Walsingham

Dagnabbit, how I yearn for the old days, when our enemies were also their own enemies! Interesting article, Moati. I guessthat wrecks my points above!

And remember: spoilertags are good.

That's great. I think the reason the opening ceremony was so fantastic was that it really highlighted all the amazing accomplishments of the Chinese people over the last couple thousand years. It certainly did job of how far they've come in the last fifty.

ROFL. And the price of oil is up again. With Russia totally dependant on oil for hard currency I am sure we can expect a peace move soon. I was thinking about this this morning. I don't normally rekect counter-arguments completely, but I've totally discarded the notion that Russia isn't the aggressor. I mean, the counter-argument is that 1. Georgia started a fight against an opponent with a crushing superiority in numbers and equipment. 2. It did so while two thousand of its best troops were away. 3. It did so without securing the single and extremely vulnerable road tunnel link to Russia 4. It did so when it's ally, the USA, could not possible support it. 5. EDIT: And it does so, when a short wait would have landed it inside NATO, first. This seems to me as likely as the old joke about the policeman claiming a young man brutal landed his groin on his boot cap, badly scuffing the shoe-leather.

I'd be grotesquely hypcritical if i didn't agree a bit with julianw. Governments do change. I am the first to say that HM govt. and the British Army are not the same ones who brutalised the Irish for hundreds of years. Forgiveness is important, or all we have is a ratchet on hate; a spiral into oblivion.

I don't think the Russians are stopping. I suspect the next move will be to use the Spetsnaz units to try and seize anyone pro-American politicians, and have them tried on genocide charges.

I had one of those too. I ended up in a psychiatric ward at the end of the dream :< I kicked their arses all the way back to Narnia.

I began the day with a beer and a home-made all beef burger with fresh juicy tomatoes and dijonaisse sauce. I am become a God.

You mean the way it NEVER stops anyone invading anyone? Since Korea?

I honestly wouldn't describe 1919 rum as being typical rum. And I like rum. But it's my drink for guests and it NEVER fails to impress. Nut , vanilla, and semi-sweet.

Actually I do take the view that Cuba has a perfect right to choose its strategic allies. Perhaps that comes from sitting with Ireland at our backs...

Well, you have a good point about being secessionist for just as long. On teh other hand, recognition for this region as a sovereign state, and hence able to choose is rather sparse. Even bonkers places like North Korea haven't agreed. I think you're being needlessly jingoistic about taking things in the 'back yard' 'lying down'. It's only the back yard according to an excessively aggressive legacy from Ivan the Terrible/Joe Stalin. I'd like to think we could move on from that, unless we want to go back to the old days of Cold War, and I don't. Or, to put it another way, if i were a Georgian, why the hell should I have to kowtow to Russia?

Alright Brdavs, you have a point that we're biased up to a point. But go easy willya? I'm happy to compare the situation with the Balkans, but it's far from identical. As for being Soviet-phobic, yes I'm old school, but you'd have an even harder time convicning me that the Russians are friendly at the moment.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2...2573830138.html Note that Russia is playing the 'intervention to prevent humanitarian crisis' card. As I have said in our iraq threads the precedent exists to use this as a legal support for declaring war. While I'm hardly in favour, you can't deny they've done their homework.

Actually mists do have a massive effect on sound, because you're talking about the sound transmission medium being saturated with water droplets. Except being from a country with nice weather you've clearly not had to struggle through the Edwardian pea-soupers we have here.

OK, update: BBC News footage of Russians entering region I made a mistake earlier in stating these are not first grade troops. That's a T-80 tank, and it looks in good nick. There's also 2S3 SP arty travelling along with BMP-1 (as I said earlier). This is consistent wit h asserions that the 19th Motor Rifle Division has entered the country. EDIT: Can anyone tell me what this vehicle is? I can't find it on any websites. POST-EDIT: It is a 2S9 "Bereg" artillery piece.

I have a question. How come we're so awesome?

yeah, i got a year's free anti-virus from my bank too. maybe we have the same bank? send me your account details plus passwords and i'll verify to make sure. I thought I had put this in Skeeters. So this stupid thing isn't live?

It's no-wonder you didn't want THAT one analysed. The only way to make it more Freudian would be to give it an Austrian accent.

Stratfor.com brief no. 4 extract:

Sounds good. Can I suggest 1919 rum? If you like em mellow? What's you're take on the Russian issue? http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?showtopic=50404

Hmmm.... war/shiny lights. War/shiny lights. decisions de... oooh! shiny lights!

I'm just wondering what the broken down version of modern corporate chic would loo like. Or is it pre-gimcracked?

I like elements of the description of your Blood Knives chap. I'll keep the bandaged hand, and the age but also the nimbleness. A gang leader is also good. The full introduction can depend on the moment. Or he might be a surprisingly shifty innkeeper! Speaking of motivation, the Genevieve vampire books include one story where the characters are literally shackled together by a group of slavers.

I used to get the xenomorphs from Aliens in my dreams when I was a teenager. Analysing that doesn't even bear thinking about.