herfiehandbag

Even whilst happily playing in the sand pit of Northern Saudi Arabia one of the main preoccupations of the local authorities was the presence of any symbols of Christianity - I recall an incident when a young female soldier was grabbed by some official because she had a small gold crucifix around her neck, which was visible over her tee shirt. She knocked him down. The situation was resolved when Iraq made one of its periodic threats to raid across the border from Kuwait. All you could see looking south were Saudis legging it in the "Gucci" vehicles the US had given them!

Neither you (NZ) nor I (UK) can change it. We can comment upon it, highlight the inconsistency of it, suggest it be changed, even ridicule the excuses made for it. That is not moaning about it.

What's that got to do with democracy? I believe that amongst the incoherent mish mash of answers two phrases stand out: "tyranny of the majority" (which is diametrically opposed to any understanding of democracy) and the great cop out excuse, " but the USA is a representative republic"! Yet they lecture the rest of us about democracy!

Now look here, I know that good taste has no place in the vicious cut and thrust of party politics, but please, both these umh, couplings (?) really are stretching the boundaries. I recently laid bare my political "Eyore" feelings on UK politics. You are now at risk of replacing it with an awful dark cynicism!

So the USN recovered the bits they wanted.

Well, I lived in Bath, which for many years has had both a Lib Dem dominated council, and a Lib Dem MP. Frankly, and I know it is a cliche, they are neither liberal nor particularly democratic. Labour under Starmer, I remain to be convinced that the changes are more than cosmetic.

Indeed, there are occasions when a lie down in a darkened room is required...

Frank Hester is not someone who has crossed my radar - certainly he seems a deeply unpleasant individual; perhaps indicative of the state the Tories are in. I have been thinking about the current UK political situation for some time now. I am perhaps a natural conservative, I joke that I am unsure whether I am a conservative liberal or a liberal conservative; certainly a habitual Tory voter (not that that matters, I come from and am still registered to vote in a West of England Liberal fiefdom)! The current bunch are frankly, to quote Terry Thomas, “an absolute bloody shambles” I am not a right winger, I just want some honest open fair government, driven neither by business interests nor left wing ideologies. Simple government which simply does what it says on the tin! A government which puts forward a platform, and carries it out. A government which acknowledges it needs to serve all it's people, even if they did not vote for it. A political system which would have room for both Margaret Thatcher and Anthony Wedgewood Benn. For the first time in 48 years I think I will give voting a miss. I would hazard to suggest that the Tories are in real trouble when they are losing the support of people like me, not so much the right wing elements who have somewhere to go, and come back from, but people like me who find themselves with nowhere to go.

I want to store some files in "the cloud" I have both Google drive accounts and Microsoft one drive. I was unable to purchase the space on Google Drive (about 2tb), I don't know why. Microsoft took a subscription off me but I am totally unable to get in, it just loops around the entry page for my old one drive account. Neither of them have any meaningful support, Microsoft sent me to an outfit called "Just Answer" who asked for a one dollar registration fee and then helped themselves to a whopping further 47 dollars, recurring monthly. Bangkok Bank are currently trying to recover that. Does anyone have any suggestions, or would I be better going out and buying an expansion drive? Edit: thinking about it, the one drive subscription plus the 47 dollars plundered by "Just Answer" would have more than paid for an expansion drive!

Are you suggesting that I am a racist? I know that we disagree fundamentally on a lot of matters, but to suggest (as it rather seems) that I am signing off on his racism is going a bit far!

We don't need to know, I just note it and move on. Here in the Top North of Thailand I have virtually no interaction with them, although I did find myself feeling rather sorry for the two little girls who were so heavily veiled in the 7/11 the other day.

The man is an idiot. Whilst I can think of no circumstances where Diane Abbots acumen could be an asset to the nation, or indeed to a Labour Government, for a prominent Tory to go around saying things like that, given the likely electoral mess they are facing, is just stupid. It makes you wonder whether Conservative Central Office are running special courses - surely no one could be that stupid naturally?

Caught out, or specifically targeted?

It does seem bizarre that "evangelicals" would be espousing a chap who has been adjudicated by a civil court (jury) as having committed rape, a self confessed dirty old man who openly boasts of groping women, and who is shortly going on trial for paying "hush money" to a porn star! Still there are " non so queer as folk" ( are you still allowed to say that in the southern parts of the USA)! It also rather convinces me that "white evangelical Christianity" takes little from the teachings of Our Blessed Lord!

Any outfit with a self appointed "maximum leader" is to my mind pretty suspect. They have the right to campaign for their bizarre ideas, and to shout in as many echo chambers as they care - the thing about echo chambers is that you only hear yourself a split second later. If they launch a political campaign then they can be opposed. If they move into illegal activity - for example with "gun nuttery" then they can be taken down. But at the moment they seem to be a collection of the sort of chaps which one would far rather didn't come and sit next to you on a bus! Nice to see that they have their own funny hat! I thought that constitutionally church and state were held separate in the United States - changing that would presumably mean a fundamental rewrite of the constitution!

Absolutely.

Who apparently needed to dress up as military commandos to arrest a woman giving someone a lift! Dangerous these Norwegian blondes, where is the key to the dressing up box! As for the bigger picture here, well maybe the Phangan Paragon Resort & Spa is a very successful popular business, lucrative enough to have garnered the attention of some one with great influence, who may wish to take control of it, at firesale prices? Who knows! Odder things have been known to happen!

I doubt whether the Tatmadaw could find enough boots to give them, let alone weapons, training, leaders to command them, transport and so on. They would, will, end up with a "levee en masse", reluctant, untrained, unequipped. Totally useless in military terms. Rather like the proposed massive extension to conscription the then Thai Junta wanted back a few years. The reality is the Tatmadaw only control the territory for a few hundred yards beyond their own barbed wire, and then only in daylight. Every bullet, every mortar bomb, every radio battery has to be supplied down roads vulnerable to ambush. The rebels now have man portable ground to air missiles, which removes the Tatmadaws strongest card, their air force, ground attack aircraft and, especially, helicopters.

Rubbish. They choose it.

Two lying out in the sun, the rest firmly settled in the shade.

Couldn't even get a job working in a hotel!

He can always take some time out, and sit down and compare notes with "Bignok" and at least one other whose name escapes me!

Irgun and the Stern gang hardly drove the British out of Israel. As ever you choose to ignore the Palastinians long history of terrorism, culminating in their enthusiastic slaughter of over 1200 innocents on October 7th. But, but, but, Aljazira says...

If there was a known problem - warning light coming on 3 times - then keeping the aircraft from flying long distances over water was a pretty limp wristed precaution! Not only do Boeings safety standards and self certification need a long hard look, but Air Alaska's protocol's may benefit from close scrutiny. Far from a conspiracy, but both the builder and operator knew that there was something wrong, and took a chance. Everyone was extremely lucky.

Unlike the military...