Walsingham

Went out expecting to have one meeting. Had something like nine. A bit tired, but I feel like the king of some slightly rubbish but proud country. Like Britain.

I think we should make you a peer.

It was nice of you chaps to stand up for me. 1. I could have been more clear in the basis of my objection, which as has been pointed out was on how ludicrous it was devote such massive coverage to an incredibly small stream our religious makeup. 2. I'm not a bigot. Except about parrots. 3. Close friends and family are actually long practising priestesses in various pagan religions. I get on tremendously well with them. But again, they're not even comparable with say, sikhs in this country. 4. Whether this is an internet forum or not the people here are people. Taking zero interest in them is both insulting and begs the question of why post at all? Does your keyboard need regular use or it seizes up?

I suppose you forgot the little fact he was mainly a 'bad man' because he was going to blow up the world with all his WMD.. where are they? Thats right we forced the intel to show what we wanted so we could justify a invasion. And who made out like a bandit..? all the big corps who got undisputed fat contracts that just happened to be donors and associates of those in the white house. Please.. there were ZERO altruism to these motivations and the cover of his atrocities was simply smoke and mirrors. If you believe it wasn't you are beyond naive. If powell went to the UN and used the argument 'hes a bad guy thats why we want to invade' he would have been laughed out of the building. We went there for WMD's and thats what the main argument was built on. Him being simply a nasty dictator became the reason after no WMD we verified to exist as they wanted to cover their arse as their main argument turned out to be bunk. Which they seemed to know from the start anyways. Zero altruism is a pretty big statement, but one I should have expected. Really? You believe that an organisation as massively complex as the US government and its allies, based upon the even more complex basis of elected power ...had zero altruism? Well, I can disprove that instantly. I spoke to my MP about it, I voted for it, I spoke to others about it. My motivation is in their and my motivation was altruistic. Non-zero, even if I'm the only ****hole who felt that way. The reality is that there were multiple reasons which is why it went ahead. Any one reason would simply not have worked. To suggest that I supported it, and that my friends supported it, because we are nothing but oil grubbing colonialists is patently insulting. But this is beside the point. By your own argument you would have us do nothing. Pretend such states - founded on never ending fear and suffering - do not exist and to wall them off from our consciousness and policies. If that is definition of altruism then I suggest it is fundamentally unsound.

I'm not sure if I'm arguing against you, WoD. But again I'd refer to this fantasy that you can do humanitarian work without casualties.

You have lead a disturbing life LOL I just meant that they sum up the town.

The toilets at the ferry terminal in Stranraer.

I calls balls on your argument, sir. Just because we don't have the resources to treat every person with a disease doesn't mean we can't treat any of them on the grounds of 'fairness'. Not to put too fine a point on it, but **** your fairness. **** it in the ear. Seriously though. When have I ever said I was cool with, say, the Myanmarese junta?

I have to agree with Oblarg on the knives. Investing in a good paring knife makes more sense for the obvious reason that paring knives are much cheaper. However, I don't see why you can't get away with _carefully chosen_ knives of all sorts rather than expensive. By which I mean soft-ish steel, which you sharpen regularly on old broken crockery. I sharpen mine maybe twice per session, and they cost a couple of pounds each, but cut through meat with surgical precision. For big stuff I buy big chinese cleavers. Again, these cost you a few quid in the right store. Do sort this out, as a good knife encourages the urge to craft your food, rather than sawing away at everything which has the opposite effect. ~~ Reheated pasta for lunch from yesterday. Normal procedure of adding chilli powder, and tomato paste, then cooking up very slowly on the stove. Delicious! Really getting used to wholewheat everything, since realising it just means darkening the flavours and using a little molasses.

You had attacks on US interests from Al Qaeda under Clinton. The general response being that the intelligence services were trying to pad their portfolio. This is one of the big points people fail to grasp abou tthe threat. AlQ at al. isn't a response to some sort of aggression by us. Under Clinton they claimed it was because we weren't doing enough to help muslims by refusing to deploy troops!

I call it reciprocity.

So which service will it be watchable on? Thinks: is it morally sound to watch a bootleg version if I sit down afterwards and read some ads from companies who normally advertise on the sat channel?

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/health/...k-201011053225/

I think it's more complex than that. the whole culture of the body emphasises being smarter and more loyal to the public than the commons because unlike the Commons the Lords know they shouldn't actually be in government. So the Lords work bloody hard to assert that they should be. And of course, even if a Lord buys or weasels his post, there is nothing his 'party' can do to him once he is in place. Sometimes this means they become total bastards, and more should be done to (frankly) push them into barrels and chuck them in the Thames. But often they develop a kind of giddy determination to enjoy governing for the people. The other reason I like the Lords is that all this confounds and annoys (generally socialist) political students.

I learned to cook because my mother was a terrible cook and my absent father was not. That is he taught me the basics. How to kill and clean animals, how to grind spices, how to approach cookery. Rabbit stew, steamed mussels, pig's feet in molasses, and so on. Then I was obliged to use these skills or be forced to eat pies made out of things like hazelnuts and potato with tomato slices in. My most notable meal recently was wok fried lamb's liver. Put in a deep slug of olive oil, white flour on the 2cm chunk's of washed lamb's liver. A good dash of salt. Cooked until only a little pink left in the centre of each cube. Added some red wine vinegar to the sauce and a very small dab of pepper. Served over boiled potatos in their skins. No extra butter is needed as the thick gravy is enough.

What? If someone gives you something because they are nice and you are nice, how can that be bad?

That's your pick-up line?! Better start seducing that right hand of yours because you and it are going to have many lonely nights together. Unlike in the land of the midnight sun you can't just commence feeling a lady up and expect to succeed.

Debate in the Lords may occasinally be eccentric. But I wouldn't call it insane. Unless you call it insane for a member of one party to deliver a speech on an industry they helped build then for other party leaders to stand up and thank hom for an interesting and enlightening experience! Contrast the Commons where any speech bar the most derisory is met with automatic partisan hostility. I shouldn't need to remind anyone that it was the Lords lone who tried desperately to protect us from extended detention without trial.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot. I made my 'move' on my physio by casually mentioning I'm going to be singing for charity next month. She didn't go for the obvious opportunity to jump in. Nevertheless I'm nothing if not pig headed so I'll mention it again next session I get.

The website I linked to is now getting 90k plus hits an hour, apparently. So don't be surprised if it takes a while to load.

Are you sure it isn't just Machiavelli's point about new leaders not changing anything?

Well I don't know about Reagan, but our current government is very keen to point out all the mess left over from Labour. And most everyone here seems to just nod their heads and agree. I mean, how can you have a debate on defence spending and not point out the bilions of overcommitment written into the budget by Labour? It wouldn't make the slightest sense.

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-stati...y-theories.html All detailed from Hansard, no less.

See that's another thing I don't understand. I mean, how could the state of the country NOT be Bush's fault? He was a two term president. I'm not being partisan here. Just as many of GWB's foreign policy headaches came from Clinton.

Props to Nepenthe on this. I have to say as I get older and see relationships failing like autumn leaves the more I think that love is as much fixed in time as it is to a physical person. Love fades, and I do sometimes wonder if seeing is pale and wither would be worse than just losing it. On the other hand losing because some ****ing **** decides it would be funny to mess with the love of my life chemically... I'm proud of being pretty civilised when it comes to rage, but if someone did that to either of the women I've loved I'd probably kill them. Definitely if they'd done it to the first one. I'm not advocating this, just making an observation.