The Mess

[katarn]

You would just call the immediately-pre Roman natives Celts then?

[Smitty-48]

You would just call the immediately-pre Roman natives Celts then?

Call them whatever you want, but they weren't "British", the nation of Britannia, was merely a system of governance, with no particular ethnicity, right from the get go, the various Celtic tribes, are not the founders of Britannia nor did they ever govern it, the Romans founded Britannia, Britannia is an entirely Roman construct, entirely for the purposes of governance therein.

To wit, Britannia never came down from the highlands all covered in blue paint, on the contrary, Britannia came up the river from Rome and spread out from Londinium.

Those Celts were not fighting for the British, they were fighting against them, and arguably, they still are.

[Ex-California]

I believe it is still illegal to play football as it detracts from longbow practise unless Edward I's reasonable decree has been repealed recently.

It is illegal to explode a nuclear bomb in Chico, CA

[Hastur]

Vikings are still banned from entering some parts of Britain apparently.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/portsoy-bo ... -1-4151174

There seems to be a need for some thorough law revisions over there.

[Hwen Hoshino]

From page 45

Me:

1. Or something close to it.

2. What evidence do you have that investigative journalism is dead in Russia? They are an open society just like the US. You got proof that Russian politicians communicate differently?

Open society? More like open season at journalists. Only some Algeria during it's late Civil War or "Liberated Iraq" have been more lethal places for journalists as Post-Soviet Russia has been. The Russian solution is to have few minor "liberal" newspapers where some Anna Politovskaya could report the human rights abuses in Chechnya (before being herself murdered). Yet Television and MSM has tightly been kept under the rule of the Kremlin. Now there was a fight for this as some rich tried to use their wealth to get political power and use media, but these oligarchs ended up either in jail, or outside Russia, or then bowed to the siloviks.

Could it be that the market is only interested in a few liberal newspapers? Does it have to be a conspiracy? Maybe these reporters should not work for scummy oligarchs.

Me:

3. So i bet stuff still gets out. What sensitive information is even there with which most Russians would not be fine with? Its not like they are an USA type empire.

Only a worse one. But yes, word does get out. You see in the US you can have you Ted Turners, Koch Brothers, Rupert Murdochs and they can try to influence things in Washington. But the US Presidents don't target them politically if they aren't supporters of the President and put them to jail, confiscate their wealth.

All Russia is it's oligarchs? If Putin wanted to be Hitler the next day the people could not stop him?

[Montegriffo]

Vikings are still banned from entering some parts of Britain apparently.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/portsoy-bo ... -1-4151174

There seems to be a need for some thorough law revisions over there.

No, I love all the quirky old laws we still have. Most of them, although not all repealed, are over ruled by more up to date legislation. Like the one about killing any Welshman from the ramparts of Chester castle. Not going to get away with murder any more but it keeps a link to the past and is funny to bring up when ever you come across one of the sheep lovers going about his business. I'd post a link to odd British laws but this is not the thread for that sort of behaviour.

[Montegriffo]

You would just call the immediately-pre Roman natives Celts then?

Call them whatever you want, but they weren't "British", the nation of Britannia, was merely a system of governance, with no particular ethnicity, right from the get go, the various Celtic tribes, are not the founders of Britannia nor did they ever govern it, the Romans founded Britannia, Britannia is an entirely Roman construct, entirely for the purposes of governance therein.

To wit, Britannia never came down from the highlands all covered in blue paint, on the contrary, Britannia came up the river from Rome and spread out from Londinium.

Those Celts were not fighting for the British, they were fighting against them, and arguably, they still are.

Hard to know who the first to settle Britain were. Oldest habitation found so far, in the Scottish islands, is around 8000 years old. Those warriors painted blue were Picts not Celts but we only have one reference to that by Plinny the Elder who is known for writing some crazy things down.
Damn I miss Vox Contra, he would lay down a few knowledge bombs on this subject.

[ssu]

Could it be that the market is only interested in a few liberal newspapers? Does it have to be a conspiracy? Maybe these reporters should not work for scummy oligarchs.

? ? ?

Ah, I used the word "liberal".

Or are so out of your mind you think Russians don't want actual news? Just government propaganda will do? Well, you asked about the state of investigative journalism and there had been for time just few outlets. Even those few outlets are under scrutiny now. But you still think Russia is an open society. It's just Western badmouthing.

For example, By Russian Law, if any blogger has more than 3 000 daily viewers, the blogger has to report himself or herself to the officials and it is viewed as a "media outlet", and as a formal "media outlet", then means that there is a ban on anonymous authorship and the owner of the site has legal responsibility for comments posted by users. Social media that has Russian people ought to have Also the authorities can shut down websites that they don't like, which they see to be "extremist" activities or illegal assemblies, or calls for "mass riots". And the authorities can bypass the justice system and the courts in closing down websites they don't like. Site blocked are like opposition leader Aleksandr Navalny's blog, who btw. isn't a liberal, but declares himself as a nationalist democrat, and who's crime has been to expose the corruption close to Putin.


In the US there might be few journalists that truly earn the name "investigative journalist", but once if an Abu Grhaib -scandal or anything breaks out, all the media outlets will cover the news. Perhaps the liberal media with their liberal bias, fox news with their own bias, but still, the actual news event is hardly doubted. In Russia, similar stories simply don't get out. Never in the MSM.

In Russia you had now officially only "volunteers" fighting in Eastern Ukraine if push came to shove with the Ukrainian forces. And no information is there about just how many "volunteers" have been killed. No Media covering if actually Russian forces were deployed to Ukraine (which they were). The organizations like "Soldiers Mothers", who were famous during the First Chechen war, were detained when the spoke of soldiers being killed.

So if you talk about Russia being an open society, then you should tell us what we have missed.

Or then I'll just leave you with BjornP's short and complete answer to you:

I can assure you, with a very stoic and calm demeanor, that Russia in fact exists.

More Russian Cartoons, for the Russian consumption, translated...

[Speaker to Animals]

So does this mess serve Canadian-style chow hall fare, or just US Army SOS?

[Montegriffo]

The jailing of all female punk band Pussy riot for anti Putin demonstrations should be evidence enough.