It all started off with such high expectations: in honour of Welsh Legends, a pre-match drinky at the Owain Glyndwr. Unfortunately the beer was being served by an amateur, and headless Brains was the result.
Not to worry! A text arrived from a colleague of the mister’s (a Tigers fan) announcing that he was at O’Neill’s, so we made our way there. The colleague was nowhere to be found, and the beer (and wine) was equally shit. The main point of interest was that the owner must be a County Antrim man, judging by the exquisite photographs on the walls.
Next on the agenda was to find somewhere to watch the Munster v Racing match. After considerable traipsing, eventually found a pub that was both showing it and had drinkable booze. Hooray!
As you’ll all know, that was quite an exciting match, ending in a draw.
On to Arms Park for the main event!
Arms Park is a civilised ground that serves Courvoisier doubles. Whoever designed the signage must have been overly-appreciative of said cognac, because the signs in no way resembled any of the seating information on our tickets.
With the help of a friendly usher, we eventually found our seats, in the middle of a garish sea of Leicester supporters. A particularly large-lunged one was sitting directly behind me, and was given to shouting YESTIGAHS every time Leicester touched the ball.
Noticing me flinching, he said, “Sorry, I’ll try to warn you before I shout. But I don’t always know when I’m going to do it.”
“Oh. A bit like Tourette’s, then?”
As for the rugby itself:
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(Yay, try Cardiff.)
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Ah shit.
Further Reading
Weekend team selections start here.
ClydeMillarWynant’s views on known knowns and unknown unknowns.
On the telly this week
Friday 29th November
| Munster v Edinburgh | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Ulster v Scarlets | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Bath v Saracens | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 30th November
| Wales v Barbarians (women) | 11:45 | S4C |
| Wales v Barbarians (men) | 14:45 | Channel 4 |
| Northampton v Leicester | 15:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Treviso v Cardiff | 15:00 | FreeSports / PS2 |
| Connacht v Southern Kings | 17:15 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Dragons v Zebre | 17:15 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
| Glasgow v Leinster | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Ospreys v Cheetahs | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 1st December
| Harlequins v Gloucester | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Nice stuff, Thaum.
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Deebeed while talking about Deebee. Marvellous.
Thanks Thauma, good to know I can tape the Drags on S4C. Maybe go to top top Newport next time round?
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Newport … that’s the place we try to avoid when driving to Cardiff as the traffic is horrendous, yes?
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The Mister might suffer less pain, and feel compensated by spending the evening in a top 3 town rather than in a failing city.
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Heh, if I’m feeling brave, I might suggest that to him.
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Good work, thaum.
The Cardiff clubhouse used to be fantastic if you liked rugby history/memorabilia. Is it still like that(,yos)?
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There’s a reason why the traffic is horrendous, Thauma. Everyone is leaving before they get to Cardiff.
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Deebee,
I see the Lions are after Willem Alberts. On the other hand, you’ve signed the very good Francke Horn.
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Words Thaum
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Nice stuff Thaum!
MrIks – I have a travel agent. I’m just copping the fallout of the changes in logistics. More pointedly, one of my researchers, who actually has nothing to do with the trip has been abused by a couple of absolute synts who feel they have a right to scream at whoever’s on the other end of the phone. Pricks. I’m getting stick because a €1bn contractor only has one project team who’ve all been posted to Eastern Europe somewhere just before our visit.
I feel all warm and fuzzy now that I’ve saved Christmas and our Iksy can go to sleep dreaming of reindeer and elves. A song, I feel, is appropriate:
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TomP – Alberts, Du Plessis and someone else well into the 30s so far. Dad’s Army coming home for a pension top up. At least we’ve not signed 35 year old Morne Steyn.
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On the other hand, we’ve got a very young side – as have most of the SA franchises, so bringing in guys who may play as much of a mentoring role as an active playing role is a good thing.
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I like Alberts. Not sure if he’s still got it. Big Francke is brilliant. But gets injured a fair bit. You’ve also picked up Jamba Ulengo and Duncan Matthews from the Bulls, though Matthews went last year a bit. He’s a splendid player but always injured.
Oh, and Roelof Smit as well. Another fine player, too frequently banged up.
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Good stuff Tham, thanks.
oh and cheers to BB for the link to the Cockers interview, he does like to stir things up a bit, eh?
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If any teams need a new fly half…
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I assume he’s playing for a team that’s not in Europe?
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He seems to have lost weight since he played for England
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He’s also cut his hair. Where are we going to get that lovable sideways swipe?
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Another Cardiffian Match Report:
Click to access 1220_0.pdf
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Ticht – he does, and I don’t think he’ll bother anyone at Glasgow, except some of the more excitable fans.
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Ticht and anyone else, this is worth a read:
Click to access Anti-Semitism_and_the_Labour_Party.pdf
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Thanks, Tam, I should really read that but I’ll probably just skip through one or two chapters. The trouble with that is that it’s preaching to the choir, the people that need to read it wont, including some on here like Chek, they just aren’t interested in anything beyond that “disinformation paradigm” as it was described yesterday.
I don’t know how we, by we I mean everyone, get beyond this conflation of Zionism and Judaism
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Which reminds me
Click to access Labour-anti-semitism-and-the-news-EXEC-SUM-FINAL-PROOFED.pdf
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Thanks for that, TomP. Obviously I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but it appears to be well-referenced.
The irony of the Daily Fucking Mail calling Labour and Corbyn anti-Semitic – the same Daily Mail that supported the Nazis and, more recently, made slurs against Ralph Miliband – is astonishing.
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IIRC Thaum there was a whole lot of very dodgy stuff written about Ed Milliband too
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There are other things going on with the media in the UK election but this is still a very solid piece of work:
http://pressthink.org/2011/08/why-political-coverage-is-broken/
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Ticht – that’s good too, but I wouldn’t be so quick to make disparaging comments about Chek or others. The media – as pointed out in the paper you link to – have been so comprehensively Goebellian about the slurs, that it sounds like a conspiracy theory at this point to suggest that it’s ridiculous that the Labour Party – the Labour Party, FFS! – is not institutionally anti-Semitic.
This post by Zagradotryad on Cif is also worth pointing out: https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/135968805
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Ticht @20:58 – yes, the Ralph Miliband slurs were invoked to discredit ‘Red Ed’ (as if), and of course the *snarf snarf* bacon sarnie incident, two kitchens, etc.
It’s my opinion that neither of Ralph’s sons is a patch on their father, but Ed is a decent bloke. Had he been elected, a whole world of shit and misery – including Brexit – would have been avoided.
David, though, is a bit of a shit. I wouldn’t have voted for him.
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Aye, but Chek practically accused me of anti-Semitism and called shame on me, and for someone who has spent forty years campaigning for various organisations on an anti-poverty, anti racism platform, it stings, it shouldn’t, I should take into account youth and inexperience, but it did make me angry.
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Reading through that list on the Graun post, there can’t be too many times Corbyn backed Ian Paisley!
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Ticht – yes, similarly I have also always campaigned for anti-poverty and anti-racism causes, and that includes campaigning for Palestinians while also absolutely deploring anti-Semitism. The two things are really not mutually exclusive, as the Jewish Voice for Labour movement confirms.
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Ticht @21:25 – heh, yes, that pretty much marks a one-off for me too!
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I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently and I think my biggest problem is that I really don’t like governments and am not overly keen on states. Conversely, the way I see it is if you have to have those things, they have to be really really fucking good and honest.
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Oh, and I meant to add to my 21:26: such has been the media blitz on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, that most people believe it, and not surprisingly when even the Guardian has taken up the trope. I hope that Chek, as an enlightened member of the always fair-minded rugby fraternity, will read and consider our posts on why it’s bollocks.
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“campaigning for Palestinians while also absolutely deploring anti-Semitism. The two things are really not mutually exclusive”
This message gets lost in the kerfuffle, going back to Ed Milliband, one of the articles I read this week was one from the Spectator at the time which “explained” why Ed Milliband “lost the Jewish vote” – it was after him condemning the killings of Palestinian civilians.
The fact is that sensible people deplore the violence and do not cheer the killing of Israelis or Palestinians.
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“I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently and I think my biggest problem is that I really don’t like governments and am not overly keen on states. Conversely, the way I see it is if you have to have those things, they have to be really really fucking good and honest.”
One of the things at play here, and I’m not fully formed on this idea yet, is that being “Stateless” for so long, and then with the formation of Israel, Zionism, Judaism and the Jewish State are very different things to some and exactly the same thing to others, and from what I can gather from reading around the subject that is from within as well as outwith the Jewish community.
So to some, a verbal attack on Israel is anti-Semitism, to others it really isn’t.
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@ticht
I admit I laughed out loud at that bit when it happened.
We know you well enough now to realise that falls into the Not Even Wrong category.
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TomP – I don’t really see a way around governments and states. Agree that they have to be honest, and the way to achieve that is a free press that will hold their feet to the fire, and that is seriously letting us down these days.
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“Zionism, Judaism and the Jewish State”
Perhaps “Jewish Nation” is more appropriate here, I don’t know.
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OT,
Thank you.
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OT – WTF? Perhaps I’ve misread your post. In any case, I’m off for tonight.
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Thaum it was an academic thing, some student submitted a paper which the tutor said it was so bad it wasn’t even wrong, it wasn’t even worth considering.
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Ah okay, exhale! Am really going to bed now, mind!
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong
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Thaum, neither can I. There are lots of ways I’d sort of like the world to be but I’m too lazy to work out many ways to change it.
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Thaum and Ticht, I think that Ian Paisley is Ian Paisley Jr. But point stands.
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That is a very different kettle of fish, though, Tam. I’ll try to find an interview with him (Jnr) that shows just how different, but not tonight.
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The other thing that has become apparent in the election campaign is that for what seems like the majority of the electorate (if the polls are to be believed), they are happy for the candidate who is least held to account to be swept into power without scrutiny. Johnson ducked tonight’s climate debate and is to duck out of the interview with Andrew Neil (an arch Tory) before the election.
His party is arming candidates with smear tactics against opponents, the Corbyn thing is a prime example of this and people don’t seem to care that they are complicit in this through ignorance or apathy.
I hope these same people don’t need acute medical care in the coming years, because if they do they will be spending a lot of money on it.
I’m going to try to not post on the election in the coming weeks.
I can only say that I’ll try.
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“I should take into account youth and inexperience”
Ticht – with the greatest respect, and I know that you were on the receiving end of an angry post, but you do Chek a disservice by saying that.
I’m going to read through Tomp’s file but that’s not a full stop on the argument (we’ll, it might have a crushing argument but I doubt it). Neither is comparing press coverage to the daily fail. Let’s see what the EHRC investigation yields.
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Hmmm, TomP, Ticht, yep, preaching to the choir. Damn fine song on a damn fine album too. here is the start of it.
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