david_carnell

Was the job as a cartographer? Otherwise...wtf! That's hard. Map of the world....maybe, but including all borders?!!?!? I wouldn't know where to begin.

For a token gesture, she could get a nice new wrought iron one: Bed

Apparently him and McGuinness were known at Stormont as the "Chuckle Brothers" due to how well they actually got on and all the jokes they cracked! Paisley: A prostestant and a catholic go into a bar.... McGuinness:....KABOOM! Both: hahahahahahaha F?$kin' hilarious I bet.

Au contraire! Beware though...this has a time limit! County count-up

And so it rumbles on... Man dies from taking "remedy"

Woohoo....85 on US States. Still have no idea where some of those places are. East and West coast are ok....everything in between is pretty much a mystery.

Brendan - no reinforcement needed. I am worried at being beaten on European geography by a Safa though. Try this one for size.... Map of Africa Game

Damn you MP, 37! With an average error of 59 miles. I was ok with the Balkans, it was that crafty Lichtenstein that got me into some bother. Tax dodgers!

[Takes deep breath] Right - no, poor pay pay doesn't negate responsibility but it's a partial cause. Also, in this instance, and I'll say this real slow, they....did....their....job....properly. Death occurs. Police investigate. CPS informed. Police recommend no action. CPS agree. Case dropped. Can you please tell me what you would like to have seen done differently? The police handing the shopkeeper a medal at the scene perhaps? "Hardly glowing" - examples rather than rhetoric please - then we discuss this like adults and not a John Gaunt phone-in show. The rest of your post resembles more a stream of consciousness than an argument. I haven't criticsed the shopkeeper once. He is clearly very brave and should be applauded for tackling a robber esp. an armed one. I'd rather no one had died at all in the incident but I doubt whether I'll lose much sleep over the death of a vicious career criminal. Nor have said anything about my thoughts on the attacker and his criminal record until now. You obviously think I'm some woolly liberal merely because I like my deaths to be investigated thoroughly??! I presume you would prefer vigilanty justice to be metered out by good citizens such as yourself?

I presume that was directed at Atila and not me?

Why are the CPS "shite"? Perhaps because they are poorly paid compared to the private sector and therefore attract only those legal graduates who didn't attain the highest marks? All things considered, I think they do a bang-up job (groan). Yes, the shopkeeper defended himself. But he killed a man. End of. If that happens it is madatorily (sp?) referred to the CPS for investigation. What if the shop keeper had incapacitated the man and then rather than waiting for the police to arrive stabbed him a few more times to definitely make sure? Or something similar? It goes to the CPS who look at the case alongside a recommendation from the police. The police said they had no reason for them not to believe he did anything wrong; the CPS agreed; the case was dropped. A fast, efficient and open legal system. And your gripe is what exactly? They didn't want to prosecute him or anyone else for that matter - they just look at the evidence and decide if there is a case to answer. Only then do they start legal proceedings. What's your problem with the CPS? Have you been a naughty boy in the past?

Bloody hell MP - it's like a rainbow. I don't know your Spanish nationality which complicates matters. You can't just be Spanish can you? You have to be Catalan or Basque or Galician or some other regional identity, right? I'm presuming, since you're voting in Madrid local elections as well, that's your base? Why does Madrid get a Mayor and a President? My brain hurts. Maybe some anarcho-syndacalists need your vote. Go for them. Or one with a pretty badge. Edit: Oooh, oooh...just been wiki-ing and found (drum roll) the Partido Comunista de Espa?a (Reconstituido),. PCE® is a Spanish clandestine communist party that broke out from the Communist Party of Spain (PCE). They also have an armed wing called GRAPO! - a Spanish clandestine Maoist group aiming for the formation of a Spanish Marxist-Leninist Republican state, based on the model of Maoist China. Awesome. Vote for them! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/90/Pcer.PNG

Don't give up the day job, eh.

What are you bloody going on about. The CPS haven't gone ahead with any prosecution. The police advised them not to after looking at the evidence. What more do you want. It's called due process. It's what marks us out from Saudi Arabia. Climb down off your high-horse.

Schizophrenia....it beats being alone!

Arsenal 3 v Aston Villa 1 Birmingham 1 v Tottenham 2 Derby 0 v Sunderland 2 Fulham 0 v 1 Man Utd Man City 2 v Wigan 1 Middlesbrough 1 v Reading 1 Newcastle 2 v Blackburn 2 West Ham 1 v Chelsea 3 Bolton 0 v Liverpool 1 Everton 2 v Portsmouth 1

I've been to Eurovision parties in the past. No bias is allowed in the cuisine served - all wine is new world and food tends towards chinese or mexican. Everyone picks out of hats and supports their adopted country with gusto. With enough Australian shiraz it's bloody good fun. Sober, I would rather bbq my tongue.

I liked the original of both of these tracks but they both had the same effect. Immensely popular and catchy to the point of irritation - then given a new lease of life thru a innovative cover version. Two slices of great pop. From last year: Ray LaMontagne - Crazy From the radio this morning:

Michael Palaeologus Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Playing with whipping tops in the street, dodging > between the carts to collect t'horse muck for > t'rhubarb patch, the tin bath by the fire, raising > and slaughtering the family pig and playing with > its inflated bladder in the back yard. > > > I even remember the family receiving the telegram > that young Uncle Fred had died of malaria in the > Sudan with Kitchener. Half the family were taken > by the spanish flu, the other half died of > starvation during the 1920s, regular beatings from > both parents, cleaning chimneys at the age of 5. > > Eeee, but they were happier times. >:D< You were lucky....(continues Monty Python sketch in own head to save other forum member's sanity)

C'mon MP, stick to the theme! Heh.

Keef Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I would have told them both to sort it out > and get on with it, but at the end of the day, the > letter of the law says he had to go for slapping > another player. That's more like it. A man's game, what? I'm backing the Argy in a straight fight though. Honestly, to get sent off for that is a joke.

giggirl Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Lightbulb moment - maybe we should ask those very > nice people at Cinema Paradiso to screen the > Taking Liberties movie at the EDT some time soon. > What do you think? Genius. I'm in.

I'm sure you're very intelligent, Kel. You can be at work and surreptitiously use a computer at the same time without being caught for example! What do you think though? (1)Does the threat of terrorism bother you? (2)Do you feel your civil liberties are being impinged or (3)that your freedom of speech is being eroded? Answer me. ANSWER ME!! We have ways of making you talk! One word answers only though please. ;-)

Like I said at the start, I'm not solidly camped on either side of this but so this thread doesn't become a wooly liberal pinko hotbed of hippydom ;-) I think I'll continue to put up some defence of current policy. Where to start though. Maybe the bits I agree with you on. Tanks at Heathrow - unnecessary political stunt. Foolish scaremongering. Negotiating with Adams, McGuiness et al - productive and beneficial. I'm not romanticising the IRA but I hope we can both see it's a very different enemy now, Sean's sarcasm aside. Now, where we probably differ... Semantics on this is emotive so bare with me, but Al-Qaeda UK (AQUK) do not want a little independent bit of Britain to live amongst themselves and then leave the rest of us well alone. And to blame this solely on foreign policy is naive. The people who commit these attacks are dedicated to destroying British and Western civilisation as we know it. These people cannot be reasoned or negotiated with. They don't understand nuances of foreign policy debate. I agree that overseas ventures have been costly and badly directed. That money could have been better spent on all sorts of lovely things but let's be realists momentarily. Sometimes you need to fight - and I think this might be one of those occassions. I think it was Satre who said "terrorism is awful, but it's the only weapon the poor and oppressed have". These current terrorists are neither poor or oppressed. Merely intent on killing as many as possible. You asked what am I for? I don't know. I don't believe there is some vast conspiracy by politicians to deprive us of our rights and liberties for their own ends. I believe that AQUK represent the greatest threat to UK national security since the end of the cold war and I think that on occassion unpalatable actions have to be taken in the short term for long term goals. Beyond that, I'm not sure. Even this I'm not 100% on - but I think these arguments need airing. This isn't a fully thought out, cogent argument I'm presenting here, more a stream of consciousness expressing my unease at what is, I think, a underestimation of the danger presented.

Couldn't agree more.