1_man_army

The only possible circumstance that I would condone pardoning the people who carried out acts of torture would be if they testified against who ordered them to do it. If they find that Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush were giving the orders then they should be held to account. That being said, it'll never happen.

Yes there should be. I know from my own experiences of school that kids are often singled out for what they wear when there are no uniform rules. It's also useful to have uniforms when people need to be identified quickly outside the school (such as during lunch breaks). It's god to give kids parity at school, it's good for the self esteem of less fortunate children and the better off children can see that they are no better or worse than others. You have plenty of years to dress as an individual, just not at school.

That's what beauty content winners have done for years, do you really think they all care deeply about world peace?

Four years ago, I'd agree but by the time there is another general election I won't be a student any more. I say they should bump up tuitions fees for next year :P .

I'm not American and I don't really care about baseball but you can't beat the speech by Lou Gehrig (Gary Cooper) from Pride of the Yankees. [yt]HbNrCxqxzgo[/yt]

Well prices vary, in England (and I think Wales as well) the cost of university can be a lot higher than in Scotland. Up here in Scotland the cost is a lot lower and the quality is just as high which is why we get a lot of English students up here along with a lot of overseas students. This year, I would have had to pay just £1250 in tuition fees but as I'm Scottish they get paid for me. I'm not entirely sure about the cost for overseas students but I think it is the same. The Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) should be able to give you some good advice.

I'd go for Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven. Clapton always seems emotionally fragile but this just one that pulls at the old heart strings. As a song, it's fine. However, I hate how it's now the first choice 'emotional journey' song for reality TV shows. Everytime somebody wins (or is ejected from) one of these shows it seems like they have play that song as the soundtrack to compliment the semi-slow motion clip of that person's time on the show.

Just to stay on topic: They can't, it's "unethical". Cloning humans would be unethical in my opinion. For a start we have more than enough people on our little planet. On top of that there is the possibility of genetic abnormalities stemming from mistakes in the process. Also it could be tremendously misused by people. It just doesn't sit well with me to be honest. --------------------- Yet again the Scots help mankind reach greater heights ;) . It's okay we know the world is thankful. The Scots have done more? Aren't you familiar with the television or the telephone? (Meucci can cry me a river he was too slow, Bell got there first) Edit - I found a link with a decent list of things on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Inventions To summarise: :thumbup:

Yet again the Scots help mankind reach greater heights ;) . It's okay we know the world is thankful.

If the dictator is chosen by a council of the 'best' people selected from a population, they'll most likely make a better choice than the people would. I described an idea for this sort of system in the "If you ruled your country..." thread. The problem is that often the best policies are the least popular, if a ruler always went with the best policies it would lead to civil unrest. Your system would also create the a feeling of elitism amongst the general population that would cause further agitation as it would create a great social divide between those who have a say and everyone else. Every system of government needs to avoid agitating their people too much otherwise they will eventually fall.

I could see Iran blaming on the UK and the US for deposing its democratically elected government in 1953 and forcing the horrible regime of the Shah on them. The rule of the Islamic Republic isn't ideal and I don't agree with how Iran is run in many respects but it is ironic that people in the west complain about the lack of freedom in Iran but they really weren't that bothered about those issues under the Shah. As far as stability goes, I'd say Iran is pretty stable. There are a few small number of groups who are against the but they're no threat to the regime and aren't as widespread as they are in Pakistan or India say. Iran hasn't even fought an offensive war in god knows how long (the Iran-Iraq war was a defense for Iran).

I've been to Barcelona before, it's nice. There are no real problems with pickpockets from my experience just as you aren't waving your money around like an idiot then you'll be fine. You should definitely visit Gaudi's church/cathedral in the centre of the city which is really impressive. I also visited the Nou Camp which is Barcelona FC's football ground which is massive and has a museum dedicated to the club, if you can get a ticket to a game there I'd go as I'd imagine that it would be spectacular to be in the crowd during a game there. When I went (2001) we didn't find much in the way of shopping in the city but it might be different now (or we just couldn't find the places). As for food I'd try all the obvious things like paella and sangria...I'm not that knowledgable about Spanish or more specifically Catalan cuisine.

The problem is that they operate right along the coastline and the Somali coastline is exactly 3,025 km long (I knew it was long but I had to look it up). It's impossible to monitor that whole area effectively. The other problem is that these pirates don't fly the skull and crossbones, for all intents and purposes they look like the boats fishermen use which is why they are so hard to identify and catch.

A blockade of what, the Gulf of Aden? You do realise that a blockade of that Gulf would mean all freight taking an Africa-long detour right? There is no way you can just blockade Somali, it has too much coastline to do it and a lot of poor Somali's rely on that Gulf to provide for their families (fishermen and whatnot). If that wasn't what you meant then this is irrelevant.

. We used it in war time to save lives, more people would have died trying to capture mainland japan then the bombs killed. I wouldnt call it hypocritical, after all if they had never been used we wouldnt understand the danger(testing is nothing like seeing the destruction). Israel is a bit of a problem, unless they start threatening to nuke Iran I dont see a signifigant problem. If they want a nuclear program, they have to allow inspectors that stuff is too dangerous to just say we trust you. It's pretty irrelevant why it was used, (the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a whole thread worth of argument on its own) it is important that it was used. I don't like the idea of Iran having a nuclear bomb but I just don't think that America is in any position to make the case when they're still the only ones to have used one. See it from Iran's point of view - lets assume they want a bomb - America is telling Iran not to have one while America has many and have used them. It's like a child hitting somebody with a big stick and then stopping everyone else having a stick because they can be used to hurt people. Diplomatically, it is a mine field. Was there any need for that?

1. America is very stable as far as chance of going to war 2. we allow/ would allow full inspection of our facilities 3. although we are the only country to use a nuke(saving lives long term), we have no possible reason to use them. Our standard munitions could destroy any small country, and if ww3 breaks out then all bets are off anyway. 4. Iran has no need of a nuclear weapon, we dont really either but ironically large country having nukes kept the cold war from going hot. As long as enough major stable countries of different backgrounds have nuclear weapons there is no need for small countries to have them. Its not so much that Iran shouldnt be allowed a nuclear program for energy its a matter of doing it properly. Let the inspectors in, be completely open with it and so on. Not that I agree with a nuclear-armed Iran, I do have some points to make; America is still the only nation to use a nuclear weapon outside of testing, no matter how you justify this it is still somewhat hypocritical to condemn others with nuclear ambitions. Iran could also be at risk from a pre-emptive attack (not nuclear) Israel who is by far the best equipped nation in the region (who also have a nuclear capacity themselves that they still refuse to publicly admit). Again I'm playing devil's advocate slightly but I can understand (but not agree) with Iran's stance on inspectors. For a nation that has spent the last 30 years opposing America at every opportunity, it would be humiliating to them to accept inspectors in order to please Americs.

It's interesting but there is no point in doing anything in depth until after the Iranian elections in June. Unfortunately, Khatami (former President and reformist candidate) dropped out but it was in order to avoid splitting the reformist vote. It's interesting the Ahmadinejad made this possible as he still refuses to give up any uranium enrichment programs (which he insists are for energy only) and I've always perceived that a lot of his support is from his anti-American stance. To make this concession to at least appear to want to build bridges with America suggests to me that he is under pressure from the Iranian people but its heard to read considering there are still rallies where people cry "death to America." In short, it's interesting but I'm not sure how much I would read into it as this might just be electioneering.

Nobody can pass a resolution because nations (the US particularly) use their veto to block when it doesn't suit them, that is why the UN has no power. Aside from the USSR, nobody has used the veto as much as America.

Ask OP why this wasnt included, or better yet make this a thread too if you think it deserves one? I'm not annoyed that there's a thread on this. What annoyed me was that people were expect to care (and were flamed for not caring) just because Americans were involved. The implication being that the rest of the world is somehow irrelevant. A general thread over the problems with Somali piracy would be interesting but this made it out to be a unique incident where Americans were targeted deliberately, which is not the case.

France did, yersterday I think. edit - might have been the day before. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/ap ... li-pirates

It is a grammatical error.

Is that the best criteria for choosing a date movie though? I can foresee the date ending like Travis Bickle's date in Taxi Driver, he'll have to go mad to even get her to talk to him again lol.

This. Although I did have a good laugh. Silly Americans getting trolled IRL. Would you have had a laugh if it was someone from your country? That would be funny. If it was your friend, it'd be hilarious! .... Wouldn't it? They're just being idiots because Americans were attacked. Ironically, Latios is from Australia and Racheya is from the UK. I wonder how those [bleep]ers would have felt if we just let the Japanese slaughter the Aussies and Hitler crush the Brits. After all, they aren't our countrymen, so that makes it funny as hell. Bad example considering that America was pretty much willing to leave us to that fate until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour (an thus the war suddenly effected them).

It reminds me of something I saw the other night on Channel 4's 100 greatest stand up comedians. An American comedian was in Spain when he heard about 9/11 and the coverage was in Spanish and it talked about an incident in Nuevo something (whatever the Spanish for New York is). Anyway, he brushed it off and presumed it was somewhere in Colombia or Latin America. After a while he realised it was New York because it was on the news non-stop for hours and therefore it had to be about America to be that important. He put it in a way which was actually kind of funny but you get my point.

Could you give us a song they sing or anything else that would help other than 'colored' and from the 80's?