Pink Freud

Statistics

Confusing sporting success with the requirement for arrogance...Celtic supporter....um.....

Andy "Osbourne" Murray.

I'm really surprised at how important it seems to be to some people how"nice" or otherwise Murray is. Henman was a nice guy who never won. Rusedski was Canadian, nice guy, never won anything. Murray is conceivably the best tennis player in Britain THIS CENTURY!!! Frankly, I couldn't care less if he eats dwarves live on stage. C'mon Andy Murray!

Candy

Snooty

A bizarre poll, and one of the dullest threads I've read in a long time. Interestingly, the Monster-baiters are particularly humourless. Coincidence? I think not. Where's Burgundy when you need him?

I watched that until Britt Eckland got naked, then went to bed.

Wierd. I loved it. I think you didn't pay it enough attention.

Paycheck. Nice one. "Close enough" sci-fi to be scary, in that everything was more or less recognisable. Even the use of Einstein's "time is a curve" theory made the whole thing a wee bit believable. Uma Thurman at her sexy best. 8/10

I remember a line from one of the Hannibal Lecter books-something like "he took a sip of her pain". I think it's a bit like that. My personal theory is that as a society the media has persuaded us that we are all in so much danger that any kind of criminal disaster is manna from heaven for their agenda. Then the very people who have been scared shitless of their own communities (the one where I live is about 10 miles from Soham) decide that this vindicates their "bogeyman" stance, regardless of the fact that this sort of crime is vanishingly rare. They have learned to be scared of strangers, and yet ironically the community suffers for that. Suddenly, lacking any real emotional attachment to those immediately around them, they can make themselves as emotional as they like on behalf of strangers who will never know. To summarise: people are plain weird.

Again, I totally agree. Let's just say that I don't give to knee jerk charities and leave it at that. I don't like the media take on this kind of thing, I don't like the way in which middle class couples can grab the headlines, be they Stephen Lawrence's or Madeleine McCann's. My annoyance on this thread is really pretty straightforward-people read what they read, watch what they watch, and make a value judgement on the basis of sensationalised bollocks. In the meantime, two people are doing everything they can think of (some of it possibly misguided from the perspective of the idle news consumer) to avoid facing the inevitable. That's where the compassion is called for Ron. Just two people doing their best, after fucking up monumentally.

Again though, this is (deserved) criticism of the media-I can't see how the McCAnns are guilty of anything other than trying to catch that particular tiger by the tail. All absolutely true. But nothing to do with the world we (and the McCanns) live in. Millions of pounds are spent by charities and the UK government every year in Africa-the trouble with your argument Ron is that it will apply for as long as it applies-do you think, for example, that people should give money to the RSPB, or WWF whilst there is still a single child starving in Africa? All too damn big for me I'm afraid. BUt just a wee bit of compassion for what is put in front of us really doesn't go amiss IMO.

You're not helping.

Well, I don't remember the couple themselves ever expressing such reservations. Maybe the redtops, though I don't remember that either TBH. Again, it wasn't the questions that were so nauseating on here, it was the assertions.

I didn't say, or even imply, that you did. We've been here before. And there we agree in principle. However, given the circumstances it would be a bit like giving two of the belt after a 6 year term. And again, I agree. However, there were people on this thread who stated categorically that the parents did it. It was justice by hearsay and statistics VT. They should be very, very ashamed of themselves.

Good post, and I agree entirely. But for the torch carrying mob, here's a question: do you think that it is inappropriate that a family who can do what they have done have done what they have done? I don't think anyone can dispute the issues regarding starving masses, lost children from poorer families etc., but what pisses me off on this thread are the unfounded attacks on two people who are doing their level best to rectify the results of a horrible mistake. It's the fact that they have been so succesfull at maintaining their public profile that appears to be what is annoying so many people on here. Footychick makes the one valid point IMO-how is this affecting their other children. That is a matter for them to address, but the fact that they haven't given up, and are perfectly happy to continue to plaster themselves all over whatever front covers that will have them seems to me to be wholly sensible and admirable, if a little desperate. This isn't about the McCanns being a special case for me. That is a totally different debate. What I've found so nauseating on this thread is the queue of people basically saying that they deserved it (where Madeleine fits into this I don't know, you'd have to ask the posters) or that they are milking it for cash. Or in one particularly vile instance, that they killed the child themselves. Their tragedy is no different from thousands of others. What is different is that they have used every single resource at their disposal in order to keep it going, and that they had considerably more resources than most people have. I can't understand why that surprises, infuriates or is questionable to anybody.

I know what you're saying BA, but it strikes me that the McCanns would have sex live in front of a global audience if they thought it would do any good. I find it bizarre that people can't see that. What Joe Public thinks of them as people, parents or anything else is, I would imagine, a matter of extreme indifference to them at the moment.

But Div, be fair. People are getting fed up of having to read this in the papers and watch it on the telly. They've had enough. And what is the suffering of two parents going out of their minds with worry and guilt, and the very, very slim possibility of their child still being alive and still being found, compared to the mental wellbeing of, say, Centralparker and xbl? Really, enough is enough. This topic is tired. They really ought to show some compassion for the P&B massive and let them get stuck into the next issue that will hold their limited attention span for more than two minutes.

Oh that's a tricky one. If she's alive, they go on looking and their whole family is in a state of limbo. Not knowing if she's suffering, not knowing what is being done to her. If she's dead, they can grieve and get on with their lives. Basic psychology Bloobell, though for that you've got to be human and intelligent enough to make the connection. It's called closure. Away back to your priest baiting, ***. You have nothing to offer here.

That's the thing, isn't it? You could sit and do nothing, or do everything you possibly can and always there will be that element of "am I making this worse". Poor b*****ds. I don't really care whether they milk their fund for all its worth or not, I wouldn't swap places with them for anything.

You know, everything else aside, what is really chilling about all this is that with the media circus, her photo everywhere and all the rest of the ongoing publicity, noone has a clue where she is, dead or otherwise. Doesn't give a lot of hope for the poor sods who didn't get the same opportunities to search for their missing loved ones.

Right. So because I used "us", implying the collective on these boards, you used "you"-about...errrm....who exactly? Not me, you've already said that. Not (I assume) the Portuguese police? So who-exactly were you talking to? Imaginary friends? Voices in your head? Oh no, it's the people who say the Portuguese police are pish. Who had referred to them? You really are utterly bizarre, but it's a quiet Sunday afternoon, keep it up.

Jesus. Worse than stupid. Dramatic into the bargain. If you were truly responding to my post with the relevant pronoun, you would have used "we" not "you". Give it up. Look, it's obvious what you were doing. You used a complete non sequitur to the post in question, then got caught. That's OK, but please stop using your primary school level semantics to try to get out of it. Are you going to admit you were wrong, or are you going to continue implicating the parents without any knowledge and little circumstance other than your nasty cynical mindset? I won't hold my breath.

Ach seriously son, if that's the best you can do, we'll leave it. Reread your own posting. You're like a wean with jam on his hands saying "It wisnae me!"