Stubby

That's just how I feel.

Like you, Turkish, I get bored by people making silly, cheap, predicable jibes about a national newspaper. But when you write things like this you only encourage them. Everybody, can we please just talk about the article?

Why would you want to disrespect my memories?

Yes, there's been some over-reaction. But when I see red and white stripes, I connect with nearly 50 years of wonderful memories, and can get quite emotional. It may be irrational but I feel like I've lost some of my heritage when the lads play in other strips at home.

Mick Channon. Then Eric Martin.

When he says that, perhaps he' s not merely stating the blindingly obvious, but trying to indicate the necessary mindset of the players - focussing on not conceding, maintaining concentration, keeping defensive discipline and so on.

Some of the posts on here are depressingly infantile.

For what it's worth, yes I did. I also saw Shilton, who I would say was better than both.

Even better than Niemi IMHO.

Yes. Complex. As in "there's more than one definition".

Sure. You're right and the dictionary's wrong. Because you've written a few essays you must be right. There is only on definition of "race", and it coincides with yours.

Yes it is. According to The Free Dictionary, one definition of race is " A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution".

Ramirez is getting more negativity than he deserves. He played well yesterday and scored a good goal. He was our best player IMHO. But he tired badly after an hour. There's got to be something wrong with him.

I'm no footy expert, I'm just a fan. But I can't understand why a transparantly decent man, who appears to be learning and improving all the time, and who has us playing attractive football and moving up the league, wouldn't be given time to see how far he could take us. Nigel was one of the reasons I loved going to St Marys, and he will be grealty missed.

Having anyone push their beliefs can be very irritating. I don't think it's just evangelicals, though. In a previous job, I got bored with atheists pushing their beliefs, and the BBC seems to push "liberal" opinion quite hard sometimes. But getting irritated that some people don't know when to shut up is different from denying their freedom fo speech, or conscience, or belief.

It depends what you're looking for: Most valuable player (on the pitch but not in money terms): Cork Hardest working player: Morgan Most improved player: Puncheon Best technical player: Ramierez Best youngster: Shaw Player I'd most miss if he left: Lambert Player I most hope stays: Shaw

There are several players who could use some more game time: Boruc, of course, plus J Rod, Fox, Jos, JWP, Richardson, SDR. We could most of these without greatly weakening the side.

It seems that, generally, people who have a faith in God see a connection with having faith in other things, people who do not have a faith in God do not see such a connection, and neither group understands the other very well. No surprise.

I understand we seem short of good options at LM but haven't we seen that JR is a fish out of water in that position? We could put Fox there, or try out JWP, although away to Stoke isn't a great place to try a youngster out in a new position.

Merry Christmas everyone, hopefully followed by 3 points on Boxing Day.

para 1. So I should pass on my values to my children, including my belief in the existence of God. OK. para 2. (a)To quote norwaysaint, "One common mistake seems to be that atheism is a lack of belief and faith. The dawn of my own atheism was the beginning of my own beliefs and faiths". If norwaysaint is right, atheists should not be too quick to describe all faith as irrational (b) expressing my reasons for believing in God would take rather more space than would be appreciated by users of this sort of forum © Are you an agnostic (one who claims not to know if God exists or not) or are you an atheist (one who believes God does not exist)? The non-existence of God is not provable, and therefore atheism cannot be established through "reason, logic and rational thought ". para 3. If you have absolutely no ideas about life except for your belief in the non-existence of God, your world-view is a very empty one. Anyway, goodbye (for this thread) and Merry Christmas!

To avoid passing your values on to your children is more difficult than you seem to think. I suspect your post makes that quite obvious. As to reason, rationality and logic, I suspect that I and many people of faith have those qualities as much as many atheists. It may be a mistake to think that your world view is the only rational one.

We all condition our children, and so do schools, according to what we believe. Don't kid yourselves.

I agree completely with what you say about atheism and atheists. I would request that you and others try not to over-generalise about Christians (as in "Christians tend to...."). I try not to over-generalise about atheists. I have heard Christians ask that kind of question, but not often. I highly respect your - and anybody's - willingness to say "I don't know". It's not as if Christians have all the answers, either (well, I don't, anyway). I can't answer a question about whether I would have chosen Christianity had circumstances been different. We never know what might have been. We must all make out own choices, and we do well to respect the choices of others. But I'm very glad to have made the choice I did. Anyway, as someone else posted earlier, Merry Christmas to everybody, whatever their beliefs.

This is interesting to me. Atheisim.about.com says 'The broader, and more common, understanding of atheism among atheists is quite simply "not believing in any gods." No claims or denials are made - an atheist is just a person who does not happen to be a theist.' I guess you would dispute that. You say you have faith, indeed that the dawn of your atheism was the beginning of your beliefs and faiths. I suspect we all need to have faith in something or somone. Many have faith in science, or in reason, for example. May I ask (and I ask respectfully) if your faiths are faiths in certain things or beings, or concepts, or something and, if so, what are those objects of your faiths? For what it's worth, I understand what you say about passion resulting from a personal, individual decision. I'm a Christian who was raised an atheist.