sime42

No, thankfully I have never been under fire, in a life or death your or him situation or been on active service. I've not once questioned the honour, bravery or sacrifice of the service men who gave their lives for us to have our freedom from Nazi domination. I don't think anyone on here has actually, people have merely been trying to highlight the tragedy and needlessness of innocent, non-combatant lives being lost. Not sure how it's happened but you've got your wires crossed somehow. The responsibility for any crimes or atrocities committed lies squarely with those at the top of the command structure, as is normally the case. Anyway, that all happened 80 years ago, I'm more concerned by what's happening in front of the eyes of the world right now. WW2 and the Gazan conflict can't really be equated, but we should've learnt from history not to repeat the same mistakes and crimes. A serious question for you now if I may. Do you make any distinction between members of Hamas and the general Palestinian people? Or conversely, the Zionists and the rest of the Israeli people?

26.9 : 1 No worries Dave. I know you're a digital kinda guy, the discussion has moved onto more analogue concepts now. Something can still be very bad, even if it is not quite as bad as a very very bad thing. I'd rank the actions of Israel in Gaza to be on a par with some of the worst Allied actions in WW2, but not as bad as the Nazis, (and Hamas). Out of interest, do you differentiate at all between members of Hamas and the wider Gaza population, largely Palestinian?

Yeah, I know what you mean. They're lovely animals, full of character, (to put it diplomatically!). On the other hand, Donkey Salami is very good.

Donkeys are probably more reliable than what they were using.

Bingo! That's just the point isn't it? Israel isn't fighting the Nazis and their industrial warfare state. That was 80 years ago. They are now the state of industrial warfare, fighting a ragtag bunch of evil terrorists with some rockets and lots of tunnels. Hamas themselves are clearly a group of evil barbaric individuals who need stopping and punishing for their vile deeds, but the rest of the Palestinian people, the innocent women and children? 26.9 : 1 Maybe you can justify to yourself what happened in Dresden, but can you really, in clear conscience, do the same about what's happening in Gaza? Where are the munitions factories, the industrial infrastructure that Israel is disabling? It looks at best like a collective punishment on a huge scale, with more land grabbing, and at worst an act of genocide. I agree with you, war is shit, this isn't war though. 26.9 : 1 It's a bit naive to think that this episode in Middle Eastern history is going to bring peace and stability to the region. Far from it, it's just cultivating generations worth of future hatred and suffering, on all sides. And now the area is going to be requisitioned by the US and turned into a luxury Trump golf course. WTF?

Bombing of Dresden - Wikipedia EN.M.WIKIPEDIA.ORG Bombing of Hamburg in World War II - Wikipedia EN.M.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Wordle 1,338 4/6 🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Well, I didn't feel very ..... trying to get that one.

Cheers. I see what you mean. That would be much more of a shrub than a tree in my book.

Europe will be the downfall of Donald Trump INEWS.CO.UK Impartial news & intelligent debate

The thing is, we learned somewhat of a lesson from that shameful episode in our history. I'd like to believe that we became slightly more civilised after that. Take the Northern Ireland conflict for example. Despite the atrocities carried out by the IRA, we didn't seek to eradicate an entire people, and raze the land they'd lived on for generations. Sure, we killed a few innocent civilians, but several orders of magnitude less the 40000+, or whatever the hell the true figure is now. Obviously I'm not equating the two situations, merely illustrating a point about scale of response. Bringing it back on topic; gone now is the benevolent, ousted by the malevolent POTUS, but still, Biden's biggest mistake in office was probably the continuation of support and arms supply to the Zionists who hold sway in Israel.

Sarah was in the fertilized egg business.She had several hundred young pullets and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs. She kept records and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced. This took a lot of time, so she bought some tiny bells and attached them to her roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so she could tell from a distance which rooster was performing. Now, she could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells. Sarah's favourite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen but, this morning she noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all! When she went to investigate, she saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover. To Sarah's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring.He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job, and walk on to the next one. Sarah was so proud of old Butch, she entered him in a Show and he became an overnight sensation among the judges. The result was the judges not only awarded old Butch the "No Bell Peace Prize" they also awarded him the "Pulletsurprise" as well. Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making. Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the unsuspecting populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention? Vote carefully in the next election. You can't always hear the bells.

Errrr, no.

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She made it for me. I thought she'd mixed it thoroughly but maybe not, it got progressively nice the further down the glass I got. The Vodka went in first.

26.9 : 1

Bloody Mary. Just for the hell of it, out of curiosity. Does anyone like this stuff? It's alright , but I'm underwhelmed. It tastes more like it belongs on a dinner plate than in a glass.

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Back at ya https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/alder/ Yeah, looks like it is both. It was definitely straight Alder that I had in mind, (I have to sheepishly admit to not even having heard of Alder Buckthorn. 😮)

Also used to make high grade gunpowder.

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Gruyere or Reblochon.

And then there were two 4 year olds vying for control of the most powerful country in the world. Progress? https://www.itv.com/news/2025-02-12/shut-your-mouth-musks-son-interrupts-press-conference-with-trump

Got to be our highest scoring day yet, no? Up the Arbtalk massive! Even I managed to pull out a three. Wordle 1,334 3/6 🟨⬜🟨🟩⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I'd say it needs cutting back a fair amount. If nothing else, I'd want it to be within feasible picking height for the fruit. By the look of the structure of the tree it's been cut back rather too aggressively in the past, and then over-compensated with regrowth. It'll need a carefully staged gradual reduction this time to avoid that happening again.

Scatophagus argus