Meenzer

Good. He's got a hell of a hard task ahead of him, but CNN just ran five minutes of uncommented footage from around the country and you can't fail to be touched by how much this means to people.

Nobody cares; Hu wins.

Yup that's the current big issue within Afghanistan (same with Syria with Iraq, although that's a different kettle of fish)...... but again would Obama go in there? (would McCain?) He knows how to get Bin Laden, you know. He just hasn't told anyone yet.

Spot on actually, you've clearly been lurking at one of their piss-ups. Good man yourself for getting into the spirit of things, too. I could see Matt really admired your gimp mask.

And the Beeb have got this up for those of us who are too lazy to work out the time differences.

Booze is the best way of numbing the sheeple to the financial meltdown they're facing. </fop> I love going to my parents' for Christmas, seeing what muck they've got stacked up in the garage under the guise of festive drinks and having to come up with new and interesting ways of explaining why I immediately go out and buy some decent stuff instead.

Pelé's not as potent as he used to be though.

We're up against 1970's Brazil according to the kids board Wey that'll be easy, they're all dead old.

I'll have you know we glide around town elegantly. Racing is far too much effort. I bet you take the seat off first I prefer a smooth ride myself.

Or as fucking freaky. Richard Williams - even Freakier Fair call. And Jelena Dokic's dad was a bit of a weirdo. Plus Tim Henman's parents were clearly androids. There must be something in the (barley) water at Wimbledon.

I'll have you know we glide around town elegantly. Racing is far too much effort.

As has been said before, the long-term monetary boost to her profile, sponsorship prospects etc. as an Olympic champion would easily rival a one-off payment of a few million quid as far as incentives go.

If the Scots can make Leon win X Factor, they can make Chris Hoy win Sports Personality. I reckon it'll be him first, Hamilton second and Adlington third.

Given how instrumental Afghanistan was in the US plan to bankrupt the Soviet Union, I'd have tried the best I could to steer well clear. So you'd have just left the Taliban in charge and allowed them to continue training ad infinitum then? Or would you have just nuked Afghanistan to a glass wasteland? (this is exactly what I mean by Obama probably not being able to sort things out tbh) Insofar as no one ever can? Agreed.

Or as fucking freaky.

Wasn't the use of his arms was tortured out of him? He's like Cotton off King of The Hill. Speaking of which (or similar), this has some interesting parts. I can't comment on its accuracy. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/233..._maverick/print

No I'm not. I'm just saying that, for all there may be some people saying he's going to come along and make everything right, the sense of optimism he engenders - whether rightly or wrongly - has more grounded origins than a vague sense of him being the right celebrity at the right time. Of course it could all go tits-up. Hell, if things had turned out differently in Florida in 2000 then we might be seeing Al Gore castigated as the worst president ever because of his handling of September 11th.

Living on the edge with your predictions as ever. I imagine most thinking Americans are just delighted at the prospect of having an articulate and intelligent man in charge of their country again. (Even if he's not "really" in charge - and hopefully he'll be intelligent enough not to be. After all, even Dubya knows the value of having a strong team around you.) And following his successful candidature, it's only natural that the sheer relief has snowballed into a degree of hyperbole over time. That said, Obama has taken a real chance with his fairly low-key, Kerry-esque campaign - relying on McCain screwing up enough (which I think he may have done, even if I'll lose a whole ten pounds at Paddy Power if he loses) to outweigh the obvious disadvantages of the way he's played things. If everything goes to the formbook tomorrow then Obama will win fairly comfortably, but the combination of voting scams and what I suppose we'd know as the "Shy Tory Factor" inevitably loom on the horizon. And there's still 24 hours or so for a new Bin Laden tape to materialise.

A fine question that has plagued me since my very first brushes with Internet dating. We'll probably be upstairs, we were last time. I'll PM you my mobile number, suggest you do the same and I'm sure we can figure it out from there.

How shit is Congo man? Extremely. It was on Film4 so I thought why not. Feel yourself lucky you didnt sit down and read the book. What the fuck was I thinking? It took me about five Crichtons to realise that they're all the bloody same. Fortunately they don't take long to plough through.

That'd be grand. Make it a regular thing and I'll even edit the thread title.

Yeah, I haven't much time for the man and his "we won" attitude, but I thought his reaction was reasonable enough.

You can buy them from Sweden. Proper ones. Flat-pack and everything. Look out for the BOMBA and KÄRNVAPEN product ranges at IKEA.

I'm free. Tidied that for you.