costard

It seems to me that this is a surefire way to ensure that a European federation doesn't happen. If they were serious, they'd let this version fall over and use what powers the EU formation already has to set it back up - then (provided they succeed) go for federation. Greece won't be let go because it occupies an important strategic location as far as NATO is concerned: it is the buffer (and communications zone) for when the ME finally goes tits up, for real. Without it, NATO relies on Russia's goodwill to project any further east than about Turkey. (Israel gets harder to support, too.)

MagpieOz - No way is Townsville a city - no chance at all. "Infested hole" describes it nicely. Jon - that link in your sig is mind blowing. Do you know if they did some maths to get the flight line right or was it just a case of having faith in the size of his balls? Wikileaks? meh - the disinformation game has reached the point where I cannot trust any news service to deliver anything other than a probable and varying value for the truth. Either I'm all grown up or we've rebuilt the Tower of Babel.

JonS, I went and had a look at the draft for that paper: it is a total crock of **** as far as a genuine intellectual exercise is concerned (seriously, go and have a look at the experiment design). That "The Economist" would print their version of the results is just par for the course. That a university in the US would credit these folk with having contributed to the sum total of human knowledge with this... excrement of a paper is beyond belief. Thanks for the link.

Um. The House of Lords has most of its positions assigned by circumstances of birth (i.e. hereditary titles), as is the Privy Council. And, of course, there is the House of Windsor.

ASL Veteran - I am often wrong and I think you are more often right than I have given you credit for. I can't see that the rich giving more money to the US government (voluntarily or otherwise) will help anything. To do so voluntarily is only encouragement for the continuation of the madness that led us here: in which case you have to wonder at the impetus for this PR stunt.

The Pharoahs still taxed, and I'm sure they understood the need to be somewhat equitable with the design of the taxation regime. After all, it makes no sense to tax only those people that don't have any money, nor does it make sense for the rich to argue that the expectation of "fairness" is delusion and (at the same time) complain that any taxation of their own personal wealth is unfair (indeed, their expectation that their wealth will not be wrested from their cold, dead hands flies in the face of their previous stated philosophy.) Because the rich are (loosely speaking) stupid, they are afraid; because they are afraid, they seek power. [because they are rich, they can more easily gain power.] Because they seek power, they excuse any of their behaviour that leads them to their goal. This leads them to propagandise about the level of danger inherent in being alive, they begin to believe their own propaganda, the cycle perpetuates. ASL, the institution of checks and balances on behaviour through the establishment of a legal system enjoying the support of a populace (society) can hardly be described as communism, just as the devolution of that same legal system to the point where it only applies to some of the populace can hardly be described as capitalism. What we have is corruption, corporate and political rot eating out the foundations and substance of our society. To pretend that this is a good thing is stupidity, to state that it is the only way things could possibly work out is to surrender to a fatalism that leaves you with no stake in the future and no intellectual position to argue.

Meach, I thought you might be able to use this. If you can get your guys to listen to it (August 6 is a good one), they might get some sort of appreciation of what they're needing to do. If you can't, you might at least find it a worthwhile resource for ideas you can borrow. Cheers.

Close Combat had a system where you could choose the meaning associated with the colour of the unit icon: C2, ammo, morale, cover. Any chance of something along these lines?

One over each shoulder. Twice the firepower - has to be good.

What the hell, I'll give it a go... Sounds like you have a good grasp of music theory. My advice is to have some fun - there is no way you're going to get this music to sound "good", "better" will have to do. Chord progressions through majors is going to sound naive: tractor music - patriotic and banal. Sells music in bulk, limited opportunity to evoke a somatic response any different from that you've experienced thousands of times before. Oasis & the Beatles made their money by taking this basis and (through genuine musical capability) fitting progressions through the minors back into the majors. Take a look at some Beethoven sonatas for a display of exquisite skill here. If this is this aim, then fine - take your line from that and write something naive: you'll probably do some real damage to your musical sensibilities, but hey, the challenge is the thing. You probably don't want to throw in dissonances but you might get away with some sort of rhythmic slides between the keys (call them accidentals or blame it on the ghost of the King). Use the lyrics to give you an idea of where you want the music to go: if it is all happy, upbeat, teens rule the world and stuff is good then you will be allowed one (1) wry smile/blank look/joke in the whole song. Best if you don't give the game away by putting it at the end. If the undertone is darker you'll be wanting to play at least one riff in some sort of minor key each verse, repeated for impact. You should be able to reach this compromise through the mere fact that it'll sound better. Mate, you have a hell of a job ahead: play a lead guitar line that reads like a base line or throw a trumpet voluntary over the top in the quiet spaces. I hope this makes sense and doesn't fade your enthusiasm.

Corporate fascism coming to its predictable middle game. The dominant philosophy (ref. PLM2's wretched understanding) believes it is possible to run a twenty-first century economy with a pre-AD political system - slavery. Well, it is, but don't expect the slaves to be quite as ignorant of their power as the corporate fascists are of theirs. There is the potential here to end up with another dark age and the problems aren't going to be solved with the current, stupifyingly bad leadership we're seeing. Anyone catch the news that the bullet found in the police radio has been ID'ed as police issue, most likely fired from an H&K MP5? It was the police who ID'ed it and announced it: they, at least, understand that telling more lies about the circumstances surrounding the shooting that ignited this ****fight isn't going to help anyone. Hold tight, things will calm down eventually (provided the dispute isn't escalated, deliberately or otherwise). We're going to see more and more of this, by the way.

Must be heaps of roos out there.

AT teams are the go for acquiring bazookas - in my experience other teams can't shoot the bloody things straight and you end up wasting the ammo.

There's always a big can of Milo back at base. You can have a sook about the fly-paste another time. Or did it stain your silk undies?

She stole his favourite camel and pawned the ring: beer is the antidote for his life.

That'd be against the ebb and with the flow then, Michael. Unless you really want to be swimming out to sea, in which case you'd be better waiting for the ebb and spend the flow paddling about in the shallows.

Wot you sayin', geez?

Endorphin release followed by a good night's sleep: makes sense Diesel.

Switzerland has compulsory national service and the option to take the weapon back to civilian life. More than a few of the deaths due to gunshot in Australia are due to police action. In both cases the suicide factor is significant.

Perhaps. Big-end of town crime has been ramping up over that same period (with outcomes that are only becoming measurable now; those outcomes were predictable way back) and the average joe's respect for the law is taking a beating as his face is being rubbed in something pretty smelly. People aren't starving in large numbers (yet) and the MSM is still managing to do its job in broadcasting the circuses - but we're a long way from looking forward to a secure and comfortable future. I'm not so much alarmed as very worried. With all good will, I hope I'm wrong.

If he hadn't had a pistol licence the cops wouldn't have shot him? Now there is a problem for the law abiding citizen.

To quote my grandfather - "You dug like your arse was on fire." I got the impression foxholes and trenches were pretty quickly constructed.

flamingknives: aaargh, shot myself in the foot there. Ok I need gun control, the rest of you might not.

Charlie, some factoids I might regard as relevant: - self immolation in front of a Hampshire County Court last month - Hillary Clinton citing "domestic requirements" for the repatriation of three division's worth of troops from Afghanistan - 44 million US citizens on food stamps at the same time as its political leadership is aiming at reducing its payments for social security and medical care, all the while continuing to spend on military adventures and propping up failed industries - the best armed citizenry in the world, seemingly sure of its right to do what it sees fit. History points to a rough time ahead: how rough it is is mostly up to us.

I think the idea behind having no death penalty in the UK and Australia is aimed more at the idea that it sends the message that killing is unnecessary, a waste, a crime. If this idea is promulgated throughout the society to the extent that it influences the behaviour of the majority of the populace (as laws are supposed to do), then the result is less killing, in terms of violent crime and state supported killings. There will always be law-breakers, no question. There will always be murders, again no question. The idea that you can reduce the harm, lead the society away from the escalation of violence that reduces the capability of the members of the society to co-exist peaceably (Mexico is a good case in point here, and the US might well be headed along the same path (no-one mention Israel, please)) is one that has to be held and put into practice by the leaders of the society: if they decide that killing people is the best or only solution, it is the solution they will look to. We are not so well endowed with natural resources on this mud-ball that we can afford the waste generated by war - we're now at the point where we have to recognise that the paradigm of profit based on wasteful consumption cannot lead to anything worth experiencing. The problems are big, the stakes are high - it is crunch time and we cannot afford to be found wanting for creative and appropriate solutions. As far as gun control goes, I haven't heard any arguments for it that stand well - they all devolve into a desire for control. Criminalise guns and only criminals will have guns: police and soldiers included. A gun is a powerful tool, we aren't going to be rid of them, better to be educated as to their appropriate use than to be at the wrong end of them. If a society can trust its members to use guns appropriately, it has ensured its survival to a greater extent: if it can't, it is in a precarious position and trying to ban guns isn't going to make things any better.