Walsingham

I personally don't understand how one can be racially 'aware' but not be racist at the same time. *sigh* Anyway, never mind all that. Today has been misty with the most perfect English dreariness. I started out OK then imediately burned the prrodge because I keep forgetting I have lost my sense of smell. Was supposed to go to the bank, but couldn't face their lies and mediocrity. Mostly read then moved on to playing 'a bit' of Planescape Torment. Quite depressed by the story of Deionarra. Off to get haircut.

*Tumbleweed* Obviously you've never played Postal. If it makes me find beating someone to death erotic then I have no desire to.

I have a piece of the Berlin wall somewhere in a box in the attic, taken on the day it came down by a friend.

Numbers: You are too educated a historian to suggest genuinely that the Allies got along with Stalin, even during the war. It was merely a conflict shelved. Franco and the US is more worthwhile as a point, and however I would ask openly if you don't regard the US-Franco cooperation as similarly Faustian? Bolshevism in the mid 30s was a more bloody-handed, far -reaching, and frightening threat than Falangism. Darth Insidious: (number your responses. It's easier to reply to) 1. Turkey's misbehaviour By all means bring up the Armenians, but you cannot have it both ways. If past misdeeds count then we ought not to have allowed in the Germans. Nor, if your tastes run that way should Britain be allowed in, given our conquering and subjugating half the globe. If this is not an argument perhaps you would be kind enough to explain WHY it isn't. 2. Turkey is indeed a harsh country, but one which is improving over time. Cultural integration would help to address some of the strains peacefully and to the economic advantage of all. 3. You are asking what the Commonwealth has done for the UK during REMEMBRANCE WEEK? You must be joking. 4. I seem to recall your narrow views on our shared heritage with India coming up before. Suffice to say that I am content to refer OTHER members to the hundreds of years of shared history, and the strong interchange of ideas and people during those hundreds of years. This is simply evidenced by the fact that social intercourse is almost effortless between Indians, Britons, and Botswanans in my direct experience. 5. Your determined anti-Americanism is fashionable but discreditable. You assert our treatment at the hands of American governments is cynical and manipulative. I put it to you that our treatment has been no worse than that handed down to the people of the USA themselves. I further put it to you that a more meaningful measure would be the attitude of actual Americans in the street, which I have found largely supportive, while being a bit prickly as might be expected from a newly risen power. Consider the outpourings of common sympathy they evidence at times of national tragedy such as 7/7. The fact that the US has its own culture, and moderate distinctions from us on issues such as healthcare and criminal responsibility is neither surprising, nor is it repellent. 6. Your assertion that our political class is Roman is a curmudgeonly flourish and nothing more. The Roman political class hired gangs of thugs, murdered, raped, and plotted coups and judicial theft. Ours may abstain from lack of skill rather than lack of ambition, but those are the facts.

I really don't see how his monopoly on the mass media can be anything other than a threat to true democracy. Newscorp should be broken up.

Hi Daaave! Good to have you back. On the racism I don't see the big deal. Unless teachers give kids leadership on key issues they drift all over the shop. On teh other hand your teacher sounds a bit humourless. I suggest you send VHS copies of Bill Cosby shows to Robert Mugabe "in an attempt to show him how is policies on violence is misguided and simply entrenches the lines of hatred". You can probably save money by sending them via the Zimbabwean embassy, but if you do make sure you write in, then cross out the word 'Rhodesian'. Remember also that dictators love sparkles.

Link No doubt this is commendable and heroic. Link No doubt equally commendable, and the result of Western devilry.

Does that drummer always pout?

*Tumbleweed*

I agree with you about nuclear power, although there was a plan to offer 'sealed' non-user serviced nuclear power plants which came up in connection with Iran. Proliferation scares the bojangles off me.

I'm going to focus on Darth Insidious's comments asd the most wide-ranging 1. Turkey: I don't give a rat's rear what historical position Turkey has occupied. If we have to have a southeast frontier, and we do, then it should encompass a stable, dynamic, and forward moving country. As for their somewhat questionable behaviour, does this mean we should eject Germany? Or for that matter Great Britain? Having said this, I'd be an obvious hypocrite to deny there are challenges in the political culture, which I already pointed as an accustion at Italy. 2. Switzerland Switzerland is a massive freeloader in every respect. We can't all be freeloaders. 3. Not implementing EU laws Our infuriatingly snooty neighbours often ignore EU legislation, France on food, Italy on airlines, for example. Being generally law-abiding we don't. Moreover ridiculous laws undermine the respect for all laws. 4. US relationship with Great Britain Firstly I prefer a commonwealth association as the primary relationship. Because the commonwealth have proven time and again that they will sacrifice for us. HOWEVER I find your denial of a link to the US jingoistic at best. The entire concept of the US owes as much to English political heritage as to the French revolution. And what of our common language? Do you seriously suggest Americans don't read/watch our films/listen to our songs? What about vice versa? Just because Republican administrations have a strange habit of treating us like a whipping boy does not diminish the genuine practical good feeling which exists. ALSO... 5. [response to other posts as well] The importance of democracy Freedom is only worthwhile in its exercise. Such exercise is either subscribed or proscribed by the law. If it is proscribed then one is an outlaw and one's freedom will shortly be curtailed. If one wishes to be within the law then the only reasonable basis for establishing that law is a consensus among the desired freedoms of the people - which is democracy. How else is freedom to be exercised? This is important because it also underwrites our basic compatibility with other states. Non-democratic states despise democracies by definition, and are inherently hostile because we challenge their basic legitimacy and ginger up the proles. 6. What are democracies - I only recently started learning properly about ancient Rome. I'm not certain it ever was a functioning democracy if only because the exercise of law was privatised. - I believe the UK to be a democracy with its foundations in an ancient undemocratic elite. This latter point doesn't bother me because the only alternative would be to trade them inexorably for a different elite. - The EU could be democratically elected, and I think it would please a lot of people, but as I said in my first post I think it would be foolhardy to expect this to make the EU a good thing - I doubt freedom is a post-industrial invention. Why should it be?

I don't think it was comforting, Gortho. I found it sodding terrifying. Kids today have jsut no idea what it's like living with a 'gun' to your head. The worst they have to worry about is some halfwit with a semtex waistcoat. Not the end of their entire life, friends, family, and achievements. EDIT: You can't do better than watch the film 'Threads', which is a BBC documentary film about the aftermath of a nuclear war. It pulls no punches and is well informed.

Surely democracy is an essential pre-requisite of freedom? Just because people in democracies aren't free in their heads doesn't invalidate that, any more than the fact that many people with legs don't go jogging makes having legs irrelevant to going jogging.

Russia would have felt very threatened. Although having said that it was Yeltsin back then, wasn't it?

So, to summarise: you are against a non-democratic union, and are concerned about that union forming a competitive power bloc? I think the latter is far from being paranoid. After all, what would be the point of a unified Europe if not to act as a bloc?

The 'United States of Europe' concept wasn't something invented after the Union was founded (EGKS). But was the dream of many of the leading figures who drove the formation of the union, and not particulary a secret dream. Those people had observed that nationalism was a strong factor in the starting of wars and other ills. I can't say myself that i can find many redeaming factors in nationalism. Before I get up to full steam let me say that I agree with your sentimenta bout warfighting, as odd as they may sound coming from me. I said so in my opener. However, I think your view of nationalism is quite a euro-centric one. Because I set our views on the dangers of nationalism against my experiences worldwide with cultures where the nation is treated with contempt. Unless one surrenders a portion of personal interest and personal pride to the anonymous collective then corruption, and crime inevitably result. Since the failure to recognise the state makes crime logically redundant, and corruption a mere service to lesser loyalties. In fact I'm going to add that point to my list of grievances with the EU. People struggle already with connecting to their national collectives. What possible nationalist feelings could accrue to a European super state? ~~ The USA analogy is most apposite. That was conceived as a loose confederation - at least so I was taught - and by slow but inexorable logic the centre, as upper authority and repository of the greatest patronage and wealth, exerted centripetal force on power. ~~~ I do not argue that Europe is irrelevant. But I do argue that our union is not working out. Nor for the reasons I laid out, do I think it CAN work out. I support free trade amongst us, and I support NATO, but I don't support political union and the transfer of sovereign powers.

I hope this won't be a topic to bore our non European members, both on general principle and because I'd like their views. As some will be aware the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty means a further erosion of British sovereignty to the European Union (EU). The EU possesses some elected officials (MEPs), but their powers are minimal compared with the unelected mandarins and bureaucrats. I speak as someone who has family in the bureaucracy, and friends in the parliament. I was once a European progressive, believing that Britain's future lay as a leader within Europe, not complaining from the sidelines. I used to see the non-democratic nature of the Union as a deliberate fudge by national assemblies to forestall the transition of too much power, and slightly stupid. I also greatly admired the fact that Europe had avoided a major war for nearly sixty years. However, a few things have made me shift my position: 1. My view of other political cultures in the EU, most significantly Italy, are corrupt and positively dangerous to bond with 2a. My view that our inability to adopt a comon policy on the threat from Jihadist-Fascist extremism is evidence of unavoidable and potentially disastrous divergences of outlook 2b. The remarkable consistency and commonality of policy Britain has with its former colonies in the Commonwealth 3. The approach Germany and Austria have taken over Turkey which seems to imply they wish the EU to be a Christians only clubhouse, and damn the strategic-military-economic consequences 4. The ridiculous assumption of control evidenced by Brussels in criminal and financial cases 5. The heavy burden of financing the various functionaries and flapdoodles Does the forum share my views, and do they share my revised opinion that Britain would be better served leaving teh EU and forming an alliance with its Commonwealth associates?

I'm really hungry and I get easily confused when I'm hungry, but is it relevant to mention the growth of cigarette and alcohol smuggling in the Uk since the taxes were ramped up to nearly 45%? We had virtually none ten years ago.

What about something which drops which changes everything else, rather than changing you, like a rune which when ignited makes all badguys of X type vulnerable to ice damage and resistant to cheese damage*? That would change the relevance of all existing kit and skills. *I haven't had lunch.

Does it REALLY have to be that high spec? I have a EEE pc that I work on and play old games on when travelling, but it definitely won't do HD video. On the other hand it was

May I suggest you hold a cup of hot coffee near his groin and muse out loud how shaky your hands would get if anything happened to your tabs?

Took six years for me to shake the foot wart I picked up in Africa. I didn't use nitrogen, but i did eventually succeed by cutting it with a scalpel, then dousing it in 20% H2O2, THEN applying that superglue medicine stuff, and doing that every damn day for a month.

But you admit your first encounter was a brawl rather than a piece of mechanised aggression, which is precisely my point.

EDIT Actually, thinking about my conversation with the para yesterday it has occurred to me that in many ways growing up in a culture of REAL violence (small farming community, one pub ) where violence is unarmed, at least has the virtue of acclimatising you to the reality. Moreover it teaches you to express anger in other ways than the instant death of a shooting or explosion. However, if your entire impression of violence is fictional then you get no real awareness and learn nothing beyond the abstract sense that violence is ok. On the other hand I want to repeat for emphasis that I feel humans are NATURALLY and inescapably violent. And I get angry when pacifist fantasies provoke the spectre of repressive censorship.

I think something you may concede is that the transition from fantasy to reality, when we are taliking about violence with gun, petrol, and knife, is all too quick. There is hardly enough time to notice one's distaste for all the mess in the middle of a shooting.