Evil Inky

Sounds a lot like Tony Blair.

Your last two sentences contradict each other. If a nuclear war is going to be catastrophic for both sides, then surely their mutual destruction is assured ( ie MAD applies ) ?

Ah yes, Mutual Assured Destruction ( MAD for short ), where everybody has the means to wipe everybody else off the map, and so everybody lives happily ever after. There are two problems with MAD. The first is that it assumes that everybody with their finger on a nuclear button is rational, and won't act against their own interests by launching a nuclear first strike. Unfortunately, time and time again, quite bonkers people do manage to get into positions of power, and it only takes one nutty leader who doesn't mind dying in order to smite his enemies to start a nuclear war. The second problem with MAD is that it ignores the possibility of accidents. If a country believes a nuclear attack has been launched against it, the pressure is on to use its own weapons before it is too late: there isn't much time to check that the missile detection equipment isn't on the blink. Apparently, more than once, the USSR were only a few minutes away from launching their missiles, incorrectly believing the USA had already launched theirs.

Does it ? Japan, Australia, Germany, Canada, New Zealand, and Brazil haven't a nuke between them, and yet they haven't been invaded by anybody.

After spending four grand on clothes, I don't think you'll be able to afford a decent one

But I don't want to die in a sub-standard hospital wishing we'd spent the money on the health service, rather than on submarines with nuclear missiles.

But not before the sun grows to thousands of times its current size and engulfs the entire solar system. Apparently, we've got roughly five billion years before that happens. There won't be a human race by then - we'll have evolved into something else!

If Japan, Australia, Germany, Canada, New Zealand, and Brazil ( to name a few ) don't feel the need to arm themselves with nuclear weapons, why should we ?

Four grand on clothes in one go ? Are you some sort of Hollywood celebrity ?

Even that 2 + 2 = 4 ? "I reject your reality and substitute my own" 2+2 = 22. I think this is how bank charges are calculated.

Even that 2 + 2 = 4 ?

Stacking 4 tins on their ends can't really be called a routine task, or compared with the daily drive to and from work. But it's hardly a feat that could only be performed by supernatural means. If the climax of The Exorcist had consisted of the possessed girl stacking four empty lager tins on their ends, it wouldn't have made for a very exciting film

So you would rather give your money to an inefficient UK cancer research charity that would be less likely to come up with a cure for a disease you might one day suffer from, than an efficient foreign cancer research charity. ( The above is just a hypothetical example - I've no idea about the relative merits of UK and foreign cancer research charities. )

Ah, but you didn't actually see the empty tins moving of their own accord - you entered the kitchen and found them in a different position than the one you thought you left them in. Crucial difference

Cancer and heart disease aren't specifically British conditions, and any improvements in treatment benefit people worldwide, no matter where they are developed. Would you consider donating to, say, an American cancer research charity, if you thought doing so would be more likely to benefit yourself or your loved ones in the future ?

He shouldn't, although it's well documented that people in general are far more inclined to "care" about the well-being of those closer to their own culture/country/ethnicity. An uncomfortable fact for many, but one need only look at the coverage afforded the death of, for example, school children in an American shooting Vs the slaughter of an entire African village to see where "our" main concern would lie. A mining accident in India (of which there are many a year) recently claimed 100s of lives, yet barely made the 6 O'clock news. A similar event in our country would be news-flash worthy. See also the disproportionate coverage given to the deaths of US and UK soldiers, compared to deaths of civilians, in Iraq.

He's not a patch on the Paranormal Pigeon

The human heart has neurons ( ie brain cells ) in it ? And nobody has noticed up to now ? Have you got a link ?

I'm not being funny, but why would you go to a clairvoyant in order to be told things you already know ?

I think Mr Brooker was reacting to the news that Ofcom had decided that the programme in question wasn't in breach of its guidelines, which, according to the article, happened last week.

Why is a blind man in Birmingham more deserving of your money than a blind man in Botswana ?

There's the option of bringing him before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

We can get Freeview down in Levenwick.

I fact, I pity the fool who talks back to Mr T.

1) Legalise all drugs 2) Scrap our nuclear weapons 3) Stop subsidising the arms industry 4) Make radical cuts in carbon emissions 5) Banish the Goodlad brothers and Sandy Cluness to Outer Mongolia