1_man_army

That's John Simpson the BBC's foreign correspondant right? His on camera work is good but I haven't read anything of his, might be worth a read.

In my opinion, what its done has set a precedent - the Iranian regime is now aware that it will have to deal with protests when they abuse their power and that is what has been lacking during the last 30 years (excluding the 1999 student protests). The people now know that their voices can and will be heard and they will be willing to get out onto the streets again and try to push for at least some change. No regime change (was never going to happen anyway) but it is still an important moment in Iran.

True, I see the cultural differences on quite a lot of threads so I always tend to have a look at peoples locations when I'm reading their posts. In particular, the political and religious threads tend to highlight the differences since America tends to be a little to the right of Europe/UK in terms of politics and they're a bit more reigious (stereotypically). It makes things interesting though.

I know you didn't say it, but are you implying the US is on par with Italy? Nah, wasn't implying that at all. I wouldn't say US is far off though. It's not that I hold US up high, just that I don't think Italy is what they are cracked up to be. That's the thing about Italy though nobody gives them a chance going into the big tournaments (ie World cup or the Euros) but they seem to still grind out results. They tend to struggle early on and then pick up in the later stages, like they did in 2006. Contrast that with Holland who tend to impress early in the tournament but never seem to make the final (up until 2008 I would have used Spain as the example of this).

Thriller has sold 109M copies so even if most of them aren't on vinyl, there will still be enough to keep th price relatively low since it isn't a rarity. No if you had the Beatles album with them in the butcher's costumes on the cover (a real rarity) - then I would be very excited.

Sex education should be taught in schools not abstinence. Abstinence is a personal decision and whether or not a pupil is abstinent or not, they are going to become sexually active at some point in their lives so they need to know the facts. Often many parents don't talk to their kids about sex so they need to be given the information from somewhere and school is really the best place to do that.

What a way to counter their point.

Actually that's a sensible rule it allows a parent to give their child a glass of wine with a meal withou breaking the law. That allows parents to better educate their children about alcohol. No there are a few others that have the legal drinking age of 21 and some others prevent buying certain drinks (such as spirits) until 21. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_drinking_age I read the UK might be increasing the drinking age to 21. I hope they do so I have an excuse as to why I won't go out and drink with my parents on my 18th birthday. [/hide] The UK government already dismissed the idea. Also even if they did it, thanks to cheap flights etc 18-20 year olds would be able to just go to places in mainland Europe for nights out and the trouble causers would cause trouble there. Who the hell would book a cheap flight to get a drink? Maybe the wealthy few who can afford such luxuries but most normal 18-21 year olds wouldn't have the funds to do that. Even getting the Eurostar to Calais or Paris isn't cheap (in fact the cheapest ticket to leave tomorrow and return the next morning is £99 from London).

Right now I'm reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and I've just ordered Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. That's right although I didn't know it originated in 1984, I just thought it was just a common way of shortening the word proletariat.

No, the video I posted on the first page was a huge middle finger to the UK. After 233 years of American independence, do you really think anybody in the UK even cares? ...and no Britain has no empire any more (thank god)

That's the trick; when research disagrees with your position, just say my [wagon] and it'll be okay. Seriously though, when you're younger you may know that actions have consequences when you think about it, but you're generally more impulsive at a younger age which can lead to accidents and your attention span is generally shorter which again can lead to accidents.

No there are a few others that have the legal drinking age of 21 and some others prevent buying certain drinks (such as spirits) until 21. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_drinking_age

Driving is a bigger neccesity than drinking. Driving is also more dangerous, I don't have a source on this at the moment but I'm willing to go out on a limb and presume that more people are killed by cars than by alchohol in America every year. Also driving is not a necessity either considering most places have some form of public transport to get around and that most (or all) 16 year olds are still at school and therefore don't need to drive to get there (since they've been travelling there for several years without driving their own cars).

Was there any need to bump a 2 year old dead topic? :roll:

Ordered:

The FIFA rankings are a nonsense anyway. Nobody should ever really read that much into them.

Do you mean the alien movie or the movie based on the TV series (Avatar: the last airbender)? I presume he is meaning the one that is being directed by James Cameron.

I have to agree with that. Midges drive me mad every summer, they're intolerable.

Damn right I eat the end bits, they're the best bits. You guys need to try Scottish Plain Bread - that is some damn nice bread. Plus the end bits are about an inch and a half thick.

That's the big one for me this year. I'm a huge Scorsese fan and I think it'll be interesting to see him take on this kind of film as it's new territory for him. The trailer looks good and the film has a good cast (it includes Max Von Sydow :thumbup: ) so I'm looking forward to it. I also want to see Silence whenever Scorsese gets around to making it.

I hate you Phil

Karl Malden died yesterday as well.

They haven't been letting much if any aid through for ages. The Gazans aren't even allowed to import cement to rebuild their homes that were destroying by Israel during the last conflict. Its yet another example of Israel applying collective punishment to the people of Gaza. These people now live in a miserable state of poverty which could easily be remedied. Instead Israel has seemingly chosen to punish them under the pretext of stopping Hamas smuggling munition (which hasn't happened). Not only is it morally wrong to punish civilians in this way (note they even stop The Red Cross from delivering aid) but it's counter-productive - it just alienates another generation of young people in Gaza, fuels their hatred of Israel and makes them susceptible to Hamas' propaganda. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01409.html http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/wor ... 84862.html

About money? Not necessarily. Winning the case even if you only got a penny out of it would mean that, in your eyes, the system is actually working and that a good precedent will be set. Plus the whole eye for an eye thing. I was commenting on him using "could care less" instead of "couldn't care less" I hate when people do that as well, I was going to mention it but then I saw your comment. It's one of my biggest pet hates.

Im interested in how a potential lawsuit could play out in this scenario. Im nowhere near familiar with law, but the court decision only allows a suit against the school district not the administrators involved. I think what it will come down to is "did the school district set up or allowed policies which enabled this type of situation". You can look at it both ways, they either; authorised the strip searching policy or they were negligent because they were unaware of the policy in that school. I'm with Goddess here though, they deserve it. If they felt that a child has something illegal on them they should have at the very least asked for parental permission to search the child (although I'm pretty much against anyone outside of law enforcement strip searching people (airports not included)).