Walsingham

Final word of advice: don't throw out the baby with the bath water. You have many excellent qualities you should not abandon.

Firstly and above all, condolences to the Poles. You guys never seem to get a break, although if I may say so you bear your misfortunes with perennial and admirable good fettle. As for the crash I am reminded of the death of Zia al Haq. An enquiry suggested that the probable cause was poison gas released in the flight deck of the plane. Although I confess that beyond my general opinion of Putin I can conceive of no particular benefit to his causing such a crash. I must therefore suggest that it is probably down to the lamentably poor safety record of these Russian made airplanes.

I don't see how any of us could be against you feeling better. So keep us posted. Question: have you ever drowned a pony with your bare hands? If not then points to you.

Deathproof, Planet Terror, Daywatch. All perfectly fine guy fodder. Great for beer and shouting. I secretly think Planet Terror is amazing.

I used to read the webcomic Krakow. Krazy Krow is a very nice guy, and will almost certainly give you some pointers.

BoB was based on a specific unit history, wasn't it? I guess I wil watch this show eventually, but you aren't really selling it wholesale. I agree that Europe was more trainspotter-esque with all the bits and bobs of kit. But the Japs had their fair share of weird and wonderful. Plus you could throw in some of the stuff from early war Europe which got shunted across like the M3 Grant. Or bung in little details like the boiler suit coveralls they tried to issue which didn't work because everyone had dysentery most of the time and it was too hard to crap out of them. Hell, some men fought naked from the waist down. Volcanic sands of Iwo Jima... burning out the fortifications on Luzon... There shouldn't really be a shortage of material.

It only eats fruit. Which is why - presumably - it's so freaking shy it only just got discovered.

I must have misread pages 2 and 3 then, because it seemed as if there was this big debate between you and Gfted1 to the effect that guerrilla war couldn't be countered by field forces without genocide, and that Afghan proved this. I'll admit that on rereading I got it wrong. Although I also missed your alarming assertion that the Spanish army drove the French out of Spain, according to some master plan, and discounting the sacrifice of British forces in the event. I'm NOT any sort of expert on Napoleonic warfare, but that seems more than a little ungrateful. ~~ I don't lay down credentials because a) It shouldn't make a massive difference b) I KNOW I talk balls occasionally and I enjoy not being held to it professionally and academically. It's fun. My objection wasn't that you didn't believe me despite what is I think a pretty good record of talking with a little authority, but that you acted like YOU were the infallible expert. Hardly for the first time.

After nearly 8 weeks sitting on my arse I probably need the treadmill more! I'll tell you what a friend and I worked out the other night: help your mates. Nothing makes you feel better, and nothing earns you feeling better, than helping your friends. It can be something big or something small. Doesn't matter. Failing that, just make a list of all the s*** things you've never actually done, but which other people do. Also, I think your new name should be 'Juche', that crazy North Korean self-reliance stuff. Plus Juche sounds like a character in a Tarantino movie.

3. A strawman. But thanks for trying. I don't know who or what pissed in your beer but if you want to bring up which one of us is the more of a condescending ****wit - and I concede there is a contest - I think your above comment sums it up. _I_ didn't kick this off claiming to be the authorty. YOU did. I just thought that you could stand to be reminded that your casual browsing of the internet doesn't give you sole authority. I don't claim for a minute to be one on my own.

Good thinking on the bloody mary. We may try it. When I was in Thailand we used to get served fruit witha littel bag of mixed salt, sugar, and finely chopped chilli. Withe the acidity of fruit like pineapple and apple it worked extermely well. I wonder if if would work as an alternative to the pure salt on the rim of your glass?

I know this is off topic, but text messages rule for work. Far far less danger of getting sucked into rambling conversations. Say what you want, say when it's done. Genius.

I'm keen to archive all my old gmail emails and files, now that I have big storage available. Can this be done, and if so how?

AmI the only person distracted by pixies being back? Where the saintly cross-trousered f*** have you been, man?

Oh man. I've gone down the wrong trouser leg again, haven't I? Stupid cheap Chinese time machine.

3. A strawman. But thanks for trying. Against guerrillas, diplomacy and intelligence work are going to be the most effective weapons. I thought you were pretty well informed on current events in Afghanistan. How else do you justify the failure of international conventional military operations in what's nearing a decade of war against "dirt farmers", and the shift to drone-executed assassinations and increasing tendency to allow local forces to bear the brunt of the conflict? Actually I'm a little surprised that given the disparity in our views you would so effortlessly assume you have the better information! When you wrote that you didn't feel the teensiest bit overblown? At all? Never mind. Although I am the first to say that our campaign in Afghan has been mismanaged in terms of linking security to development, it is utter balls to say that we are failing with conventional forces. The very simplest comparison of casualties between our own troops and the Soviet Afghan experience [i always think that term makes it sound like a funfair ride] gives the lie to that. The use of drone attacks is an addendum to conventional forces and is not even remotely a replacement except perhaps in the minds of Washington theorists, the fevered dreams of the drone manufacturers. Counter-insurgency is like building a fire. You need three things, the absence of any one of which will render the other two pointless. You need security, you need economic development, and you need a political idea to energise the two (much like the spark to ignite a fire in the original analogy). Gen. Frank Kitson, veteran of Kenya, Malaya, Oman, Cyprus and Northern Ireland said that and I know of no reason to disagree with him. My point being that it is nonsensical to point at conventional force alone and blame it for the failure when it is the concert as a whole which is failing.

I have been experimenting with some gin which I have infused with szechuan pepper. So far the only thing which works is mixing it with ginger beer.

Hang on, your location reads 'Soviet Russia'. I think we may have some rather startling news for you...

To suggest that guerilla warfare cannot be defeated is: 1. Saying that we can kiss goodbye any form of government based on any system besides revolution. Endlessly, since any revolution must surely succumb to the next revolutionary guerilla. 2. That against all common sense fighting a guerilla war is the one thing it is impossible to fail at.

I don't consider myslf religious. But I have met and admired numerous religious men, from buddhist monk to Anglican vicars. On the other hand, they say there's no atheists in foxholes, and so far as I've faced death on a number of occasions I can confirm this. The point of this debate, though, was just for the mental workout of debating the internal logic of the statement.

What he said. As usual LoF mocks himself far more effectively than we could ever hope to.

Posit: certain crimes cannot be countenanced as being tackled only once they are committed. They must therefore be prosecuted trhough their disconcerted precursors. Sometimes those precursors are physical like hydrogen peroxide or sulphuric acid. Sometimes those precurors are intangible like political hate speech. This is surely one justification for curtailing free speech?

I really like the clockwork heart.

According to the Tlegraph tech page it's not a phone, and it's the size of a laptop, it can do email, but can't do work email (because it has no standard file editing). Complete waste of money.

I appreciate your effort in copying it all out, Blank. But if I may say so i don't think you addressed my central question. You say why Satan wants to punish us, but not why God wants to punish Satan.