Re: The Bigger, Badder, Even More Serious Thread [4]

[Ringdrotten]

The Black Watch is a playable unit in Empire: Total War - I had no idea they existed until recently

[David H]

Yeah, they were an elite special forces unit that recruited from the Highlands. I think they were folded into another division in the last 10 years. These guys lived wet and cold, and could survive almost anywhere. And I think they were all cousins. It was like a family. An extremely bad-ass family!

A lorry stopped for me once (which was against regulations). Their corporal shouted, "Throw us yer pack!" in a voice I couldn't refuse. I tossed my pack into the back, and the lorry drove away while corporal shouted, "Run fer it!" I managed to get a hand on the tail-gate and was running along at something like 20 miles an hour when the corporal decided that I'd earned the lift, and all hands grabbed me and hoisted me into the back, where they proceeded to give me shit for being a Yank. Great guys!  

[Mrs Figg]

''run fer it''
I'd have told them to go spin on a thistle   

[David H]

They had my pack....

That, and I was 20 miles from nowhere in the rain in March...

[Ringdrotten]

Awesome story You got to love these special forces guys - I've met a fair share of them, and they're undoubtedly a bad-ass bunch of soldiers, but in my experience they're also very friendly people who are fun to hang out with and will always have a few words of advice if you ask

[Pettytyrant101]

Restoring the Regiments is on the SNP agenda if we get Independence (at the moment there is just a single Scottish Regiment and defence spending here has plummeted,bases have closed).
The disbanding of the Regiments was just the start of it.

Handy thing is the cost of having our own defences is less than we put into defence now, but more than actually gets spent on defence in Scotland right now.

[Pettytyrant101]

Just listened to Sarah Palins speech at CPAC.
She is good at delivering a speech to a live crowd (and she clearly enjoys it, a bit too much) but boy it was  bonkers sounding (and not a little frightening).   

I was surprised at how much the Republicans seem to attack the Republicans. Since when was a divided party a good way to get elected? She gave lots of shout outs to the Tea Party and lots of kicking the Congressional Republicans.

And I till dont understand why Republicans bang on about this mad idea of American exceptionalism - do they even think about how it sounds to, well, everyone else in the world?

Hitler was big on thinking Germans were exceptional too, and it doesnt go down any better now than it did then as an idea.

But the scariest mad section was the following (out of a few contenders)-

'Internationally we.. lead a world that is looking for that shining city on a hill again {{{no you dont and no we arent!   }}} and we lead them from behind? The result is some very, very, very bad dudes gaining ground. Instead of putting the fear of God in our enemies, proving peace through strength- and that is only brought to you through the red, white and blue {{{does she mean France?}}}  thats only what the United States Military can do.' {{So not France then}}}

Quite a bit of God and guns too- never historically a healthy mix.

She also referenced Thatcher a few times, including in a line about family, faith and women. Except Thatcher never made any use of faith- religion plays no overt part in UK politics because even she wasnt that bonkers.

She is also very devisive- apparently only people who cheer her are 'right' and 'patriots'.

[Eldorion]

CPAC represents only a faction within the Republican party. Unfortunately it's one of the most vocal (and nuttiest) factions...

Though the idea of American exceptionalism has been around for about as long as the country itself and is by no means limited to the GOP.

[Mrs Figg]

I think every country on the earth thinks its exceptional deep down. some are just more honest about it, or dont care how it sounds as they are talking to their supporters. plus we all know the Supreme Being is an Englishman.   

[Eldorion]

Nah, son.

[Pettytyrant101]

Was Budget Day yesterday in the UK, if you earn a good wage was a decent budget, lotsof tax breaks for you, if you were poor or working class? Well the Tories gave us this-



  Demonstrating the normal Tory perception of the less well off, Im surprised there wasn't a tax break for whippet racing.

[azriel]

Tax  break for Wellie Wanging ?



By eck lad give it sum wellie !

[Pettytyrant101]

I'd like to wrangle a wellie with my foot in it right up Camerons arse   

Really? Bingo and beer- that's the Tory idea of what poor people spend their time doing. (ok I'll give them the beer one, but 1p off? So you save a whole pound for every 100 pints you drink, so at about £3.35 a pint thats only £335 you have to spend to save a pound! Thanks for that Tory party, way to help out the poor   )

[azriel]

And why do they assume the women folk only enjoy bloody Bingo !?   
Here we go again, the all knowing, all understanding political mind, not only stereotyping UK people but thinking they are doing whats best for us ?? like fook ! I know whats best for me & it aint bloody Bingo ! Whats best for me is, a future in this dis-enlightened country I can feel secure in & also some security for my family ! But, I guess good old Bugger-boy Cameron feels secure in HIS future, secure in the knowledge he's crowing over the vast majority & leading them by the nose into the pig sty !  

[Pettytyrant101]

Was a mix of a political budget and a help your friends budget- good for big business, good for large investors, good for people wanting to buy a house (under a state sponsored scheme that look remarkably like the one which led to the economic collapse in the US   ) and it was wooing Pensioners and UKIP voters for next years general election and it made some concessions in Scotland only previously offered by the SNP under Independence, like the freeze on whisky tax to try to woo Scottish voters to the Union.
God do I hope I'm living in a different country by the time of the General Election from Cameron and his ilk.

[azriel]

Sorry, was away from my computer then, just cooking a hearty meal of ferret  on a stick, isnt that what we poor, uneducated lot eat ? ferrets, hedgehogs, & the like ? And for one of our 5 a day, we scrap the mould off the toilet wall, & dont we drink "white Lightning", we also have a nifty way of making teabags last, we hang up to dry & use them till the tea falls out. If my son would only agree to move, Id be out of here fasting than one of those ferrets !  

[David H]

Mmmmmm!!! Ferret!!    

[bungobaggins]

[Pettytyrant101]

Watched this tonight, documentary from the BBC on the Blair years, this is the seocnd episode out of the three, as I think it will have the widest interest- the War on Terror, mainly how we got into Iraq, with interviews throughout from Blair, Alistair Campbell and various cabinet and diplomatic folks on the UK side, and Bush, Clinton, and various members of the Bush government and diplomatic core on the US side as well as other important folks at the time like Kofi Annan and Hans Blix.
I also believe for some reason this was never shown in the US-

[Mrs Figg]

interesting. I will watch it.

[halfwise]

Wasn't shown in the US because folks around here wouldn't recognize half of who he talks about. We can only wrap our feeble minds around other folks' head of state - beyond that we're lost.

[Mrs Figg]

that was fascinating.

[Pettytyrant101]

I thought so too- but also frightening- Blair was a religious zealot, wanting to 'reshape the world' and describing what is happening in Iraq as a struggle between the powers of good and evil.
Someone with the authority to use nuclear weapons need a way more nuanced take on the world than that.

In the final episode he says he hid his religious beliefs from the electorate because people think it means you are a nutter. Yes, it does, the sort of nutter who might think he is on a crusade to reorder the world and take part in wars fighting evil for instance- and as the electorate we have the right to that view and as such he should have been honest with the electorate about what he believed and how much it dictated his politics.

[Mrs Figg]

It made him look like an naive idealist more than a religious nutter, I think he realized he was between a rock and a hard place with Bush.

[Pettytyrant101]

You might want to also watch the final, third episode, which goes a lot more into his religious convictions and how they played into his decision making.