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_Stix_Pooh-Bah
2,419 posts
Location: la-la land


Posted:
I've got the news on at the mo.. is anyone else gettin a ickle bit ansy about all this military buildup in Heathrow and now the other airports? Also heard that they may be putting troups on the streets of London this weekend..

Over reaction or justified need against terrorist threat?

I honour you as an aspect of myself..

You are never to old to storm a bouncey castle..


KatBRONZE Member
Pooh-Bah
2,211 posts
Location: London, Wales (UK)


Posted:
Justifed need against terrorist threat and swarms of mad protestors carrying dangerous poi!

Come faeries, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame.

- W B Yeats


_Stix_Pooh-Bah
2,419 posts
Location: la-la land


Posted:

I honour you as an aspect of myself..

You are never to old to storm a bouncey castle..


tadpoleGOLD Member
enthusiast
200 posts
Location: Harare, Zimbabwe, United Kingdom


Posted:
Really MisStix - everyone knows that if there are people with guns running around, trouble will never happen

Don't worry, be happy...


SmallBoy - xCarpal \'Tunnel
2,737 posts
Location: London


Posted:
lol

Small Lardy Person In Disguise


pkBRONZE Member
Lambretta Fanatic
4,997 posts
Location: United Kingdom


Posted:
getting kinda close to home. what next???

i just hope there will be no more suicide bombers certainly never in london.

_Stix_Pooh-Bah
2,419 posts
Location: la-la land


Posted:
You never know PK.. there's lots of nutters out there who believe that they would be regarded as marters (sp) if they blew themselfs up with half of London..

I honour you as an aspect of myself..

You are never to old to storm a bouncey castle..


Tambomember
97 posts
Location: Exeter


Posted:
My friend e mailed me this about the terrorist threat, and it seems to make sense.....

On Being Prepared
by Donna Henes, Urban Shaman
(c) 2002
From Always in Season: Living in Sync with the Cycles

We have been blasted in the last few days with dire threats of terrorism.
Death and doom on the home front. Culpability in a horrendous war. What are
we supposed to do with all this? How the hell can we cope with such
uncertain
times? (And all times are uncertain.)

The events since 911 have rudely awakened us from our naïve American
delusions of safety and exemption from many of the harsher realties of life.
We have been forced to face the fact that nothing in the world is permanent.
Nothing lasts forever. Nothing is ever really completely safe. There is no
such thing as security. Anything, anything at all, can happen at any moment.
And in that moment, we are changed forever, as well.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist
in nature, nor do we children of men as a whole
experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the
long run than outright exposure. Life is either a
daring adventure, or nothing. To keep our faces
toward change and behave like free spirits in the
presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
-Helen Keller

Life is a dangerous proposition all the way around. Nobody makes it out
alive, after all. We never know, from day to day, from minute to minute,
when
a crisis will arrive unannounced on our doorstep. We never know when or how
we will be called upon to rise to a critical, pivotal occasion. Yet we would
like to think that we would be ready, willing and able to handle whatever
may
come our way. Like any good scout, we aim to be prepared.

Being prepared in the way that the Boy and Girl Scouts mean, can get you
only
so far, however. Sure, it is always a good idea to have a well-stocked
pantry, tool box and first aid kit -- extra batteries, water, matches,
candles, aspirins --- just in case. It behooves one to be smart; to be
alert,
aware, vigilant, careful and calm.

But there is simply no way -- given the infinite variety of diabolically
creative forms that death and destruction can take -- to be prepared for any
conceivable contingency. How can we predict and plan for any and every
possible danger when fate provides us with scenarios that no sane person
could ever invent?

Last year, I read about two well-heeled, well-coifed Japanese tourists in
London who were struck and killed by lightning as they strolled through Hyde
Park. The wire, it would seem, on their under-wire brassieres had attracted
the deadly bolt. How could you ever anticipate anything so bizarre?

A few years ago, a woman I once knew was walking with her husband and two
adolescent sons along Boston harbor one sunny Sunday afternoon. They were
eating ice cream and looking at the ships when a freak wind came along and
knocked one of the boys into the water, never to be seen again. Imagine.
Life
is so fragile that an errant wind could literally blow you away forever.

Who, save for Hollywood's most obscene creators, could possibly have
conjured
the unthinkable World Trade Center attacks? Airplanes crashing into
neighborhoods? Anthrax in the mail? Suicide bombers blowing up pizza
parlors?
Let alone prepare for them?

The only way that we can prepare ourselves for unanticipated change is to
center ourselves in the present moment. To pay attention. To really be here
now. If we can focus on the immediate, rather than obsess over the past or
try to anticipate the future, we will have the presence of mind to assess
each situation as it arises. And we will be able to be flexible in our
response to it.

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that?
We must have perseverance and above all confidence
in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted
for something and that this thing must be attained.
-Marie Curie


I have a friend who rather tends toward panic. The woman craves security.
Just watching the dizzy ups and downs of my ever-precarious economic
circumstances over the years would drive her to distraction. When the
vagaries of my life made her nervous, she would question me, "What, exactly,
are you going to do?"

Exactly? "Well, I will do such and such," I would brazenly reply, not
because
I knew that to be true, but because I felt compelled to come up with an
answer to ease her concern and worry on my behalf. Of course, the correct
and
honest answer always has to be, "I don't know. I have to see. I have to
think. I have to feel. I have to meditate. I have to consult the I Ching. I
have to do what seems right at the moment." This is not being irresponsible.
It is being ultimately response-able.

Eventually, I came to understand that she was asking the wrong question in
the first place. It is not so important to know what you will do in any
particular given situation. The crucial thing is to know that you will be
able to do something. To have faith in your own instincts and intuition to
figure it out as you go along. To have confidence in your ability to think
on
your feet. To believe in your good intentions and your courage to do
whatever
is called for.

I remember so vividly the last cogent conversation that I had with my best
dear friend Jimmy a few days before he died. I asked him what lessons he had
learned having had to deal with a mortal disease for so many years. What did
all the pain and suffering come to in a spiritual sense? He replied that he
had learned that he had inside of himself the resources that he needed in
order to do what he had to do. He had never known that before, he told me.
Personally, I don't want to die in order to learn that lesson.

It seems to me that the secret to preparation is presence. To live the life
that we have, while we can, as best as we can, and to appreciate every
minute
of it. L' chaim !, the Yiddish toast, "To life!" recognizes and salutes life
in all of its fullness and complexity. It celebrates all of it - the good,
the bad, the ugly - for tomorrow we die.

Several years ago I went to a 60th birthday bash at the Tropicana Night Club
in Manhattan. Manuel, whose party it was, was scheduled for major surgery
early the next morning. But meanwhile, here he was turned out in a spiffy
tux
playing most gracious host to all of his friends. The champagne flowed, the
salsa was hot and the merengué was cool.

Since the party go-ers were mostly of a certain age, it would be safe to
assume that they had all seen and suffered a good bit thus far in their
lives. Yet, here they were, aches, pains, disappointments, sorrows and all,
dressed to the nines, eating, drinking, laughing, dancing the night away.

How beautiful and brave we human beings are. Though fully cognizant of our
mortality, we gamely keep on continuing on. Trying to make things better.
Making the best of things. Living as if it mattered. May we mambo in their
footsteps, ever spinning toward perspective, acceptance, compassion, wisdom,
grace, and above all, peace.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every
experience in which you really stop to look fear in
the face.
-Eleanor Roosevelt


xxMama Donna

Thistleold hand
950 posts
Location: Nottingham UK


Posted:
I've had a few thoughts about the build up of military personel in UK airports.

1. Maybe there really is a terrorist threat in airports in the UK.

2. Maybe they've been put there by the government to make us think there is a terrorist threat thus gaining support for the war against Iraq/terror. I have become more suspicious of this in light of this afternoon's announcement by the govenment that they are doubling the war budget.

3. Maybe the goverment have put them in place to crush the anti-war movement gathering this coming weekend.

4. I'm really glad I don't live in London.


5. Maybe I think too much about conspiricy theories.

Are we nearly there yet?


TheBovrilMonkeySILVER Member
Liquid Cow
2,629 posts
Location: High Wycombe, England


Posted:
I think the troop build up at the airport is pretty much pointless if they're trying to stop terrorists shooting down a plane. They're probably just there as a show of force.

My reasoning is that an airbus doesn't get out of a man portable SAM rocket's effective range until it's roughly over Reading. There could be a million soldiers around the airport, but it only takes 1 man with a rocket anywhere on the flightpath before the plane hits Reading to knock it out of the sky.

The smaller planes get out of range somewhere over Windsor, but again, that's plenty of opportunity for Johnny Rocketlauncher to snap a shot off while being well out of the way of any military.

But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.


.Morph.SILVER Member
addict
669 posts
Location: Lancashire, UK


Posted:
It's unreal, surley having such a show of force is more effective at creating a sense of fear in people than it is a tool for stopping any terrorist threat!?
I am open to that fact that there may very well be a need for action soon, but who's scarier Bush, the worlds biggest arms system, acting on his own and ignoring other ruling nations, or Saddam, his followers and his weapons?

I can't get to the anti-war demo, but anyone going have a spin for me!!

spiralxveteran
1,376 posts
Location: London, UK


Posted:
I live on a road off the A30 about five miles down from Heathrow, and I've got bloody police at the end of my road! Plus more all the way along the A30, and even more at Staines station.

All pointless, just there to wind us up and make us think we're in danger

"Moo," said the happy cow.


Raymund Phule (Fireproof)Enter a "Title" here:
2,905 posts
Location: San Diego California


Posted:
Little known fact about the US military presence in airports after 9/11. The a lot of the Army National Guardsmen, either were only armed with a weapon and no ammo, or had rifles that looked real but were primarily made from hard rubber!

This was done to keep an air of controle and a bluff to ward off anyone who thought about a second attack. It seemed to work pretty good seen as how nobody tried anything else.

Take a good look at the weapons those people have. Personally I dont know what the Brittish army uses, but it will more than likly have an external magazine (clip as some call them). See if it is there or if it isnt they should have some sort of pouch with magazines in it. If that looks a little flat, then no worries.

Some Jarhead last night: "this dumb a$$ thinks hes fireproof"


_Stix_Pooh-Bah
2,419 posts
Location: la-la land


Posted:
ok so they've put armed guards and the army at Heathrow and put armed police at Stanstead, Leeds, Birminham and the other airports aroud the country.. but I've not heard ANYTHING about Gatwick.. I would have though that that might have the same risk as Heathrow.. they do the long haul flights there don't they?

Raymund - fake / look real guns don't really surprise me. After all it's just a show of force.. as it said in the newspaper this morn - the only people the tanks will save if a bomb does go off - is the soldiers in side them..

I honour you as an aspect of myself..

You are never to old to storm a bouncey castle..


pkBRONZE Member
Lambretta Fanatic
4,997 posts
Location: United Kingdom


Posted:
i think i have heard the same about gatwick, full of ecilop with guns!

_Stix_Pooh-Bah
2,419 posts
Location: la-la land


Posted:
So they have got the same at Gatwick then.. it wasn't mentioned on the nuus last night.. I was just wondering why that wasn't the case.. have they got that sort of security round there anyway? Isn't there some sort of military base or something round there? I could be wrong..

I honour you as an aspect of myself..

You are never to old to storm a bouncey castle..


DurbsBRONZE Member
Classically British
5,689 posts
Location: Epsom, Surrey, England


Posted:
Hmmmm - I'd have to agree with the theory or putting on a display to build up support for the war. I don't really see what tanks and armed (real guns or not) could do about any threats to the airports...

A bit of a sideline, but has anyone else noticed how quickly that "Plagerism" (sp?) scandal was hushed up?
I've spoken to a few people who knew nothing about it - a quick summary:-
The Government presented an intelligence document on Iraq's weapons capability and a threat analysis plus a report on the social structure of Iraq and it's underground movements. The report was regarded as good evidence for the need of war. Even Colen Powell (no idea how to spell his name) praised it on its accuracy in his big speach he made here.
Next day it transpires, of the 19 page document, pages 6-16 were DIRECTLY copied - as in cut & pasted - from a students analytical thesis written 12 YEARS AGO. 2/3 of the rest was plagerised from "Janes' Intelligence Monthly". This was presented as up to the minute M.I.6 intelligence. They'd even altered a few words to make it more sinister - "underground organisations" was changed to "terrorist organisations" and a passage describing that these polical pressure groups were made up of "bullies and country-bumpkins" was shortened to simply "bullies".
I mean - WTF?! And there hasn't been a thing on the news about it since, despite all the news programs saying it was an infinite time more scandalous than the Cherie Blair affair which lasted weeks!
Sickening and very, very worrying...

Burner of Toast
Spinner of poi
Slacker of enormous magnitude


_Stix_Pooh-Bah
2,419 posts
Location: la-la land


Posted:
Durbs hunny you are right.. it's funny who quickly that storey dissapeared.. not really that much was made of it really was it? The spin doctors really did have to work over time to hush that one up - but then again it was a bi-national embarresment - The US and the UK both had very red faces - so that sort of thing really isn't too good for national confidence is it?

I know I lost the little bit of confidence that I had..

I honour you as an aspect of myself..

You are never to old to storm a bouncey castle..


tennisBRONZE Member
confused and abused
363 posts
Location: bristol, United Kingdom


Posted:
even if it is a pr thing i'm still just scared and cannot wait to leave this country. I thinkn that's quite an embarrasment to myself but more significantly the country,
Ah well i'm goiing to find something nice to look at and be cheery.

Tennis

My cat's breath smells like catfood


jim bombadilmember
142 posts
Location: bristol


Posted:
My guess is that they've heard someone is going to try and blow something up at heathrow. That would make sense.
Does that seem so far fetched?

_Stix_Pooh-Bah
2,419 posts
Location: la-la land


Posted:
Just heard on the news that they've arrested two guys not that far from Heathrow - the police say that they were not happy with the answers they were given.. no weapons found in the car.. they've been taken to Paddington Green po-lis station and are being held under the terrarist act..

hot air maybe? over supicious maybe..

I honour you as an aspect of myself..

You are never to old to storm a bouncey castle..


_Stix_Pooh-Bah
2,419 posts
Location: la-la land


Posted:
On the news - Gatwick north has been evacuated and police and army on high alert.. no reason reported.. (but at least I got my earlier questions answered)

Gatwick south still open tho.. sorry for the bulletins but I'm bored stiff.. got the radio on at work..

I honour you as an aspect of myself..

You are never to old to storm a bouncey castle..


MikeGinnyGOLD Member
HOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA


Posted:
Gawd. I'm flying in to Gatwick in a week. I hope they get this worked out.

At least you guys can take heart in the fact that it seems like your government gets paranoid for a reason. We have uniformed troops (in cammoflage fatigues with rifles) in all our airports all the time. I still haven't quite grasped the concept of how cammoflage helps disguise a soldier in an airport, but whatever...

I wish they would drop all this secrecy bullhonkey and tell the people what the heck is going on.

-Mike

Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella



A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura


Astarmember
1,591 posts
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada.


Posted:
What do you suggest? Airport camoflauge.

A likeness of a michevious redheaded boy on the left knee with a suit case painted on the right, A short womans figure painted on the torso and a water fountain shaped helmet so they blend into the airport?

_Stix_Pooh-Bah
2,419 posts
Location: la-la land


Posted:
ooo.. the guy that has been arrested coming off a plane at Gatwick had a hand grenade..he was coming from Columbia..

South UK correspondant out..

I honour you as an aspect of myself..

You are never to old to storm a bouncey castle..


MikeGinnyGOLD Member
HOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA


Posted:
Interesting...very interesting. I have to wonder how they knew this was going to happen.

Like I say, at least when your government suddenly goes paranoid and jack-booted, it seems like they have a good reason for doing it.

We just get horrible terrorism warnings for events that we never hear about again (no news like "the perpertrators were caught" or anything...just...nothing happens).

-Mike

Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella



A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura


ValuraSILVER Member
Mumma Hen
6,391 posts
Location: Brisbane, Australia


Posted:
quote:
Originally posted by Mike Ginny
bullhonkey
I fell off the chair laughing when I read this...wtf is bullhonkey?!?!? Dang! You americans got some kurfuddling slang out them parts!

I think that the governments have a lot to answer to with the 'encrouagement' that they seem to be placing on the war.
I acknowledge that many people have lost their lives in a frightening and unimaginable way, but war is not a viable option. War is inevitably the end for this world and the power hungry leaders who are getting a testosterone boost from singing the praises of war need only to be put on the front line to understand what the troops go through. But THAT will never happen.
Back in the day a king used to ride into war with his people. What happened to that? bring back the 60's I says ... Peace love and harmony...
To be honest guys Im very scared about this. I cant sense a lot after May...its like Im being blocked. Lets band together guys and remember that no matter what happens Love is stronger than hate. I love you guys

TAJ "boat mummy." VALURA "yes sweetie you went on a boat, was daddy there with you?" TAJ "no, but monkey on boat" VALURA "well then sweetie, Daddy WAS there with you"


MikeGinnyGOLD Member
HOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA


Posted:
Valura, Bull Honkey is a polite way of saying Bull Sh!t.

You don't see us going to war until May? I predict it sooner.

Brace yourselves, folks. We're going to war. I don't like it any more than anyone else, but there's no way either Bush or Saddam is going to back down. War is coming.

-Mike

Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella



A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura


pkBRONZE Member
Lambretta Fanatic
4,997 posts
Location: United Kingdom


Posted:
now i'd pay to see that on pay-per-view:
the queen on a mission to flush out bin laden or sadam on horse back lead by her corgies
maybe we could use prince charles's ears as radar???
i know send bush and blair to the front line.
fuck it do away with all in power, lets al have some world peace for once, i'm sick of this terroist and war bullhonkey

_Stix_Pooh-Bah
2,419 posts
Location: la-la land


Posted:
MAY?? But it's my birthday at the end of June! That really freaks me out guys.. It's just not right that other people control our destiny that much..

I hope we all don' blow up - I'm trying to think of it as last case senario!

Still I'll keep living like each day could be our last.. within reason of course! Not gonna go rob any banks...

I honour you as an aspect of myself..

You are never to old to storm a bouncey castle..



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