Verbal

3. If dune were running the country it would be called Albania.

Calm down johnny, it's not hypocrisy at all - just rational peer pressure. Just as many in the Asian community act by standing apart from and condemning Choudhury's brainless, attention-seeking loopiness, so do we with dune. We are dune's Asian community.

Tarantino typically uses pre-recorded music. John Powell is at the top of his game right now (Bourne). Carter Burwell can do brilliant stuff (Coens). And Cliff Martinez (Soderbergh) delivers. But all of them and more owe a debt of one kind or another to Nino Rota (Godfather, but also the films of Fellini, Zefferelli, Visconti)

You've missed the big picture trousers. This could be the biggest bellend balls up of all. Turning the police into trade union militants just at the time that poll tax-scale rebellion is going to start to build is asking for the mother of all trouble. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2011/mar/08/police-cuts-ministers

Short drop?

'Kick the bucket' comes from an old technique way of executing people in Britain in the Middle Ages called the 'short drop' It was an early form of public hanging, where the intention was to cause as much pain and distress as possible to the victim. He/she was stood on a bucket, the noose put around the neck, and the bucket kicked away. Because the drop to the ground was so short, the neck wasn't broken, and the victim slowly suffocated to death. To cover the extreme and frightening facial contortions during this ordeal, masks had to be introduced. Makes you proud to be British.

I'm more sad than shocked. trousers is with the swivelly eyes now. He is beyond saving.

And the latest from the bellend newsdesk: the Cameron cuts are about to provoke an outbreak of mass protest from... ...the police. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/08/police-protest-march-pay-cuts Maybe we should get the students to kettle them.

Yeah, skip that. Sometimes the need to post is somewhat in advance of an actual idea.

Well put, but you know you have no chance now that trousers has gone and quoted Churchill.

If you only read this thread, Nick, you'll see that's exactly what they do.

I'm impressed. You've managed it to the 80s.

Ah, so I imagined all the garbage about how a lisp makes someone unelectable, did I? Or was that the point you're making by trying to talk with your tongue in your cheek?

Well done. Choudhury's got you jumping through his hoops, just as he wanted to. He know perfectly well that there's a knee-jerk fraternity just waiting to react with apoplectic incoherence. It's what he wants: swivel-eyed rage, blaming all Asians for the deliberately provocative nonsense of people like Choudhury and Hassan Bhutt. He knows that violent thoughts will eventually turn into violence itself, and polarise people still further. He gets a kick out of manipulating the gullible on both sides of the 'argument'.

Which is quite a useful demonstration of how public reporting of infractions can work. At least it might stop the victim mentality. I'm a little agnostic on it, to be honest. A bit of give and take around the rules is desirable, i'd have thought.

If you quote my 'non-story' (how funny it is to see that you and dune could be arbiters of that), then it's reasonable to assume that you're relating your point to the quote. Anyway, let's get backing to laughing at Cameron.

What? I don't understand what that expensive waste of space Andrew has got to do with a no-fly zone. And secondly, the Americans were planning a no-fly zone way before Cameron. What they resented was this utter bellend rushing in, a la Blair, and stealing the credit for something that he wouldn't foot any but a fraction of the bill for.

Today's bellend political news: Now Cameron is furiously back pedalling after his new spin doctor briefed against 'Prince' Andrew.

Hague and Cameron have turned Johnny English into a documentary.

You're doing exactly what he wants you to do. Don't be manipulated by a monumental wind-up merchant.

Strange that no one here has mentioned the obvious - that Sheen is having a very public mental breakdown. I hope this circus does not end badly.

I think there's a compelling argument in this for keeping infractions private. Sadly, the problem is a wider one of perceived fairness. When Deppo was briefly banned, dune sailed on regardless - and yet EVERYONE knows he's been banned before and has been allowed for no obvious reason to breach rules which apply to others. It was the same thing with Nineteen Canteen et al. He even boasted to several of us by PM that he had re-emerged in about five different guises - all known to Admin. If there were a clear argument that justifies this, the clamour for making infractions public would probably go away.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/charlie-sheen-fired-from-two-and-a-half-men/?emc=na

And now he's been fired. The future of the show will be decided by Warners 'at a later date'. Hmm.

Unfortunately, the simple fact is it was your post rather than Deppo's that took this thread off topic. There is a serious argument to be made for making infractions public, but why do it here?