Monte Carlo

Er, since 1944. Greek Communism was particularly rabid as the ideology spread like typhus over the region towards the end of WW2. The anarchists you describe are it's direct descendents, Greece has been ruled by shadowy cabals with links to political extremists ever since. The ships-n-commodities gazillionaire class withdrew from Greek politics in the 1950's, which is why most of them are domicilied abroad.

Yet the Greek people elected them. Greece has PR. Like all PR systems, whoever you vote for, the same tired elite always seems to win.

Troll. I bow to your superior knowledge of UK politics.

Three people dead as the anarchists burn banks. this is grim.

Mr. Varadarajan, of the Daily Beast link provided above, is spot-on from where sitting here in the UK. Kudos to him. If you want to know the result but not stay up all night, here is Monte's political-spotting tip of the day *cue cheezy quiz show music* The London Borough of Wandsworth has three seats. Putney is already Tory, Battersea has a wafer-thin Labour majority and will go Tory. Tooting is Labour and the seat of Mr. Khan, a junior minister and rising star. If the Tories take Tooting they will have their +10 national swing and will almost certainly win with a workable majority. Go to bed, it's over. Wandsworth is a capable council, they usually declare by 0100 so it's not too late a night. I'll be up and waiting for that creature Ed Balls to get un-seated (fingers crossed), very posh Bourgeois potato chips and a chilled bottle of Pol Roger ready to go. Cheers MC

That's nails. What sort of stud thinks scoped rifles are for girls?

My enduring memory of California was being hard-stopped by the Fruit Police on the border with Nevada. They were suspicious that two English guys in a Grand-Am might be smuggling citrus fruit. The Fruit Police wore hilarious brown uniforms and Russian-style shapka hats (it was nearly thanksgiving and it was cold up there). They were polite, heavily armed and obsessed with fruit. We complied immediately, even though the only food products in the car were a crateful of twinkies and a litre of Uber-Java coffee from a 7-11. Timeline: George Bush Snr. was Prez, Clinton had just beaten him. November 1992.

Although originally from the Storm Planet Xarg, I now reside in London, England.

^ Yes, and those are both anti-materiel rifles, like I said with computers you are basically emulating a small-scale, extreme precision arty piece. The guy we're discussing here was using a more modest L115A3, a sniper rifle.

^ Wals, have you seen the groovy advert for Macedonian wine on the telly? I think it's great that the Macedonian Wine Marketing Board has such global reach, furthermore the ad has very high production values.

Grom is trapped in a spiralling vortex of his own contrarianism. Probably.

Misplaced patriotism? Hardly. I likened it to the shot taken by the US Navy SEAL sniper about six posts or so ago. I'm not American.

I've no doubt that the likes of Cpl. of Horse H spend many, many hours on the range and send thousands of rounds down them to achieve the kind of skill that allows this type of luck to flourish. Knowing what the weapon can and can't do, the effects of the terrain and wind etc. I'm sure his spotter had one of those crazy sniper watches that allow you to do the math on the fly, these guys are basically replicating with 8.59mm rounds what artillery or mortar guys do with indirect fire pieces. And remember, this guy isn't an infantryman - he's a cavalry soldier. His speciality is light armoured recce. I concede that the three-hits-in-a-row is suggestive of incredible luck - but if you read the story he even hit target one in the stomach - i.e. in the central kill-zone that a marksman would aim for at that range. Shot one on it's own is astonishing, what happened next is borderline John Woo territory. Cheers MC

Prison guards shouldn't be carrying guns, unless they're up in the watchtowers, right? Look, Scandies are wacky. We love them for it. But they live in their own very unique homogenous Scandie nirvana, where building Disneyland prisons sort of works.

Sorry Grom, I'm not buying into the hole-in-one analogy. I've never seen anybody, Arnold Palmer onwards, score three hole-in-ones consecutively. Even in perfect conditions. Cpl. of Horse Harrison did. Tango one, Tango two then the crew mounted weapon. Bang bang bang. He's modest about it and had a good spotter, but it's still an epic achievement. On a par with the US Navy SEAL marksman who slotted the Somali pirates-in-a-lifeboat bobbing up and down in the sea with a hostage next to them. Like the man said, the harder I work, the luckier I get. Cheers MC

Wals, Dr. Evil is Belgian.

Treated myself to the Best of the Foo Fighters, it was a bargain. Am re-listening to a lot of my old Soul / Ska stuff from the early 80's (the Specials!) and have the soundtrack to Gladiator still going on in the car, it makes London feel even more like the end of Rome...

Quick! My crucifix! My holy water!

Yes, it is odd but we are fascinated with experiences we are unlikely to ever have. I know two men who have served as snipers - one in the Falklands in 1982 and one in Iraq. Neither will talk about it, politely pointing out that killing is a personal, unpleasant experience and not to be boasted about. That, to me, makes them impressive individuals.

So the book shop has a 3 for 2 deal. I get a thriller, a historical novel and one book completely at random. Why not, serendipity and all that plus it's free. I'm travelling a lot on trains at the moment - I forget how good that is if you like reading. Anyhow, the book I get is called The Strain. I barely read the rubric at the back - I'm guessing it's something to do with bio-terrorism and there's a sort of non-commital picture of a bridge in New York on the front. Anyhoo, I finally examine it properly and this book has two things I'm not wild about. 1. it's written by two people. Books that are written by two people generally suck. 2. It's horror. I don't dig horror. Well, movies perhaps, but not really novels. They don't scare me or intrigue me they send me to sleep. But it was a long train journey and, hey, the book was pretty good. One of the authors is Guillermo del Toro, who directed Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy(s). There are some spoilers ahead. The book is a take on the vampire genre. I know, I know, vampires are done to death I'm sick of them too. But this one is different. Why Because the vampires are also cancerous zombies. Vampirism is effectively a sort of viral cancer, and the hero is a Bio-Squishing doctor who is almost 2.5 dimensional. There are some other cooler characters (a Mexican gangsta, an ancient Romanian vampire-hunter who makes all his own weapons, a pest eliminator who is destined to become the best character). Vampires are emo and pathetic, but zombies are generally acknowledged to be awesome. And happily, the mash-up avoids emo zombies (arg!). I think it's a series, if you like the idea of zombie-vampires and want to read it before the inevitable movie comes out then I give it a solid 7/10. Cheers MC

The Soviet invasion of Finland showed up the Soviet army for what it was at that time - an ill-trained agrarian rabble devoid of any decent commanders, doctrine or equipment. It made the Nazis even more confident that they could whup the Commies in a quick one-summer Blitzkreig. Stalin didn't get a grip of the Red Army (having had all the general staff executed) until the Winter of 1941.

^ A Byron loan is awesome, in my mind's eye I see us sending a horde of fey, Opium and Absinthe-addled public-schoolboys to write obtuse poetry and shag their way across the Med in the name of Anglo-Greek harmony.

^ I'm pretty sure that the Eastern Front snipers on both sides were in that range of kills, including Ludmilla whatsername the Russian sniper-chick. Awesome sniper of the day for you all to look up: Carlos Hathco*ck (sorry, language filter is crazy on that one)

There's this app that looks at key-word use and grammar to deduct a % similarity between two authors. I'm sure I saw it on t'internet somewhere, or mentioned on the Times tech website. If I find a linkie I'll post it.

And Gym-Nazis who look down their noses at other people aren't a problem for society. Dude, just go back to looking adoringly at your guns in the mirror.