Hamilton Saint

It's not a matter of whether you care or not; your statement that the poster is a subject and not a citizen is just wrong. That's the point.

"The assertion that guns offer protection is a mantra the NRA has repeated often. In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting, LaPierre opined: "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun", insisting that schools should have armed guards. Academics such as John Lott and Gary Kleck have long claimed that more firearms reduce crime. But is this really the case? Stripped of machismo bluster, this is at heart a testable claim that merely requires sturdy epidemiological analysis. And this was precisely what Prof Charles Branas and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania examined in their 2009 paper investigating the link between gun possession and gun assault. They compared 677 cases in which people were injured in a shooting incident with 684 people living in the same area that had not suffered a gun injury. The researchers matched these "controls" for age, race and gender. They found that those with firearms were about 4.5 times more likely to be shot than those who did not carry, utterly belying this oft repeated mantra. The reasons for this, the authors suggest, are manifold. "A gun may falsely empower its possessor to overreact, instigating and losing otherwise tractable conflicts with similarly armed persons. Along the same lines, individuals who are in possession of a gun may increase their risk of gun assault by entering dangerous environments that they would have normally avoided. Alternatively, an individual may bring a gun to an otherwise gun-free conflict only to have that gun wrested away and turned on them." "

"On 1 January 1983, upon the coming into force of the British Nationality Act 1981, every citizen of the United Kingdom and colonies became either a British citizen, British Dependent Territories citizen or British Overseas citizen. Use of the term British subject was discontinued for all persons who fell into these categories, or who had a national citizenship of any other Commonwealth country. The category of British subjects now includes only those people formerly known as British subjects without citizenship and people born in Ireland before 1949."

Thanks for the clarification. So, you'll go with the party that wants to leave the EU and support Grammar Schools. That's a pretty narrow programme!

I wasn't joking or being rhetorical; I was pointing out an error - which you have identified yourself in the part of your response that I have highlighted. Precision in language is important!

How can a game be drawn by a single goal?

Thanks. Any chance of Clegg and his party switching allegiance to Labour? (After election day, of course.) Would that provide a viable coalition to lead a minority government?

Three questions from an interested outsider: Are the majority of UKIP supporters people who would usually vote Conservative? (Meaning that UKIP-support splits the right-wing vote.) Is it at all likely that a Conservative-UKIP coalition (after the vote) could form a minority government? Would an alliance of the other parties be enough to stop that? (Assuming that the results on Election day matches roughly the current polling numbers.)

It would be useful to identify the source of any poll.

How could you be bored? The future course of your country is at stake. The campaign should be front-and-centre of media coverage until election day.

No. They are still overwhelmingly WASP.

Obviously I do know more about the GTA than you. Burlington, Oakville, Halton? With probably the highest population of British immigrants in Canada?

¿Que?

Good to hear she is OK. CBC News reports: "A friend of the singer-songwriter told CBC News producer Leslie Stojsic on Wednesday that the 71-year-old suffered a "minor medical emergency" Tuesday. The unnamed source also contradicted earlier reports that the singer, known for such hit songs as Both Sides Now and A Case of You, was found unconscious when she was taken from her home." Joni suffers from the rare skin disease Morgellons Disease, which has stopped her from doing public performances in recent years.

Source? Telegraph again?

Netanyahu to stage hunger strike for world peace. http://mondoweiss.net/2015/04/netanyahu-strike-against

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CCR did an extended version (about 11 minutes) of the song on one of their early albums.

The Onion. You Know about The Onion?

And here he is playing with Bert Jansch in 1967 - before they founded Pentangle.

Here's Renbourn playing with Stefan Grossman. Doing Charles Mingus's "Goodbye Porkpie Hat".

John Renbourn is known primarily as a founding member of the traditional folk/jazz group Pentangle. He was a great guitarist. Nice fellow, too - I interviewed him for a local radio station back in the late 80s. http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/26/guitarist-and-songwriter-john-renbourn-founder-of-pentangle-dies

I've had a cat before; now I have a dog. And this is my favourite Gary Larson cartoon.

Pathetic. But this has not been accurately reported. Prospect Magazine asked their readers to select their "favourite" thinkers. The Daily Mail identifies Naomi Klein as a "US author", by the way; she is, of course, Canadian!

We just got back from a week at the Iberostar Resort (all-inclusive plan) on the south-west coast of Cozumel Island (off the north-east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula). Excellent place. Very good food. Excellent diving location. It was about 30 degrees C all week. (Got back home yesterday; it was -10 C!) An interesting mix of people: mostly Americans, Canadians, French and Germans. Primarily older couples (40s-60s), but also some young children and a fair amount of teenagers. I would recommend the place to anybody.