Verbal

That's the spirit.

How odd he couldn't find you. Wouldn't you stick out like the proverbial sore thumb?

I think my prediction was correct, your Saintliness. As will be my prediction that the club will be in admin by 31 Jan. One is as certain as the other.

...and on to page 100...

I'd rather they had lifelongskate as chairman with tommac as his troubleshooter.

The reason Pompey may well pay their players and staff today is that the club has been given a special dispensation to receive transfer funds early. I suppose they're just waiting nd hoping that flogging off all they can raises enough short term cash.

My brother was on Conqueror, just before the Falklands. Missed out on a small piece of fame.

I think I'd take bank robbers over iveadinnerjacket any day.

Ah, the wisdom of a Daily Mail hack - and I'm sure you're right that Saintsweb has wound the jackass up to such idiotic invective (?!) If you want a truly sensational Daily Mail story about a hanging that wasn't, watch this - an incident in Iran today, when a public hanging was disrupted by protesters who cut the sentenced men down from the gallows. Of course, being Iran - so like China in its crude, boot-stamping-on-your-face viciousness - it didn't end well. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1239251/The-moment-Iranian-protesters-cut-prisoners-gallows.html

IQ isn't related to mental illness necessarily. The best example of the opposite is John Nash, the brilliant mathematician whose story was told in A Beautiful Mind. (Actually, come to think of it, Nash's story is a very useful illustration for those who have difficulty in imagining the effects of mental illness) Low IQ is however strongly correlated with poverty. Even conservative American thinkers like Charles Murray (co-author of The Bell curve) would accept that.

The quoting system seems to have gone a bit funny - the first of your quotes was from ESB, not me (just to be clear). In any case, yes, you're right - just imagine the death toll without that ruling. Following that Surpreme Court judgement, at least one state have given up on the death penalty altogether - New Mexico (incidentally, about the poorest state in the Union).

In no fair legal system that I know of would legal judgements - especially those with such finality - EVER be taken without professional psychological reports, where there was even a hint of mental illness. In the US, for example, as a result of a supreme Court ruling in 2002, you're not allowed to execute ANYONE with an IQ below 70.

No what? You don't understand the distinction between psychological and physical impairment?

That's why judgements about the state of someone's mind are made by professional psychologists and not posters on a football fans' message board.

How on earth is that an answer to my question? But since you ask, I would say there is clearly, in any rational jurisdiction, a 'reasonable doubt' about the state of Shaikh's mind. And if you bother to read the article that BTF linked to, you'll see why. Now try answering my question.

What?

I've read this statement of your several times, and it makes less sense with every reading. I can only assume you don't understand the difference between psychological and physical impairment - or have somehow drifted through life without ever encountering the reality of psychological illness in others.

This 'not knowing right from wrong' nonsense is an idiotic American import. It's a phrase trotted out in courts whenever psychiatric evaluation is involved, and it forces psychiatrists and psychologists to talk about the huge complexities of psychological dysfunction in ways that make no scientific sense. I know of people who are acutely moral and impeccably 'correct' in their conduct with others, and yet suffer from conditions like paranoid schizophrenia or manic depression, or have varying forms of brain damage. It seems from reports about events leading up to his arrest that he was conned into thinking he was going to be made into a pop star by a dealer who saw an opportunity. From that, it's unlikely Shaikh thought he was doing anything wrong. Deluded, yes - but then that's hardly surprising. Acting immorally? Well, the Chinese didn't even bother to ask.

As they did at the last Olympics. Remember the torch fiasco?

The only short-term solution for Pompey, as far as I can see, is for them to go public about the truth about Gaydamak - that it's Gaydamak senior who was always the real controlling power at the club. Since he is a fugitive from justice, and his assets are frozen, it's the only way the club can avoid a disastrous repayment due shortly. Of course, it's far from their only debt due for imminent repayment - but it might help. In any case, it's extremely unlikely to happen, because the Gaydamaks may not own the club, but seem to retain their placemen within the boardroom.

That is truly damning, BTF. The trail of mental disintegration clearly extends back many years, and was well known to the authorities. The scandal, though, is that the Chinese broke their own laws in refusing to accept evidence of his mental state. It's clear that he was executed, in the end, to save face - just as Liu Xiaobo (an American citizen who relocated back to China) had to be sentenced to 11 years' hard labour to save face in response to US protests at his arrest for writing a pamphlet calling for greater individual freedoms. Chinese governments have a history of barbarism. Evidently, it is not about to change.

China is pleased to announce that it pumped several bullets into the body of a mentally ill man at 2.30am GMT. after a judicial hearing held under the same rules that last week convicted Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo to eleven years of hard labour for daring to write a manifesto demanding greater freedom of speech. Truly a sick government.

31 Jan, at the latest.

Exactly.

Found any of those 'loads of books' yet?