Site News

Sorry about the lack of posts recently guys, I’m just shaking off a nasty chest infection. Bear with me, hopefully I’ll have plenty of opportunity over Christmas – and with the girlfriend away for three weeks :( – to make up for lost time.

Has anyone got any requests or suggestions for a Christmas series, like last year’s popular ‘Falklands: Then and Now’ set of articles? Think like the Open University Xmas lectures, just without the courdroys and less facial hair (unless I can’t be bothered to shave over christmas!)

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35 Comments

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35 Responses to Site News

  1. John Erickson

    James- You just get yourself better, we can entertain ourselves just fine. (No, not THAT way, you little pervert!) Seriously, just focus on getting healthy.
    As to ideas, have you folk hashed the WW1 Christmas truce on the Western front? Yes, it’s not naval, but it’s an interesting topic. If so, maybe changing traditions, or disappearing traditions, for celebrating the holidays aboard ship? Just some shots in the dark…

  2. x

    Bless your little cotton socks!!!

    Here is me thinking you were avoiding a thread about the student protests and fees. ;)

    Getter better soon.

    (Bad girlfriend for going away at Christmas.)

    • John Erickson

      X- Sure he’s wearing cotton socks? Could be wool, let’s hope not nylon.

      Oh, did you hear there’s a new line of socks, inspired by all the teen lycanthropy movies? All natural, easy to maintain. They’re called ……
      (are you ready for this?)……

      Wash-n-wear-wolf! (yeah, it’s an oldie but a goodie!)

      • James Daly

        I’m currently wearing Brasher walking socks, with reinforced toes and heels. Not sure what they’re made of, but they’re done a few miles and they’re keeping my toes warm!

        • John Erickson

          Humph! I give you a good pun to groan at, and you take it seriously. Not just your body that’s sick! ;)
          No clue about Brasher – must be a British thing. You get two choices over here – designer stuff that costs way too much, and the cheap stuff from China. And both last about as long!

        • John Erickson

          I give you a perfectly good pun, and you ignore it. Humph! ;)
          Seriously, don’t know about Brasher – must be a British thing. We get two kinds over here – designer stuff that’s way over priced, and the cheap stuff from China. And both seem to last as long as the other! Go figure!

        • John Erickson

          Ah, the wonders of Windows. Eats one of my responses, so I type another, then it shows both! The heck with Julian Assange – can’t we get somebody to shoot Bill Gates? After all, he’s committed crimes against humanity – Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP…….

          • x

            XP is OK. Microsoft designs OS’s like American car companies build cars. OK as long as everything happens in a straight line…..

            • John Erickson

              Now don’t you pick on American cars! My wife had a Pinto and it never burned. It couldn’t keep any fluids inside it (hence the name of Puddles), but it never burned!

      • x

        The one thing google can’t translate is American humo(u)r…….

        • John Erickson

          Puns aren’t humour. They are a lower form of life, which requires a complete lack of sanity and a seriously disturbed emotional state to even be conceived. Proper execution of puns (emphasis on execution) requires a total lack of shame or decency. Hence, your lack of comprehension, and my over- utilisation! :p

    • James Daly

      me? avoid writing about a good protest? I must be ill ;)

      yeah its a bummer about Sarah going away, but at least I’ll have plenty of spare time on my hands to get cracking on the book…

      • x

        Um. She wasn’t in…..um…..London, Whitehall, by any chance. Um…should I be baking a cake with a file in it? ;)

        I mean three weeks for a first offence isn’t that bad. :)

        • John Erickson

          Three weeks’ sentence to chuck rocks at Mrs. Chuckles? Dang, where do I sign up? It’d be worth it – heck, I’ll do it 4 times, and just call it my summer vacation!

        • x

          Do you find it sad that Charlie Gilmour who defiled the Cenotaph is a history student?

          • James Daly

            I felt quite sad, I bet Daddy isn’t too impressed, Dave Gilmour’s quite a quiet and level-headed chap. Sadly sons of rock stars have a poor track record, just take a look at that feeble excuse of a son that Brian Ferry has.

            RE him being a history student, its completely possible nowadays to get through GCSE, A-Level and Degree without doing anything about WW1 or WW2.

            • x

              Yes I know. But history should be about context. How can you evaluate the history of others if you have know understanding of your own? Don’t answer that, as I know that in today’s academia that is possible too.

        • John Erickson

          I find it sad for a British student to do something like that. I would expect this behaviour from an American kid. Kids here think they know SO much just ’cause they know how to work computers. I got news for them – what they think they know won’t do squat for them in the future. What they DON’T know is what will end up biting them in their sofa-shaped butts! As an example – most US high school (grades/years 9-12) students don’t know how to touch-type. If they all know how to run computers, who gets hired – 10 words a minute or 60 wpm?

      • John Erickson

        OK, I may be just too out of tune with the British people, but I have to ask. Why were the crowd surrounding Chuckles and …her… all chanting “off with their heads”? What do the Royals have to do with the tuition increase being passed? Why would the students be angry with them? (Well, I know why with HER, but why at Chuckles?) Please educate a dumb yank!

        • x

          “Off with their heads!” is from Alice in Wonderland.

          In constitutional terms the Queen has nothing to do with government policy. Everything is done in her name but that in reality is so much theatre. In theory she can dissolve Parliament but if she were to do this it would just bring about a constitutional crisis. Um. These have occurred in Australia and New Zealand,

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Australian_constitutional_crisis

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_constitutional_crisis,_1984

          I think most of the ire from the protesters is basically to do with the Royal Family’s privileged life at the expense of the tax payer. (Though Crown Estates pay more into HMT than the Queen gets in return. And then there is the intangible earnings, shall we say the celebrity factor?, of the Royal Family world wide.)

          Of course I could go down the rabbit hole and start discussing the middle class’ envy of the upper classes etc. And that socialism roots are within the middle class etc. and so far but that would get messy. ;)

        • x

          It seems my post disappeared. So quickly….

          The Royal Family tend to be a focus for the ire of the Left because of their state funded life of privilege. Though Crown Estates pay more into HM Treasury than the Royal Family gets out in Civil List payments. And it should be mentioned that many of the Left’s leading politicians do very nicely thank you out of their time in politics. Though not a secret it isn’t something many know.

          The Queen’s constitutional powers are very limited. The Governor-Generals in the White Commonwealth do occasionally exercise the Queen’s powers on her behalf (in a tenuous abstract way.) See,

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_New_Zealand_constitutional_crisis

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Australian_constitutional_crisis

  3. Wrong place – wrong time?

    • John Erickson

      They were definitely at the wrong time, and in the right place with the wrong security! I’m just curious as to why the students would see any value in harassing the two of them. Like I said, for a 3 week jail sentence, I would absolutely chuck a few bricks at that woman, but I have my own reasons for that. Just wondering what the students’ motivation was, other than just attacking any government-related target they could find, no matter how tenuous the link.

  4. John Erickson

    X- Thanks for all that info, I wasn’t clear on what I was asking about. I knew the “Alice” reference and the limited powers of the Queen. I was just wondering why the students were venting against Charles and .. her .. when the Royals have no power over the laws that would cover the tuition costs. Envy of position is a great reason, thanks for that.
    Actually, I am under the Queen’s sway in an odd way. I re-enacted for a few years with an American group portraying the Coldstream Guard. When I joined, I was sworn in with the same oath the real unit uses. Our group was also approved by the Guard themselves. Therefore, if the Queen (not Parliament) ever starts a war, I am technically obliged to follow Her orders, even if against the US! In reality? I don’t live in reality, it’s a crutch for those who can’t handle science fiction. ;)

    • x

      I just noticed that my first did appear.

      Anyway as things stand here with the military when Mexico invades it will be every man for himself there in Southern Canada, I mean the USA. :)

    • John Erickson

      Y este es por que yo hablo Espanol. (And that is why I speak Spanish). And, eh, that’s also how I learned how to, uh talk like a Canuck, eh? See, always learn the language most likely to conquer you! Or perhaps better, learn the language you may have to live among! One reason why I will NEVER parlez Francais. As I said on another forum, I’m banned from Quebec. I got mad in Canada one time, let a few words like “frog” and “surrender monkey” slip – Quebecois have NO sense of humour! :p ;)

  5. x

    No, no hablan Espanol. No, no me gusta Espanol y Espana.

    Though thanks to Sesame Street I was bi-lingual until the age of 5. ;)

    • John Erickson

      Dude, not SPAIN Spanish, Mexican Spanish. No way I’d want to live in Spain’s economic nightmare! No, I’ll head south to Mexico, find a nice drug cartel boss who needs a military strategist, work my way up to middle management, get me a nice “hacienda” in some little “pueblo”, than give the townsfolk about half my income. Then when the Federales come for me, the town will defend me! Um… not that I’ve really done any planning for it. (Slides his kerosene lamps and pedal generator out of the way.) :D

      • x

        Well you know my views. I think Mexico will be the next main theatre of ops for the US Army. And I expect the drug war to become a true war.

      • John Erickson

        How would that work? A third of our troops are Mexican, and the Mexican army is armed by us. Besides, we whipped ‘em in 1848, we can whip ‘em again! (OK, class, that ends our lesson in jingoism for today!) Besides, the Mexican army and police would probably join the drug lords. Can you say “Vietnam in our own backyard”? I find it hard to believe the American people would allow it so soon after Iraq and Afghanistan (assuming our leaders wait that long). Then again, to a lot of people, Vietnam is one of those “ancient” wars like WW1 or the Crusades, so give us a few years, and we’ll be ready to make all the same mistakes once again!

        • x

          Um. At war with the cartels not the Mexican government. You are already in one war against (a section of) another country’s population with the aid of that country’s government.

          I think the people of Texas and Arizona and Nevada and New Mexico (and perhaps even the long state below Oregon) would say that is where the US Army and USMC and USAF should be fighting and not running around central Asia. The homeland in Homeland Security is the US not Afghanistan.

          It is good you remember 1848 because we kicked your butt in 1812………

        • John Erickson

          Harumph. You did no such thing. You simply helped us clean out the corruption in Washington, DC. By the by, would you like to take a second whack at it? We could really use it! :)
          I did mean to say the Mexican army. I hate to say this, but I have little faith in their army. I think most of ‘em would look at the bottom line and take the better offer from the cartels. As to our forces, I’d suggest starting in the US first. Seal the dang border properly (no patchworks, one solid patrolled fence), THEN you can go adventuring into Mexico. Just give it a few years – we have to replace all the worn out tanks, IFVs, planes, and helos before we can go mobile again. Heck it’ll take a few years just to get all that hardware back home!
          Oh, and technically, it’s TWO countries were at war with, supported by an ersatz government. You think we’re out of Iraq? We’ll have “trainers” and “support” personnel over there for decades, just like South Korea and Japan.

  6. x

    Well at least re-equipping US forces will keep the dollar at home.

    I don’t have any faith in the Mexican government either.

    • John Erickson

      Not necessarily. If we buy the Airbus tanker, Airbus gets some (I know, very little, but some) of the money. Our M249 Squad Automatic Weapon is from Belgium, it’s replacement from Germany (as is the 120mm gun on the Abrams), our replacement “cheap” F-35 is hanging by a European-purchase thread (mostly you blokes ;) ), and I’m sure there’s more but the brain has shut down. (If you think of the old phrase “sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, I’ve had too much of two. Hint – I’m a fat, bespectacled nerd!) But hey, we took down the global economy, least we can do is build it back up again! And our credit card is excellent – no limit. (Don’t you wish YOU could just print money to pay off your debts?) Besides, what does this military have a country for, if not to spend it into insanity – or is that insolvency? :D

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