Rayvin

Erm, my point in the economic crisis was around the fact that a central bank with real power could have devalued the currency across the board and prevented certain countries from struggling. Of course they couldn't as things stand because too many countries, like Germany, wouldn't have condoned doing so. If the bank had the same authority as the Bank of England though, it could have done it. Of course it wasn't possible in the current state of affairs, because the level of political unity required to pull it off just isn't there - as such, it's a halfway house. Much as I said. And by federal, I mean the US standard - as in Europe is a country made up of states and identifies as such. It'd take time, but that has to be the end goal for the Union. What we have now is held back by petty national issues. I fully agree that there'd be a lack of transparency, corruption and high levels of administration and bureaucracy, but how is that different to anywhere in the world currently? You seem to think that by being separate, we will have greater autonomy - laughable. Greater autonomy to sign away our corporations to foreign powers. Politics isn't where the power is, and all we'd be getting is some faux political independence. Economics is where the power is, and the EU would give us a much better platform for surviving in the modern world than just Britain - a country trying to go it alone on the basis of historical nostalgia. Without it, we'd be even more beholden to the whims of our trading partners than we already are.

I still think the problem is that the EU is a halfway house of a political system. Either fully federalise Europe or wind things back, the current status quo doesn't function correctly - as could be seen by the shambolic response to the economic crisis. A fully empowered EU central bank and a universal single currency could have headed off the worst of that for a lot of countries. My personal view is that we'll become utterly irrelevant without Europe, making trading alliances more difficult, and meaning greater acceptance of the Chinese buying up all of our businesses. The EU, as a federation, would be a global power on par with, and possibly in excess of, the United States. GDP, population, even military capability, would be stronger than the US - except with European liberal values. Failure to do this, in my opinion, will lead to the rise of the BRICs economies and the continued downfall of Western civilisation. Of course, actually doing it might well bring about a return to fascism for all I know, it would certainly be a very European response... There you go, nothing like a bit of scaremongering on a Saturday morning. I'd vote in and to federalise though.

I don't know about the argument that internment is worse than the death penalty - I mean, it probably is, but that's not a justification to use it instead of capital punishment, that's just something we're saying to make it easier for capital punishment advocates to swallow. Has nothing to do with the ethics of the matter. As PL said, the state has no right to take anyone's life. That's the start and end of my thinking with it. It's a slippery slope otherwise. As Fish said as well mind, capital punishment is just revenge. In the States they have the victims family in the room while the kill people, how bloody minded is that? Cold blooded (normally years after the event) state sanctioned murder with an audience willing it to happen. Disgusting... As for this guy - 48 years of his life man, that's basically his whole fucking life. He's too old to be dangerous and he won't have a clue what to do in life on the outside. He isn't going to recognise the world, I would think release at this point would be utterly harrowing.

I'm in no way a keen gardener, but my neighbour when I was a kid used to do this to his tree regularly, and it seemed to just grow back. It's apparently a fairly common thing, I remember asking about it. Either that or he was just crackers and was replacing the tree at fairly regular intervals. I think it depends how much they took - from memory they end up looking rounder at the top than they once did - his turned into more of a tall bush, but assuming it survived the process (infections can apparently damage trees) then it should resume growing upwards again. I understand that you can pull one of the stronger branches into an upwards position in order to take the place of the lost trunk, but I don't know how you would select it per se.

What if Pardew stays until January - Ashley is forced to spend £30m to try and keep us up, and then things still don't turn around. We get a new and hopefully more competent manager with a squad £30m better off. This season would be a write off, and obviously there's the risk that we go down, but we'd actually (you would hope) have a reasonably decent squad for the extra spending. A new manager now might turn things around more quickly, and Ashley might refuse to spend in January. I appreciate that my thinking here is highly optimistic while also trying to make the best of a bad situation, but it could happen...

I think if he has lost interest in us as a football club, he'll be away in the next couple of years. Regardless of how much money the place makes, he has plenty of other vessels for this that need his attention, and he's consolidated his power so much in the board room over the past 24 months that this must be a drain on his time if nothing else.

It is funny though

Do you think he just sliced it or just forgot where the goal was? It looks so intentional Some finish as well...

I don't think I've ever seen one of our match threads get this few a number of posts... apathy at an all time high I guess, even with a win.

So...that looked like it took almost everything we had. A 1-0 win against newly promoted Leicester...

In fairness to him, he looks like the driving force of our team now...

Holy....fuck...

It's so obvious that we aren't improving...

Same old problem, we just don't look like scoring unless Cisse gets something on a plate. At least we've not been carved open more than once so far.

Well - kick off, long ball, forfeit possession. Par for the course in the first 5 seconds.

So have we properly lost CT then I expect to see him every time Shane is mentioned anywhere on the forum, and yet...

What was he expecting, honestly, with that move? That he'd be playing every week? I'd have him back in a heartbeat anyway, but it's never going to happen. I wonder if his career will just sort of fade out now or if another club will come and save him...

What are you basing that on though? Was Rooney worth that when he was putting in 30 goals a season? I'm not sure he was...

I'm not sure he'd command a fee in line with Bale's to be honest, he didn't have that superstar sort of personality (which seems to add a good £20m or so when Real are involved). I think a more accurate reflection would be about £50-60m - I know Torres was bought for that and was shite, but that was really an error on Chelsea's part. Rooney wouldn't command more than £30m now, and while Shearer is comfortably superior to him, I don't think more than twice the fee would be a fair reflection given Rooney's additional versatility as a midfielder/advanced playmaker/whatever he's supposed to be these days.

I'm not certain what the beheadings are supposed to achieve to be honest. We're clearly not going to stop bombing them because of it... Is it just impotent rage? Revenge? Is beheading unarmed civilians the only countermeasure ISIS has against hundreds of their men being blown up? Do they expect it to work?

Ouch...commiserations.

wtf

It's in the states now, mind... they might well get the vaccine moving, if they haven't already. Are there large numbers of people giving their kids every vaccine going..? I could see that for overseas travel I suppose, but I don't recall too many vaccinations through my childhood. Aside from that though, isn't it more dangerous if people aren't giving their kids vaccines on the basis of relatively unfounded research (and I acknowledge the highly salient discussion on this above by Chez), and leading them to suffer the consequences? I agree that people shouldn't just take vaccines left, right and centre, but at the same time, people should be given all of the information to make an informed decision, not hoodwinked by people trying to make a fortune.

Jeez, I thought Obertan had died or something upon seeing this thread title... Surprised CT hasn't materialised again mind you.