NORAID has come up a couple of times lately. Just to let our UK friends know - likey 90% of the US population has never heard of NORAID. And if one is outside of the NE corridor probably the number is close to 99%. The vast majority of the support is from small areas of Mass., and some of the other NE states. It was absolutely outrageous for Clinton (no matter what you think of him otherwise) to welcome Gerry Adams at the Whitehouse.

Point well taken, janisj. Just to complete PalenQ's political education, there have been referendums in Northern Ireland on its political status roughly every ten years since the 1970s, quite apart from more elections for different levels of government than anywhere else in these islands (and at least as many in the years before then). The argument is not about democracy or not, it was about where the boundaries should be drawn within which the results of the democratic principle should be considered legitimate.

You are saying that because there are no bins the people in Britain are not disciplined enough to find some other suitable way to dispose of things besides littering the landscape?????

Where I live there are plenty of people--unemployed, homeless or low-income folks--with a cart or trash bag who pick up aluminum cans and recycle them for extra money. I usually leave my can out for the city recycling program, but when I see someone coming down my alley who's obviously collecting, I give them to that person. Last week it was a quite respectable-looking older woman.

It's sad that people have to supplement their income that way, but it does help keep our area free of cans and it's also better for the environment.

This thread has really got my blood boiling.

First off, many of us do recycle here in the UK. Where I live we have bottle banks, special paper bins and clothing bins in addition to the normal household rubbish bins. We also have Christmas Tree and Christmas Card recycling.

True you don't see so many bins in tourist areas but this is due to the aforementioned IRA bombing campaign - in many places bins have simply never been reinstated. However, many of us are well-brought up enough to carry our litter round with us until we do find a bin somewhere.

As for bottle/can deposits - we used to have this system years ago (as late as the 70's) for glass bottles - clearly it couldn't have been terribly successful or it wouldn't have stopped.

As for anyone trying to justify terrorism - I find that disgusting. If anyone were to post on here saying that the American public 'deserved' 9/11, there would quite likely be a (justified) outcry. Don't try to make out the Ireland situation is 'different' because you have an idiotic romantiscised view of 'freedom fighters'.

For any terrorists that may be reading, the Department of the Navy in Washington has devised a "Method for Reclaiming and Recycling Plastic Bonded Energetic Material." Just search for it on google using "recycling plastic explosives".

Now then, no more need to simply chuck all those bombs into the bin. Remember, reduce, reuse, recycle!

(The things this board inspires one to find...)