In the news

pandering

Oh a panda you say, well that's fine.

also , must be some kinda euph there,
ie, spanking the monkey
-tickling the panda?

i think the judge was in on it

gag

#lel

Her name wasn't Sue was it?

Did she have a bear behind?

bear naked

Is that a clean Sweep of all the puns?

un bear able

This is a far more nuanced explanation of the term Daesh than most explanations you'll find:
https://www.freewordcentre.com/blog/2015/02/daesh-isis-media-alice-guthrie/

tl,dr: It's Arabic word-play that they don't like. I'd rather call them that because they don't like it.

FFS, another mass shooting in the US happening right now:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/02/us/san-bernardino-shooting/index.html

Bare punz fam

I get that people don't buy into aspects of economic theory - I write about markets for a living, and I think some economic theory is hokum at worst, or misleading at best. But on the other hand, some of it - much of it - is a very useful tool by which to understand how the world works.

In this instance, I think the extent of the economic theory involved is that: if you want to try to be a state, to hold ground, to provide services, have a bureaucracy - or just a propaganda arm - this takes resources. In simple terms, cash money.

If you don't have enough cash money, you can't buy guns. You can't buy food, or fuel. You can't pay salaries. It's harder to run your pseudo-state. And the cracks begin to show.

If you look at studies over what draws people to Daesh, you get stuff like this

They are not fueled by the idea of an Islamic caliphate without borders; rather, ISIS is the first group since the crushed Al Qaeda to offer these humiliated and enraged young men a way to defend their dignity, family, and tribe. This is not radicalization to the ISIS way of life, but the promise of a way out of their insecure and undignified lives; the promise of living in pride as Iraqi Sunni Arabs, which is not just a religious identity but cultural, tribal, and land-based, too.

If Daesh struggles to offer this promise because it struggles to find the resources just to hold itself together, then maybe the appeal of the thing fades.

I, for one, don't believe that most of the people living in Daesh-controlled territory subscribe to its ideals. And I don't believe that even the most devoted ideological movements can subsist on air and faith. I'd go so far as to argue that any suggestion that people living under Daesh or involved in Daesh are beyond western understanding is just another form of Orientalist thinking.

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3943

Is mostly what today has felt like

Sir Keir Starmer...swoon.

If the next Labour leader is not a woman (and I'd love to see a female Labour PM), then it should be Sir Keir. That grey streak...that opposition to air strikes...that successful previous career and solid statesmanlike appearance. I reckon he could sell Corbynism to middle England (not that he is a Corbynite).

She wrote a good Huffington Post piece a couple of days ago making the same points http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/caroline-lucas/syria-air-strikes-caroline-lucas_b_8680378.html

I don't think that they're beyond Western understanding, just that they don't subscribe to it - or reject it outright. Besides, most Westerners don't understand - or agree - on economic theory, so Orientalism does really figure into it.

But anyway, I'm not denying that there's an economic component to any of this, just that the nuts and bolts of it remain elusive, given that it is, as far as I understand, run as a sort of black market economy. In other words, there may well be plenty more money where the present stash came from.

But where from? There's not a secret pot of gold in Raqqa.

My guess is 290-267 in favour. Boo.

Might be more!

I hate that this debate is so binary, everthing has been simplified into cute little stories. Cut the head off the snake, strike them in the heart, blah, blah, blah...

Cunts. All politicians.

My guess is 290-267 in favour. Boo.

290 patriots, and 267 terrorist sympathisers (©slabfacecunt)

And where the fuck is penis face going to get the readies for all this? I thought we were all tightening our belts? Obviously our freedom and security is worth any price, but you're on another planet if you think that's why smegma wielding cock lips is up for a bit of bombing. So, what is the financial catch?

We'll probably get our pals in China to lend us the kit, stick it on the same tab as the new power stations so povvo's can pay for the war via their fuel bills in ten years.

ok, so first motion to block stuff fails, now the real vote...

Sounds like it's going to be a huge majority voting in favour of military action.

Good speech from Benn, an empassioned call to fight fascism that no one could disagree with, but completely failing to address the specific action that was proposed.