Walsingham

Cheating swine! I can see you've a congruent slang hidden up your right sleeve! Sir, I am offended at your insinuation! Boom Vangs are perfectly legal in all forms of competitive yachting. Which would be perfectly relevant in OCTOBER, but we're not in season. I suggest you reconsider the move, sir!

PETA don't throw red paint at people carrying .50 cal revolvers. I saw them in London harassing old ladies and curiously ignoring a group of bikers! Speaking of which a 14 year old with a .50 cal revolver? I've never fired a .50 cal, but I thought you needed wrists like hams? If you think that hog is impressive you should keep in mind that they were seriously scary beasts back in the middle ages. Boar hunting _with a spear_ was more than adequate training for fighting knights.

To perhaps answer both Steve and Sand I think you give too little credit to the job the troops are doing. Every day in live fire contacts and in small tasks of reconstruction and assurance they are providing fleeting contributions towards civilisation. It is also a mistake to perceive the entire country as bound up in destruction all the time. Quite simply it is coalition forces that are presently the only serious barrier to armed gangs pushing aside the _elected_ representatives of the people. As to Sand's contention that peace can only come about through getting bored of war I think you give war too little credit for its qualities of diversion. Afghanistan has been more or less at war constantly for the last 600 years. They are to be sure growing tired of it, but not so tired that anyone wants to be the first to quit in the face of their longstanding opponents. Some wars, but especially fueding wars are very slow burning. They are like underground coal fires that provide their own oxygen. I often find it instructive to refer to friends who have studied older British history. We did not ascend into civilisation because we got bored of savagery. We were pacified with either force or the threat of force. Once in a restless state of peace we were gradually tamed by careful social engineering and meat pies. I can't overemphasise the pies.

As a reprehensible and argumentative chap I'm not sure I should congratulate you on joining us! I don't know very much about proper ADHD. Your description makes it seem a good deal worse than I thought it would be. If it makes you feel any better it sounds like you just need to find the right learning/working environment. Not everyone gets on with dusty classrooms and there's no shame in that. The thing you might be interested in with autism is that an assistant can make a real difference to an autistic. Whereas I don't know what an assistant could do for you. Does that sound right?

Cheating swine! I can see you've a congruent slang hidden up your right sleeve!

You can't. All you can do is get out of the way and let the two groups fight and kill each other till they are sick of fighting and killing. Have you any idea what genocide is like, or are you just sitting comfortably and sterilely consigning millions of weak vulnerable and innocent people to be caught up in your asinine grand tutorial?

They are becoming more reliable, certainly, but they are far from infallible.

I've read through the whole thread just now and have mixed feelings. Firstly, rather like GD I'm familiar with actual cases of aggravated rape. Cases which I couldn't begin to describe without violating board guidelines. The perpetrators of these crimes go in my box marked 'surplus to requirements' and should be shuffled off quite quietly and with minimum fuss. I feel that way partly because I am repulsed by them, but also because I find the notion of devoting time and effort to their rehabilitation a farce when we don't look after folks who have a bad start in life but soldier on as best they can. However, I draw a distinction between the fact that SOMEONE has committed the crime and the notion that the man in custody has committed the crime. The case quoted here illustrates quite well the often rather ropey evidence in rape cases. Hence I would be reluctant at present to send a man to death for rape. However, the solution in my opinion is to improve the scientific and forensic methods for proving rape has occurred. If that can be done I see no reason why the death penalty should not be employed. I think in general there are some crimes where (to misquote PST) the question is not what right we have to kill the perpetrator, but what right we have to let them live. What right we have to receive the undeniable joy of clemency and mercy when it is not us who have suffered at their hands. If anyone disagrees with this I will be interested to hear the rejoinder PROVIDED you have taken the trouble to - for example - acquaint yourself with the actions of Marc DuTroux et al.

To be prefectly honest I don't know. I picked up the word from an older generation. You decide.

I was talking to a civil construction chap who knows a small amount about these things and he said the big mistake was in giving the construction money to big American contractors for reconstruction. They have taken the money up front and then complain about a lack of security. Security which can only reliably come with reconstruction! The only reliable schemes would have been either military engineers frrom the get-go, or small loans of materials and cash to locals.

One of the things you may have noted about me is my keen interest in being able to stand up for goodness without getting kicked in the face. I believe it was Field Marshal Montgomery who said "The profession of arms is a life study on making sure the other fellow gets the boot in the conk."

Crossdressing French Canadian Barbarian Ninjas? Get me the President.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6682597.stm Nice to see Congress back off, even if it appears to be mainly motivated by a drive to tack on even more ridiculous riders to the bill. You chaps REALLY need to do something about that.

My faith in DNF is somewhat lower than my faith in Santa Claus.

I read a couple of halfway decent Planescape books recently. Hang on, I'll just go look up what they were. Yup... the 'Blood Wars' trilogy.

Hmmm... plenty of good ideas.

You've clearly never seen a mathematician trying to write a ten page essay. I have. It's the sort of thing you really need to do sitting in a deckchair with a pimms and lemonade. *remembers comment about his avatar, blushes incandescently and starts muttering* *remembers he's just been whacked on the snout and runs off* Arf arf arf arf arf

*hides inside dustbin*

It does have to be said that the Finns did rather take on the entire Soviet Army, and kicked the bejaysus out of them. Which has nothing to do with marriage. I hope.

It's seeing this sort of thing, like watching a major city from the window of an aeroplane, that makes me proud to be human.

Walsh, you are finally getting it. Why do you think that I am a tad isolationistic? When I was younger and a bit more idealistic I thought I could help turn the tide of the coming chaos but I couldn't. No one can. Only thing that can happen is the world to tear itself apart and if mankind survives the rendering I hope the survivors learn from the mistakes we, as a civilization, have made. I presume this was intentionally hilarious? I was merely venting the cowardly urge. A good night's sleep* and any Englishman worth his salt grips the corners of his outrageous moustache and sets his face against danger. I'm not seriously suggesting we quit. This the precise time when we can least afford to be selfish. *For a value of good that includes being woken at hourly intervals by rats

Me is trained in the art of descriptive ninjutsu.

To each other? Because I think people do tend to get married, and some of those people may have been members of this forum beforehand ... Of course he means they married each other, fethtrousers.

Cheap shot: You vote Republican?

Gentlemen... let's not make this all about Sand. You've not complimented me on my dancing yet.