Grab Bag Of Random Posts

[Kowalczyk]

Okay, minor correction: whether the Jocks like it or not.

(We have a few at this board, so that's the most important thing...) ;)

K.

[aveslacker]

Okay, minor correction: whether the Jocks like it or not.

(We have a few at this board, so that's the most important thing...) ;)

K.

I just wanted to make sure none of our Northern Irish colleagues are left out. :D

[aveslacker]

Well, I finally had my "Maxwell" surgery (i.e. ACL reconstruction). I'm laying in bed with this medieval torture machine strapped to my right leg, unable to walk without assistance, and I'm absolutely giddy. As happy as a clam.

No, it isn't the percocet (although that helps with the pain, to be sure).

I didn't realize how much of a toll it took on me, psychologically, to not be able to run/play soccer/basketball/tennis/etc. And, even though, just like Maxwell, I'm still about 6 months away from being able to do that, just the knowledge that I soon will be able to do that is fantastic. It is like the lifting of a huge burden. I feel twenty pounds lighter.

What a great day! (of course I won't be saying that during all that painful rehab!)

[carcajou]

Holland, or the story of free speech preservation and open-mindedness gone wrong :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naastenlie ... iversiteit

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?

Is that a serious party?

[Henk de Gier]

yeah :sad:

[Frans]

They're going entirely the wrong way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGillicuddy_Serious

[Blind3]

I'm all for political and other freedoms, but their platform is ridiculous, IMHO. Thankfully, I can't envision such a party having much success.

[SE6Ajacied]

They're going entirely the wrong way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGillicuddy_Serious

Cheers Frans, I read that, gave me quite a laugh.

But the fun doesn't stop in Mew Zealand....check this out!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Raving_Loony_Party

[Kowalczyk]

Since we have a few Jocks here at Ajax Talk, and since it's always interesting to read foreign press articles on your country and people, I thought I'd translate this.

Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant (which is the paper I work for, too) has a series of what you could describe as 'background columns', written by the foreign correspondents, about the nationalist tendencies of European peoples. For example: the Spanish correspondent would write about the nationalism of the Basks and Catalonians.

The questions they're answering in each installment: is there any 'domestic nationalism' in the first place? If so, how serious is it? Do these people seriously want to separate from the country they're now part of? Is there serious hatred? Violence?

Today, it was Peter de Waard's turn. He's our 'man in the U.K.'. Your thoughts on this piece, please, on the relationship between the English and the Scots...

England and their tolerated 'McMaffia'

Cristiano Ronaldo may be one of the most hated people in England at the moment; in Scotland he would have been welcomed as a hero, just like the Italian world champions in Rome. Teams that beat England (like Portugal) are traditionally embraced by the Scots as 'honourable Scotsmen', even if they beat England in a way that most 'neutral' football fans don't exactly admire.

Does the football rivalry between the English and the Scots go deeper than that between the Germans and the Dutch? Probably not, actually, but there is one complicating factor: unlike the Germans and the Dutch, the English and the Scots live in the same kingdom.

What would happen if German TV station ZDF parked a car with one large and two smaller German flags in The Hague's Schilderswijk on a Saturday evening? Fair chance that the vehicle would not remain undamaged. And what if it were a car with Ajax flags, the night before ADO Den Haag vs Ajax? Safe bet that it would get thrashed completely.

The outcome of Newsnight's 'undercover operation' (they parked a car full of England flags in a working-class neighbourhood in Glasgow to see what would happen) was, therefore, rather predictable. The accusations of incitement to vandalism, for that matter, are not entirely unfair.

The incident doesn't say much about the relationship between the two countries that form Great Britain with Wales, and the United Kingdom with Wales and Northern Ireland. Rivalry in sports is generally a very poor indicator of the true relationships between countries and peoples.

Bottom line: the English do not hate the Scots at all. They are generally seen as good folk. Straight forward, if not a bit tight. That's why it's their job to keep the National Exchequer. The Scots? Maybe they're a bit melancholy, but they're also hospitable and friendly. Even when it comes to sports the English feel a certain sympathy for Scotland, if only because the Scots are normally kind enough to roll over when playing England. Wales is much more of a rival to the English, especially in rugby.

The Scots very rarely cause the English trouble. There has not been a serious attempt of uprising since the Jacobites fell to the British Army in 1746 (40 years after the abolition of the Scottish parliament). Admittedly, the Scots cherish the slightly romantic picture of an independent Scotland (and the country can definitely lay more of a historic claim to independence than most Central or Eastern European states), but in practice they won't fight on the barricades for it.

The 1930's saw the foundation of the Scottish National Party (SNP), a political movement that battled for independence with determination. Their influence in the parliament, however, remained very limited until the 1970's, when the electorate finally gave them a more or less serious place in British politics. Mel Gibson's movie Braveheart gave Scottish national pride a new impulse in 1995. Four years later Tony Blair granted Scotland self-government in every field except Foreign Affairs and Defence.

The majority of Scots do not want to take the next step and dump the Queen or anything like that. The SNP never became the largest party in Scotland (they're now second, behind Labour) and, in fact, they lost a significant part of their support in the last parliament elections.

This is partly explained by the fact that the Scots have absolutely no reason to feel economically or politically discriminated. Quite on the contrary: they seem to be a kind of 'privileged minority'. The average Scotsman receives 1500 pounds more from the National Treasury each year than the average Englishman.

Also, the 5 million Scots are remarkably over-represented in almost every British governmental body. They have more parliament seats than the 10% they are numerically entitled to (there are some 50 million English), and much more than 10% of the positions in the actual government. Tony Blair himself has Scottish roots and there are no less than seven Scottish ministers in his cabinet, including Desmond Browne (Defence), Alistair Darling (Trade & Industry) and Gordon Brown (Finance). The current leader of the Liberal Democrats is a Scotsman, and so was his predecessor. The 'speaker' in the House of Commons is a Scotsman, too.

The Scottish 'McMaffia' is tolerated in Westminster. Only a very small, conservative part of the English population is angry about the fact that Scotsmen take the decisions about 'English' education, National Health and the opening hours of the local pubs, whereas English politicians have no direct influence whatsoever in Scotland.

Even the tearing up of Newsnight's English flags during the World Cup hardly caused a fuss in England. The people simply didn't seem to care. It never became an affair until the Scots found out that it was all set up by the BBC from London.

K.

[Jeroen126]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBkeMCdZ ... %20rangers

While we're on the Scots not loving English topic, pure comedy. Or pure horror??

[dws]

Since we have a few Jocks here at Ajax Talk, and since it's always interesting to read foreign press articles on your country and people, I thought I'd translate this.

Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant (which is the paper I work for, too) has a series of what you could describe as 'background columns', written by the foreign correspondents, about the nationalist tendencies of European peoples. For example: the Spanish correspondent would write about the nationalism of the Basks and Catalonians.

The questions they're answering in each installment: is there any 'domestic nationalism' in the first place? If so, how serious is it? Do these people seriously want to separate from the country they're now part of? Is there serious hatred? Violence?

Today, it was Peter de Waard's turn. He's our 'man in the U.K.'. Your thoughts on this piece, please, on the relationship between the English and the Scots...

England and their tolerated 'McMaffia'

Cristiano Ronaldo may be one of the most hated people in England at the moment; in Scotland he would have been welcomed as a hero, just like the Italian world champions in Rome. Teams that beat England (like Portugal) are traditionally embraced by the Scots as 'honourable Scotsmen', even if they beat England in a way that most 'neutral' football fans don't exactly admire.

Does the football rivalry between the English and the Scots go deeper than that between the Germans and the Dutch? Probably not, actually, but there is one complicating factor: unlike the Germans and the Dutch, the English and the Scots live in the same kingdom.

What would happen if German TV station ZDF parked a car with one large and two smaller German flags in The Hague's Schilderswijk on a Saturday evening? Fair chance that the vehicle would not remain undamaged. And what if it were a car with Ajax flags, the night before ADO Den Haag vs Ajax? Safe bet that it would get thrashed completely.

The outcome of Newsnight's 'undercover operation' (they parked a car full of England flags in a working-class neighbourhood in Glasgow to see what would happen) was, therefore, rather predictable. The accusations of incitement to vandalism, for that matter, are not entirely unfair.

The incident doesn't say much about the relationship between the two countries that form Great Britain with Wales, and the United Kingdom with Wales and Northern Ireland. Rivalry in sports is generally a very poor indicator of the true relationships between countries and peoples.

Bottom line: the English do not hate the Scots at all. They are generally seen as good folk. Straight forward, if not a bit tight. That's why it's their job to keep the National Exchequer. The Scots? Maybe they're a bit melancholy, but they're also hospitable and friendly. Even when it comes to sports the English feel a certain sympathy for Scotland, if only because the Scots are normally kind enough to roll over when playing England. Wales is much more of a rival to the English, especially in rugby.

The Scots very rarely cause the English trouble. There has not been a serious attempt of uprising since the Jacobites fell to the British Army in 1746 (40 years after the abolition of the Scottish parliament). Admittedly, the Scots cherish the slightly romantic picture of an independent Scotland (and the country can definitely lay more of a historic claim to independence than most Central or Eastern European states), but in practice they won't fight on the barricades for it.

The 1930's saw the foundation of the Scottish National Party (SNP), a political movement that battled for independence with determination. Their influence in the parliament, however, remained very limited until the 1970's, when the electorate finally gave them a more or less serious place in British politics. Mel Gibson's movie Braveheart gave Scottish national pride a new impulse in 1995. Four years later Tony Blair granted Scotland self-government in every field except Foreign Affairs and Defence.

The majority of Scots do not want to take the next step and dump the Queen or anything like that. The SNP never became the largest party in Scotland (they're now second, behind Labour) and, in fact, they lost a significant part of their support in the last parliament elections.

This is partly explained by the fact that the Scots have absolutely no reason to feel economically or politically discriminated. Quite on the contrary: they seem to be a kind of 'privileged minority'. The average Scotsman receives 1500 pounds more from the National Treasury each year than the average Englishman.

Also, the 5 million Scots are remarkably over-represented in almost every British governmental body. They have more parliament seats than the 10% they are numerically entitled to (there are some 50 million English), and much more than 10% of the positions in the actual government. Tony Blair himself has Scottish roots and there are no less than seven Scottish ministers in his cabinet, including Desmond Browne (Defence), Alistair Darling (Trade & Industry) and Gordon Brown (Finance). The current leader of the Liberal Democrats is a Scotsman, and so was his predecessor. The 'speaker' in the House of Commons is a Scotsman, too.

The Scottish 'McMaffia' is tolerated in Westminster. Only a very small, conservative part of the English population is angry about the fact that Scotsmen take the decisions about 'English' education, National Health and the opening hours of the local pubs, whereas English politicians have no direct influence whatsoever in Scotland.

Even the tearing up of Newsnight's English flags during the World Cup hardly caused a fuss in England. The people simply didn't seem to care. It never became an affair until the Scots found out that it was all set up by the BBC from London.

K.

Peter de Waard's offering contains some factual errors. I suppose I'd better point them out ........ and correct them :D

The '45 Rebellion was more about religion than anything else and was certainly not a war between the Scots and the English. The Jacobite cause was backed not only by Scots but by English and Irish.It should also be noted that more Scots fought on the side of the Hanovarians than on the side of the Jacobites.

Fuckface Blair did not grant Scotland her Parliament. The Scots voted for the devolved Parliament in a referendum.

de Waard chooses to repeat the cliche that Scotland is subsidised by England. The claim of subsidy flowing from England to Scotland is based on an incomplete analysis of revenues and expenditures. Only spending categorized as Identifiable public expenditure is included in the analysis. It may be true that Scotland receives a disproportionate share of such expenditures, but there is little doubt that England receives the lions share of spending categorized as Unidentifiable public expenditure.

De Waard seems unaware of the little trick involved in the revenue side of the analysis: Oil receipts are categorized as a UK revenue and not attributed as Scottish and English revenue.If attributed as Scottish and English revenue: Scotland's share would be 80% and England's 20%.

Oil receipts from more than 3 decades have kept UK plc afloat. Scotland reliant on Treasury handouts? I don't think so.


Check the world cup thread page 35 or 36 ........... much of this, including the Newsnight car, was discussed there. :yes:

And Finally ............. Wales a bigger rival to England :drecul2: X'D

PS: Was there when We kicked England's arse at Murrayfield in the 6 Nations( also beat the French ... was also at that game) and our A team delivered a good slap to their A team in Canada. Oh ... and let's not forget the last time Scotland played England at Football :yes:


Fact: Peter de Waard is a lazy arsed journo :D ;)

[Over Pasanens Head]

Oh ... and let's not forget the last time Scotland played England at Football :yes:

Yeh lets remember that - we won on aggregate - which was what was required - England win the wars whilst the Jocks win the minor battles. :D

[jamcocteau]

DWS, thanks for replying to this. Ko sent me the article independantly and was going to reply but thought maybe better not to keep the peace. Had excact same points to make as you re Jacobite rebellion, devolution and expenditure.

Another point I was going to raise was about the 1,500 pounds expenditure per head extra relates exclusively to the Barnett formula in 1979. This was basically a pay-off from the Government at the time after they screwed the whole devolution process at the time with the ludicrous 40% ruling. So again another inaccuracy in his article - its better to tell the whole story than a half baked truth like what he has put into the article.

With regard to his comments about the Scottish government mafia he forgets to mention that for nearly 300 years the Government in the majority was made up of Englishmen who had probably never been to Scotland never mind giving a shit about what policies they have foisted on us - eg the Poll Tax one year before England, a ruling which actually broke the Treaty of the Union, Trident being dumped on us, Dounray, Anthrax testing in the Western Isles etc. Now the boot is on the other foot I find it absolutely hilarious to hear them moaning - ah shame. As they say in Scotland GIFRUY

Articles like this annoy me as any normal Dutch person reading it will probably accept is as being true when a lot of it is made up of shabby journalism - looks as if it was written by a Daily Mail journalist :D

[jamcocteau]

Oh ... and let's not forget the last time Scotland played England at Football :yes:

Yeh lets remember that - we won on aggregate - which was what was required - England win the wars whilst the Jocks win the minor battles. :D

OPH, Just love you matey.

Real wars we will leave out I think but sporting wars that makes me laugh - one major success in World Football thanks to playing all your games in one stadium and a dodgy Russian linesman :D Jeez, you lot still go on about it to this day. Even a Scottish club managed to win Europes major club prize before an English one, and even then they were managed by a Scot.

Anyway me old mucker, catch up with you soon for a beer. You over for 1st game of the season :xyxthumbs:

[Over Pasanens Head]

Oh ... and let's not forget the last time Scotland played England at Football :yes:

Yeh lets remember that - we won on aggregate - which was what was required - England win the wars whilst the Jocks win the minor battles. :D

OPH, Just love you matey.

Real wars we will leave out I think but sporting wars that makes me laugh - one major success in World Football thanks to playing all your games in one stadium and a dodgy Russian linesman :D Jeez, you lot still go on about it to this day. Even a Scottish club managed to win Europes major club prize before an English one, and even then they were managed by a Scot.

Anyway me old mucker, catch up with you soon for a beer. You over for 1st game of the season :xyxthumbs:

What has always intrigued me about this goal that you refer to is if it hadn't crossed the line why on earth did Roger Hunt turn away saluting the goal instead of the simpler job of burying the ball in the back of the net. As to the Russian linesman I thought that he had a terrific game and totally agreed with all his decisions :D

As to the first game - yep I am there, flights already booked and I look forward as usual to sharing a few sherbets with you - but I must admitt I am a bit worried about this expression of love for me - you will be telling me next that DWS also agrees with one of my posts and that deep down he really likes me. :D

[dws]

http://www.alba.org.uk/scotching/myth.html

http://www.alba.org.uk/scotching/myth1995.html

http://www.alba.org.uk/scotching/snoutsinthetrough.html

http://www.alba.org.uk/scotching/myth27bn.html

http://www.alba.org.uk/scotching/trueoilwealth.html

I thought I should keep stirring the pot :D

Jamcocteau, you'll probably have read most of this at the time. :xyxthumbs:

Hey Pete, here's some bed time reading for you ..... ya lazy git :D

[jakobg]

There's a Swedish website called SvenskaFans where footie fans in Sweden write about their favourite teams. All the teams in the 'big leagues' have their editorial staff. Mostly there a few guys writing on each team. No journalists, just fans.

Anyway, this far there has been only english, italian, spanish, french, german and swedish teams represented (as far as I know). However, now there's an Ajax site as well. Still only a one-man-show, but great to have an Ajax section on Sweden's best football news site. Hell, great to be able to read anything about Ajax in Swedish.

Here's the link if you wanna check it out: http://www.svenskafans.com - click 'Europa' in the top navigation system and then you'll see Ajax among other of the European teams represented.

:xyxthumbs:

[Kowalczyk]

Ayman dropped me a PM the other day, asking if we can have a thread for discussions that don't have anything to do with football. We have a thread for that, actually... The good old Grab Bag! This is the only thread in the English Zone of Ajax Talk for discussions that are not football-related.

One reminder, though: we have had some bad experiences with political/religious discussions in the past. That is not what Ajax USA is for. If you want to discuss Israel, the Muslim world, president George W. Bush or anything like that, please do it elsewhere. There are better forums for that and it is not the platform we (Ajax USA, I am not speaking on behalf of Ajax Talk) want to offer. We hope you understand.

K.

[ZoefdeHaas]

Aite Ko sounds great-

What's the Dutch special word for "diving?" like in German it's schwalbe (sp?)

[Henk de Gier]

fopduik, although people usually use the German schwalbe too.

[Ayman]

Hi, everyone, I am addressing the American people on this forum, Im 24 yrs old, post graduate, with 3 years experience as an Accounts and Administration assistant. Over the past year I have been trying to engineer a move to America. The reason for this post is that there is a sense of urgency now. Im not going to go on the lines of politics/religion, but because of whats going on in the world, discrimination in London from my personal experience is getting very bad, I wont go into it in too much detail, as I dont want to bore you. The other reason why I want to leave, is so I can see more of the world, I mean Im in my mid 20's and America would be ideal for me. I have made acquaintances with people who work over there who also originate from the middle east(like me), in London that is, they dont experience the same discrimination that I do. To be honest I dont feel like going out at night anymore like I used to in London, my moral is low a bit, forgive me for being melodramatic but its true. Since I have duel citizenship, would there be a chance if I wanted to emigrate to America, because Ive also met some Brits (middle east origin) who were rejected unless they have a sponsorer there. Can anyone clarify this for me.

[aveslacker]

Ayman-

I'll send you a pm shortly.

[Kowalczyk]

Im not going to go on the lines of politics/religion, but because of whats going on in the world, discrimination in London from my personal experience is getting very bad (...) To be honest I dont feel like going out at night anymore like I used to in London.

Very sorry to hear this... Very sad indeed. I wish you all the best, mate.

K.

[FlaFlu]

Hi, everyone, I am addressing the American people on this forum, Im 24 yrs old, post graduate, with 3 years experience as an Accounts and Administration assistant. Over the past year I have been trying to engineer a move to America. The reason for this post is that there is a sense of urgency now. Im not going to go on the lines of politics/religion, but because of whats going on in the world, discrimination in London from my personal experience is getting very bad, I wont go into it in too much detail, as I dont want to bore you. The other reason why I want to leave, is so I can see more of the world, I mean Im in my mid 20's and America would be ideal for me. I have made acquaintances with people who work over there who also originate from the middle east(like me), in London that is, they dont experience the same discrimination that I do. To be honest I dont feel like going out at night anymore like I used to in London, my moral is low a bit, forgive me for being melodramatic but its true. Since I have duel citizenship, would there be a chance if I wanted to emigrate to America, because Ive also met some Brits (middle east origin) who were rejected unless they have a sponsorer there. Can anyone clarify this for me.

That really sucks, Ayman. Good luck with all your big plans in the near future.

Untill then, I hope you can have a laugh about this funny, but very true, column. It was placed by Frank in the Dutch zone. I can translate it later for those who don't understand Dutch too well.

Angst

Een aantal passagiers van een Brits vliegtuig heeft onlangs twee vermeende terroristen het vliegtuig uit gezet. Bij nader onderzoek bleken de twee brandschoon. De passagiers waren gealarmeerd door de warme kleding die de Arabieren droegen en het feit dat ze zo vaak op hun horloge keken.

Goed gedaan. Iedereen weet dat terroristen altijd warme kleding dragen bij een aanslag. Als zo'n vliegtuig uit elkaar spat kan het daarboven knap koud worden. En ze controleren natuurlijk voortdurend of hun bom wel gelijk loopt.

De maatschappij dat zijn wij, en we kunnen niet oplettend genoeg zijn. 'Al die moeten gewantrouwd worden, moeten mannen met baarden zijn'.

Laatst wilde ik de trein uit toen er plots achter mij een Arabier op me kwam afgerend met een rugzak. Opeens besefte ik dat mijn laatste uur had geslagen. Het was natuurlijk vanwege dat grapje dat ik ooit in een televisieprogramma maakte over De Profeet. Ik dacht dat de zaak bekoeld was naar in het diepste geheim had Osama zelf natuurlijk opdracht gegeven mij, 'die westerse hond met zijn bedenkelijke gevoel voor humor', op te blazen.

Ik aarzelde geen seconde en maaide de moslim met een vuistslag neer, rukte de rugzak uit zijn handen en rende ermee het perron op. "Zoek dekking" brulde ik en dook bovenop de zak die kraakte onder mijn imposante 78 kilo. Waar zou mijn God mij eigenlijk mee belonen na deze heldendaad?

Er gebeurde niets. Pas toen herkende ik mijn eigen rugzak, die ik in het bagagerek had laten liggen en die de Arabier me behulpzaam na was komen brengen.

Nu is mijn vraag, heeft er iemand een tweedehands laptop te koop? De angst voor terrorisme brengt meer schade toe dan terrorisme zelf.

Column van Dennis vd Ven in de Metro van vandaag.

[FlaFlu]

The translation:

Fear

A few passengers on board a Brittish airplane recently removed two alleged terrorists from the plane. After searching the two narrowly, they were cleared of any wrong doing. The other passengers were alarmed by the warm clothing that the Arabs were wearing and the fact that they were constantly looking at their watches.

Well done. Everyone knows that terrorists always wear warm clothing during an attack. When a plane explodes like that it can get pretty cold up there. And ofcourse they're constantly checking if their bomb is running synchronized.

We are society, and we can't be attentive enough. 'All those who should be distrusted, must to be men with beards'.

A while back I had to get out of the train when behind me suddenly an Arab came running at me with a backpack. Suddenly, I realised my last hour had dawned upon me. This was surely because of that joke I once made in a televisionprogramme about the Prophet. I thought that situation had cooled down but secretly Osama him self had ofcourse given the order to blow me, 'that western dog with his doubtful sense of humor', up.

I didn't even hessitate for a second and struck down the muslim with a punch, snatched the backpack from his hands and ran off with it onto the platform. "Take cover" I screamed and I dove right on top of the backpack, which cracked under my impressive 78 kilo's. What would god reward me with after this heroic deed?

Nothing happened. It wasn't untill that moment that I recognized my own backpack, which I left on the luggage rack and which the Arab had obligingly come to return to me.

Now my question is whether anyone has a second hand laptop for sale? The fear of terrorism does a lot more damage than terrorism itself.