Walsingham

No. He is slim and bookish. Hence my surprise and alarm.

Corruption will do for Africa long after trade relaxes, Monte. Never mind the HIV holocaust in waiting.

Have you tried preparation H?

I'm more or less indifferent to his fate, keeping in mind a couple of things: 1. Prevention takes precedence over unsavoury revenge 2. I don't believe unsavoury revenge helps prevent anything 3. I think that unsavoury revenge corrupts the justice it claims to represent 4. I don't have a problem with the death penalty

The Tigerlillies - Bully Boys My assistant felt moved to begin cossack dancing. I deeply regret not having filmed it.

If I may make a suggestion that I am about to try in my own upcoming decision: Smack your head hard against your desk. I'm hoping that in the blinding moment of emptiness and pain I will know the correct answer. *ahem* No. In fact it's just made me hurt and annoyed.

Oh, I didn't notice. Hah. I didnt quit being a jerkface, so you're forgiven for not noticing any change.

Are we supposed to analyse him before or after he's flayed alive?

I suspect that I'm biased*, and i don't see how this would be far different from Alpha Protocol. * I was seriously considering getting a tattoo on my chest that reads "Now I have a machine gun, ho ho ho." at the weekend.

My girlfriend bought me a Guillermo del Toro boxed set this weekend. We watched Pan's Labyrinth, which most of you have no doubt seen. However, we also watched The Devil's Backbone. This could easily have been a Western movie, involving far less of the Civil war than implied in the description. It is a complex film, slightly let down by its special effects, but more than compensated for by it's high grade acting, and unusual plot. I'd rate it very highly on the action, and emotional levels.

I haven't done any pnp in a while. I guess the coolest thing to happen recently was in Cthulhu. We were playing WW1 doughboys, and - long story short - we got surprised and not at all pleased by a walking skeleton abomination. We all let fly with rifles, an LMG, and grenades to no effect. It just kept coming, inexorably closer. then one of the guys, the quiet one, freaks comletely, and bayonet charges it. Total fluke, massive critical, kills it stone deader. Referee gave us back sanity for seeing the darkness done down with cold steel. "They don't like it up 'em, Mr Mannering."

I don't play MMOs, but if I did I'd like to think I wasn't being playpenned. I'd want to know that somewhere people where doing financial deals etc. I mean, that stuff happens in the real world, but it doesn't stop you going surfing at the weekend. I think it's cool, anyway. I'd rather such people got high doing scams in a virtual world than in the real one.

Sergeant Major.

My main client has decided not to keep me on as permanent staff. this will suck, as I enjoy getting paid regular and taken out for meals etc. But it could work out better in the long run, since any more work I send their way would earn me a finder's fee, plus a higher day rate. It all depends how lucky I get. It could equally be really cack.

I'd say you were a troubled chap, with a strong urge to prove his capabilities, and a pronounced interest in others ,exhibiting itself sometimes in deliberately prosocial behaviour. I'd also like to say that you have the dreamiest eyes, but that would be a lie.

It'd be intresting to see what teh difference is in access to services. Not just HDI, but things like doctors roads, electricity, etc. Britain should always be Eurosceptical. Our independence has always relied on no one power gaining total ascendancy on the continent. I'm a fan of the EU when it stops us fighting one another. But I'm against it in many many smaller ways. The lack of demcratic accountability is one. As far as an economic community goes, I still think that the Commonwealth made far more sense. Given that we each had things we actuallly wanted to trade, as opposed to the EU where we all make the same things.

Hades has mutated more than a bad guy in a John Carpenter movie. I've quit moderating to concentrate on my family. Tigranes is now South Korea's first line of defence against a resurgent North. And some guy is now President of the United States.

What possible purpose would be served by torturing this guy? You think it was a choice between stabbing kids and going bowling, but bowling was too much effort? As I've said on many boring occasions before, this is more proof of the systemic failureto tackle dangerously mentally ill people BEFORE they flip out. We need a pan cultural discussion of the issue, and some sort of consensus, then take some action on it. Not just crack our knuckles and say how much we'd like to hurt people. I'm not saying our collective decision has to be sweetness and light, I just see no point in raging at the skies, and then going back to business as normal.

Thinking on this some more, it occurred to me that when one is writing a piece of prose, as fiction or fact, you need to devote some time and attention to establishing context. This in turn reflected the old adage about phrasing reports as situation, complication, resolution. ..I must give this more thought.

I think he should have sworn in on the back of a bronco bull. That would have enlivened the proceedings AND made him more popular in the South.

Krez, You have to rkeep uppermost in mind the fact that Killian the Sandaculous operates under the impression that terrorists and their sympathisers wear glowing four foot tall hats, identifying themselves as such. Therefore it's perfectly reasonable in his world for Israel to blow up everyone like that. Yuusha I see your point, and agree it appears most inflammatory. However, I would suggest that Israel lost the public relations war with the Arab world generations ago. 1. Hamas hid well? Rather contradictory with their assertion that they would die gloriously resisting. It seems to me that they are determined to fight to the last Gazan rather than themselves. 2. Israel not targetting Hamas? That is a logically sound hypothesis. But like any hypothesis it needs a more falsifiable premise. 3. Both the above? I think the absence of the aforementioned glowing hats, and the reluctance of Hamas to fight suggests a failure by Israeli troops to locate their targets. Not terribly surprising. ~~ I notice that you don't comment on the articles from the Independent newspaper, describing Hamas' behaviour within Gaza. I think you should, given the notoriously anti-Western slant of the Independent. I doubt it's propaganda.

Fair enough.

Open Office, Calax. That's what I use. And it's free. Congrats fora. Woo!

OK. But what would you say if I tried to defend a mafia client claiming that they were more mad than bad? I'm just making the case for the fun of it.

Broadly sepaking, I'm against marriage in the form of a lifelong commitment. When we all died of old age, rickets, and heart failure at 32 it probably made sense. Now, with life being a very eclectic journey, I think it's a miracle any marriage lasts more than a few years. I'd be in favour of short term 4 or five year contracts. Keeping that background in mind, I think that if gay people want to make a serious commitment to each other, and to have that reflected in law, then good on 'em.