*Bob*

One of the few years the award has lived-up to its title. A winner.. With a personality. Most years it's just a case of 'has anyone won anything?' and 'has anyone heard of them?' - and even then a winner might not manage both of those.

With 250,000,000 guns in circulation (or whatever it is now) you have to wonder if the genie will ever go back in the bottle.

Ultimately, the question is one of whether a majority of Americans (and political reps thereof) feel that the rights of anybody and everybody to have as many guns as they please - are more important than the 10,000 people a year who get killed by them. And I think you'd have to conclude (in the light of this being only the latest in a long line of incidents which - let's face it - have nowhere to go on the shock-factor front) that 'they do'. It's simply a cold, hard fact - with or without any sort of moral judgement on the matter. When you're outside, looking in, it's hard to appreciate how ingrained something can be in a different country and culture. An American close relative who stayed with us recently - in every respect intelligent, liberal, educated, young, groovy.. 'just like us', posted on Facebook last week about his trip to a gun fair, shopped around, tried a few, bought a couple. Just like that. Is he suddenly an idiot? Or do you have to accept that there's something so deeply imbedded there that it's going to be one hell of a thing to undo?

cool wet grass, cool wet grass

Am I allowed a number two?

That's a shame. If they'd have got the food bit nailed I suppose things might have been different.

PMs should be left private. Poor form.

Aiiiiieeeee beware THE DEVIIIIL

first mate Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------ > The development is more than just a shop.... "... it's an M&S shop." (sorry)

I for one would wholly support that sort of venture, Ted.

A shop selling pre-owned bayonets, replica pistols and assorted deactivated historical munitions - would be most welcome.

I hope everyone has familiarised themselves with the first 38 pages before posting. We wouldn't want to go over old ground on this one, would we?

Hard to say.

renamed

I've been trying to find the Not The Nine O' Clock News 'Simon and Garfunkel' song entitled "Here's Hopin'" - but without any success. Shame - it's quite amusing.

I like the old 'we set the drums up inside a tin bath in the elevator, halfway between floors 4 and 5' routine, but it has to come from the mouths of bald, old men with nicotine fingers and Reactolite sunglasses. Someone from Radiohead explaining how they dangled a customised one-off microphone wrapped in vintage crinoline down a disused well to obtain an incredible and unique reverb has none of that charm.

Explain to her that by not setting her off of the path of a top-end phone for life, you're instead giving her a possible ?300,000 in compound-interest-adjusted savings.

If you're telling me that there is - in your mind - no possibility of pranking and hoaxing - tricks played on members of the general public without malicious intent - 'ever' being acceptable (from Orson Welles, through Candid Camera to Jeremy Beadle) then I find that hard that hard to believe. But if that's where you're at, then fair enough.

You confuse justification with intent, when they are not the same. This 'type of behaviour' has been acceptable, sanctioned - and part of mainstream media for nearly a century, with hardly the bat of an eyelid. But I don't think you'll see it any more. As with so many things, one tragic incident will have have influence far beyond what is necessary or reasoned.

There's no suggestion from me that MP is ordinarily anything but a righteous dude on most occasions. I just disagree on this one. I simply point-out that if bullying is defined as aggressive, repetitive behaviour with the intention of making people suffer, then the collective voices of millions of people calling for two people's head on a platter trumps a one-off, brief encounter which - whatever the tragic result - never intended anything but a lighthearted bit of fun.

I'll take the Godwin though - if it's still on offer?!

Is it bullying if two hapless Australian DJs at the centre of a would-be-harmless=prank-gone-tragically-wrong are pursued and vilified across the globe - in print, on screen - and (of course) on internet forums? I suspect this probably fits the definition better. What if one of them is driven to suicide? What if, what if..

I think you're being rather unfair there, MP. You're definition of 'bullying' is bizarre. Asking someone to put you through a switchboard on false pretences - once - is not bullying. These people may have been guilty of a childish stunt, but (assuming they are regular human beings) - you're assuming rather a lot to assume only 'crocodile tears' in the face of them being told by the world at large hysterically screaming that they are responsible for someone's death. There have been a couple of suicides in my personal midst - and in both cases we're talking years of build-up, not a one-off incident. Consider, however, that in both those cases there 'may' even have been a one-off incident that was the final straw. Maybe it was someone being rude to them on a bus. Or honking their horn and shouting at them through a car window. Fortunately, those people don't know the small part they played in someone's demise. How would you feel if you were the last person who tipped someone over the edge - and you knew it? You'd have to be some kind of monster not to feel massive genuine guilt. Pranking has been a staple of television and radio since television and radio began. How many cases like this? This one. This case is bizarre and exceptional - and it should be treated as such. Lastly, why do so many people assume that just because someone 'speaks English', the way they present themselves ought to be identical to 'being English'. Australia, like America, is a different country. The language is different. Maybe you don't find their language genuine. I think most people in Oz will.

For those difficult days.. http://www.scoopy.co.nz/images/scoop22.jpg

Sometime last week, LBC ran a phone-in, the cut and thrust of which being that of the presenter encouraging the listeners to phone-in and run-down the entire nursing profession as - in the main - unfit for purpose and in the wrong job. Today's phone-in sees listeners call-in to demand we declare war on Australia. I expect it's the same people calling.