LOL at Coyote and I second that point.

Having been an argumentative basteward all my life, and no lover of authority, I have to say that I have only once even come close to a situation where a copper was going to open a can of whoop-arse on me. However, having said that even when pished I tend not to pick fights with anyone, rather chosing to make myself scarce when trouble kicks off for the following reason.

The exception was at a football match in the 70's when a major amount of trouble had kicked off and I got nicked a) for arguing, and b) as far as I can work out at the time, bleeding in a public place. In retrospect, I should not have gone in the well known "trouble" end, and when I did it would have been wise to be more than 10 paces from the away fans, when it did kick off I should have backed off rather than stand my ground, and having been properly sorted for my troubles, it would have been wise to do as I was told by an obviously exasperated and probably quite scared copper rather than argue with him. …… see how that pans out? At least 4 schoolboy errors back to back on my part equalled one arrest and a subsequent release without charge. I reckon continuing to gob off from that point would probably have moved me into the genreal taser zone had it existed then. And whose fault would it have been? 20 seconds on video would obviously make it the copper, but in the broader context definitely my own without any question in my mind.

Bottom line, why should the Police put up with being attacked without being able to defend themselves?

Having read a wee bit more about her, I can officially state that I do not like Ms Kennedy. And that is not withstanding the fact that she looks more like a scarey thing than a very scarey thing.

tails – Member
**** I hope they die

Yeah, but when they do whats the betting that you and I will be paying for the funeral??

Yeah or fred??? where are they eh?

Sorry mate, you've got me…. who is the low life then????

Wheres TJ When you need him??

Anyone fantacise about an ideal response? Mine would be to catch up to the Citroen Saxo/Vauxhall Corsa etc at the next lights hop off grab the sill and turn the fecker on its side……. I so really want to do that!

{correction} I so really want to be strong enough to do that!

Sod that ,lets see some water into wine, or some virgins created in Oldham!

Then you look at the parties that use the AK and its derivatives. They are typical either conscripts, or badly educated rebels/geurillas/terrorists. The AK is a rugged weapon. It takes a lot of abuse and still works. It shoots a lot of ammunition fast and each round hurts a lot. It's _not_ a precision weapon and is not supposed to be used in the same way. A well trained soldier can bring out the best in it, but that doesn't mean we should use it.

I think you'll find that the AK47 was designed during WW2 as the "ideal infantry weapon". It was cheap to manufacture, robust and VERY deadly, it has a number of formats. One of these is designed for infantry combat where the basic concept is to stick it round a corner of over a wall and let loose a hail of bullets. When they researched it they found that was what most infantry weapons are used for in battle. Few if any take aim carefully and draw down on the enemy and despacth them with one careful clinical shot. Most times they can't even see the opposition. The intital impetus was from the German machine pistol which was a devasatating infrantry weapon much coveted by their enemies.

Incidentally, on the subject of military kit, can anyone tell me why we bought the SA80? Every other bugger seems to be whapping the shite out of us with an AK47 and an RPG, which appear to me to be simple, highly effective and above all else cheap as chips. Am I missing something?? (Please no obvious responses, like "Marbles")

Can someone actually quantify what is the right/enough kit to do the job?

Surely the whole essence of warfare is that its a tactical arms race, with the winner being the one that out thinks and out manouveres its opponent the most. Thats is why conventional forces cannot deal with guerilla warfare, as the guerllias have little resource and little structure, therefore by their nature are fluid and ever changing. This as opposed to conventional forces with huge structures and massive amounts of capital equipment which are very difficult and expensive to change.

Can't really understand anyone being prat enough to get invovled in it, not like Afganhistans got previous we could learn from or anything!!

G – do you not think you over reacted slightly? I have posted this to try to show that I am not as you seem to see me. I like to get people to question their actions and words. there is IMO a subtle undercurrent of xenophobia on this site. Sometimes I like to challenge it.

Ha! I knew you'd bite eventually, So thats trolling right back at yer TJ :wink:

Actually I pretty much agree with what you say most of the time, but absolutely not the CESM thing. I do honestly believe that by constantly carping about these things you are missing the real point. There are national traits and people do conform to them. That though is not necessarily negative, nor is it so to enjoy some banter over it. Where things become a problem is where people do get serious about these issues, like for instance believing that Afro Carribeans are lazy, or prone to drug abuse or somethign equally stupid. Or to the contrary believing that becuase of some banter about CESM, that intelligent and articulate people actually believe that the French are collectively cowards. In terms of the French, the real story is that in the 20th century they have as a nation been quite clever at manipulating international politics to their own benefit, some might say wisely refusing to become involved in things that don't concern them, and perhaps wisely taking a non confrontational path in a situation where there was little they could do about their circumstances. Who knows how we would have been in the same situation.

In short, its better out than in, at least it can as you say be discussed and perhaps addressed that way. If its driven underground that will not resolve anything, presuming of course it needs resolving.

tails – Member

Chinese : Will bodge a solution rather than resolve a problem. Worst two words you can hear = No Problem!
you wouldn't call the olympic stadium a bodge, but they often build seats etc on the spot in a slap dash method or they will say add a cushion to a broken stool tie it with string bring it back to life.

Hmmm, I wouldn't mind betting that if you look behind the facade you would find agreat deal of bodging. A good example being a company that I've dealt with a great deal over the years in Shanghai. Went to their new head office building, which was a fabulous bespoke marble clad 30's art deco style edifice. When you went into the foyer it was impressive and very stylish. Into the lift, up onto the floor for the department I was dealing with, and so far so good, then walk into the general office and there is the department working sitting on tea chests and desks made out of planks over crates. Style over substance. Seen it 100's of times. Another example of what I mean being a door closer that I bought years ago. Had an oil leak problem, so we went back to them, and it was "no problem"….. next lot arrived and the same happened, so more heated exchanges, and it was "no problem" again and the process was repeated. When eventually out of frustration I had one in half with an angle grinder to investigate for myself, I found the source of the "no problem" problem. Their solution had been to add another oil seal to the main spindle evey time we had complained, so there it was 5 oil seals one after another and the thing was stil leaking. A flight to China later I got to the bottom of it. They were assembling the thing, spray painting it then baking it in an oven to cure the paint faster, so the oil inside was expanding and bursting the seals which in the meantime were perishing in the heat…. No Problem! I can repeat similar stories ad nauseum.

Anyway, one nationality I left out in my previous post. The Brits. Who seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Constant problem is price cutting negotiations followed immediately by complaints of "why haven't we got the rolls royce version?" type of thing. Very rarely do you find a situation where folk give a detailed specification of what they want prior to getting to price.

Oops sorry wrong thread, thought this was TJ on a mission ……

I routinely deal with the following and have listed the opinions I have formed of them :-

Chinese : Will bodge a solution rather than resolve a problem. Worst two words you can hear = No Problem!
Russian : Stern and formal and like a drink……. a lot!
French : Decent folk, but its a bit like dealing with a nationalised industry contantly.
Belgian : No real issues, pretty relaxed about most things.
Dutch : Good fun, so laid back that there is chance of falling over.
Italian : Bit loud and a bit bombastic, but great people once you stand up to it.
South African : Dour and quite agressive, bit behind the times.

If thats racial stereotyping then so be it, but those are in generality the things I've routinely come up against.

My post was 2 fold – one to try to make some folk think about the use of a stereotype of cowardly French in a joke which I believe to be unfunny.

The second point was it was simply trolling very funny to see how many people getting so indignant defending their right to use pejorative sterotypes because "its only a joke

I'm not totally sure what you do for a living, but I suspect its not neccessarily at the coal face of life so to speak, dealing with the rough and the ready on a personal and intimate basis. Basically your holier than thou politically correct attitude will do little good in most such situations, apart from pissing people off and getting up peoples backs. If you genuinely want to deal with underlying racism may I suggest that you reduce your "trolling" to a mere crescendo! You may get a better result, always assuming that is your objective.

TJ : You don't get it do you? I'm not speaking for anyone else at all, but personally I am sick of self appointed thought police telling me what I can and can't say/do/think. You don't know me any more than I know you, so what gives you the right to make some moral judgement about me or my behaviour?

For the record I am a well travelled 50 year old businessman, politically I consider myself to be a social democrat and therefore disenfranchised by the political system in this country. I am also an enthusiastic European citizen and fully supportive of a federal europe. I love the differences between the nation states and would strongly defend their right to their own national identity. Conversely, I am extremely disrespectful of the little Englander/Scotlander/Irish/Cornish/Welsh mentality, which I think is utterly xenophobic and counter productive. I would willingly take up arms in the defence of the human rights of others. I don't read any newspapers whatsoever, and I do my best to see the bigger picture in respect of all things.

I like women, sausages, beer, bikes, banter, and making bad jokes.

I do not like racism, or racism being used as a cudgel in social situations to berate other people.

I've alwasy found it to be quite offensive and wholly inaccurate.

Of course it is, thats because tongue in cheek insults always are, clearly the original piece is an intentional wind up on the part of the press and no doubt by other contributors. I have no doubt nobody on here believes the C E S M thing any more than the average CESM believes that yer average Brit is in fact Le Bouef Roti or is personnified by a few dozen football hooligans.

Anyway any update on American bases and Lend/Lease just out of interest ? :-)

Just out of interest, anyone know how many American bases there were on French soil post WW2? I know ours has lessened considerably since the repayment of Lend Lease was completed in/about 2005. Which reminds me did the French contribute to Lend/Lease??

Mines a pint of Spitfire ta

RE Leggyblonde: commetns above :

What ! cocked up our national defence, then expected our neighbours to come to our aid?? (Whilst colloborating with the invader)

Speaking anonymously to L'Equipe for fear of tactical reprisals by Cavendish and his Columbia team, the riders said they have just about had enough.

"Cavendish is racist, he's anti-French," said one rider. "He should be careful. We're not going to put up with his attitude much longer."

So thats being not man enough to stand up and be identified, and teeing the situation up so they can knock the guy down "accidentally" without being villifyed. Stinks like a C – E – S – Monkies Wifes armpit after an Onion peeling marathon In my humble opinion…. who does their tactical wind ups Alex Ferguson ???

Methinks we're getting to them!

Why thank you. :D

The trouble is that they get an evangelical belief in what they are doing. Personally as soon as I start hearing words like life changing I get up and leave.

General Advice if something looks, smells, and tastes like a fish its probably a fish. If it merely smells like a fish it is probably either a personal area, a fish or a scam. Although the deliverer of a scam can often been mistaken for a personal area, there are usually clues, like personal areas don't normally talk, and fish don't normally change your life.

Break it down into manageable segments, set yourself targets for those segments aimed at getting you through the 18 hour barrier, concentrate solely on the target you're on at the time and let the rest of the race worry about itself. Take it as steady as you can within that, and take great care to hydrate and feed properly especially when you really don't feel like it. Focus on why you're doing it and how much easier what your doing is than what your mates doing right now.

And remember pain is merely weakness leaving your body! 8O

By that token think how much weakness you're going to lose!

Good luck

Thanks for that Tim, you have considerably cheered a poor start to a crap day.

Please give her an extra hug on my behalf.

Hope it carries on for you both in this vein.

G

Very large amount – Withdraw and run fast

Not such a large amount – Return waving wistfully as it leaves your account

Tip Top Tickety Boo Telly IMHO

Methusalahs Dad actually!

Sorted ………

"I'm only taking myself seriously once today day"

I see your point… reconsidering now

Firstly : Total Respect to Grumm. Very cool stuff indeedy.

Secondly :

What a truly edifying thread Dez, STW at it's finest.

We seem to lurch wildly between revelling in the narcissism of small differences and a sort of vanilla-nazi insistence that any preference is wholly heretical. Woe betide he who judges the tide of opinion wrongly.

Spot on BD. Thats the point really, so how about a Lets not take ourselves too Seriously day??

Oh yes excellent!

Its about offending and offended and offering offence by being offended and bugger that ….. I want to know how grumm got on at Megavlanche… and remember this thread is nothing without pictures young man…

<sits back expectantly with arms folded>

breakneckspeed – Member
The mere fact that he was carrying an effigy of the Qur’an would cause immense offence to the Muslim community as it is see as the word of god in a very literal sense – it is enough of an insult for a non Muslim to handle it – let alone appear to mock it

That being the case do they do taster sessions anywhere when you can find out more in case you might like to become one? I'm pretty sure I don't, because from what I hear the benefits package is not that great, but I can't really make my mind up without having a squint at the rule book first.

Can somebody actually explain where the offence is in this guys actions? As always if his intent was to offend, I can think of plenty of far more offensive things to dress as. If it wasn't then who precisely has been offended and why?

So what about if he didn't do this, but worked for a local authority in a racially sensitive post, and was subsequently found on Facebook to be a member of the BNP? Far more offensive in my book, and probably not something they could do much about. Given that it is a legal political party with MEP's and the like.

Absolute arse the whole thing!

PS: We've had two, first was a pretty normal hospital/natural birth kind of thing, 2nd came at home and was delivered by muggins here. Very scarey and not something I'd want to do again! Personally huge respect to the girlies, agreed that it wouldn't be something I'd want to go through.

There are a number of issues around child birth that I wonder about….

1) How do they know when its due? Is there some sort of clock on the womb that says at 2:30 on Friday 27th October you will go into labour?
2) Why do they artificially induce labour?
3) Why administer muscle relaxants, (pain killers) making delivery more difficult and caesarean more likely.
4) Why is it that every time you got to a maternity hospital everything that was good practice last time has been changed.
5) Why are there never enough mid wives on duty
6) Are any of the above to do with managing resources rather than caring for patients?
7) Finally, the big one which is why when you attend a birth, does you partner a) claw your arm, b) hold you hand in a grip that would make Hulk Hogan wince c) abuse you roundly and threaten you with castration?

No real issues, just things I have wondered about over the years

A case of Pot Kettle Black Syndrome I believe. Probably rushing home for his EPO booster.

At the risk of staing the obvious :-

Barking mad?

PMSL ? (Pissed My Self Looking – obviously)

This bit made me roll about :

If the dog was going to follow the owner's scent it would be from something they wore, like a jumper. Unless they have an incontinence problem."

Slightly droll vet ??

CG: Totally agree with your point, however trying to organise Mountain Bikers is a lot like herding cats.

You will find that pretty mcuh every forest in the country now has an FC sponsored riding/trail building group attached to it, and many areas are finding that the increased volume of riders are causing groups to become an essential feature of the riding scene in a way that hasn't really happened previously. Many of those will affiliate to various things for various reasons, including insurance. At the moment you tend to be funneled towards British Cycling as they are perceived to be the sports national body… (yeah right !), even though they do little for MTB and offer the average rider nothing whatsoever. CTC with the relatively recent influence of Ian Warby are looking very active on the MTB front and their recent acquisition of OTC training and their hook ups with the FC for training in respect of Trail building and inspection is taking them to a new level in MTB, but at this time pressure groups nationwide don't really exist. However, its only a matter of time IMHO and the sooner the better frankly.