Random Thoughts (Political Edition)

I think it's the hakkapelitta (it should probably be two P) and eii (one i) and peiit?? (proably only one ?). I think my signature is about almond icecream because I copied it off a box of almond icecream.

Not quite. Kekke=Keke, hakkapeliitta is okay, eii=ei, peiit??=peitt??. :lol: Your signature is correct.
Words are acidity regulator and locust bean gum. :blink:

Getting a bit off topic here...
 
I DONT WANT LOCUSTS IN MY ICECREAM

I'm scared now.

You know that in the Austro-Hungarian army around 1914, ALL orders had to be given in like 11 languages?

:p
It's just like Brussels then... :D
 
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It's just like Brussels then... :D

Except they were trying to organize an effective war effort, without enough translators, with in combat conditions, and yes, Hungarian was one of the languages. Hungarian is, as you'll apreciate, related to Finnish.

The EU is a complex being, and the daily running of it is complicated. But it's not like fighting a war against an eager (and united) enemy.

In a war derived from nationalism, Austria-Hungary and Russia was two countries fighting it without a real sense of nationalistic pride and national unity. Which explains a large part of their mediocre success.

That said, if you want to understand why Italy has always been unruly, in the 1890s, some people from Milan came down to Sicilly to work as teachers. The locals taught they were English!
 
Herman van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton.

Mr Van Rompuy, 62, had crucial French and German support.

EU Stitch up.

Anyone in Europe vote for these two - I know no one asked me?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8367589.stm

I suppose he does the advantage of being very easy to take the piss out of his name for English speakers. ...
 
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And for us Norwegians (and the Swedes and Danes, I presume).

That's a good enough reason, as he's probably just going to be an administrator anyway.

Can you tell me the name of the person who runs the administrative side of the school you're attending? Didn't think so.
 
Herman van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton.

Mr Van Rompuy, 62, had crucial French and German support.

EU Stitch up.

Anyone in Europe vote for these two - I know no one asked me?

Why wouldn't you vote these two?

838487_525x353.jpg
 
Together one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse?
 
I have to confess, I?ve never really understood why Belgium doesn?t just split up and join up with France and the Netherlands ... they are both part of the EU and use the Euro as currency (like Belgium), so concerning borders and laws not much would change anyway.

I can only imagine that France and the Netherlands don?t want the Belgians ... :mrgreen:

We germans would prob take the german speaking parts back ... if nobody else wants them :shifty:

I doubt france would WANT our french speaking part.....Its basicly an economical and social disaster area....

As for the dutch speaking part.....we and the dutch (as in : the people from holland) are socialy and culturaly very , VERY far apart , +they suck at making beer....not gonna happen.

Giving the germanspeaking part back to Germany..... I dunno.....you give em a finger they will take the whole hand, and overcalculate it probably :p

That just leaves Brussels.....officialy bilingual, in reality mostly french speaking and geograficly surrounded by flanders (the dutch speaking part) .....what are we gonna do with that? blow it up ? :cool:
 
Americans mainly. Through force of habit. But they'd aim for Brussels and hit Istanbul.
 
Considering they've done a bit of bombing the last couple of years, it's a wonder they haven't hit Brussels already.
 
Last time I was there I was under the impression they already did.........could have just been the results of a riot, night's out by some arab teenagers, bored younglings though, hard to tell....
 
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Americans mainly. Through force of habit. But they'd aim for Brussels and hit Istanbul.

Nah we have too many missiles there. Remember Turkey was the US's Cuba during the Cold War.
 
This is the war! :mrgreen:

Royal Navy used 'Spanish flag' for target practice off Gibraltar
Giles Paxman, Britain's ambassador to Madrid, has apologised after the Royal Navy fired on a buoy bearing the red and yellow of the Spanish flag during target practice off Gibraltar.

The diplomatic incident, which occurred amid mounting tensions in the sea around the British colony, was triggered when the crew of a Civil Guard vessel reported spotting the fast patrol boat Scimitar firing at the "Spanish colours" during a military exercise in international waters.

Giles Paxman, 58, the younger brother of the BBC broadcaster Jeremy Paxman, was summoned to Spain's foreign ministry less than a month after taking up his new post as British Ambassador.

While he insisted the flag on top of the buoy used in the target practice was not in fact a Spanish flag, he apologised for what he called a lack of judgement by the British navy.

A statement issued by Spain's foreign ministry said: "The ambassador insisted that, however it may have appeared, it did not represent the flag of Spain.

"He presented his apologies for an error of judgement and the lack of sensibility shown and promised to launch an investigation and to take the necessary measures to ensure that incidents of this kind will not be repeated."

The British Embassy made no further comment.

In London, the Ministry of Defence acknowledged the striking resemblance between the Spanish national flag and the signal marker chosen for the routine exercise. Both have two red horizontal stripes separated by yellow. But a spokesman said the similarity had not been deliberate.

"HMS Scimitar was using Flag No1 during gunnery practice, traditionally chosen due to its high visibility," said a spokesman. "However we recognise its similarity to the Spanish national flag and will use an alternative marker during gunnery practice in this area in the future."

Gibraltar was ceded to the British under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht but Spain has never relinquished its claim of sovereignty and refuses to accept Britain's jurisdiction of the waters that surround it.

Relations between Spain and the tiny peninsula at its southwestern point have been tense in recent months despite a tripartite forum agreement aimed at improving communications.

In May the Royal Navy forced a Spanish naval patrol to retreat from British waters in a dispute over authority to inspect fishing vessels.

The British Embassy later delivered a formal complaint to the Spanish government over the issue.

After new incursions in July, the government of Gibraltar urged all users of the waters to ignore Spanish patrol ships and send up distress flares if approached.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...h-flag-for-target-practice-off-Gibraltar.html
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091124/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_legislation_inflation

WASHINGTON ? Republicans are using everything short of forklifts to show Americans that Democratic health care legislation is an unwieldy mountain of paper. They pile it high on desks, hoist it on a shoulder trussed in sturdy rope and tell people it's longer than "War and Peace," which it isn't.

Although they complain they don't have time to read all of it, they found the time to tape it together, page by page, so they could roll it up the steps of the Capitol like super-sized toilet paper and show how very long it is.

Size matters in the health care debate because Republicans have turned the length of the legislation into a symbol: Big, unwieldy bill means big, overreaching government.

Even bigger when you display double-spaced copies with double-wide margins and large print ? then pile copies of the House and Senate bills together so that the cameras see something monstrously tall.

Lawmakers routinely debate massive legislation without absorbing every word. They employ people to find what matters to them.

Indeed, legislation of comparable size was used to redefine an area of much more limited federal responsibility, education. That was the No Child Left Behind Act from the agenda of Republican President George W. Bush.

The nation's health care system accounts for one-sixth of the economy and no one really expects brevity when reinventing something so complex.

No one really expects the Republicans' theatrical legislation inflation to stop, either.

Five Republican senators displayed the massive legislation on their desks during the weekend vote to bring the Senate health bill to full debate, as GOP lawmakers have been doing since the House bill came out earlier.

As if he risked a hernia carrying it any other way, Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa was seen carrying the House Democratic bill on his shoulder, all roped together. GOP Rep. John Culberson of Texas brought a copy to a Capitol Hill rally and threw its loose pages to the crowd, like meat to lions.

The actual Senate bill, which Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced last week, came in at 2,074 double-spaced pages, 84 more pages than the House version, which was already being ridiculed for its size.

"That's larger than the novel 'War and Peace,'" Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said of the Senate bill.

"Exceeding even 'War and Peace' in length," Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said of the House bill.

Said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas: "'War and Peace' ? some people consider it the greatest book ever written, but most people recognize the novel because at 1,284 pages its length is often the butt of jokes. Now imagine trying to read something that long overnight."

Actually, Leo Tolstoy's tome is longer than either bill. Full translated versions are nearly twice as long.

The bill passed by the House is 319,145 words. The Senate bill is 318,512 words, shorter than the House version despite consuming more paper. Various versions of Tolstoy's novel are 560,000 to 670,000 words. Bush's education act tallied more than 280,000 words.

By now, the full draft of Reid's bill that had circulated in the corridors and landed so prominently on Republican desks has been published in the Congressional Record in the official and conventional manner.

The type is small and tight. No hernias will be caused by moving this rendering of the bill around. Unfurling it on the Capitol steps would not be much of a spectacle.

It's 209 pages.
 
Nah we have too many missiles there. Remember Turkey was the US's Cuba during the Cold War.
Not to mention that it was probably a combination of this (and Nixon's famous "don't meet him, he's a commie" to Ike about Castro in '59) that ultimately brought the missiles to Cuba..

:p
 
And even if it were "really long", what the fuck, it's a complete overhaul of our health care system. We did three-page bills before with the bailouts, and they complained about that, too.

I don't care if it is really long as long as it isn't rushed through like the Patriot Act and TARP were.

Any politician who says a bill is too urgent to read through should lose their position immediately.

Not to mention that it was probably a combination of this (and Nixon's famous "don't meet him, he's a commie" to Ike about Castro in '59) that ultimately brought the missiles to Cuba..

:p

Ike's foreign policy was pretty God awful. See Vietnam as well.
 
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