anothersaintinsouthsea

Haha, I lived there in 2003, nice area........

Sometimes you just can't make your mind over whether some posters take a fiendish joy from playing a trolling devil's advocate, or simply stupid. When it comes to religion you just cannot argue or debate with "people of faith". There is absolutely no point in trying to employ reason, logic, and facts because their belief system is just completely devoid of all three. What makes it worse is that they are so used to their religious beliefs being unchallenged that now that criticism and challenge is much more prominent they cry foul and moan about "militant atheism" - certainly the current "aggressive atheism" is much more preferable to the aggresive religious violence of Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestinian, Kashmir etc etc. I echo the view of an earlier poster - in thousands of years our decendents will be incredulous that so many educated people could cling on to such rubbish.

You think being Gay is a lifestyle choice? lolololol

What's your point? Why does it matter how many priests there are? I'm guessing there are hundreds of thousands around the world, the vast majority of which are good honest people. So what? I take issue with the fact that the Catholic Church covered up many, many instances of child rape and protected those priests from justice.

Thing is RobskII, even someone like Richard Dawkins says that he is only 99.9% sure there is no God. Atheism literally means the absence of belief in a deity. So agnostics are still atheist but are probably just a bit more willing to be persuaded otherwise. On a slightly different note there seems to be a misconception that Nazis were atheists, and indeed some even try to make out that the crimes they committed were in the name of atheism. While Hitler's religious views are in many ways confused he was specifically against state atheism.

And you're happy with that? I would have thought that the Tories would be a bit too commie for your tastes.

Haha, must be the same in Portsmouth - I run a youth football team, Pompey shirted nippers are massively outnumbered by Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool at training.

What a rediculous response, the second half of your sentance is just irrelevant to anything I've said. You mention a billion catholics - I'm not talking about a billion catholics, I'm talking about Catholic priests. Stop trying to make out that I'm attacking all catholics. Of course there will be bad apples in any organisation but we're talking about systematic covering up of child rape over many decades, throught the organisation - and Ratzinger was part of it.

IMO anyone who believes that world was created by God in seven days around 6,000 years ago is not intelligent.

The Pope helped protect perverts who had raped children. Let's be clear. He, and many other senior figures in his organisation, protected CHILD RAPISTS. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8587082.stm http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23369148-pope-led-cover-up-of-child-abuse-by-priests.do

Totally agree, I'm still traumatised by the "we've turned a corner" articles that popped up every couple of weeks in the Premiership relegation season.

Haha, Moyles knows nothing about football.

This may well be true from the point of view of the military at the sharp end but given that we went to war in Iraq on incredibly flimsy evidence would suggest that the decision makers didn't go into enormous detail and effort to minimise civilian lives.

I never said the 9/11 wasn't a catalyst. It was just the pre-text that the neo-cons wanted. On your last point any links between Iraq and Al Qaeda were massively overblown. 2008 Senate Report "Statements and implications by the President and Secretary of State suggesting that Iraq and al-Qa'ida had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al-Qa'ida with weapons training, were not substantiated by the intelligence." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein_and_al-Qaeda_link_allegations

1 - You can't start an illegal war, bomb heavily populated areas and create the conditions for terrorism and then just say that civilian deaths were "by accident". That's just a massive cop out. True Bush and Blair didn't set out to kill innocent people as an aim in itself - unlike the 9/11 terrorists - but they were seen as an acceptable means to their ends. 2 - 9/11 was the event that started it off? What did Iraq have to do with 9/11? Absolutely nothing.

Well that sounds like an awesome trip but are you saying that you've only got 5 days in total? You might be biting off a bit more than you can chew and only get a tiny glimpse of what's on offer - if you've only got a little time maybe cut it down to 2 or 3. I know Berlin and Hamburg pretty well having visited both several times. Berlin is packed full of interesting things to see you are interested in WWII/COld War history but is really quite spread out so you need to be prepared to do a bit of walking. The checkpoint Charlie museum is a definite as is the walk from Alexander Platz (TV tower) to Brandenburg Gate - you pass unloved communist era staues to Marx/Engels etc, the tomb of the unknown soldier, and the square where the Nazis burned books. Within walking distance of the Brandenburg gate is the Reichstag, the Soviet War memorial, the Holocaust Memorial and a musuem focusing upon the terror inflicted by the Gestapo. You can also do stuff like tours of Nuclear shelters plus there is there is also the Olympic Stadium with Jesse Owens and all that. As far as nightlife goes I'm not too clued up as we were more in sight-seeing mode and it was during the world cup so we just went to the Fans Mile. I'd suggest getting some pointers from the internet/guide books on the best places to go out as it isn't that obvious where the good places to go are. Hamburg is a brilliant night out. The reeperbahn is well stocked with pubs, kareoke bars, clubs, strip clubs and whore houses. Despite the obvious sleeze there is actually a very mixed crowd in the pubs and clubs and there seemed to be a distinct lack of idiots with a bad attitude. You can wander around the whore houses - "Laffhaus" - even if you're not buying and chat to the birds - or negotiate if you are. If you can visit on the weekend then I'd suggest doing that as it will definitely be more lively. Hamburg also has the Cavern Club where the Beatles did numerous gigs before they made it. Obviously there are good places to go away from the reeperbahn. Both cities have tonnes of cheap accommodation that is centrally located and there will be plenty near the main train stations you'll be using. My only other tip isn't specific to any particular place but it is to get into the continental way of doing things which means taking it easy during the early evening and not getting ****ed too early. City centre bars don't really get going until midnightish and if you lager up in true brit style you'll be back in the hotel just as it gets going.

You are a knob.

"if he's a druggy" WTF is that supposed to mean? so what if enjoys a line of coke? I couldn't give two ****s. As if the journos on the NOTW have never indulged. Such hypocritical tits.

HO, how's the new stadium coming along?

So the UAF are communist agents who control Russsian Submarines? Do the Russians know that they've been infiltrated by communists?

WTF has that got to do with the Russians and nuclear submarines? When you said "all around us" I thought you must be referring to a significant number of people but then you mentioned the UAF....

who are the Marxists?

Most football clubs aren't listed, especially those that normally knock around the lower leagues.

Deppo, that's funny as, cheers.

Interesting that list - Pardew is the only Saints manager since 1911 to win more than 50% of his matches in charge. Also in the first 100 odd years we had 17 different managers (to Lawrie M) and since then we've had 18 different managers (Chris Nichol to Alan Pardew).