Walsingham

I think you may be doing the great many educated Iranians a disservice. The most large scale violent reactions seem to be coming from Pakistan.

Dammit! I want to fix it, not embrace it. You people are like L33t Vader.

I have discovered that - probably thanks to autocorrect - I now type the word 'the' as 'teh' more often than not. I've turned off autocorrect on everything, but that hasn't fixed it. I was wondering if there is already in existence, or could be made, a program that emits a piercing shriek every time I do this, to condition me not to.

I'm not sure your dominatrix fantasies should extend to starting wars with other countries. Unless they're Switzerland, because they're far too smug.

I've been thinking again about my earlier comment about the pride issue, and the comments about thick skin. I've been thinking, based on my own direct experience of rural tribal-style cultures, with their typical emphasis on manliness and self-reliance, and pride. Pride in oneself, and pride in one's ideology is not an optional extra. It sustains you when times are hard and bread and water are scarce. In fact I've seen similar phenomena in poorer folks all over, from miners to farmers to cops and soldiers. If I may say so we're all intellectuals who have a pretty soft time of it. It's easy for us to talk about being more cerebral and not taking offence. But the people we are talking about here are relying on that prickly ironclad attitude to get them through the day. Indeed, to go further, in cultures where justice has to be DIY at best, you need to react violently to any slight to survive. Rather the same way it is in prison. My conclusion, therefore, is that we should neither retract the knighthood, nor dismiss the reaction. We should state, as we are now doing, that the knighthood was to reward bravery in the face of death threats, not about insulting Islam. This would be an intelligible response on their own terms.

Indeed, it does have to be pointed out that Steve is living in a region where such annoyance could be lethally conveyed.

Now this is science, just not rocket science. If moderate educated Americans don't vote, then this leaves the choice of presidents to irrational uneducated fools. Being surprised that the result is an irrational uneducated fool is the only thing more stupid.

Feels better, doesn't it?

I may be going mad, but I really like Oerwinde's plan.

Er... yes... *coughs nervously*

I think bands have, big bands, have smaller more professional groups of roadies these days. Rather than the medieavel (I can never spell that word) seige trains of yore. There are still several jobs out there that involve loud, heavy music for guys like him. It may be difficult, but not impossible The guy sounds like a bit of a whiner, though.

A group of player characters who don't try and set fire to everything.

It pains me to say it, but my esteemed colleague may be right. Where DOES one draw the line between gratuitous moronicry, and clinical moronicry?

Oerwinde, se that's the kind of nonsense I was talking about. It's like somebody taking over the Star Wars franchise and ...oh wait...

Er.... yes they do, in fact they exhale CO2 all the time. But at night the net effect is exhalation. However, the really important thing about trees is that they use carbon to build themselves. As one person put it to me recently, we should be growing and burying them.

I agree, Tale's sig should be bought some kind of beer.

Losing faith in onself is a private prerogative. Losing faith in others is just rude.

I think bands have, big bands, have smaller more professional groups of roadies these days. Rather than the medieavel (I can never spell that word) seige trains of yore.

I can almost hear the moronic executives. "We've got the Transformers Franchise." *Sounds of enthusiastic hooting, much like that of apes and hogs* *One tertiary male pipes up in hopes of promotion* "We have to make it fresh and new" *Sounds of assent* "Let's redesign how they look, while keeping the basic design" Except of course, being soulless weasel boys they have no idea what the basic design is, and wind up changing things at random. LIKE THE GUY'S FACE. I mean, why couldn't thay have just done something innocuous, like expand Prime's left leg to five times original size?

can't say as i've ever had that i like my beard I was obliged to grow a beard for a while. But I panicked one day and shaved it off in circumstances as above. It was awesome. The very next day I pulled a girl who had been ignoring my bearded form.

How much less? Oh, i'd say about a guinea pig's worth.

Amazing.

Jaysus, it's like the first world war in here.

I remember collecting the comics. I could care less, and as you chaps already said, that's just WRONG.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/6221606.stm I don't always agree with the BBC, but Bowen is a first class reporter and he has some first class inside gen on Gaza here.