Why not have a political thread and leave the whingers and girners to their own sad and malevolent devices? This would leave space for musicians and other interested parties. Politics DOES indeed have a place on this thread, but only where it is informed by songs / music and does not become an end in itself. God Almighty, does anyone over in the States never read the papers ? There is a cease fire in operation. The "War" is over. Irish in heard in the corridors of Stormont, Gerry Adams speaks with David Trimble, the RUC walk the streets without flak jackets, even in Nationalist areas. When my son goes out at night the old fear of the knock at the door in the early hours to tell us bad news is gone. As for human rights - ask thoseCatholics who have been mercilessly bludgeoned by the IRA on the flimsiest of evidence how they feel about the "Defenders of the Nationalist People"!!! Roddy