Off Topic Thread 5.0

The lighthouse is a brewtonic bar (Bernard Shaw people) and is grand. I think O Loughlins in DL has a great outdoor area with a decent pint.

Any Detectorists fans? This is wonderful news!!

Nah, their song was fine - nothing special, a bit weird. Classic Eurovision. In a normal year, it would have been mid-low table I reckon.

da comrade

Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou passed away recently. A wonderful musician and composer.

One of his first bands was Aphrodites Child. A 1960s progressive rock band.

He was famous for his collaborations with Jon Anderson in the 1970s and 80s. 'I hear you now' is such a joyous piece of music.

He also composed and played in a number of high profile movies. Winning an Oscar for the soundtrack of 'Chariots of Fire'

IMHO Blade Runner would not be the same film without his music.

RIP Vangelis.

That one is bad, really bad.

That one is truly shocking though. Land of the free?

Cops in the US have no responsibility to aid or protect anyone except themselves, ever. This point has been litigated endlessly and while occasionally cops are fired for the sort of dereliction and refusal to get involved in risky situations seen in Texas, the courts in the US side with the cops on this always. That small town spends 40% of its budget on its police department, they even have a fully loaded swat team, but I'm sure the cops spend all their time conjuring traffic stops to look for warrant arrests and or fines, harassing migrants and homeless people, or playing Pokemon on their phones. Copaganda always leads with how dangerous being a PO is in the US or 'our courageous law enforcement officers', it's absolute nonsense. Being a cab driver is far more dangerous, also being a pilot, logger, fisher, roofer, road worker, fire fighter and plenty of other professions where one is asked to perform dangerous tasks or work in dangerous environments.

The cops in Texas sat on their hands while kids were being shot in a building, and refused to enter for an hour as the victims bled out. Imagine if fire fighters sat outside a burning school while children died inside because it was dangerous. It would simply never happen.

Bataclan is an alternative version of this event, there the cops went in very quickly and took down the shooters without any cops being shot iirc. I'm sure many who were rescued were saved because they got medical help more quickly as a result. The Pulse nightclub was another US mass shooting where cops sat outside til the smoke had cleared (and long after) while victims bled out inside. There it took 3 hours for police to confront the guy. They'll shoot an insane homeless person with a pair of scissors within 30 seconds.

Also worth remembering that 65% of US cops who died 'in the line of duty' last year died of covid, and their vaccination rates are far below the general population. Cops 'don't like being told what to do'.

"The more we normalize the "right way" to deal with the situation, the more we normalize the utter insanity that a maniac can enter a school with a legally purchased military-grade weapon."

The US is waaay past this point, unfortunately.