peterms

Tee hee.

Well, yes. But why one and not the other?

I was thinking more that the idea behind this bizarre punishment is that the hand is the agent of theft, and the mind is the agent of fraud, therefore an equivalent punishment for eg banksters would be decapitation. Isn't that how it works?

Was required to do the late breakfast for everyone who stayed over until boxing day. Bacon, black pudding, haggis, fried mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, fried eggs, for 9, all seved together. Someone else saw to the beans, toast and coffee. Cooked in stages and kept warm until it could be served - 5 or 6 runs at the small grill to do enough bacon etc, two lots of a big frying pan full of eggs...one broken egg for the dog, no wastage, all scoffed. But they ate all the black pudding before I could serve myself. Bastards. Should have done sausages as a diversion, but it wasn't my house or my supplies. Oh well.

"Would you like to taste my Scotch Bonnet?" Cheeky devil.

I think the logic for this sentence is that theft is committed with the hands, therefore removing them prevents future offences. Just wondering, what is your take on crimes relying more on the mind, say, fraud?

That's the spirit. Ignore the knockers.

Some info here on another of these synthetic burgers. Finally, the doctor explains the radically high amount of estrogen featured in each burger. “The impossible whopper has 44 mg of estrogen and the whopper has 2.5 ng of estrogen,” wrote Stangle. “That means an impossible whopper has 18 million times as much estrogen as a regular whopper.” He went on to compare the level of estrogen in the Impossible Burger to soy milk, writing that eating four of the vegetable burgers daily would result in a human male growing breasts: Just six glasses of soy milk per day has enough estrogen to grow boobs on a male. That’s the equivalent of eating four impossible whoppers per day. You would have to eat 880 pounds of beef from an implanted steer to equal the amount of estrogen in one birth control pill. In short, the Impossible Burger is a genetically modified organism filled with calorie-dense oils that can make a man grow breasts if eaten in sufficient quantity. I would think either meat or a proper vegetarian diet are preferable to eating this genetically engineered, processed stuff.

And the "red wall" thing is seriously overstated, as well as Blair's magic powers...

Is it possible to read Alan Bennett without hearing his voice in your head? Not for me. But this was good.

Nestlé, one of the most oppressive and exploitative corporations in the history of everything, tell us what to eat. For their profit. Stay away from their engineered shite.

But it's techically correct. They have African heritage, and we're all American subjects, aren't we?

Sausages and black pudding in a couple of days. Have bought some chorizo and morcilla to use with stale bread for Migas, which I described a while back and a couple of people liked.

Sister in law is doing the dinner for about 16 of us, I've been asked just to do some snacks for people while they have a drink before dinner. So, canapés. No charge, on the basis that people canna pay. (Oh, is that my coat? Thank you). Tomato bruschetta with basil Butterbean puree and muharamma on oatcakes Manchego y membrillo Sweet potato puree with lime and coriander salsa on rice crackers Spicy peppers stuffed with tabbouleh Masala potato wedges with tamarind sauce Flatbread with za'ataar, labneh with mint and sumac And a vegan main for a couple of people, aubergine with crushed chick peas and spicy tomato sauce. Almost all done the day before apart from grilling the flatbread and assembling everything for serving, then feet up for me. Cheers.

Interesting on the framing of how the results were reported.

It's a good job they didn't accuse Israel of war crimes, because that would be anti-semitic.

Did you look at the graph? The appropriate comparison would be if they were already top of the league, not on a trajectory from somewhere else.

Blair and his supporters keep on about three elections in a row as though it was his personal achievement. In fact, if you look at what was happening at the time, the picture is a little different. Thatcher had resigned in 1990, and the tories were in turmoil. They won the 1992 election despite that, and that was the high point of their popularity for many years. We had all the "sleaze" stuff, Major's pathetic "back to basics" charade, and most importantly Black Wednesday and Lamont's misguided attempt to hold the value of the pound, leading to ERM withdrawal and the loss of the party's always unjustified reputation for economic competence. Shortly after the election, Labour went ahead in the polls, and remained there. When John Smith died, Blair inherited this very favourable position. (Graph from here). This polling position, fairly consistent from before Blair became leader to the 1997 election, was reflected in the landslide vistory. Blair didn't build that, he arrived with it in place. Following that, Labour lost votes and members consistently, not least because of the illegal and shameful Iraq war. I can see why Blair and his familiars would like to spin the tale of him personally building up this vast majority and holding it until someone else let it all go to pot, but actually it wasn't like that. I can also see why Labour wouldn't want to consult him on where to go now. Just about every pronouncement he makes is either trashing the party, or self-justification, or rewriting history. He has nothing to offer.

Oh yes they were. (seasonal reference) From any reasonable northern European perspective, it was a moderate, incremental programme, too timid if anything.

Take back control. Stop being the poodle of the US.

Agree with all those points. But the seizure and destruction of their homes is not a reasonable or proportionate measure, nor one directed against other people committing antisocial acts, or contravening planning law (though someone can be required to remove a building they have built without planning permission, which is not directly equivalent). It is a measure which is designed to play to hatred of travellers, and by "othering" them it reinforces and validates racism. I would hope the courts would find that it is something directed at one idetifiable group in a way which contravenes equalities law.