Claudias

Fifty-two years ago,after square bashing and trade training at the Royal Armoured Corps depot in Carlisle, I proudly joined Britains oldest cavalry regiment. The Royal Dragoons. Half a century later,I am delighted to see that Prince "Harry" is following in my footsteps. I hope he enjoys the life as much as I.

Hi Trout, Thanks for responding to my call. However,I do not seem to be able to respond. I will investigate.

That is precisely what we were having,only I could not have phrased that statement so well. Unfortunately,neither of us were very good at it. Thanks for the valid comment.

Which argument have Ghostrider and I had Moorit? We have not had an argument or a discussion. We have each made numerous statements and neither one of us have convinced the other that any of those statements were right. I could carry on all night making new statements but what would be the point? Ghostrider and I are simply poles apart. If you want to start a discussion with me -- have at it.

Are you against washing too?

Just one final comment. You accuse me of being an anarchist and supporter of terrorism because I say that I can see "where the Muslims are coming from". Let me retaliate by saying that your blind belief that Tony and Dubya both have mandates for the powers which they have assumed leads me to believe that you condone all the attrocities carried out by British and American troops and agents in Afghanistan and Iraq in their names. Further. You approve of the obscene practice of coating all the munitions used in these conflicts in depleted uranium. This practice not only destroys the installations on which the munitions are used but contaminates them with radiation for a century or more. Millions more civilians will die when the battles are long over. I whole-heartedly believe that ALL people who find these practices commendable should develop incurable rot of the reproduction organs and thus,eventually,die out.

I knew that I was wasting my time.

I would like you to imagine that,150 years ago, your great grandfather and his three sons emigrated to Africa. Time went by and you were born,,3rd generation African. Imagine now that Africa suddenly decided that it did not like the regime in Britian. Declared war and began to destroy the country,locked up the Royal Family.dissolved parliament and began rooting out Labour supporters. One of your relations,a taxi driver in Coventry,is locked up as a suspected terrorist in one of the concentration camps. The guards found that,when they struck him on the legs he declared "Jesus.Jesus". They found this so amusing that,over the next few weeks they beat him to death. Meanwhile. Back in Africa. The government declare that all exBritish and their descendants are potential terrorists. The armed forces kick down your door in the middle of the night,take you and your computers into custody and hold you in a secret location for years. Now. Would you seriously expect your parents and grandparents to go around forbidding the youngsters to take up arms when the feel that the whole of Africa is against them. That was maybe a complete waste of time but,it explains why I feel that you are being unreasonable when you say that, what you call 'Muslims/Asians' are not wholeheartedly trying to curb their militant kin.

Ghostrider. Do you have an imagination?

People like Blair and Dubya are the ones generating the fear,the organ grinders. How do we deal with them? The ballot box is not the answer. They're monkeys in their own way too, if you see them as generating fear. I would have thought destroying and attempting to destroy planes, trains, buildings and everyone within them on multiple occasions over several years was quite plenty to generate fear in most people. Once again. Blair and Dubya are the ones who have been destroying planes, trains, buildings and everyone in them on multiple occasions, in multiple countries, over several years. To say that they are monkies,not organ grinders, is a base slur on our simian friends.[/u]

People like Blair and Dubya are the ones generating the fear,the organ grinders. How do we deal with them? The ballot box is not the answer.

[quote name="BlackEagle" As for character typing or whatever it is' date=' the leaders of these people should make it their business to not only disclaim anything to do with it, and do all in thier power to stop it; they should also actively seek out and stop the ones that are recruiting and teaching new suicide bombers. That would be as effective way of saying they are for peace as anything else they could do.[/quote] They pay the same taxes as us. We rely on the police and security forces, those taxes provide, to seek out the ones recruiting so should not they be able to do the same? First cast out the mote in thine own eye.

Canute. Aptly named.

A good many male muslims have been gaoled on suspicion. How many have been found guilty of any crime? It is human nature to react strongest to the source of greatest perceived danger. It's been a while since Scots, French, Germans etc have publically blown, and threated to blow, people indiscriminately en masse to kingdom come. Relations with those ethenticies are currently reasonably cordial, there is very little reason to suspect sharing air with one or more of them is likely to prove immediately fatal. The same cannot be said for a few individuals of Muslim/Asian descent. My source of greatest perceived danger is from people who declare that they will wipe out the Taleban/Ba'ath Party/Iranian leadership, etc. In both Afghanistan and Iraq they have indiscriminately en masse killed many thousands of innocent civilians. Sharing air with either Bush or Blair could prove immediately fatal. There are sections within those of Muslim/Asian descent who have publically declared that anything and anyone pertaining to the nations of the western world who have, what they term as an "unwelcome" presence, in the Middle East are legitimate and justified targets, and in a number of cases they have gone on to destroy or attempt to destroy someof those targets. I think it's safe to say that comparing those actions with those of Scots, French, Canadian etc thugs and hooligans, be they drunk, drugged up or otherwise, is well beyond like comparing chalk and cheese. It IS like comparing chalk and cheese. Those nations of the western world are in Iraq illegally,are destroying civilian property and killing civilians, If the same happened in Shetland would you not feel justified in attempting to destroy some of those targets? You may be acting "under orders" of some spin doctor, I personally fail to see what Saddam, WMD or spin doctors have to do with anything. Terrorism of Middle Eastern origin goes back a very long way, now is simply the latest round in that battle, Saddam/WMD was a direct result or Saddam/Kuwait '90, which in turn had to be viewed in a different light, post 9/11, especially as 9/11 had been preceded by such things as the USS Cole, the US Embassies in Africa, WTC '93 etc etc. To try and link the current terrorism threat coming out of Muslim/Asian origins, and the inane babblings of overpaid political advisors and PR people, is, IMHO, being horribly naive. Touche. I accuse you of aping spin doctors. You accuse me of being "under orders" to the same people. Like you,I do not subscribe to any newspapers or to TV. My only sources of information are The Shetland Times,Radio Shetland and the internet. I must admit though that I find the articles on Al Jazeera more believable than some of those on the BBC. As a side note concerning Saddam and WMD, I don't think there's much doubt that Saddam had WMD, had, being the operative word. There is significant information and knowledge that he had them, and used them, the much reported gassing of Kurdish people in Iraq being one example. Now, I can't say whether or not you were under the impression that at the time of the U.S. led coalition's entry in to Iraq that Saddam still had WMD. I know that at that time I didn't know whether he had them or not, and I still don't know if he did have any at that time. What does it matter what Saddam had before the invasion? What threat were any such weapons to Britain or the USA? Both nations are loaded to the gunnels with every type of WMD imaginable yet seek to deny any such stocks to any other nation. Iraq was entered and occupied on the basis that "on the balance of probability Saddam had WMD", a wholly different thing than "had WMD". Given that it was widely accepted he'd had WMD previously (see above), and given the difficulties and obstacles reported by the UN Weapons Inspectors in attempting to carry out their jobs, to assume anything else than he probably did still have WMD would have been rash. You had undisputed evidence that WMD was something he had previously possessed, you had no evidence of them being destroyed/disposed of, you had Inspectors attempting to look for them who were hindered from performing their duties adequately. What other conclusion could a reasonable minded person come to, other than "there are probably WMD somewhere in Iraq"? There was after all, nothing to suggest those which had previously existed, no longer did so. Where are these "reasonably minded people"? The "Saddam has WMD" line of the day, and much quoted by individuals then and now, was created purely by a "sound bite" media, who were too lazy to add a "probably" in to it. Which of course, would have made it considerably less sensationalist, hence less bums on seats, less rags sold.... For anyone who cares to dissect the statements made by those who ordered the entry of Iraq by the coalition, you will note the reasoning that WMD were to be found was never given as conclusive, there was a strong chance there was based on what was known at the time, that is all. The line that there definitely were WMD in Iraq was manufactured purely within the media. The only reason why the coalition entered Iraq illegally was to control the main oil supply in the ME. Any other reason was just an excuse.

So. If Scots,French,Germans, Americans, etc. etc. should be equally feared and hated, why should we single out those of Muslim/Asian origin for extra hatred? We are only acting on the advice of those who assured us that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The spin doctors.

Pots calling kettles spring to mind as you repeat the platitudes spewed out by the spin doctors. If you were to use your ire and energy to encourage all your friends to eradicate all the drink related crime in Shetland you could then call on others to police their own kind. People up here just turn a blind eye to perpetual drunkards. The radical,suicidally dangerous element in these parts are those who stamp on a persons head when they are down. Should we fear and hate the Scots?

Yes. Due to limited funding.

Well said Droilker. I'm with you all the way.

Someone fae an aulder generation mite tink dat kind o comment to be a total and utter load o crap.

My pension works out at £2.66p per hour for a 37.5 hour week. That doesn't buy many litres of fuel.

Could it be that modern posters on these forums have never had to buy fuel in gallons? When I reported that unleaded was more than £5 per gallon in Unst I expected some sort of reaction but got nothing. People down South complain when petrol prices near the £1 per Litre mark. When I reported £5 per gallon that equated to 110.6pence per litre. Ten days later, the price is 111.6ppl for unleaded and 112.6ppl for diesel. If prices keep rising like this, a weekly trip to Lerwick for fuel will pay for itself. What is the price at Bolts?

Has anyone tried Flock? It is Firefox with a pretty face. It is my browser of choice at the moment.

Then there is the perennial one that states: THIS IS NOT JUST FOR LERWICK. IT BENEFITS THE WHOLE OF THE ISLANDS.