugs, you have to be ready to pounce on problems like a herd of pumas.

I just finished reading the loonwatch report (although I'm slightly mistrustful of a site which has the sole aim of placating my concerns about muslim terror offerring a balanced analysis). Far from backing mkreku up it suggest that after separatist attacks left wing, not right wing attacks are the main. Which is presumably the relic of left wing terror in the 60s and 70s. The key point here is that no mention is made of plots which were thwarted, nor casualties. The former is important because jihadist terror is receiving massive priority from the security services. The latter is important because while separatist movements do kill, they tend not to engage in mass casualty attacks on civilian targets. The IRA or ETA are not going to do a Mumbai, or let off a dirty bomb.

I have heard several very sober people this last year saying we should just buy all the drugs in Afghan, give whatever needs to be given to our own addicts, and give the rest in the form of medicines to Africa where they are desperately short of analgesics. Keeps the Afghan farmers happy, removes the profits from Terry Taliban, and helps sick people. But the real point I don't want to distract from is that prohibition doesn't work, it never has worked, and it never will work.

I know. It's weird. My father and I were trying to buy ingredients, and it turns out that in the Land O Lardass you can't buy gokking suet. Although the odds of his wife letting use suet in the pudding were slim to none. I hate people who try to be healthy at Christmas. It's one gokking day, ye halfwits.

From the excellent Old Foodie Another opportunity to mock the enfeebled vegetarians:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12005824 Didn't I say Bob was a decent lad?

Paranoid much? Instead of moaning about other people's anti-Americanism, I'd instead be worried of how your country is perceived by foreigners. Absolutely. Racism has nothing to do with it.

HI Numbers. I didn't read the link this evening, as was working till 8 then shooting zombies soon after.

I didn't know kelverin much from posting. But I instantly recognised the name. Interesting thing to say about fear. Definitely agree. Would have been good to talk about it with him, but of course can't now. Bone observation: dying sucks.

Thanks for the links. I'll have a read this evening.

Slightly let the side down by having three bowls of soup for dinner. But it was awesome soup. Couple slices smoked bacon, a half hand sized chunk of beef shin, dried beans, a few lentils, one carrot, one potato, one onion lots of water. A little rosemary and thyme. Still have enough for tomorrow. Cost two quid, the lot.

Felt like sparking up a bit, so listened to the imminent .

Interestingly I've now established to my own satisfaction that I can get through both morning and afternoon on just five oatcakes, and three cups of coffee, without losing concentration or getting angry. Assuming I can keep this up I'd say my chances of losing weight are pretty high. I've already dropped a belt notch in the last six weeks.

This post would be a good deal more impressive if you actually posted the link. And for the record it's more of an atonal farting noise. Not bleating.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11989225 Seriously, WTF? Again, I'm still baffled by the priorities this government shows. Forensic evidence is now taken as an inescapable part of prosecution. Yet we continue to fund junket toothless bodies like OFGEM!

Bomb making is like any chemistry, or even cooking, combined with electrics. He himself claimed he had been trained in the mideast. But it's not so hard for bombs to go awry. The IRA had extremely 'professional' training in bomb manufacture. But even their bombs went awry occasionally. Getting lucky once does not mean the threat isn't serious. I honestly don't understand how it is that we react firmly and almost uniformly when some right wing white power ****holster sets fire to something. But if some right wing beard power ****holster actually blows up we pretend it's not important.

We should have an Obsidian Peace Prize and give it to Volo.

Bizarre.

Kaft, would you mind indulging me by reading a bit more about this guy? Because the steer we're getting in the UK is that he was well known to his local mosque as an extremist nutloop. It's one thing to say we can't do anything about some guy no-one knew was in a bad way. It's another thing entirely to say we can't do anything if someone is stamping about saying they wish to 'take matters into their own hands' and preaching violence. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ter...calisation.html AFrom the article: This is not something we can just wish away, Kaft.

Isn't the problem, as I've already said (not that you have to absorb my every word) there are at least two kinds of lawbreakers, and only one kind of penal system?

Sorry to hear your dad's so fragile. But it's cool that you saw the opportunity to people watch. I don't think I've been in ER since a travelling companion got malaria. Silly bastard claimed that because he was black it wouldn't affect him. Nearly died. Sounds like Raithe has got one of what I call 'Charlie Parker' moments. When you breath in air, and breath out light.