pikey

Learn Latin.

By the by, and whatever you decide, there are plenty of excellent, free, on-line language courses simply a google away.

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?

I think we need to bring back smoking in pubs. It’s killing them – especially the decent ones. Besides, they’ve all started to smell a bit of wee since the smokes were banned.

I did. I took it all back a few minutes after I posted because I realised I was behaving like an idiot.

204? Oh do try and concentrate, you twit:

‘…the annual number of such deaths fell by 38% from 136 to 84’

Please come back, Geoff. I know I was never your biggest fan. I’m prepared to forget it all. It’s just that I heard he disappears if you come back. At least give it some thought.

@minim wrote:

@pikey wrote:

It’s not my intention to dampen anyone’s righteous indignation at tragedies of this kind and, of course, one case is one too many, but it should be remembered, I think, that the country is actually making good progress with this sort of thing: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8497277.stm

I am sorry but I cannot go along…

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It’s not my intention to dampen anyone’s righteous indignation at tragedies of this kind and, of course, one case is one too many, but it should be remembered, I think, that the country is actually making good progress with this sort of thing: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8497277.stm

@Pete wrote:

No other law is more fundamental to nature than the second law of thermodynamics. The most fatal objection towards the theory of evolution is that it completely contradicts the second law of thermodynamics. This law is central to every aspect of modern science. Nothing ever breaks and nothing has ever been known to break this…

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Just out of interest, has anyone happened upon any of these evil babies that are knocking about? I confess to not having noticed any.

It seems a shaky concept to hang things on, evil. For example, is a shark being evil if it eats a child on her holibobs in Florida? I don’t think it is. It’s just being a shark. It hasn’t considered whether eating…[Read more]

I’ve got 3-1 to the Hitler Youth with Beckford scoring first. 125-1. Worth a squid, I reckon.

No. These arguments don’t stand, I’m afraid. There are some logical aberrations to account for. Let’s examine them point by point:

The idea that history is written by the winners of any given conflict. It’s certainly common wisdom. A sort of pub-level approach to reasoning. Taking Minim’s example of the Tudors and the Plantagenets, how is it…[Read more]

@Pete wrote:

The winners always write the history

What a remarkably thick-headed response. You claimed the British ‘certainly’ invented concentration camps during the Boer War and I provided examples of other nations using them in earlier conflicts. Are you suggesting that the British winning the Second Boer War allowed them to invent these…[Read more]

Actually, not so certainly. It’s a myth that the British invented concentration camps. Earlier camps were instituted by the United States in order to control Phillipino and Indian natives, by Spain to control unruly Cubans and by the Russians to deal with Polish rebels even as far back as the eighteenth century.

In any case, the British ones in…[Read more]

I think all the crop circle stuff has gone way beyond UFO lore into a thing in of itself. I mean, what spaceships are tantric tulip mandala shaped?

What’s more interesting, I think, is that the circle makers are so aware of the literature that follows their art that their work can be considered authentic additions to the landscape. In the same…[Read more]

Ha! easily the funniest thing I’ve seen all day.

Apart from the telly, my front room walls are solely adorned by Pollocks.

Wait just one cotton picking moment, WooHoo.

@shihogiri wrote:

to be = statement of existence:wink:

That won’t do, I’m afraid. And stop being so familiar. What you have written, put properly, is It is a statement of existence. It is is a form of the verb To be. I’m sure we all remember our verb tables from school: I am, You are, He/She/It is,…[Read more]

@shihogiri wrote:

I’m amazed how popular poetry is on here and I have to wonder why. One of the wonderful things about language is its ability to convey precise meaning in a succinct and often pithy manner and yet poems seem to exist to obscure meaning or make it ambiguous leaving the reader wondering what the writer is going on about. Also what…

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Wisdom from Mr Frankie Paul:

Pass The Tu-Sheng Peng

Bugger. I’ve run out of drugs. Still, the walk to get some more will do me good. Especially if I take some booze with me for the journey. I’ll call it my detox day.