mockney piers

"Or just give them Chinese weapons. It will probably be cheaper" POTW!!! with more than a ring of truth about it (its basically what the yanks did in croatia). Plus it needs plausible deniability, so selling your own weapons is off limits. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if this was what was being discussed by that little diplomatic team the other day.

In truth I find the concept of muscular libertarian interventionism a highly uncomfortable one, but if limited action is backed by the UN and the Arab league, then we should act fast.

A bit weak there Jeremy. We sell arms to some pretty nasty people in a very uncertain world. That you don't know where they will end up is the nature of the beast. If gadaffi falls, Saudi Arabia will likely be the next, and noone else has as much weaponry bought from the west as they have. Would a democratic Saudi Arabia or Libya use them against us? Unlikely, but possible depending on which country we next decide to invade in that neck of the woods. Against the Israelis, still unlikely, but certainly more likely. Ultimately you either back a horse and live with the consequences good or bad, or do nothing, but then don't pontificate about them bombing civilians. If we're talking the talk we really should do something about it, not stand by like bosnia and Rwanda. Plus I saw footage of a recent military march in Tripoli, those helmets and desert uniforms look verrrrry familiar and you can guarantee hats wasn't all we've been selling them.

Political minefield tarot. Every answer is the wrong answer. It's no wonder flapping arms frustratedly, making noises about doing something but not doing something, is the response. I lean on the side of doing something, but every action will have a downside repercussion. I say do what the CIA did in Yugoslavia, arm the rebels (or Croats analogously) then say you didn't if anyone asks.

Not about Libya but about Iran this time. Shifts in the political fabric go counter to the middle east trends and may yet spark further opposition to the regime. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/08/the_shark_stops_swimming?page=0,0

Agree reffing was inconsistent and favoured the home side, sending off was ridiculous and effectively decided the tie as did a dubious penalty. But Arsenal got it wrong on the night and didn't do enough to merit going through. I understand if Arsenal fans feel aggrieved with the way things went, but as EC says, better team went through.

stupified she hid louder wheels?

It might be worth trying a reboot (otherwise known as a hard reset) "press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button together for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears." Have you tried your sim card in another phone to see if that is the problem? Basically I think all phones are programmed to act up after 12-18 months with random failures such as signal drop off, and generally be a PITA so we're forced to upgrade, but that would be the cynic in me. Apple products are notorious for batteries suddenly dying off and battery issues can cause all sorts of other problems. Mine simply stopped charging (not helped by mocklet drool in the power port) so I've just put my sim into an old phone until upgrade time (next month, woo hoo)

Damn, mine's getting pertty small these days. Do i not get custard in my pie, just that foamy stuff out of the can on a paper plate?

we need a 'clown spotted' thread. Forewarned is forearmed, with custard pies.

water framework directive solid state drives?

The Tiny Art director seems to have grown up too much. So as a final post there's a erview of some of the greatest hits http://tinyartdirector.blogspot.com/2011/03/tads-greatest-hits.html rather wonderful!!

I think silverfox's idea had some merits, but rather than mortgage owners I'm thinking the most vulnerable in society like the blind!

yet noone really expected them to. It's less of an upset after the Emirates result admittedly, which was of course...dah dah dahhhhh....an upset!! tbh as a neutral I'm jsut hoping it's as good a game as the last one.

I too think we're looking at a CL upset. I have my Arsenal cousin-in-law (is there such a thing?) coming over for this one, so best of luck frankly (plus OBVIOUSLY down with Barca sort of thing)

I didn't like Nathan Barley either, though I love tvgohome, which was the inpiration.

How about we stop feeding the troll.

But can only aspire to be Angels & Gypsies. Although No 22's Pimientos de Padr?n are better.

Fair enough Jeremy, I've heard similar complaints from others. I think the XPS range has better build quality, perhaps using some of that bought-in alienware expertise, and is fine, though it is all a bit small, hot and plasticky after my beautful (now dead) pre Dell buyout alienware PC. Also the install was pretty clean, just vista 64-bit, and that was about it. There was no dodgy dell malsoftware, hell there wasn't even office (still isn't it) and certainly none of those annoying trial versions of everything. But I'm not doing a sales pitch, just saying my experience with them was pretty good.

Not so much films. Think edgy and/or satirical comedy. The Day Today, Jam, Brass Eye and so on.

eek. I'm going to have to disagree on the latter point b_s. It's one thing for a commercial brand to sack someone for tarnisihing that brand through gross misconduct. It's quite another thing to sack a civil servant for political affiliations in a country where freedom of association is one of our paramount rights. Anything else is a road down which fundamental freedoms will be eroded by the thought police, no matter how good the intentions. That was what was wrong with labour, they curtailed freedoms, not because they were evil, but because their attempts to be good were misguided. If a teacher is a member of a proscribed organisation then fair enough, but however distasteful many of us may find the BNP, anyone has the freedom to belong, and rightly so. Obviously if they peddled their nonsense or treated black pupils unfairly compared to the white ones, then that must be a case for discipline or dismissal, but simply to belong to a party...shaky ground if you ask me.

tbh, I just went with Dell (online) last time. They're very configurable and pretty reasonable, and the service is pretty good. I've built before, best for cost, terrible for hassle and support. I've gone premium, brilliant piece of kit, beautifully built, but will still go obsolete just as quick for the extra grand or so. I've bought cheap from small online suppliers and far too much hassle getting anything done when things go wrong (for instance, I had a faulty CPU in one). So for my last one eneded up plumping for Dell because its easy, and been very happy with the end result. Good piece of quad core, hyperthreaded kit (Core i7), been very reliable, all for 700 notes (they start about 300 odd i think; dell, not i7 stuff).

Ha haha hahah aha h aha aha a

How do you see the world snorkel? I'm genuinely interested.

On reflection that was a bit harsh. There's a high profile representative layer, the models the catwalks, those awful magazines, the bullshit, that is pretty loathsome. Then there's the layer below, the ruthless manufacturers fat cats who own nothing but a brand whilst outsourcing manufacture to sweatshops and indentured labour. But there are of course literally tens of millions worldwide involved to some degree in the wider fashion industry (what the awful people would no doubt sneeringly describe as 'high street' or even worse 'tailoring'), and of course I have no issue with them.