pap

Unbelievable Jeff; your transport worries are over. Just pick a different train company than South West trains. Way to miss the point, Sour Mash

Well, if for no other reason than to reduce the ridiculous licensing costs that people, including us, have to pay for drugs. Their stance is basically "Can't afford the life-saving drugs we have? F**k you. Die."

There are plenty of industries that I don't think business can be trusted with. Health care and prisons would be one. I'd even say that there is a good case for big pharma to be hemmed in. I'd also say that transport and utilities need to be run with the national interest in mind. All of these things are essentials, and unlike some of the other essentials such as food, aren't as easily procured when profit motive is involved. We don't need to speculate on what happens when companies are given reign over the essentials. All of the above are taxes going to the private sector, and then who knows where. Decisions are going to be based on short-term profitability rather than any long term improvement, and people have to cope with year-on-year inflation-busting price rises in many former nationalised sectors. Don't buy that it can't be done. Other countries have not only achieved it, but also now own big parts of our energy market. They had the nous to do something useful with their nationalised expertise; Thatcher was stupid enough to sell our kit to them, so we now subsidise foreign states when in the past, all of that money would have been going into our own exchequer. That's what I mean.

It should when profit motive is trumped by public concern.

Cough. EDF. Cough.

Mods. Tokes is posting his wánking inspiration again.... FFS, Tokes. Thunderdome reference as well.

Ah, they're so much fun when they're at their best. Quite a bit of filler on their albums though. I really like DC Comics & Chocolate Milkshakes though. Art Brut with a wee bit more technique, but still recognisably them. Stay off the crack.

Tsk. This is literally unbelievable. What do you have to say for yourself, Sarnia?

Sometimes I like music to be a bit of a laugh. Art Brut fit into this category. So do Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Try listening to this:- Or indeed their album, "Are we not men? We are diva!" without raising a grin. Go on, I dare you.

President Obama interviews David Simon, creator of The Wire. They talk about many things, but an underlying theme is definitely "What's wrong with America?". If the President can have this discussion, I think we all can.

Long-term users of the Internet will be well-acquainted with The Onion, a spoof news site that has been around for what seems like forever. I don't check it every week, but I enjoy it whenever I do. Thing is, some people on Facebook haven't got the memo. They think The Onion is real, with hilarious results. http://literallyunbelievable.org/ They make us muppets look like academics

Yeah, Evan Davis was really trying to get him to say that, wasn't he? Brand owned him on that point and gave an eloquent answer. Did make me laugh though.

Classic Turkish. Cue the following events. 1) Someone complaining about provocative post 2) Turks arguing the toss forever on the technicality that black people are amongst those that commit crimes and that what he said was technically correct. *Sigh* Welcome back, mate.

I find it helps.

Sarnia is a gent in LA.

Been catching up on all kinds the last couple of days. I suppose Better Call Saul is at the top of that list, which I'm enjoying so much I'm willing to overlook the fact that everyone looks a wee bit wrinklier than they did in Breaking Bad. Bob Odenkirk is there in his pre-Saul days, as is Mike. I've just seen the first serious chat between those two, which bodes well. No spoilers, but Mike isn't the only Breaking Bad character that turns up. New to this show is Michael McKean, of Spinal Tap and all-round improvisational fame. But yeah, it's quality so far. Even though we know the endpoint, there is plenty of scope for Odenkirk's character to rise and fall in between, and it does seem like he's getting into many of the same types of scrapes as Walt and Jesse found themselves in, just without the chemical inspiration.

I'm really far more of a ROCKER than a J to the ROC. Can I be Bon instead?

Although I'm not religious, ms pap comes from a Catholic family and the kids have both gone through all the ritual. For stage one of the process, you have to give them saints names. I was left with the choice, didn't really know many female saints myself so went with Mary (obviously) and Anne. The last one is not so obvious, but it was devoted to the utterly noble and virtuous reputation of girls who went to St Anne's.

Pap's Everton Preview Everton. The other team in Liverpool. The people's club; their fans mock the jet-setters of Liverpool FC, coming in from places like Scandinavia, Ireland and the Netherlands. They laugh at the assorted LFC fans that turn up on talkSPORT with their cockney accents from "that London". My first real experience of Everton fans was in 1994/95, a roller coaster couple of years for the Blues. They'd escaped relegation on the final day of the previous season, and were plummeting toward it again under the stewardship of Mike Walker. Walker got booted, Royle came in and Everton convincingly beat Liverpool in Royle's first match in charge. Macca, our Evertonian mate, went around town that night with the simple chat up line of "two nil", and it worked. In general, Everton fans aren't a bad lot, and certainly aren't afflicted with the delusions of perpetual greatness that their rivals on the other side of the Stanley Park seem to suffer with. Everton has rarely been a team about stars. The club likes to present itself as something where the collective, and not the individual, contributes to success. That goes for the fans too; the old saying that the Gwladys Street end suck the ball into the net seems true. Everton's last major honours came in that roller-coaster 1994/95 season, when they lifted the FA Cup by virtue of a Paul Rideout goal, all that was needed to secure victory against Manchester United. They got the Charity Shield in the 1995 season curtain-raiser, but the consistent success the club enjoyed in the 1980s was to elude Everton until the present day. Until David Moyes was installed in 2002, they frequently flirted with relegation. Afterward, they never really troubled the relegation spots again until now, but were Jekyll and Hyde from season to season, sometimes nipping at the heels of the top four, and at others, slumping into abject mediocrity. Moyes' departure from Everton ended up being a rather acrimonious affair, due to Moyes making loads of crap offers for his Everton favourites in his new role as Manchester United boss. Last year, the Blue faithful had a honeymoon period with Martinez similar to the one we're enjoying with Koeman. All change this season. Despite (and perhaps because of) an impressive but ultimately fruitless series of results in the Europa League, Everton's Premier League form has been poor, and they're back where they were pre-Moyes, looking nervously at the bottom spots and hoping someone below them doesn't find form. To be fair to Martinez, he's managed more escapes than his one eventual relegation with Wigan, taking some big scalps in the process. He'll be looking to do that on Saturday. I'm not going to lie. I've always been anxious about our lack of depth in the goalkeeping department, and though I respect the bloke for wanting to play football, Boruc chucking his toys out of the pram hasn't done us any favours. Kelv has probably never had a better team in front of him in his life; I hope he does well. Everton are shít at the back, but the worry for Saints is that the defensive frailty of other sides hasn't really been an issue. Even when teams have come to park the bus, we have created chances - just haven't put them away. Everton's defence can be as porous as a tea-bag and it won't matter if we don't score goals.

I've heard a couple of pundits speculate that any defensive solidity last year was down to the lingering discipline of Moyes still having a hold. While he's tried some left-field solutions (his 3 at the back for Wigan) Martinez' teams have never been able to defend consistently.

Probably at sixteen or eighteen years old.

Everton. Not only are they decent at home, but they are also a traditional bogey side for the Saints. I've been a few times and have never seen us win live, although I remember Kevin Davies scoring a beautiful goal in a 2-0 victory there, running half the length of the pitch. I watched that in the Shiel Park Tavern, which was fun. Anyway, will be going to this one. Best chance of a win here in a while. Martinez is under all kinds of pressure, as is his defence these days.

Can I just point out that calling any man a wánker or tósser is largely an exercise in redundancy in the Internet porn age?

Conrad Knight Socks.

I wonder if this is a blessing in disguise for the BBC. No doubt Clarkson has made them a crapload of money over the years, but both he and May are looking like older gentlemen now. If not now, when? We'll see, but I reckon Jezza's appeal was on the wane in any case. Jeremy finally pushed the button. Well, smacked someone in the gob, but it amounts to the same thing. BBC missed a trick by just letting his contract lapse. They should have sent Alan Sugar around with a film crew to sack him on his doorstep. "You're fired!" TV gold slips through the Beeb's fingers once again.