pap

One thing that's easy to forget if you're not here is just how much poverty there is. I'm up at the arse end of town, which is basically six-lane Americana bisecting a ton of chain stores. Even here, which the locals know is miles away from anywhere, has people on the intersections begging for cash. The collective indifference to their plight is staggering, but easy to understand. When I first got here, I really felt for them. Still do, but internally you know that it's a problem you can't really fix. I used to give money to them back in the day, but it's getting to be incessant. I just say no now. I've become desensitised through repetition, and as soon as you're seen to be a soft touch, you just get swamped. If a civilisation is judged on the standard of living that its worst off citizens endure, then the US really needs to look its poor and homeless in the eye, and start doing something for them. Accept that for some people, there's no helping them - but equally, there isn't a great deal of help for citizens that do want to get off their arses. The local city I'm in at least tries. Bus transport to anywhere else in the city is $1, which means that the car-less can get to work if need be. Even so, it's a chilling insight into what happens when there really is no safety net and we should think very carefully about the ideas we adopt from them.

He's got a great setup here, and if he harbours any ambition of being recognised for his achievements, then he is arguably better off doing that here. Barcelona win trophies pretty consistently, and have always been able to attract the best players in the world. The Barcelona job is effectively yours to fk up. The expectation is that you'll win stuff, and if you don't, people wonder why. Chucking on my rosiest tinted glasses for a bit and imagining an unstamped dream, if we wins stuff with us he'll be a legend. Back the bloke, and see how far he can take us.

This is a very odd thread, although we're treading all too familiar ground. Sound and fury signifying nothing.

Dictionary does well enough, tit munch.

Yeah, but we're talking different eras. Larry David gets to hide, and Bill never did. Who is funnier, is of course, subjective. Who is braver just isn't in doubt. Oh yeah, fk Denis Leary, the no-talent arse clown. Mr Hicks dealt with that nicely.

He must be on crack.

Every comic has to have self-belief in their presence, otherwise they'd never get on stage. He's my favourite comic of all time, and makes the shower of sh!te in the panel show gravy train look fkn trivial.

Huge influence, massively critical of his own government and I would have loved to have seen his dissection of the War on Terror and the events that preceded it. His stuff on Waco is probably a good indication of how he might have seen things. Him and Rage Against The Machine have a shítload to answer for when it comes to some of my more controversial thoughts.

I'm in the US at the moment. Had a chat with an anti-gun nipper. He had his reasons, notably having a gun pulled on him twice for trivial drunken sh!t.

Yes. But also, shut the fk up.

Quiet. Silly person.

Shush, mush.

Sssh.

A bit OT in that it isn't Westminster. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-32413502 Thought it worth posting for a bit of balance, especially after the high profile Muslim grooming gangs were perceived as representative of all Muslims by some of our less tolerant posters. Those whiteys, eh?

Tell us of your understanding of the financial system. Please. Do you have any idea how money is created?

Yeah, you want what films are you watching. This is a TV thread.

Land registry doesn't know all, according to Kevin Cahill's "Who Owns Britain". Would love a copy myself, but this summarisation will have to do for now. http://www.countrylife.co.uk/articles/who-really-owns-britain-20219

20% sales tax on anything deemed a luxury.

You don't understand the financial system then. Money is issued as debt. Every mortgage is created out of thin air, a promise to pay by the borrower. The money doesn't come from some finite pile of cash. It's made real by that promise to pay, and enforced by the sort of c##ts that want to be bailiffs, and of course, the force of the state. Which makes almost every comment on sound economic sense utterly redundant. You're recounting a fiction, and expecting people to believe it is real. God forbid, but if a true catastrophe ever befelled our nation, you'd soon learn the value of money.

Agree GB. All Lou there

Ah, the old recharge drive. 10-20 minutes of driving to give it a reasonable charge. Bricking yourself at every set of lights thinking "don't stall, don't stall, don't stall". Fun As others have said though, you should be fine if it has already started.

Finished Daredevil. What a satisfying thirteen hours of television that is. I think we have a new "best" in the comic book TV adaptation stakes. Most other shows of this ilk tend to overstay their welcome, leaving at least a third of the season to be occupied by "Freak of the week" episodes. There's none of that here. What we have is deftly told arc story which weaves in some compelling origin material for both Daredevil and Wilson Fisk, and for once, a decent bloody finale. This is entirely aimed at adults; kids need not apply. as there are several scenes in the show that are pretty damn brutal. Fans of the source material may take issue with a couple of things. First, Ben Urich, a big supporting character in the MCU, has been recast as a black dude( the excellent Vondie Curtis-Hall ), having traditionally been portrayed as a chain-smoking whitey. I've got no real issue with that, certainly far less of an issue than I did with the casting of Michael Clarke Duncan as Wilson Fisk in the 2003 movie. There are also some character deaths which may raise some eyebrows. There are almost no uses of any superhero aliases. Wilson Fisk is never referred to as the Kingpin, and the moniker used to describe Daredevil changes throughout the series. It's a much talkier affair than one might expect. If you're anticipating balls to the wall action all the time, you'll be disappointed. However, the upside is that most of the characters are well-developed, Fisk and Murdock being particularly well done. As for Fisk's fragility mentioned by norwaysaint, it's there, but it works for me now that I have seen it all. There is more Marvel to come from Netflix. Jessica Jones is next up, and she will be played by Krysten Ritter. We've then got Iron Fist series and Luke Cage series following that. Finally, there is a mini-series called The Defenders which is probably going to be TV's version of the Avengers. If it's anything like the quality of Daredevil, going to be some interesting binge-watching on the horizon.

The only one I suspect of potentially being a multi-poster is Ludwig, and that's largely because he mainly comes onto the site to have a go at other posters. Maybe that's his thing, but it's got "angar account" written all over it

A pub.

Yep, and those crackpot parties get to say, with some justification, that they are being marginalised and denied a voice. Bring them on. If their arguments cannot be defeated easily, then that speaks more to the quality of mainstream politicians.