1_man_army

ETA ended its ceasefire a while back (I didn't really it was so long ago though to be honest). http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jUVe7G-Xtm3ENayqEG4qfrm0NOPAD951VAUO0

Yep, but there ain't much else. Sorry I don't follow what you mean, are you saying the "would you rather Saddam" stuff is the only thing the very pro-war people can use in a debate now? I just don't want to miss the point of your post and argue against a point that you never made in the first place.

Hardliners on both sides (Muslim & Jewish) think that the land is theirs by right of God, and by that they believe it should be only their land and not for anyone else. That religious fervour is probably the biggest problem in this, it makes it more than a case of nationalism when you involve god(s). No offense but minds greater than yours (& mine) have been trying to find a workable solution to this problem for decades with no luck, I honestly don't see a peaceful solution in my lifetime.

No, I'm sure he'd prefer to live in a land that wasn't a hornet's nest of sectarian violence, foreign terrorist instigators and was able to take care of itself though. I hate when people criticise the state Iraq has been in since 2003 and are met with the reply "would you rather Saddam"? It is such a poor argument, nobody really wants Saddam back but considering what Iraqi's have had to put up with over the last 5 years it is no wonder people are upset with the coalition. We toppled Saddam easily but we had no plan at all to bring any sort of order to Iraq after that, it was such a 'make it up as we go along' strategy.

In principle I'm sympathetic to independence movements (no surprise when you read my location) provided that is what the majority of that area's population wants. Obviously there are practicalities involved (particularly social & ethnic issues) that make some proposed nations difficult. I think there has to be some criteria laid down though; Does the proposed nation have a culture that is unique and separate from the one it wishes to break away from? Does it have a separate and unique history? Does the population have a shared sense of identity that is separate from the nation it wants to break from? Can it sustain itself independently? (Not a question of whether it will be better or worse but just whether it can survive) Does the majority support independence? Those are just the basics however, we could lay down page upon page arguing about what makes a nation and not fully agree but the questions above are essentials in my opinion. -------------- As for some of your examples; I fully support (and know enough about to do so knowledgeably): Taiwan, Palestine(as part of a 2 state agreed upon state - not all of the Holy land), Kosovo & Chechnya. I support greater autonomy for Tibet in the same way that the Dalai Lama does because of the difficult historical background of Tibet. Other than those I either, don't know enough about the nation's circumstances, do not support their cause, have forgot to post them or have implied my opinion earlier.

Police lie ALL THE TIME in court/have eachothers backs if they do anything wrong etc. Not saying all police are liars, but if you really think they can be trusted with something like this then you're just insane. It's sad but true, the jury at the Jean Charles De Menezes inquest today rejected the polices version of events as well (basically calling them liars). All big organisations like to close ranks when incidents like these happen.

Jay-Z does have a sample of Paul Anka's "I did it my Way" on one of his albums so that's not the best example to use.

^^ Isaac Hayes - an impeccable choice, Walk on By is immense.

Bittersweet Symphony, if I'm not mistaken. They received no royalties for that song even though it's their most famous by far, and it's more popular than the original piece it was used in. Yeah, it was Bittersweet Symphony, I couldn't remember the Rolling Stones song that it sampled, it turns out that it was an obscure orchestral recording of The Last Time (which is itself a pretty decent song).

There doesn't need to be any resemblance lyrically, if you lift or sample any part of songs instrumentation deliberately without the permission of the rights owner (who is usually the original author) then it is illegal. It doesn't matter if you steal a whole verse or a drum beat, a guitar riff or the whole song - it will still be illegal without having permission. For example The Verve were successfully sued by The Rolling Stones for using a minor violin part in one of their songs.

But then you won't learn the social and cooperative aspects of education which are vital in the workplace.

Fair enough the Barnett Formula does work in our favour but Labour would be hypocritical to revise a formula that they supported just because the SNP are in power (not that it would necessarily stop them). Then again, when you consider our contributions in terms of say North Sea Oil (over 90% of all the UK's domestic oil) then we're about even. ;) The only chance of the Barnett Formula being revised anytime soon is if the Conservatives get in power but then again if the do support for independence will skyrocket up here.

All Summer Long samples Lynyrd Skynryd which is legal as it involves Kid Rock paying them for the privilege (even though his song is horrible).

In UK the television news legally has to remain impartial however, we are more liberal here than in America, so that isn't necessarily so.

Yes, Finland has no freedom of press, is full of murder, and is a dictatorship, all due to socialism. Since when was Finland communist/socialist?[/hide] Just a few bits of reading about political suppression & genocide in communist/socialist states: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_purge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulag http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheka#Supp ... Opposition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_R ... ersecution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_terrorism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_ ... _Communism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Cast ... hts_record http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco#Pol ... Oppression http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_Rendition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._suppo ... 93Iraq_war http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile_unde ... violations See things aren't so black and white as you would like to make out.

:wall: So much for investigative journalism, ey? Putting it on the front page of the BBC's website even getting confirmation. ...and making me look like a tube in the process, I would've deleted my post if you hadn't replied lol. That being said, I did make sure I said " if true" just in case.

Scrap that, Sky say that they got reports from India saying there has been no shooting at all, stupid 24 hour news...

BBC News 24 just reported that there's been a shooting in Mumbai airport which if true is another worrying development which could be an attempted second wave or copycats. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7766139.stm edit - I did mean Dehli, don't know why I typed Mumbai, regardless it was a stupid BBC false alarm.

Shouldn't this go in the tech and computers forum?

Also all that self-defense bs. Can someone tell me a estimate of how many 'self-defense' measurements have been used with guns in the past years? If I recall, the only reason we were aloud to have guns was because of the fight for indepence. I've been resisting the urge to post that Chris Rock quote up,

Exactly. Don't forget checkpoints that aren't really checkpoints :evil: Or games that have checkpoints but don't give you the option of restarting the whole level. Nothing worse than crossing a checkpoint with almost no health and then being forced to pick up the game from that point all the time.

Or, how much easier do guns make it for psycho's to go on the rampage and take the innocent lives in the first place.

There is a video of the surviving gunman being attacked by a mob in the train station as well, the policeman who arrested him stopped the mob from killing him.

My thoughts exactly. It's not like it is hurting you or anything, just ignore it. The fact is that they have not deleted the details when it should have been deleted off the system. If that is the case then threaten them for breaching the Data Protection Act, just sound like you know what you're talking about and that should do the trick. I'd just throw the letters away personally but if it bothers you that much then that is the way to go. [/hide] Threatening a large company is never the way to go. Anger shows weakness and they will just bother you more. Maybe threatening was the wrong word to use on my part, all I meant was making it clear that they are in the wrong and that you won't accept it, I didn't mean that there should be any anger shown.

My thoughts exactly. It's not like it is hurting you or anything, just ignore it. The fact is that they have not deleted the details when it should have been deleted off the system. If that is the case then threaten them for breaching the Data Protection Act, just sound like you know what you're talking about and that should do the trick. I'd just throw the letters away personally but if it bothers you that much then that is the way to go.