Red_Skydiver

Is your boytoy a skydiver? if so who is he?

I live in the borough of Wandsworth (Streatham Common area actually)!! Another skydiver I know lives in Wandsworth itself though. When are you moving here?

If you are in London there's a group skydivers who meet up once a month for drinks. Let me know if you're heading this way and when you'll be here and I'll tell you where and when we meet.

Your GF's vacuuming must have woken the genie in the lamp and he got mad when he saw her messing with his magic flying carpet

12 years ago I moved into a house. I was alone in the house and in bed on the first night when I heard someone walking up the stairs (which were the other side of the wall next to my head). The stairs were carpeted but the footsteps sounded like they were on a wooden floor When the footsteps reached the top of the stairs they stopped and I never heard them again. I lived in the house for two years and during that time I did experience some strange stuff in the kitchen. The kettle and the kitchen light used to turn themselves on. The footsteps were scary but the kitchen stuff wasn't it was more of a nuisance than anything. Yesterday I finished work early and when I got home Richard and Judy were on TV (don't normally watch them but my other half was watching it for some reason..... ) Anyway they had a couple of people on who claimed they could tape the dead . They would leave an audio tape recorder running during the night and they would get messages or answers to their questions from the dead.... I know I know.... it's weird but they were very serious about it.... and they weren't even American!! Anyway they had a few recordings of the dead but they needed to use subtitles so we could understand what they were saying. It all sounded mumbo jumbo to me and I suspect what they heard was interference (probably from mobile phones).

Which countries are these, have you examples which illustrate this? If what you say is true then maybe we could learn something from this. Here is one example of contrast: Norway - 32% with guns, 3.6 gun homicide rate. Canada - 29% with guns, 8.4 gun homicide rate. West Germany - 9% with guns, 2.0 gun homicide rate. North Ireland - 8% with guns, 21.0 gun homicide rate. Another: The Swiss, New Zealanders and Finns all own guns as frequently as Americans, yet in 1995 Switzerland had a murder rate 40 percent lower than Germany's, and New Zealand had one lower than Australia's. Finland and Sweden have very different gun ownership rates, but very similar murder rates. Israel, with a higher gun ownership rate than the U.S., has a murder rate 40 percent below Canada's. For the influence of culture, just think of suicide. The Japanese with virtually no guns, commit far fewer murders than Americans, and at the same time, far *more* suicides. And Japanese-Americans living in the U.S. with full availability to guns, still commit the same low murder rate as their countrymen back home. That's a factor of their culture, not the availability of guns. You mention Northern Ireland has 8% guns, where did you get that figure? Guns are illegal in NI so the figure can only be an estimate at best. Forgive my ignorance but what is a 21.0 gun homicide rate? 21 what? 21 deaths, 21 per 1000 populace...? You list 4 countries but didn't make it clear which of these have legal ownership and which don't - I'm afraid I've never had the inclination to research this as it's never affected or bothered me - unfortunately/fortunately I'm blissfully ignorant

I think this thread is great. Paul supplied the initial humor and the responses from people misunderstanding the intent of his initial post has supplied lots since then. It just shows how one light hearted comment can be twisted so far out of shape! It was probably the irony that confused them.......

Which countries are these, have you examples which illustrate this? If what you say is true then maybe we could learn something from this.

Sure there is, but we are Americans. Why shouldn't we care about OUR nation first and foremost? I don't give a flying flip about my next door neighbor unless he's bothering me. I'll carry the analogy further and say that I live in a huge mansion on a massive tract of land, and my neighbor lives in a shanty on a postage stamp. Why should I care about his place when I have so much right here? That's a harsh statement and would piss me off (rightly so) if I heard it from your perspective, but that's how a lot of people feel about it, and I don't blame them. Your view point is exactly what many people don't like about the USA and it's people - it's the arrogance. I'm not saying that all americans have that arrogance, far from it and I'm not saying that non-americans don't have those traits either it's just that as a nation that is how you are perceived. And before anyone suggests that we are jealous I can tell you that I don't know one person who actually is. Just want to clarify that I'm not disagreeing with the idea of looking after your own nation first - we're all "guilty" of that but it's the not giving a flying flip about your next door neighbour unless he's bothering you that I was gettig at.

Sure there is, but we are Americans. Why shouldn't we care about OUR nation first and foremost? I don't give a flying flip about my next door neighbor unless he's bothering me. I'll carry the analogy further and say that I live in a huge mansion on a massive tract of land, and my neighbor lives in a shanty on a postage stamp. Why should I care about his place when I have so much right here? That's a harsh statement and would piss me off (rightly so) if I heard it from your perspective, but that's how a lot of people feel about it, and I don't blame them. Your view point is exactly what many people don't like about the USA and it's people - it's the arrogance. I'm not saying that all americans have that arrogance, far from it and I'm not saying that non-americans don't have those traits either it's just that as a nation that is how you are perceived. And before anyone suggests that we are jealous I can tell you that I don't know one person who actually is.

There is a double negative in the second option which makes it the same as the first option in the poll. Balls! How did that creep in? Why wasn't it noticed before?

Who are you refering to when you say "them"? Iraqis or terrorists? They are not the same people you know. I do agree that the UN should have done much more and it did fail. It's a pity we couldn't invest our time and money into getting the UN to do a proper job instead of getting into a war which divides people even further.

12 years - you're refering to the time period between the first Iraq war and the second aren't you? But yeah inanswer to your question sanctions and resolutions take time. Just because you don't like waiting and you can't get your own way doesn't justify ignoring proceedures.

The preemptive strike was not justified at all. That is a dangerous viewpoint to take. Why not just eradicate the rest of the world in that case and call it preemptive just in case they later decide to attack you? If a country doesn't comply with the UN then it is up to the UN to deal with it. If the UN doesn't do it's job then you should kick the UN and not just take the matter into your own hands.

What! Are you mad? I just gave you 3 examples! You're one of those people who only beleive what you want to beleive, right? Right? t Yeah you're probably right. Stupid of me really. It all makes sense now. Why didn't I see the link before? Now I can see other links... USA - Universally stupid ars*hol*s UK - Unilaterally Korrect!!

How about, I have a minimal amount of common sense and therefore know that Iraq was connected with Al Queda but I intend to deny it as long as I possibly can, just like I did the forged memos, because I am a far left ideologue and this is just what we do. What are you talking about?

If you read what you have just said your answer is "no" to being indirectly related to 9/11. You refer to "types... of terrorist acts that 9/11 was" which in itself means they weren't connect to 9/11 but other acts of terrorism instead. No link has been found between Saddam Hussein and 9/11

Amended original post to make it clearer for you. No doubt I'm going to get complaints from people saying I can't amend the original post after people have voted - well tough titties I have! If it bothers anyone then vote again to cancel your original vote.

I hate myself for saying this because everything seems to lead to a debate about Iraq these days .......... but it looks exactly like Saddam Hussein coming out of his hole when captured!

If you are an immigrant to the UK and advocate the fact that immigrants should fit in with our society then you had better get used to the fact that we are more or less free to do what we like in the UK such as setting up a religous bank. So long as it's within the remit of the law it should be allowed.

You're forgetting ithe UK is a democracy

I can't see anything wrong with it. If people want a plastic dashboard Jesus as a freebie for openeing an account etc then let them have it. It might actually have a beneficial affect and make other banks re-think their ethics about investing etc. We live in a free society so why not? Competition is healthy however and if there is only one bank from each religion then it kind of restricts your choice a little ..... but then that's religion for you anyway!

I don't care who died. It's still cool and excellent. Why don't you care that someone died? Thats strikes me as a bit strange. It's not cool, it's a judge using what little power he has bestowed upon him to try in some way to get a little justice in an absurd situation.

Reading through the posts it seems many people DIRECTLY connect 9/11 with the Iraq war. Just wanted to get an idea of what people think.

Get your facts straight, the war with Iraq is not connected with 9/11.