Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Only two minutes each. You haven't got the whole play three times

FFS.

Bit pre-occupied right now, but remind me to relate the story of a voluptuos young lady of my then acquaintance, my less than admirable designs on her, (I did not have hill walking in mind), & a trip to the Royal Theatre, Stratford, to watch some Shakespeare comedy bollox.

What a bloody nightmare.   

[tikay]

RE MH370 . . . .

As a sane, level headed guy, do you believe there is even a remote chance that it didn't just fly until the fuel ran out and ditch into the sea never to be seen again?

I believe that is exactly what happened. Even so, there needed to be a reason.

So many oddities, too.

If it ran out of fuel at regular cruising altitude, say 30,000 feet, it would not impact the sea gently on a controlled glide path, it would hit the water with enormous force, & in doing so, at least some of the thing would break up. And that would produce pieces of floating wreckage. None, not one piece, has been found.

If it had a controlled landing on the surface of the sea, a'la that River Hudson miracle landing, then it needed someone able & conscious to pilot it. If they were all unconscious for some reason, aspxyation, depressurisation or whatever, it could not land in a controlled manner. 

It is hard to imagine it crashed so gently that it just gently sunk to the bottom of the sea, completely undamaged. 

I feel a little ghoulish, being so fascinated by it, as nearly 300 poor souls presumably perished, but I can't hep thinking about it. Not many greater or more intriguing mysteries have occurred in my entire life.

[vegaslover]

How many brags in one post?

Should have added that I played 46 DYM's last night, took me 4 hours, & the end result was a £14.70 LOSS. 

I even lose money slowly these days.

Stars has recently been blocked by the firewall at work, so I played some DYM on sky for the first time in years ( they were the only sitngo's running in the night.

Can see why your punters moan the site is rigged. Of course it isn't but the play was very 'erm 'unusual'. Plenty of lol get there's. Not complaining mind, found a new income booster

[RED-DOG]

I discovered, quite by accident, that a turn of phrase I often use "Once more into the breach" is in fact one of Mr Shakespeare's ditties. And it is "unto" not "into".

So I looked it up, & some of it is really rather good.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
 Or close the wall up with our English dead.
 Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
 Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
 Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
 Let pry through the portage of the head
 Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
 As fearfully as doth a galled rock
 O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
 Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
 Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
 Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
 To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
 Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
 Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
 Have in these parts from morn till even fought
 And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
 Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
 That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
 Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
 And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
 Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
 The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
 That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
 For there is none of you so mean and base,
 That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
 I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
 Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
 Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
 Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

I mean, this bit is actually not bad......


In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
 As modest stillness and humility:
 But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
 Then imitate the action of the tiger;

We can all empathise with that. It makes sense, for starters.

But then it gets all bloody fill & puff.

As fearfully as doth a galled rock
 O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
 Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
I mean, what the hell is that all about?

He should have stopped after Line 4.  Did he get paid by the word?

Gotta go, I've got some galled rocks to doth.

I know you only do it to wind me up.

[Woodsey]

The BBC do a pic of the week section, week ending 5 aug it's on Railways, you should send a pic in. I sent one in for a laugh 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-10768282

[Karabiner]

Did you manage to read that article that I linked this morning?

I know it was long but I found it a compelling read and even-handed too.

Your thoughts?

[redarmi]

Did you manage to read that article that I linked this morning?

I know it was long but I found it a compelling read and even-handed too.

Your thoughts?

Thanks for linking to that Ralph.  It really is well written and argued and, to an extent, has probably changed my view on the conflict although I am still not sure the latest incursions into Gaza are really justified but I am certainly less sure than I was before.

[Doobs]

Did you manage to read that article that I linked this morning?

I know it was long but I found it a compelling read and even-handed too.

Your thoughts?

Thanks for linking to that Ralph.  It really is well written and argued and, to an extent, has probably changed my view on the conflict although I am still not sure the latest incursions into Gaza are really justified but I am certainly less sure than I was before.

I spat my coffee out when I read that the rest of the World has shown itself eager to murder the Jews at almost every opportunity.  I had to reread it to make sure he really did say that.  I have worked with several Jews (and Muslims) over the years and managed to resist taking a kitchen knife into work without too much difficulty up to this point.   Once you start saying things like this then I am not going to believe for one second you are presenting a balanced argument at all. 

Some individuals may wish to kill Jews, but it certainly isn't the rest of the World or even most of the people in the Muslim World. 

Then we get to the bit where Israel is surrounded by people who want to commit genocide on them.  Whilst I can half believe it of some elements in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, but even then it is never going to be a majority view, and I struggle to see how you can extend it to Jordan.  You'd also struggle to convince me that your average Egyptian has designs on murdering  hundreds of Jews.  Even in Gaza I expect most people just want to live a normal life and very few would really consider donning a suicide vest. 

Then we get a couple of paragraphs detailing the use of human shields. Though I am sure it occasionally happens, you aren't going to find many documented examples. It just seems like the work of one side's PR machine.  We wouldn't kill so many civilliabs if they didn't use them as human shields.  It can't just be kids living with their families or just those in the wrong place at the wrong time?  No the justification is frequently the much more unlikely "human shield" story this time round.   I accept that Hamas do launch rockets from crowded areas, but a lot of that is the result of living on crowded areas and due to the imbalance of each side's war machine, rather than a policy to use human shields.

Then we hear how Muslim's don't condemn ISIS, well I don't know of a single one who isn't horrified by them, and the developing refugee problem in Iraq and Syria doesn't suggest mass support even on their strongholds.  If I lived in Iraq, then it would seem odd that people elsewhere would believe I was more concerned with possible Israeli war crimes than with the territory captured by ISIS.   And nothing either side is doing in Israel seems to come close to their modus operandi. 

I really don't want to take sides, but this has been posted twice now here.   I just wanted to point out this article is much more unbalanced than it purports to be.   

I personally find both sides pretty reprehensible in all of this.  If it isn't clear above, I think firing rockets at Israel seems a long way away from the best thing Hamas could do for their own people.   It is wrong as a long term strategy to bring abou a better life for your people, and much worse for those who happen to be In close proximity.  I am sure they are a whole lost of things that Palestinians have done recently I can happily condemn too (sure I read somewhere the other day an arms cache had been found in a school for instance).  But no amount of idiocy on either side seems enough to jusify the other sides actions here and I just wish people would stop trying to justify them.

[Woodsey]

I take no sides in any of this stuff, in fact I'm sick of hearing about it to be honest. However what really irked me last week was cycling past the BBC building in Nottingham down by the canal, there was a very large and vocal group of Palestinians chanting and protesting about 'BBC bias against Palestine'. Now I don't know if they really had a case or not as all I hear is blame and counter blame from both sides, but it struck me what a fucking cheek it was to have a country be good enough to accept you in to live here and then have the gall to protest against their media.

If I ever lived in another country that were kind enough to accept me I would never protest against their media, they are just ungrateful idiots imo.

[redarmi]

I can see your argument that there are some sweeping generalisations and I am by no stretch of the imagination an apologist for Israel's actions (the opposite if anything) but the unthinking support for Palestinians in general by many on the left completely ignores the most extreme elements in that society that perpetuate the violence and have no interest in dialogue and compromise.  I think what disgusts many, and leads to that anti Israel rhetoric is that Israel clearly have more power in the relationship and with that people expect a certain amount of responsibility and restraint but ignores the extreme provocation that they face on an almost daily basis.  I think the author of the piece does a good job of trying not to generalise and added notes to try to be clear.  I think it is so easy (and certainly a mistake I have made) to buy into the narrative that Hamas are repressed freedom fighters whilst Israel are the wicked imperialists but the reality is much more complicated than that.

[rfgqqabc]

I take no sides in any of this stuff, in fact I'm sick of hearing about it to be honest. However what really irked me last week was cycling past the BBC building in Nottingham down by the canal, there was a very large and vocal group of Palestinians chanting and protesting about 'BBC bias against Palestine'. Now I don't know if they really had a case or not as all I hear is blame and counter blame from both sides, but it struck me what a fucking cheek it was to have a country be good enough to accept you in to live here and then have the gall to protest against their media.

If I ever lived in another country that were kind enough to accept me I would never protest against their media, they are just ungrateful idiots imo.

Your kidding right? Freedom of expression is one reason they came here. If they think the media is biased, let them protest, whats the big deal. Hardly a country good enough to accept people with that sort of attitude. Just seeing the words having the gall to protest makes my blood boil.

[celtic]

Have to agree with Adam.

Ps. It's not only the Palestinians that think they bbc are biased.

[Jon MW]

...  I think what disgusts many, and leads to that anti Israel rhetoric is that Israel clearly have more power in the relationship and with that people expect a certain amount of responsibility and restraint but ignores the extreme provocation that they face on an almost daily basis.  I think the author of the piece does a good job of trying not to generalise and added notes to try to be clear.  I think it is so easy (and certainly a mistake I have made) to buy into the narrative that Hamas are repressed freedom fighters whilst Israel are the wicked imperialists but the reality is much more complicated than that.

I think the notes were very telling. The transcript without the added notes came across as massively one-sided and biased - and that is how people who originally heard the broadcast would have received it. I think it demonstrates that the most intelligent people can present a more balanced argument when they think about it, but that their views in general are so entrenched towards one side or the other that it really has to take that extra moment of reflection to really manage it. And, just as was pointed out before, it's still pretty biased even with that added balance.

Proportionality is the key - where the balance lies is the hard part, but I think there's a pretty solid consensus that it isn't the current status quo.


EDIT: I think the problem is that people want a 'good guy' and a 'bad guy' - it gets much harder when both sides are a bit of both.

[Woodsey]

I take no sides in any of this stuff, in fact I'm sick of hearing about it to be honest. However what really irked me last week was cycling past the BBC building in Nottingham down by the canal, there was a very large and vocal group of Palestinians chanting and protesting about 'BBC bias against Palestine'. Now I don't know if they really had a case or not as all I hear is blame and counter blame from both sides, but it struck me what a fucking cheek it was to have a country be good enough to accept you in to live here and then have the gall to protest against their media.

If I ever lived in another country that were kind enough to accept me I would never protest against their media, they are just ungrateful idiots imo.

Your kidding right? Freedom of expression is one reason they came here. If they think the media is biased, let them protest, whats the big deal. Hardly a country good enough to accept people with that sort of attitude. Just seeing the words having the gall to protest makes my blood boil.

No I'm not kidding, I would never do that in a country that was good enough to host me,

[RED-DOG]

I take no sides in any of this stuff, in fact I'm sick of hearing about it to be honest. However what really irked me last week was cycling past the BBC building in Nottingham down by the canal, there was a very large and vocal group of Palestinians chanting and protesting about 'BBC bias against Palestine'. Now I don't know if they really had a case or not as all I hear is blame and counter blame from both sides, but it struck me what a fucking cheek it was to have a country be good enough to accept you in to live here and then have the gall to protest against their media.

If I ever lived in another country that were kind enough to accept me I would never protest against their media, they are just ungrateful idiots imo.

Your kidding right? Freedom of expression is one reason they came here. If they think the media is biased, let them protest, whats the big deal. Hardly a country good enough to accept people with that sort of attitude. Just seeing the words having the gall to protest makes my blood boil.

No I'm not kidding, I would never do that in a country that was good enough to host me,

So let me get this straight. You're saying that Brits should have the right to protest and free speech, but immigrants shouldn't?