Walsingham

I dunno about that. Once political entities get to a certain size they rapidly go down the toilet. The biggest advantages are military.

I used to boil up coffee old school in an ordinary pan, but I made meself ill with too much caffeine. Still use it, but only on special occcassions, like writers block.

Who is?

Good idea. The liver'ss like the appendix. The sooner it swells up and bursts the better.

There must be a story in there? No Nestle = No Instant Coffee = Dead Gorth Just to add a few more candies that springs to mind, now that I've had my instant coffee... Ferrero makes some good candy, the Mon Ch

Im stilll pleased by my realisation that I enjoy watching it because finally big muntas are having to face others their size.

Consider for a moment what it would mean if in your country there were incidents in which a foreign army killed civilians, including the killing of a 5-yr-old girl and entire families with their children. Would this army be a stabilising influence? You know, there are 20 times more civilian deaths in Iraq since the war started than civilians killed on 9/11. Think about how many civilians were killed in the twin towers and times it by 20, and that's how many civilians have been killed in Iraq, all in the name of freedom. 1. I can follow your argument. Can you see my point about the removal of heavy Coalition forces will permit outright ethnic cleansing and civil war? I base that on my understanding of the former Yugoslavia, the Rwandan genocide, and the British pullout from Eire. If you disagree I would ask on what grounds. 2. I cannot square your argument with the fact that the majority of attacks are occurring against civilians not 'occupation' troops. 3. Coalition forces have certainly killed people who ought not to have died. The only thing I can say is that it is a focus of policy and immense effort that this should not happen. 4. I don't believe it is fair to say the 40,000 (possibly more) casualties have died for freedom in the sense that you mean, that being at the instigation of the Coalition. The majority of casualties have quite deliberately occurred at the hands of - or by virtue of chaos caused by - an insurgency characterised by total barbarity. They have therefore died for freedom only in as much as they have died at the hands of people who aim to deny them freedom.

I agree. That is when I eat there.

Whereas football, and particularly Manchester Inc are a bunch of ballet dancers hoofing a bag of hot air about. Um... rather like the Duma. Rugby is NOT american football. For starters it doesn't involve wearing 20lbs of armour. Nor does it involve tight leggings (or at least it doesn't at any decent level). Rugby is a game of raw violence, like putting a pig and a walrus in a box and shaking it. But most importantly it is a rare opportunity to see large violent men picking on each other for a change.

Nope. This happens every couple of weeks. You should have seen us last year. Two threads a day at least.

1. Reeses peanut butter cups 2. Kit-kats* 3. Any of those really sour sweets covered in sugar 4. Candied marmosets 5. toffee * I can't eat kit-kats because I support the nestle boycott. But I like them so much!

Trying to get into power. They are extremely passionate about it.

samm, I thought that in order to becomea swiss person you had to 1. find gainful employment in the country 2. collect 100 signatures from swiss citizens endorsing your application. 3. submit to the bureaucracy I call that quite tough. Either I have that wrong, or the SVP want to introduce some kind of maze with flame traps and wild pigs as a test. Or maybe they will challenge immigrants to get the golden fleece!

Interesting issue. I have a friend who runs an immigrant psychiatric aid charity in Switzerland. My opinion from talking to and visiting him is that there are a number of ways in which immigrants become likely to commit crime. He focusses on helping deal with the mental scars many refugees inevitably possess. Other reasons would obviously include impoverishment, and the exclusion in Swiss society of immigrants from certain jobs. However, I've been slightly side-tracked. Immigration to Switzerland has to be among the toughest in the world. Therefore it seems odd to me that they could actually have an immigrant problem per se. They may have immigrants involved in a high percentage of certain crimes like smuggling, vice, and drug dealing because immigrant cultures - especially isolated from mainstream culture - are fertile soil for organised crime. However it would be muddled if we ignored the fact that it is the native Swiss who provide the market for these crimes.

And one capable of scoring, no less.

To be perfectly noest I was running a pretty high fever, and I may have just imagined it was helping. It certainly ensured I got triaged and treated quickly!

I was stuck at a rural train station at the time.

Those are indeed some skanky parasites. The fish worm thing sounds like MoD outsourcing!

Am I the only the person who found this funny?

Awful stuff. Nearly died. Terrible wracking cramps. Sang almost constantly to fight off the cramps. My singing also very bad.

That certainly is interesting. What that tells me is that ad campaigns should simply use 'surveys'. As for the vaccine being worse than the flu in my experience that's nonsense. I've had negative reactions to typhoid and japanese encephalitis shots, and had proper influenza (the stuff that killed 19 million after the Great War), and actual typhoid. Both the real things were bloody awful. I can't speak for the jap enceph. I hallucinated small children.

Quiet, you, and fetch me more tobacco.

Tigranes, and Azarkon, your arguments are strong. Certainly national and smaller ties are real. My own loyalty is first and foremost to the United Kingdom. However, it is precisely due to that loyalty that I believe in keeping a hand in the international game. One the one hand this is almost certainly influenced by the fac tthat Britain's security is perennially underwritten by ensuring no one hegemony exists in mainland Europe. Preventing such a hegemony has been our primary objective since the end of the Dark Ages. On the other hand it is due to a recognition in general terms that nations rely on one another for trade, and can benefit by mutual assistance. Something which I have troublel explaining because it is so self-evident. Europe post-war is a good example. On the third hand* I believe that the national interest is more than just survival. Because survival is of course finite. All nations eventually expire. The question then becomes what were they while they existed? Did they merely grub along, as selfish as earthworms? Or did they act with some special qualities that demonstrated a superior resolve and energy? *Huh?

Then by way of an apology I invite you to move Denmark to Northwest Scotland. I know that strictly speaking I should ask the Queen for permission, but I've done her one or two favours in our time, and I'm sure she'd approve in any case.

An extremely lazy day if you excuse my cardiac exertions on the running route, and a short bout of Sand-induced apoplexy.