Tuber Mirum

And to think only yesterday evening I was watching this, because somebody mentioned Peter Sellers.

Aye, nivver trust naebdy as they say round my way. In reply to Josco's remarks about how many people in the UK are directly dependent on the government for their incomes, I was wondering if that would necessarily be a big problem if those people were actually producing anything. Or indeed, if anyone in the UK were actually producing anything. There was a time when things were produced in the UK, but luckily somebody put a firm stop to that nonsense.

Last time I entered a pub quiz we named the team deathlist.net. The lady who was running the quiz found the name quite distasteful but didn't actually forbid it. And in spite of being a bunch of the most informed and erudite people you could imagine, we only managed to get second place.

I just found this article which says this:

Perhaps we'll give the prize to Windsor then, since as he didn't take part, he certainly couldn't be accused of cheating. We are making some progress on getting 2010 finished and as of today The Scoreboard is up and working. Bellender is a sterling fellow and if your drinks are taking longer than usual to arrive it's only because he's putting in a lot of extra hours looking out photos of obscure celebrities for me. DDT is in the lead which is unusual as nobody normally ever dies on his team. Did anyone find out if Flory van Donck really did die a few years ago?

Clever chap. Could easily have become Prime Minister.

No problem. It reminded me of .

Ian Carmichael has died, according to the BBC.

Yes well, as I was saying. The winner of the 2009 Hartlepool Deadlypool appears to be the team named "Why Not?". With 5 hits and 259 points not at all bad. Congratulations. A close second place was attained by some person called Notapotato. Special Mention goes to Football Fan who got 8 hits and Rotten Ali's team Stab_In The_Dark who got 7 out of 10, sadly not suficciently in the right order to win them the game. Just out of interest, would anybody care to own up to being "Why Not?"?

Happy Birthday Canadian Paul. And Robbie Burns. 251 today. Congratulations.

Only another 45 minutes to go. Isn't it exciting? I'm off to my bed.

Ah, Pittsburgh. Land of Steelers, Pirates and Penguins. And the occasional devastating flood. I have been swamped with flood stuff lately on channel 164 where they've been running every dam flood disaster they can from the Connecticut River overflow of 1936 to the Johnstown to the Wilkes-Barre flood and many others. It beats watching reruns of King of Queens {then again, what doesn't?} Gosh, that thread's been dead for a long time! The info contained in the link is still on-line and I think a bit too informed. Would it not be better for a Mod to Cut and Paste the said info, but remove Grim's real name and then cut the hyperlink? I reckon Grimbo'd have done that himself long ago if he'd been bothered. It was he who posted the link in the first place anyway.

Nearly got the site finished for this year which makes a welcome change over 2009 which never got done. It should be all over by Saturday bar the odd photo. In a couple of days the 2009 game closes so we'll see who it is who gets the Virtual Dead Monkey this time round. In 2010 we've had three deaths so far and Vaagheid is in the lead followed by Hein and DDT. I don't know the exact scores yet, but it'll all be done soon.

Every time we check up on her health, she's perfectly fine, going out and about, and looking 10-20 years young. Thus, she's even worse than all your other "old people" suggestions, since there is health news and it's all good. She COULD die tomorrow, but I would guess that I'm not that only one who could think of 50 better candidates. Hell, at least Anita Page is interesting. Furthermore, if you weren't so f*****g pea-brained, you'd have realized that she already has a thread. You know that everyone on this site has you on their ignore list, so you start a series of unnecessary threads, something everyone else has been trying to avoid. Why don't you go meet some people in real life if you want attention? Funny, I don't remember making that post... I blame it on the caffeine allergy. Made me irritable. Strikes me as fair comment.

That would be a brilliant poem if it weren't for the double exclamation mark at the end. 9/10

The other night I dreamt that I was at OoO's house. It was getting late but I couldn't sleep and I was playing some strange kind of 3D Scrabble® with Mrs Octopus. You had to build models with the stones and she had built some kind of cart but I couldn't work out what the word was supposed to be. She was telling me why she thought Pickles was the ideal name for their child. Then the real Mr and Mrs Octopus turned up and we were a big wood-paneled pub which strongly resembled OoO's living room and it turned out I had been sitting with Monoclinic all the time and not Mrs Octopus.

NAP, your comment seems to indicate that there are some gods. Well I'm sorry to break this to you, but you are wrong, there aren't any. Sorry. There are gods. I can tell you their names if you like. They have been invented by people, just like people invented cars and folk music. You wouldn't say those things don't exist just because they were invented by people. Nevertheless, thank you for the apology. It is much appreciated.

If there were no gods, people would invent them. That's the nature of human beings.

It's fine with me.

Happy Birthday LFN!

If and why. On rereading deadsox' initial post in this thread I have come to the conclusion that I am doing him an injustice. I apologise for this. His description of the functions of government are unlikely to find dissent in many quarters. However the issue of universal health care is a moral one which transcends the tenets of any country's constitution written or otherwise. And the argument for governmental non interference falls flat when we consider the alternatives. The principal function of a government is to protect its citizens. The function of a corporation is to provide as little as possible as expensively as possible in order to gain maximised profits for its shareholders. Even given that a government is much more likely to be incompetent than a corporation, their goals are so diametrically opposed that the question of which better to trust becomes superfluous. And bearing in mind the large chunk of your health payments which now go towards profit, the potential inefficciency of a nationalised system is still unlikely to result in a worse or more expensive service than currently.

Well, nap we can agree on one thing, CarolAnn's post was articulate and insightful. As long as you're confessing, why don't you also confess to not knowing me at all. I know all this cyber-babble is fun and it's great to exchange opinions with people all over the world, but I'm old fashioned enough to believe that one shouldn't presume to know a man until you've had a chance to look into his eyes. or at least carefully read what he's written. I certainly am concerned with my fellow man. Like many liberals (am I assuming too much here?) you equate opposition to a brainless system to indifference for the poor. I'm convinced, like CarolAnn, that we can do it better. In spite of what you may think, I'm not some Dickensian mill owner who's kicking widows and orphans to the curb. Not likable in your eyes? I'll take that as a compliment. The last time I heard that kind of an argument, it came from none lesser than Banshees Scream: "Pay no attention to the impression you have gained of me, get to know me properly and you'll see what a lovely guy I am" Perhaps if, like CarolAnn, you came up with a constructive idea for helping people with no health insurance instead of whinging about how your taxes are getting wasted on the undeserving (that is in any case the message which comes over, and I do take the trouble to read your posts carefully) you might come over in a more sympathetic light. If you are at all interested in doing so.

Thank you CarolAnn for that highly articulate and insightful post. I must confess to not knowing the ins and outs of the current system and the proposed one. My argument with Deadsox is that he clearly doesn't think that those who can't afford to pay for heath care under the current system should get any if it means it gets paid for with taxes paid by him. Doesn't make him a very likeable chap in my eyes because it suggests he isn't exactly concerned with the wellbeing of his fellow men. Except to the extent that they shouldn't have to pay taxes for things he doesn't agree with.

Even less understandable since the complaint is about her appearance on the Hartlepool Deadlypool, which devotes the following thirteen words to her:

The mere repetition of neoliberal dogma and the constant affirmation of an "I'm all right Jack / Let them eat cake" attitude is but a poor argument for denying basic health care to millions of ones countrymen.