Mad Erik

Maths never was a strong point!

Apologies for the thread bump, couldn't find anything more recent and relevant - though that may be because of my dire searching skills! Basically, received a bit of bad news today. Knew my brother had been going through some really tough times with his missus - the decade they've been together has been tumultuous to say the least - but today it emerged that she's been having an affair. To further complicate matters, there's two kids under ten involved (one's his, one isn't). Obviously the next few days are going to be pretty fucking shit for him and he's understandably betrayed, angry and all the rest of it but I was just wondering if any forumites have experience of anything similar. Obviously just want to do what I can to help him. Going to take him for a couple of pints tonight, but in the long-term I'm pretty keen to ensure he doesn't get too stuck into the booze. Anyhow, if anyone's got any words of wisdom, they'd be gratefully received.

Never done it. Never even been tempted. When I think of the kind of person I have seen doing it, that's more than enough to put me off.

Provided you're playing with someone of a similar standard, it's great. Otherwise the points are really short, so it's hard to get any kind of benefit out of it fitness-wise. If you get someone at your level and can have a game with lots of rallies, it can be great fun.

It'll Be All Wright on the Night TV's Mark Wright tours nightclubs the length and breadth of the UK meeting other people with the surname Wright. Each episode will end with Wright getting a (w)right filling in from locals. Screenwipe with Charlie Brooker With his trademark acerbic wit never far away, Charlie Brooker takes an in-depth look at the world of screen cleaner fluids.

Don't mind listening to it for half an hour. Like most shows it depends who's on it, but they're generally quite entertaining. Quite like that Rob Gutmann, John Gibbons is alright and I think Atkinson's an excellent host. There's a couple of others I don't mind, too. Without sounding sexist that Melissa Ready is awful as is 'Steph'. You do wonder if they're there simply to add a female opinion. Suppose I should even things out by saying some of the lads are crap too. Listened to one with some chap called Ben Johnson last year. Fuck me. He was awful. Paralysed by his own scouseness. Lad. Find it better than reading their articles - especially the ones Neil Atkinson writes. What he watches transcends football. Transcends The Reds. He writes a sentence and then repeats a few words from that sentence in the next one. In the next one. And just to emphasise a point, he uses one word sentences. Brilliantly. That When Liverpool Win, We All Win thing's fucking cringeworthy too. On the whole they're basically Liverpool fans who enjoy doing that bit of work on the side. Can't begin to imagine how they torture about ten shows a week out of what goes on though. It'd be a push this week, let alone a normal one.

Never been his biggest fan, but that's just strange. Must have had a row, or they've got someone lined up. If it's a clear upgrade I can see the logic but surely if he's the man to take you forward in the summer, 10 poor - but not awful - games don't change your mind.

Net spend can be a useful tool. In this case I think it casts some light on the fact that whilst we've spent shit loads of money, it's not the case that we've just been throwing our cheque book around. We have recouped money through selling off two of our best players. So there has been a sense of 'starting again' in one of the last two summers, arguably both. The point I think people miss with net spend is that is doesn't exist to absolve bad transfers. Regardless of whether 1p or £50bn has come in, the point is we have spent £300m. I would suggest we have spent about 20% of that well. Regardless of how much has come in, you've got to spend what you have well. And we haven't done that well for years. Way before Rodgers time. I'd suggest that since Ged came, we have had about five or six good windows out of what, 30? Ultimately, that's the reason why we've had good periods and got close on occasion, we've never closed the gap that existed in the late 90s between ourselves and the very top clubs.

We do press aggressively. Sometimes. We do get high up the pitch. Sometimes. We do look to move the ball around with purpose. Sometimes. When we do those three things - such as for the first twenty minutes today - we look a half-decent side. As soon as we stop doing those things - which is most of the time - we don't. We look directionless and drift through games.

Yeah, but you don't have to be a winner, to be a winner. Moyesy proved that. Even though he's a winner anyway.

How can he hate women? His mother's one.

Best of luck to him, genuinely. It appears that at the very least he has some laudable principes. IMHO, however, he'll do well to do anything other than take Labour to the electoral margins.

Personally - and I understand others won't - I am happy to yes. Regardless of how you think of him, he is the elected leader of a democratic country and these are the kind of decisions that sometimes have to be taken. As for the fact they're in Syria - at the very least - it's possible to plan and direct a barbaric terrorist attack from a different country. 9/11 proved that. Regardless, personally, on balance I would rather kill two people who have gone off to join a terrorist organisation that wants to attack western interests, kill westerners and create an Islamic caliphate through some absolutely barbaric methods; than leave even the smallest of risk that in some way, shape or form they might be behind an attack on innocent citizens. Again, you'd imagine there's far more specific intelligence than that, but personally, just on the above I would be happy to see them dead. I'd ask what you would do? As we don't know what they were planning, let's leave that aside and stick to what appears to be the widely quoted facts. Let's just say that thanks to intelligence you knew where two British members of IS would be for a small period of time. You had prior knowledge of them making propaganda videos in which they asked for British Muslims 'what prevents them from joining the ranks of the mujaheddin, those that spill the blood of their enemies'. You also have knowledge of IS and their track record. What would your course of action be? Bearing in mind due to the situation in Syria the impossibility of effectively trailing them, or better yet, capturing them.

Whilst I agree with the above point about the UK not having the death penalty, under the UN Charter we do have the 'right of self-defence...when an armed attack is imminent'. We obviously don't know the specifics - and I do recognise the argument for perhaps releasing more details, security permitting - however the bare minimum is these people have joined ISIS. A group that seeks to attack Western interests, including the UK and it's citizens, whenever it can. That's the minimum. You would of course believe there's far more detailed intelligence on just what these characters wanted to do. Since the US carried out a drone attack on an American citizen (al-Awalki) in 2011 I don't believe a single US citizen has been killed in a drone strike. It's not like America has 'execution squads' taking out American citizens in the MIddle East at will. These are the very rare and very targeted killings of very dangerous people, IMHO. And whilst it would certainly be nice to arrest characters like these, or failing that, at least have all the facts and all the details, I accept on very rare occasions, it's not always possible and I'd take the odd one of these over the odd 7/7 any day.

There's really no easy answers to the 'migrant crisis', but it seems absurd to me that after one picture of a dead child - harrowing and heartbreaking though it was - Cameron changes his policy and prepares to let more refugees, migrants (call them what you will..) in. All summer people have been dying trying to get to Europe. Anyone who reads the papers or watches the news would know that. Thousands have died. Yet in the face of that, the British Government decided - rightly or wrongly - that the country couldn't take anymore in. However one visual image of this issue that's been going on for months however and policy changes.