1_man_army

Ordered :thumbup: I've been meaning to get this for a while now.

Jay-Z can't rap. He knows how to produce songs, but I can't stand him rapping You not liking him and him not being able to rap aren't the same thing. You just need to look at the respect he receives from his peers to see he is an impressive lyricist.

Robert Downey Jr. playing a guy who is brilliant at his job while addled with drugs, where did he get the inspiration for that one? On a more serious note, I'm not sure about this one. I don't mind the Sherlock Holmes literature (we even published a version of The Hound of the Baskervilles for uni last year) but I don't like Guy Richie's style of directing, it just gets in the way of the story for me. That being said, Robert Downey Jr is great to watch in most things he is in regardless of how well written/directed it is.

It won't be so funny when California inevitably gets another big earthquake, as far as I remember one is overdue. That San Andreas fault won't be nice to you forever.

Holy [cabbage], you do realize that the entire album isn't full of the accent, right. And raps supposed to be about lyrics, which his are amazing. The whole reasoning of releasing singles is to entice people to buy the album. If he raps with the irritating voice in the singles then why would I buy the album in hope the hope that he doesn't. It's irritating that he works to the same formula for every album release (comedic pop-culture mocking 1st single). He should have released Crack a Bottle as the single, I thought it was pretty decent. I wouldn't say he was the best rapper of all time either, he might become the biggest selling rapper of all time but that is irrelevant in the argument. Personally, I put Nas, Rakim, Notorious BIG, Jay-Z, Big Pun & Big Daddy Kane above Eminem. Don't get me wrong, Eminem is a great lyricist but he can be irritating even without this daft accent he keeps trying. Plus, the album before this one was dire.

Yes! Celtic drew with Hibs today so Rangers are still on top with a game to go. If we manage to beat Dundee Utd then we've won the league.

The Inferno is incredibly difficult to read. You'll be in for a lot of research, owing to the (probably) thousands of allusions in the text. It's extremely rewarding of course, but it takes a long time. The book just got delivered. The version I have has a lot of explanations of certain allusions at the bottom of the page so you can figure it all out as you read. Obviously I don't think it'll be a complete list but it might help. It's like Dante for the lazy.

A lot of Palestinians did take refuge in the neighbouring Arab nations during and the war in 1948. The ones who remained in Gaza and the West Bank did so because they feel that the land is rightfully theirs. Of course some Arab nations exploit the plight of the Palestinian people in order to gain favour with their own public and as a tool to bash Israel but to say none of them don't care is slightly unfair. As for Saudi Arabia's population density - it is full of inhabitable dessert.

This is the difference between fantasy and reality. Netanyahu might still have some wet dreams that involves the Palestinians and the sea ,but if you look at his first term as a prime-minister you'll see that he didn't do [cabbage] to promote this agenda (or any other agenda except political survival). check also Arik Sharon,who once was on the right side of the Likud, but as a prime-minister abandon the "Full-Israel-Land" concept. I hope he doesn't take steps to achieve it (and I don't think he will) but my wider point is that that while the west rightly condemns Hamas for having in its charter that they want to destroy Israel while they say very little about this Likud charter. I think the West and more specifically America has to take a more even hand when defending the rights and condemning the wrongs of both sides. Currently, there seems to be little to no pressure on the Israeli government to commit to and move towards a two state solution and this gives Hamas and other extreme groups to improve their support by creating a 'them against us' mentality. Of course, I admit to simplifying slightly here there are obviously larger issues that can be argued but small symbolic gestures can be made (for example increased access for aid agencies) to restart the process.

Yeah, after Israel stole the land in the first place. Know your history. I'd say the palestines have just as much right on their own state as the israeli's have. I do not condone the terrorism by certain groups of palestinian people, but you can't generalize a whole population like that, and deny them the right to their own lands. After the Turks took it after the Christians after the Hebrews after the Persians after the Hebrews after the Syrians after the Romans... I could understand all that fighting if it was over somewhere nice. Eastern Mediterranean, not so nice. It has great religious significance for 3 major religions which is a big factor.

you know and i know this is not a "small number of extremists" and yes ,as already said, for the Hamas its usually a win-win. Compared to similar groups Hamas is large, I was referring to them as small in comparison to the overall percentage of the Palestinian population. As for the Likud point, it is still in their charter, it is a policy that they advocate. They may not be activley attempting to achieve this at the moment but it is still one of their stated goals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likud#Likud_charter

Israel has the unqualified support of the USA and the west to a lesser extent. That more than outweights Palestines support from the Arab world. Collectively punishing an entire population for the actions of a small number of extremists is immoral. Not only that but it improves the support of the extremists and ultimately benefits them rather than Israel. Israel does have fundamentalist factions, one of them killed the man who I feel could have become the most influential Israeli leader ever - Yitzhak Rabin. In fact, their current ruling party Likud still seeks to not only rule Israeli land as it is currently but also the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip (ie force the Palestinians out and move Jews in). That being said, Likud still isn't as repugnant as Avigdor Lieberman who is essentially a thug. Edit - Also, Saudi Arabia's support for Hamas has been dwindling for many years, their core support is really from Iran nowadays as far as I'm aware.

Er... what? Adolph Hitler was a megalomaniac who allowed his delusional beliefs to get in the way of his tactical brilliance. Combine Adolph Hitler's war-mongering mind with a sane brain and you have a fearsome world conqueror. Hitler purged the Nazi party during the night of the long knives in 1934 just a year after the party had came to power within Germany. One of the most prominent victims of this was Enrst Rohm who led the SA (paramilitary branch of the Nazi party). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Röhm As I previously stated Hitler was not considered to be a great military tactician, he made several mistakes during the war this is one of the biggest reasons why he was not assassinated by Britain as had been planned with Operation Foxley. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Foxley ----- Before anyone complains that I've given Wikipedia links as sources, I don't have the time to search for better ones. If you doubt my sources feel free to do your own research.

Thanks, I handed in my dissertation on Friday, it was an epic 102 page nightmare (lots of Appendices). Just 2 essays to do and then I can catch up on the 3 weeks worth of sleep I've missed recently.

Aha, I knew you were going to. I was just writing a post warning him to be careful, what with all the hopeful authors on this board... I always forget how many of you guys are in college or even graduating (or at least close to it). What all are the gang majoring in, for the most part? I'm not that interested in commissioning so there is little I can feasibly do for aspiring authors anyway to be honest*. Plus I knew Lateralus wanted to write so I was kind of inviting this conversation for the fun of it. For the record if anyone wants to publish their writing all I would say is submit some samples to a literary agent...damn this is off topic lol. Edit - That being said, you never know how things can turn out but I don't see it happening personally.

I do recall that, I'll need a brown paper envelope filled with crisp £20 notes. As you can see I have no ethical boundaries lol.

What's your degree? How are the career prospects looking? My degree is in Publishing. As far as career prospects, they aren't too bad - I've got a decent choice as far as specialising in what I'm doing so I've got a bit of leeway. A lot of publishers are looking for graduates right now because they see them as cheap labour but I don't mind that to be honest as I'm only beginning. The credit crunch hasn't effected publishing as badly as other industries because people are staying in so that shouldn't effect me. The worst case scenario is that I need to move or do some unpaid work experience for while to improve my prospects (although I've had some through the course).

I have a double whammy of nights out planned for Friday and Saturday this week to mark my last day as a student. I may not survive into professional life but it should be fun.

And because Hitler was the worst leader in history. Hitler was a great leader up until he decided to persecute the Jews over fighting the war. I think it is a fairly accepted belief that had he committed his resources entirely to the war, Germany would have won. If not, it's still what I think. Hitler just confused a secondary objective with a primary one. I'm not saying Hitler did the best things, but what he did, he mostly did well. So it was okay for him to take away the citizenry rights of the Jews, to euthanise the disabled, ban all political opposition and to even murder his fellow Nazi's? All of that and I haven't even mentioned Lebensraum or the gross historical innacuracies in your statement but if those actions are the mark of a great leader then he is bloody wonderful! What he did wasn't good. He was good at what he was doing. There's a difference. He wasn't good at what he was doing either, his poor tactical decisions during the war is the reason why British plans to assassinate him were called off. Britain feared that one of his more military minded subordinates (Goering most likely) would take over if Hitler was killed and that it would ultimately benefit Germany.

And because Hitler was the worst leader in history. Hitler was a great leader up until he decided to persecute the Jews over fighting the war. I think it is a fairly accepted belief that had he committed his resources entirely to the war, Germany would have won. If not, it's still what I think. Hitler just confused a secondary objective with a primary one. I'm not saying Hitler did the best things, but what he did, he mostly did well. So it was okay for him to take away the citizenry rights of the Jews, to euthanise the disabled, ban all political opposition and to even murder his fellow Nazi's? All of that and I haven't even mentioned Lebensraum or the gross historical innacuracies in your statement but if those actions are the mark of a great leader then he is bloody wonderful!

What do you expect when you make such insensitive remarks with your only justification being that the protesters inconvenience you?

It's in off-topic, we're allowed to have political opinions on here. The OP is giving his/her personal opinion, it isn't the website getting political at all.

People are willing to lose their freedoms if you scare them enough or convince them its for their own good. Look at how the US has had people convinced that wiretapping and torture is okay because its to be used against terrorist suspects.

If the family of a victim is given a bit of a choice on what they want to do with the prisoner, then it might be revenge. But it would Justice as well. Yeah because families of victims have a fair and impartial opinion in this circumstance :roll: (smilie used to ensure that sarcasm is detected). Your plan is moronic and barbaric and would drag the legal system back into the dark ages. The legal system is there to remove people who break the law from wider society not to beat them. Your plans would anger people and create greater problems for the future as people are increasingly alienated by them.

If he did it to someone else, then it shall be done to him too. Its only fair. That will only create more people who hate the west. Bravo =D> .