The EU is failing because it's the typical result of a half-assed compromise between ideological directions. No matter how hard you try, you can not have your cake and eat it too and that's exactly what we (and most notable Germany and France) have been trying to do. You cannot be unified and at the same time keep your full sovereignty.

The French and the German people are very proud of their heritage, and to a certain extent rightfully so as both countries have produced and continue to produce great things. But they continue to make the classic mistake that the only way to protect their historic achievements is by trying to extrapolate them into the future.

I can tell you right here, right now that if we don't consolidate our economic system Europe will see it's economic AND political importance dwindle even further. We need to speak with one voice and cultivate one vision when it comes to economic matters simply because scale is an every important factor in our globalizing world. You cannot expect a decision with regards to taxation, economical incentives, bail-outs, etc... have repercussions on your neighboring countries' economies therefore it's in our best interests to make sure that our legislation is unified across the continent (or at the very least an entity that is considered big enough to be self sustaining in our global economic reality).

Sovereignty is a ridiculous goal in and by itself. It doesn't have anything but sentimental value if the legislation passed in your neighboring countries or even by any global economical power can disrupt your local economy; which just happens to be the case right now and there's no way that a single small country will be able to stand up for itself if it wants to be part of the global system.

Time to stop being sentimental, time for the UK to drop it's delusional ideas that a little island nation can be a self-reliant global player, time to forge a real unified Europe.

This is supposedly one of the world's best festivals, and the organization usually is top notch. It's the type of festival people go to even the programming happens to be shit that year; more of a social event than anything else. The death toll is up to 5 now...

I remember being there in 2002 when GNR headlined on Sunday (the ill-fated first attempt at a Chinese Democracy world tour), it poured for three whole days, tents literally floating on 5 inches of water. They handled it almost perfectly, completely draining the terrain (by drilling 3 feet deep, four inch wide holes in the ground into looser soil) and ensuring dry places to eat and rest but it still was a miserable affair. Seeing GNR for the first time in my life was probably the only reason I didn't pack it up and go home, but almost no-one left 'cause of the weather, the vibe was still amazingly positive.

I guess those 10 minutes of absolute mayhem were just too much for any type of outdoor event to come out of unscathed. I really do hope they have good insurance, this is the type of thing that could kill an organization like this and that would be a damn shame.

Cool, could've been worse. Day I was born: My Sharona
Day I turned 9: GNR, SCOM, hah

Oh wow, I had never heard of these guys... thanks for bringing them to my attention. I love female fronted hard-rock (as opposed to Metal)!

As for this being an 80's throwback... might be, I just don't get why that necessarily needs to be a bad thing. If it was done well then it was worth doing, even if it had already been done before. There's not enough of this sort of music being made anymore anyway, and I'll take a descent hard rock copycat over the uninspired tribe that rules the airwaves these days.

Now, I'm going to put on my aviators, sleeveless jeans jacket and combat boots, get in my camaro and haul ass so that I can go home to play Ghouls N' Ghosts on my Nintendo...

To put it in general terms that apply to every fucking democratic nation on the planet:
With democracy comes great responsibility, you (the people) are responsible for the acts of your government and will have to live with all the repercussions that come with them. Don't want to be seen as genocidal? Don't vote for a government that commits genocide. Don't want to be judged as a warmonger? Don't vote for a president that wants his hand in every single conflict in the middle-east as long as there's economic or political benefit to be had. Don't want to to be called a child molester? Don't support an organization that protects child molesters; covers up the proof and neglects to report it to the general public & authorities.

Kudos to all people actually thinking for themselves and trying to form an opinion based on investigating the facts instead of following the herd, even if it is at times hard to know all the facts that pertain to a given subject. Is this the place to vent these opinions? Maybe not, but it's an informal discussion forum in which you can expect opinions to be triggered by all sorts of shit. I can't stop anyone from feeling offended by any of this, but maybe you need to re-evaluate your personal priorities if you're that easily offended. I don't like Dr. Pepper, religion, genocides, the color mauve, warmongers, seats with no back support or child molesters and I stand by my right to express those opinions. If you're more offended by a specific item in the previous list than any of the others, that should be considered your problem, not mine. No topic should be off-limits just 'cause some dweeb might be offended by it.

To all those offended: fuck off. Being offended might be your prerogative, but don't expect me to take your feelings into account just 'cause you're easily offended...