Karl

We all are. They don't see their sexual preferences as necessitating others to accept their behaviour, just as I wouldn't expect equal treatment from a homosexual business owner. Not that I believe there was really any homosexual descrimination once the state ended its idiotic anti-homosexual laws. Perhaps in the army and for homosexual couples wanting to get accommodation, but most businesses see a customer as a customer-those that have strong views shouldn't be in business and can easily be boycotted. Where I take exception is the gay action groups that are using the law to target anti-homosexual private businesses like the witch hunters of old.

Your view doesn't accord with that of many homosexuals either, including my own brother, or cousin :-) Every ethical/moral debate is a philosophical debate.

Far less heart warming for anyone seeking to initiate force against others.

We are all 'odd'. I don't go looking for matches either, which is why I have only one friend in the world. However, if I want to have a bit of company to go motorcycling, then I don't go to a knitting club to find riders. I like solitude. Well they take me as I am or not at all. I'm a loner and very self assured, I keep my own company most of the time. Funnily enough my wife is exactly the same- although she was always a lot more purposely introverted than I was, very strong willed and doesn't suffer fools-not just easily, but at all.

Yes, I would agree with that.

Still don't get it. I half see the intention in the phrase, but I'm struggling to figure out how it applies. Are you saying that people change ?

Isn't that exactly the same thing Brian and not its inverse ?

Nope ;-)

Firstly: it's not MY blueprint, it's been accepted as such for many years 'birds of a feather stick together'. What you learn is not down to the other person, but down to your capacity to percieve, conceive and integrate at a cognitive level. New ideas from others do play a part, but if you have a succesful life strategy then you don't go kicking over the bins to learn from someone who's ideas are in total conflict to your own. That you do come into contact with such people, through debate, books and ideas does not mean you are profoundly attracted to them, but you may come to see their strategy as something that could be adopted. Second: lighten up IM, my final comment was a play on the battle which happened between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader during a conflict on the Death Star in the film Star Wars. Not a command. You have figured out that I'm not actually Lukes father ? I'm not a 'heart warming' sort of person-well my wife might disagree with that conclusion. I'm the sort of person people can initially a bit terrified to talk to, then they realise I'm really a big, soft pussy cat and very easy to get on with and have a laugh with. I often become their confidants and the resource they turn to when they get into a bind they can't figure things out for themselves. I'm very straight talking, utterly fair, honest to a fault and never ever found lacking in integrity. People I've known for a while-even those who have at one time or other disliked me-discover that I'm the genuine article, which is a big surprise for them-but not for me. :-) Oh, yes, and I couldn't give a damn what anyone thinks of me, neither will I be changing to suit them. I'm perfectly happy in my own skin-I just wish the body was a bit more reliable.

Please, please, won't somebody think of the dumb ?

And if you want to know exactly what, where, when, how and why ? We have come to this.

The irrepressible Wes Claypool with his outstanding bass action. Primus at their best.

I got banned completely from a forum for suggesting that. It had become inundated with a progressive liberal left who got into positions of power and began purging all their opposition by removing posts arbitrarily and even modifying posts. Eventually I removed all my posts and refused not to do so again.

People like people like themselves. That generally holds true. In the early stages it's physical, but it includes background, interests and values. The more we differ, the less we like. If only Luke knew the power of the objective side we would get on a lot better and rule the forum as father and son.

You sound annoyed.

Some light classic rock for MH ;-) saw them live last night with 3 other high energy bands at high volume. I'm really getting too old for this kind of gig I told myself. When my mate bought the tickets I was already beginning to have serious doubts-but what the hell, after 15 minutes I was 18 again and head banging like a psychotic grandad. Great stuff.

Search the force, you know it to true young young Liminal

The gay one ? Those films are the worst British propaganda. Really chintzy. Im sure the Queen commissions them and gets the money back from all the product placement.

Our P.M is trying for an Oscar. He is a real ham actor. After tub thumping that 'we know it was Putin shot down that plane, poisoned that man/caused global warming/made McApplepies scaldingly hot. He turns around and expresses horror/shock/surprise to find that the inquiry has discovered that there is a slim possibility it might be true. He pretends to like football so he is 'more down with the common man' but mixed up the team he is supposed to support with another team with a similar strip. He said he liked Pasties and often had one from a local place-that was subsequently found not to exist. I don't think he has ever seen a pasty, never mind eaten one. Every other phrase is either 'let me be clear' which is politician speak for 'I lied/got the message wrong/messed up' and now I wish to muddy the waters so badly you won't notice my little switcheroo. Then there is 'right thing to do'-there is no qualification for what makes it the right thing to do. I'm sure Hitler probably said it as he sent millions to the gas chambers, or marched into Poland. Anyway I'm sure the right thing to do, is the right thing to do. When asked about the deficit he talks about the debt and when asked about the debt he talks about the deficit. If he gets asked about both he says it's all about his 'long term economic plan' (which is getting longer and longer like his nose and deeper and deeper like his bullshit). He has ideas about 'The big Society' which sounds quite Orwellian, but I think he just means swelling the country with millions of uneducated immigrants. Then there is 'The northern power house'. No one knows what that is, even his ministers in the North are struggling to describe it. They make tepid hand movements in a vague attempt to model it's mythical shape, then their mouths make a flapping sound but nowt comes out. My wife and I have made numerous attempts to discover the whereabouts of this shangri la of the North, we even roped in Indiana Jones but it remains a complete mystery.

I don't think our leaders are particularly bright. Too much power, money has allowed weak, stupid people to get into positions of authority. Every decision has to be run through a PR filter to determine the leaderships popularity. They are like bad salesman with enormous marketing power selling lemons to idiots. You want cheese with that ? More cheese yeah. Have a nice day...chump.

Very possible. Russia is a country built on mysticism, so it would make sense that the connection would be reestablished following the fall of communism.

It's always on Star Trek. Those Tachyon emissions get every where, they are the geek equivalent of wet dreams.

I think he would like to have the empire back again-not the USSR. He is seen as the Czar and that strongman image is very much in the mould of a facist dictator along the lines of Mussolini. He has enemies inside and outside Russia who want to see him fail. Some of those people would like nothing better than the return of communism and others want to make the country freer. The oligarchs support Putin as long as they get the environment which helps them bypass the laws and make money. The recent mash up report about the murder of Litvinyenko looks very much like an action to implicate Putin which happens to suit the West at this stage. Pulonium leaves a trail like nothing else on the planet, a group who wanted to make the case for Putins incursion on to British soil couldn't have chosen a better compound to use. It's suggested that this was a purposeful attempt to show that a dissident could be reached anywhere in the world. I don't buy that. The guy was in Britain for six years, he wrote his books and said his piece whilst in Russia- he was even suspected of corruption and went through the Russian court system twice. Yet, both times he was judged innocent. Putin could have had him murdered in Russia and no one would have blinked an eye, but then he waited six years and chose the most easily tracked substance on Earth ? Putin must have a fantastic mind for dramatic theatrical murder that would make Agatha Christie smile if it's true. Apparently there is doubt that it was Pulonium that killed him and his own family have been refused an autopsy by the UK. The Russians were involved in the investigation of the murder right up to 2014 when the UK dropped the case. Then it was started again as a 'public inquiry' yet the public are excluded from the evidence, or the witness testimony. All we here is maybe, perhaps and probably. It's hardly factual objective evidence, but the newspapers dutifully report it never the less.

I watched Lavarov this morning giving a press interview. Simply put, this is Cold War v 2.0 Russia has become part of an Eastern rising of capitalism and ironically it is the West that has been systematically dismantling real capitalism and instituting corporocracy which is, for all intents and purposes Facism. Russia and China have become financial competitors and they are getting in the way of US domination. The EU, Japan and UK are uneasy allies. We rely on Russian Gas and on Russian trade. Europe has been getting closer to Russia and that has upset the USA. The game plan is to put pressure on Russia to accept US dominance. To do that they have plans to put a Gas pipeline from Oman through Syria in order to feed the EU from US friendly, dollar denominated gas supplies. The US also wants the EU to remain locked together as a way of bringing Russian satellite states into US influence. The Wests interference in Ukraine was another attempt to pressure Russia into making a mistake over which the world could be persuaded to stop trading with them. It would also have brought Ukraine into the EU and eventually cut off the gas being supplied to them from Russia. However, let's not see Russia as an innocent in all this. They have there own internal issues with high powered oligarchs who determine the actions of the state. It's quite unstable. I think it's likely that he current government is trying to create cohesion and thereby secure its own position in the country. This lack of stability and corruption has been a great opportunity for US contractors, advisers to fill their pockets and introduce US corporatism through the back door. Putin caught on to what was happening and has kicked them all out. Putin is simply a dictator in waiting and wants a totalitarian society. Obama is in the process of moving the US to where Putin is. The US remains a far freer country than Russia, but Obama has moved towards the totalitarian model in increasingly larger steps. Of course, now Russia has come into the conflict in Syria and now threatens the gas pipeline. The US government is looking increasingly like the bully and incompetent with it. That's why they wanted the backing of the EU/UK. It appears that Putin is winning the game. The Russians look smarter. They diffused the 'so called' Syrian chemical attack situation. They have been vocal over the mess made by the US in the Middle East. There is now a focus on the Wests Arab allies and their involvement in sponsoring ISIS. Then there is the blowback from the fighting which has caused the mass immigration-I suspect the US wanted to use it as a way to discredit the Russian involvement in Syria, but it's not just Syrian refugees, but all the people from Iraq, Libya.

Ooh goody, addressed by Brian, I can hardly wait. I'm Luke's dad, it isn't any secret these days. Everyone knows what lies beneath Darth Vaders mask. ;-) Let it go Brian. Turning this into some kind of personal feud is boring, destructive and unnecessary.