Sheaf Saint

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14322449.stm Good news I reckon. I know these kind of things tend to even themselves out, but the repercussions for a club when a ref / linesman gets it wrong can be devastating. Wasn't it Bolton who ended up getting relegated due to a perfectly good goal being disallowed back in the 90s? One aspect of this article confuses me slightly though... Given FIFA's current credibility and the English FA's recent boycott of the presidential vote, why the hell should we wait for permission from an inept and most-likely corrupt organisation? If the FA want to introduce it then I don't see any reason why they couldn't just go ahead without FIFA's blessing.

The only potential racist comment I have seen is from TDD referring to them as 'Gypos', although he appears to be in your camp of trying to get a rise out of the Liberal Elite ™ on the issue. You will need to improve on your trolling skills in this case methinks.

This would be a half-decent attempt to get a rise were it not for one important point dune: that this thread is about a single group of Irish travellers who have pitched up in Hedge End. Nobody has mentioned Romany Gypsies. five out of ten for trying though.

True, and it would be quite arrogant of me to claim that none exists purely because I have never seen it. But I have made a point of reading as much as I can about the Afghan situation, as it is literally history in the making and it interests me greatly. So as neither I nor Verbal, whom I know from previous discussions has extensive first-hand experience of the region, are aware of any intelligence which indicates that the Afghan Taleban are training Jihadis for martyrdom in the west, I would be very interested to know what information you have which contradicts the general consensus, and I will happily be proved wrong.

I thought Barnsley were the dingles? they are called that round this part of Yorkshire anyway.

So many things wrong with your assertions here I'm afraid stu0x. Firstly, as Verbal rightly points out, there is no evidence at all that the Afghan Taleban are engaged in training martyrs and suicide bombers to attack western countries. That is not, and never has been, their aim. All the Taleban ever wanted was to rule over a pure Islamic state where people would be forced under threat of execution to follow their fundamentalist ideology. The only connection they have to Al-Qaeda is that they (or rather, Mullah Omar personally) decided to grant asylum to AQ and Bin Laden when they were looking for a safe haven to hide from the Americans in the aftermath of 9/11. This decision was made because they share similar religious doctrine, but they did not share AQ's agenda of taking the holy war to the western world. It was a decision they very soon regretted when they realised that the Americans would attack anyway, and there were attempts to distance themselves from AQ during the build-up to the invasion. Were the Taleban ever to regain full governmental control of the country, given the events of the last ten years, do you really think they would be so stupid as to invite Al-Qaeda back into the country? The Americans have used the decade-long conflict as an excuse to establish permanent military bases in surrounding countries such as Uzbekistan, and would not think twice about launching attacks if they thought for one moment that Al-Qaeda had resumed their training camps in Afghanistan. There is an excellent book published around 2008, the title of which I must confess to paraphrasing in my original post, called Descent Into Chaos by Ahmed Rashid. It is a lengthy and slow-going book but worthwhile as it is very informative, not just about the recent political history of Afghanistan and Pakistan, but it also gives a fascinating insight into the tribal mindset of the various different peoples inhabiting the region.

Because it highlights the disparity in our British culture where fame and excess is celebrated and lauded upon by the press, whilst far more important issues are largely ignored.

It's a very sad state of affairs isn't it.

It occurs to me that her tragic early death is what the media wanted all along, and that is why they gave her so much attention when nobody else really gave a damn. She was a wonderfully talented singer/songwriter, I will admit, but was she really worthy of the amount of press attention that she received? I think not. All the tabloid media saw was a train-wreck about to happen, and they wanted to be there at the moment of impact so they could present their own world exclusive. Gingeletiss's point (about the disproportionate amount of press coverage her untimely demise has generated in comparison to the deaths of British soldiers killed on active duty, ostensibly defending our nation from the vastly over-exaggerated threat of terrorism) is a salient one IMO. The Mirror have run with the Winehouse story on their front page for the last four days in succession, and The Sun even had an 8-page commemorative pullout section about her the other day for pity's sake. Why should the death of a singer, talented or otherwise, be the focus of such huge front-page headlines when the story of a soldier KIA is barely even mentioned any more?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14304650 What with the recent assassination of Ahmad Wali Karzai as well, isn't it time that our leaders faced up to the inevitable in Afghanistan: That no matter how long our troops remain there, the local security forces will never have full control of the country. Anybody with even the slightest knowledge of Afghanistan's history will surely be aware that there is just no way that a western-style democracy will ever work in a land that has for centuries been ruled by tribal warlords. The five main tribal groups will always be at each others' throats and no amount of engagement with the population by what they see as a foreign occupation will ever change that. Whether we pull out by 2015, as has been mooted, or we pull out now, the net result will be the same and the country will just descend into chaos again as soon as the we depart. Therefore, surely it is completely senseless to continue to risk the lives of our armed forces on what is a hiding to nothing.

So, one of the excuses being bandied around for the poor growth of the UK economy over the last quarter is the royal wedding in april. Kind of p155es on the bonfire of those who claimed that the extra tourism revenue it would generate justifies the continued public financial support for the royals doesn't it.

I went on one of those once in a lifetime holidays recently... Never again!

No, but you can roll it in glitter

Madness' version of It Must Be Love piddles all over Labi Siffre's original.

How about UB40's entire career?

I truly loathe this man. His right-wing views were considered too extreme even for Fox News for pity's sake - why does he still get airtime!? It seems he is almost as much of a hypocrite as Arsene Wenger as well. Just have a quick read of these two snippets from that article...

Now there's a surprise!

Although I never truly liked Ben Elton as a comedian, I must doff my cap to him for co-writing one of the funniest TV shows ever broadcast: Blackadder.

That is truly horrific. They both deserve to die a slow and painful death for this act of sacrilege!

Total agreement mate. Last week I forgot to take my headphones to the gym so I was forced to listen to the utter garbage that was playing on the PA and accompanying the videos on the large screens. I really felt sorry for today's kids knowing that this is the crap they are being force-fed by the record industry. One of the terrible things I saw/heard was a guy 'singing' (obviously auto-tuned... why do people actually think that sounds good!?) a dodgy version of The Banana-boat Song over the top of the backing track to Robin S's Show Me Love. It was painful to listen to. Can nobody come up with anything original any more!?

So if they don't like Athletico, and they don't like Bilbao, just what the hell do they call themselves!?!?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swKhPHzPIoU

There is an awful lot of assumption on this thread, considering the cause of death is not yet known.

Drink it cold then!

Just say neigh