El Pibe

http://www.clausewitz.com/readings/OnWar1873/Bk6ch30.html

obviously i didn't vote for either and knew them to be morally bankrupt waaaaay before iraq invasion, but how do you explain that hamas would almost certainly win a vote now? War isn't an ignored side issue in the face of disingenuous promises about spending money you don't have, the situation, IS the issue. Maybe the netanyahu gov't is worth sticking up for, if this was the political dialogue in this country then steve and lawrence would be happy?

great do all this after I leave after 13 years of terrible beer. Next you'll be telling me there will be staff who take less than an hour to pour a pint!!

this did make me chuckle, of course its noone on these boards, we're all far too old!!!! http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/rabid-free-marketeer-subsidised-by-mum-2014080889407

one of these seabag? ;-)

they say "la proxima parada" in spain, I've never managed to get hot under the collar about it, but then the air conditioning is excellent, and you always get a seat.

DOn't forget Bob, that people in cities x years ago were better, and those now are "arseholes". Nothing to do with the beholder changing, no its categorical fact that we're better than them (although those little collars on those plaid shirts are intrinsically annoying)

You mean people cluster around centres of commerce and infrastructural access to those centres? Whilst yet others offset that lack of availability for more intangible benefits and affordability, and mayhap there is a financial benefit in going from one to the other? weird.

ok thats 2 weeks worth done, phew

Gosh, I'm already second!! I wouldn't worry I'll miss a few crucial weekends then lose heart ;)

The White Bear is still a bets pub isn't it? Or at least it was last I went there for a GAA game, so probably ticks the irish box too, didn't see any collections, but then I guess they shouldn't still be fund raising should they?

to be fair its quite a nice pub when its not friday or saturday night, and that was 5 or 6 years ago i guess now

hmm, can't seem to post street view link ok here goes http://tinyurl.com/lfnh2fd apart from my mate's funeral the last time i was in Hitchin a bunch of us went in there and one got a nasty smack in his mouth in the face for, and I wish i was joking, 'looking at my bird'. One nasty little git and there were about 20 of us, but that's how he gets his kicks. It gave me a timely reminder why I was so happy to leave small towns* and tiny-lifers!! Of course I now live in a village with 600 people in it, but I think its the in between stage that does it. *Mind you a small town in england is roughly county capital status here, which is weird.

so it's rhyming slang then ;) I've never had enough mettle to test it either rahrahrah. THere are about 29 million of them in my garden should i feel the urge though. Maybe the guy that came up with the theory tried it out on a false nettle and was satisfied http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/false_nettle.htm nope apparently that one doesnt live in the uk, probably this then http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtica_dioica_subsp._galeopsifolia

I did wonder if it was put to the vote, though I suppose essentially a civil war might be a form of referendum on the nature of that independence ;) And Alan definitely has it in that prior to the brutal crack down of and executions after the rising, most folk them thought them fools getting in the way of inevitable home rule, which by all rights they really should have had by then anyway. Stupid blimmin world wars....

My experience of "the small/mid-sized-shithole-town-somewhere-in-england-you-can't-wait-to-leave" entirely coincides with *Bob*'s. As not especially affiliated to anything I had a choice of several pubs, and some were less homogenous than others, but generally they were quite stratified by age, social class and musical taste/subcultural affiliation. Except Stevenage, every pub was simply white trainers, ben sherman shirt and a desire to get in a fight at some point in the evening.

the-e-dealer Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Grasp the Nettle V grasp the metal! So you keep mentioning. But grasp the nettle is the correct phrase, based on the idea that if you touch a nettle it'll sting you, but if you grasp it tightly it won't. in other words, if you're going to do something potentially unpleasant its better to go for it than do it half heartedly. 'Grasp the mettle' is the usual misunderstanding, but doesn't really make any sense. I've no idea what 'grasp the metal' is trying to say, any particular type of metal? Grasping plutonium, gold and mercury would all be rather different things figuratively speaking. So bravo on a double layered malapropism!!

I still think the wording is a bit ambiguous, I can think a should be b whilst acknowledging that it oughtn't to unless the details are right.

If yes wins, does that mean Scotland will have to keep Blair? Do eeeeeeet!!!

As I said before, once you pop you can't stop, only a matter of time before London is a city state, and poor Brendan will have to get a working visa to commute in from wessex

"not many Irish would rekindle that particular relationship" whilst true it's not quite the same is it. Scotland enterd into this voluntarily and did pretty well out of the whole deal historically. If people feel its time to end the partnership then fair enough, just do it for the right reasons; comments like that imply that this is about a proud little nation getting out from under the oppresive heel of the english, which is a narrative that is being disingenuously exploited by some of the yes campaign.

that's a bit lizard, don't the elites make tons of money anyway, and aren't we content to vote in insipid elites into governemtn anyway, who needs war? war exists because because smashing things is easier than compromising.

2 interesting musings on the context Firstly that there are no strategies, merely ill thought out tactics that fall into the hands of both main actors in the conflict (not, obviously either of the peoples) http://politicalviolenceataglance.org/2014/07/31/israel-and-hamas-are-both-just-winging-it/ and echoing my own sentiment, that constantly fudging it keeps a status quo of a de-facto greater Israel without the political dangers of making that explicit; managed conflict being the acceptable cost of said strategy. http://politicalviolenceataglance.org/2014/08/05/israels-strategic-goal/

oh no, food was there (bad roasts, prawn cocktails etc), in the fox or the chimnies, it's just my family weren't really pub goers, and by the time I started frequenting them it was only to get drunk, hopefully laid, but far more likely to spectate someone getting their teeth knocked out or dragged across the car park under a car. From what I gather that's still pretty much par for the course in Stevenage, but Hitchin has somewhat gentrified. Letchworth barely even *had* a pub until I left it!!! (old quaker town, peaceful folk, but stickinthemuds when it came to boozing)

I've seen them, but not in theose here parts hmm, strikethrough doesn't work well on an e