Fullerene

3 Forgetting how to count

A sleeper on the continent sounds great. Once tried a sleeper in the USA from Washington to Chicago. Hardly slept at all. Most of the level crossings are not signalled so the train driver blew the horn every ten seconds for almost the entire trip.

The game of tennis was originally called elevennis.

Apologies, it's just that whilst I currently crave a Labour win over the Tories, with the SNP bleaching Scotland, the reality of the situation is that Labour is in the electoral wilderness, the tragedy being that is is almost wholly of their own making. A Labour party offering a genuine alternative without a "enemies within our midst" narrative would be good.

Not surehow I am missing the pointernet since I totally agree with you. Labour needs to appeal to people who are not part of the club, cult, sect, whatever.

Yes I get it People don't want Labour to be the Tory reserves when the first team needs a break. At the same time, they don't want a Labour party where the leadership sees the main threat as people from his own party. Other parties don't suffer from these complications. Why does Labour?

If they could get rid of the right wingers and also win an election then I would get your point. However after losing four elections, Labour becomes an irrelevant cult or they choose a leader who can win an election. It doesn't have to be a right winger. Just not someone who boasts about coming a glorious second.

I'm not so sure. If Labour loses the next election then that will be four in a row. Somebody will say "we need to stop talking about Left and Right and start tallking about Winning because it is only by winning that we can actually change anything". IMO even those who thought Corbyn was a breath of fresh air would listen.

I don't see why they can't just rig up a high rise building will all sorts of cameras and meters and detectors and stuff and then crash a plane into it. Put all this conjecture to rest once and for all.

So he was in the control bunker, was he?

Anthony Blunt, art historian and adviser to the Queen was actually a Soviet spy. Not sure how that worked. Maybe he brought her paintings with listening devices hidden under the canvas. I can imagine the handlers getting furious when the paintings are put in the wrong place and instead of hearing the Queen talking to the prime minister they hear Prince Charles talking to flowers.

Re Pentagon flight path. It probably was difficult if you were concerned about keeping the plane intact and landing it safely. Otherwise maybe not.

I laugh at suggestions that President Bush was somehow behind 9/11 or Lyndon Johnson was behind the assassination of Kennedy. If either of these were true - then that would become all they were known for - their entire legacy. By comparison, most assassins were unknown before they committed their crime. I think most conspiracies happen to ensure they happen - i.e. the fewer people know at the time then the most likely it will succeed. If it gets blown years later, it no longer matters. IMO, conspiracies that have to remain secret forever are highly unlikely.

You are right. I stand corrected.

You've answered your own question - Scotland has the SNP to represent the country's interests, no part of England has similar. And I'd disagree that England is not a two-party nation; it is indeed that with the Lib Dems no more than an occasional pressure relief valve. All the main parties in Scotland campaigned for Remain. Scotland does not have an identity crisis. Scottish people are Scottish. IMO, by comparison, people in the north of England do have an identity crisis going on. What does British mean if the Scots don't want to be British? What does English mean if you always have to add 'north of'? "I'll tell you what, lad, I'm not bluddy European!" Something like that. Also they all read newspapers that tell them to hate the EU.

Actually they attacked Pearl Harbor before they formally declared war. The Americans always regarded it as a sneak attack. My point is that Roosevelt and others wanted to get into the war but the American public were against it. The Japanese solved that problem and in such a clumsy way that Roosevelt had no problem declaring war on Germany too. America benefitted enormously from the war as a major combatant who experienced very little damage on home soil (Pearl Harbor, a couple of unimportant islands in Alaska and some ship sunk in harbor in the first few months - and far fewer wounded and dead then most of the other major combatants). If any American had predicted Pearl Harbor but kept quiet about it then I doubt history would judge them poorly for it.

Or maybe "Happy landings, guys."

As a matter of fact, I went to see Bayern Munich against Union Berlin today. I would tell you all about it but I am not sure if anybody here is interested in football.

Anybody American who knew 9/11 was going to happen but failed to stop it would have been a fool. By comparison Pearl Harbor was a great success - America only lost 3 battleships ultimately (since the rest were repaired) and used it as an excuse to enter a war that turned it into the superpower that it is today. Ironically, the USS Phoenix survived the attack but was later sunk by the Royal Navy in 1982. America gained a lot of sympathy from 9/11 and could have used it better to make the world a better place but failed to do so. Iraq was invaded because Iraq tried to import some aluminium tubes from Australia (oh no - that metal again). The CIA was ease-dropping and a lot of powerful Americans were persuaded that Saddam was up to no good. They did not need much persuading. One connection between 9/11 and Iraq is Tony Blair. As I mentioned America got sympathy for 9/11 but Tony Blair went one step further. He flew over there to attend congress in as much as to say "Hey, I'm your bestest, bestest friend". Once he did that, his foreign policy was totally compromised to be subservient to America on all issues.

Now that you have said it twice I guess it must be.

Football game got in the way of things.

You're making a distinction?

For most of them the fact that it happened in their own country. Also, as Welshbairn already stated, it was all so cheap and easy to do. Very discomforting. Much better to believe some massive conspiracy was behind it so it is unlikely to happen again.

Did it really suit the hawkish government? It cost the US economy billions of dollars and made them look incompetent and gave them an excuse to invade a country that nobody would want to invade. Is the US more powerful and impressive because of 9/11? No.

I guess I am being pedantic but 500 mph is when the plane is at cruising altitude. Only a thousand feet up it only be around 180 mph. Still incredibly fast with the obvious outcome.