quote:

What you call control

Jesus fuck. You don't. Know how. To read. Never mind, as there's no point in trying to communicate with you via the written word.

You should try understanding the etymology and meaning of the words you use, Split.

Splits says:

Governments can and do exercise various kinds of influence on people's lives. -b]Usually coercive influence.[/b]

Merriam Webster says:

1 aarchaic : to check, test, or verify by evidence or experiments b: to incorporate suitable controls in 2 a: to exercise restraining or directing influence over : regulate b: to have power over : rule c: to reduce the incidence or severity of especially to innocuous levels intransitive verb: to incorporate controls in an experiment or study —used with for

Hence it's the same fucking semantic thing and you merely used the modicum of difference to dodge my argument.

Just dodge it. Don't pretend you're incensed over some definition of a word that you're wrong about to begin with.

Do we need to look up the word coercive now too?

Influence, control, semantics are not the issue, boys. I find it distressing that arguments here so often devolve into semantics.

---
"I knew their tastes were very different and because the french like Dick a lot." -W.G.

Shouldn't you be writing a book or something, puppy?

quote:

Originally posted by editengine:

quote:

I expect the press were forced into secrecy because the freely available information about Harry (the fact that he hasn't been seen stumbling out of West End night clubs for 10 weeks for instance) would have blown the story anyway.

According the the brit media they were asked to keep it quiet and did so. It seems that CNN was part of the agreement too. There was a caveat to the deal, if Harry did anything non-military the deal was off. So no club hopping in Kabul is what the article I read said about it.

Which is utterly depressing. Sigh. It was an Aussie magazine, New Idea, and the German newspaper Bild that broke it. Amen. NB: New Idea has all the journalistic qualities of used toilet paper, but anyway. Of course, it's not owned by Fairfax or Newscorp, which, perversely, somewhat adds to its media credentials in my opinion.

It is a good story. Deserved to be broken. I wonder how many Diggers would give their left nut for a chopper outta there?

quote:

Offhand I don't get the pulling him out thing. Do you really think anybody can tell the difference between one pasty faced brit in a helmet and all the others?

It would be reasonable to expect they could. Al-Qaeda stated they'd seek him out in Iraq, which unfortunately means we're stuck with the long-faced bastards for a while yet.

quote:

If he was killed though it would have limited the options of the Brit government I guess. With a pissed off Brit public the UK couldn't pull out of Afghanistan without appearing weak. After the London bombing the UK used rising Brit anger to justify and greater involvement in the war. How important are the royals in the UK?

Don't know, nor care. I'm sure there'd be a few million or so who'd be pissed, but for The Colonials, we couldn't give a rat's arse. There'd be a bit of media saturation, which the average two-celled organisms that for their entire knowledge and opinions from Richard Wilkinson would follow and treat as gospel, but I figure it'll be dragged on much longer than it needs to be, with Harry's funeral taking a full three hours on a Saturday, and thereby pissing off those who'd like to watch something more meaningful, like grown men getting brain damage in pursuit of an ovoid ball. On the ABC, Nine and Ten.

The war'd carry on as normal.

quote:

Americans tend to be fascinated by them since we never had royalty of our own.

You did for a little bit. Then you wised up.

Anyway, aren't you electing a new set this November?

This is really cool.

They did one in LA as well. Simple, elegant, brilliant.

http://improveverywhere.com/2008/01/31/frozen-grand-central/

Some already posted that, UD.

Oh well. it's still cool as hell.

[URL=“We sent in a reconnaissance group who simply wandered around till they found the route to the roof ending in an open door. The fag butts around it showed it was being used by smokers,”]Interesting...[/URL]

In Her Majesty's Secret Psychic Service

Did the psychic foresee bicycle locks on nukes as a bad idea?


Operation Star gate and Russian PKE research are way cooler, plus, there isn't even a mention of Zarg!

Brits can't keep up with psychic research at all.

Hell we had a president following astrological charts!

Random statistics:

Today we had One explosion in New York that didn't kill anybody.

Two in Baghdad that killed 53.

And gunmen in Jerusalem who killed 8.

People aren't ontologically insecure at all.

Charles Free is no longer...free.

A true underdog story. Vietnam Vet robs store out of desperation, gets convicted, escapes, gets new identity and becomes model citizen - for thirty years.

For the last 31 years, Charles Free has lived an ordinary life. He fell in love, married and raised two children. He spent more than 20 years in the Las Vegas construction business, working his way up to project manager. His family calls him a caring man, a model citizen...But when FBI agents knocked on his door at the end of January asking for Jack Allen Hazen, Free knew why they were there.

'We Did It' letters eyed in NY bombing

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_8479220

The Twelve Monkeys did it?

Wow. Did not see that coming.

Bjork, pissing off the Chinese. You go girl.

Fucking oath that little Icelandic rat pisses me off.

What's wrong with Bjork, Lith?

In other "China is deeply fucked up" news,

Beijing too polluted for some Olympians.

quote:

China is deeply fucked up

It sure is popular to piss on China these days.

The vatican just declared 'excessive wealth' a 'social sin'.

Wow.

quote:

Originally posted by Boogerhead:
What's wrong with Bjork, Lith?

Ever run a current through a cat? Me neither, but in the hopefully rare occasion that I'm in the presence of a cat with 5000VDC going through it, the first thing I'll say is "Hey, that sounds like Bjork. Except the lyrics make more sense."

She is sensibly named though. One of the best examples of onamatopeia out there. It's the same sound I make throwing up.

Y'know, her and Sigur Ros - best argument for global warming I've heard.

quote:

Originally posted by Kerr:
The vatican just declared 'excessive wealth' a 'social sin'.

Wow.

Teh irony. Teh. Irony.