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As the titles says... if someone doesn't like Christmas, just skip this thread, it's not for you. I'm not religious, but I do like the celebratory mood and spending time with friends, drinks and good food. After a few years of lock downs, social distancing and face masks, we could all need a bit of quality time with family and friends I think. So, enjoy the social get together if nothing else. Remember 2022 is pronounced twenty twenty too

am gonna ignore the questionable legal analysis by @majestic. happy? however, and perhaps you and others may think o' as a quibble, but pardons is not part o' the legal system in any meaningful sense. justice is blind. in the US it were recognized just how potential exploitive were the pardon power in the hands o' a monarch. however, seeing as how the US President were not a popular elected office or a hereditary title, the founders believed the capacity for exploitation were minimal. suckers. individual state governors with pardon power were a more tricky conundrum, and as such pardon power were hardly universal in the original states. is an unfortunate reality that the fair application o' man-made laws will, from time-to-time, result in unconscionable wrongs. the pardon power exists 'cause o' the recognition o' the imperfection o' the legal system, or at least such is the reasoning in the US. pardon is not law, is not part o' the legal system. is political, extra-legal and supersedes application o' law even where the law were applied fair and appropriate. is opposite o' what we think o' as law 'cause one person is given the power to override the application o' democratic created laws and the entire system o' justice which makes those laws meaningful. the fact pardon is so potential exploitive and extra-legal in nature is precise why the south african constitution placed considerable limits on their national pardon power. point to pardon use as a flaw in the legal system is a mistake, 'cause is one person, a governor or President, acting unilateral to overturn law... ideally to correct a miscarriage o' justice, but as often as not for personal political gain. HA! Good Fun! ps the fact that a person could languish in prison in spite o' clear evidence they is innocent is indeed a flaw in the legal system and such a result is worthy o' ridicule. however, misuse o' pardon itself is not a valid criticism o' the legal system seeing as the power by decree invalidates the application o' law.

I originally just wanted to ignore this, but I can't sleep, so why not. See, at the core of fascism, and that is pretty much the only thing academia can agree on when it comes to defining the word in this day and age (and not even that, in some cases, I guess), you'll find what Adolf Hitler later called the Führerprinzip. The glorious leader and the leader's cult of personality. For you though, that doesn't mean following an actual person, just your glorified image of the United States government, of all things, as this glorious, infallible defender of freedom, virtue and justice in the world. The avatar and your own projections, essentially, that can do no wrong and very much rests above the law and justice it deigns to mete out in the world. The glorious leader that should never be criticised, because everywhere else is worse. That train of thought follows through many of your postings and points of view. Snowden is a traitor, Assange is a terrorist. If someone from Russia and China would leak documents detailing their global espionage programs or human rights violations, or actual war crimes, you'd be at the forefront, leading the vanguard in arguing against them and calling these people heroes. Rightly so, actually. In turn though, when your glorious leader commits war crimes, the one leaking the information is not a hero, but a criminal. So you argue against China violently stopping protests in Hong Kong because China is the enemy, not because you're convinced or believe that protests should not be stopped violently. As long as those protests are at the home front, and heaven forbid, threaten business interests, it suddenly becomes an acceptable train of thought to carpet bomb them with pepper spray, or to send in the police to violently beat miners back to work, because they're hurting the bottom line of stakeholders - and because they shouldn't complain about their lot, miners in China have it worse still. Russia isn't supposed to support Assad in Syria because Assad is a terrible person. True. But so is Mohammed bin Salman, but he's buying sweet, sweet hardware from your glorious leader, so therefore that cooperation can't be bad. Never mind that having enemies chopped up and dissolved in acid, or locking them up without trial, or beheading them is... well, is that actually any better at all than using chemical weaponry on your own population? Saudia Arabia is one of the biggest destablizing factors in the Middle East, a topic you love to comment on, except in your glorious leader given worldview, it's actually Iran who is the biggest threat to stability in the Middle East, not the nation that's bankrolling terrorist groups left and right. The Iranians are simply the enemy from a while back because eh, nobody liked Khomeini (and nobody should), especially not when he leads revolutions agains the puppets of the glorious leader. You look at proof of systemic racism in the United States, and defend it by saying that it's not that bad, after all, it was - maybe still is - way worse in South Africa. As if two wrongs make a right. You look at companies and other nations buying Huawei hardware and argue against it, and when presented with proof - undeniable, hard proof at that, which, remember, does not exist for the opposite claim (although it would be naive to think that there are no backdoors in Huawei hardware, mind) - you default back to "but they wouldn't do the bad things China is going to do with that data", more or less ignoring that Snowden detailed how intelligence agents kept emailing each other with intercepted nude pictures of college students to either make fun of them or whack off to, and tell me, in what way should people of such moral turpitude be trusted to take more care with intelligence they gather than anyone else on the planet? Hint: They shouldn't. Finally, let's go back to how Assange should trust the United States legal system. I do not know how bad the legal system in South Africa is, to be honest, but it must be pretty terrible if you look at the US and see a model legal system for everyone to emulate. I mean, you actually do believe that Assange is going to get a fair trial in the US. Something which not even a UK court was convinced of, and the UK is, these days, in a hilarious inversion of history, nothing but a colony of the United States. Hell, even their current prime minister is a ludicrous little copy of the former Tangerine in Chief of the United States. So, no, you're incredibly biased towards your glorious leader, incapable of seeing the flaws where they are, unable to entertain the idea that there are any. You criticise one course of action only to turn around and cheer exactly the same, just because the glorious leader does it. You try to feign neutrality, but in reality love any and all draconian and autocratic measures you can think of, just as long as they're democratically legitimized, because it would look bad if they weren't. Caesar can do no wrong, after all. When Big Brother decides that Eurasia is now an ally, and Eastasia the enemy, then it was always thus, never any different, because who are we to argue, right? There are five fingers, and we all love Big Brother. We could argue a technicality here and say that actual fascism requires an actual glorious leader as a person, not an idealized symbol of something that either never existed in the first place or is long gone. Perhaps that is the case. If so, then you're not a facist, just a cult member drinking the kool aid. I don't know if that is any better. Probably not. At any rate, that's just semantics. At the end of the day, you're exactly the sort of person who would read Brave New World and wonder why it's a dystopian vision of the future. *sigh* I already regret posting this before the fact. Alas, now that I've spent time on this, what am I to do but press Submit Reply. Perhaps the forum will eat the post. Oh, should I only be so lucky...

No

The design of this candle holding angel might need a little thought...

Something I've been working on and Owlcat just opened up a WotR Meme contest, so it has become my entry. As one reviewer put it, Ember is the most powerful being in all Golarion after the Commander of the Fifth Crusade. A fact of which her archetype and build are only partly to do with it

In first view, the Foosteps of the beast appears as good but not more than. The icy patch left when walking that hobbles ennemies is a kind of auto-attack : that cant crit or miss, excepted vs dexterity resistance. When walking, the hobbled attack seems happening few times per second. (you can see that aginst dex resistant ennemies) This auto-attack trigger Experimentation from the Ring of Clenched Muscle (10%,chance to apply a tier1 affliction), Spirit Frenzy (staggered on hit), and the Spider's Escape from the Seeker's Fang (wizard). But also Nimbus of Death from the Heart-chime Amulet (Death godlike) and Boar's Strength from Survivor's Tusks (Spiritshifed druid) and the Fire Blight from the Belt of Magran's Chosen. While confused, that trigger on the wearer, on top of the previous things, the Winter's touch from the Horns of the Auroch (10% freeze lash with weapons), Experimentation and Test Subject from the mentionned ring (but this last can remove the confuse effect) another confusing effect if Perplexing Sapped, and, when a self dex resistance, Boar's determination from Survivor Tusk (Priest). This is very nice to get a free-moving wizard (Spider's escape). Maybe there is others good combinaisons with the Footseps of the Beast I didnt find. And maybe a way to turn this into damages, for exemple if the icy patch trigger something that can crit, well the Blood Frenzy will apply potentially a new damage tick few time per second. * The Frosball enchantment Blessed by the Void effectively apply to ennemies an affliction that can crit when the wearer hit itself with the boots, but with only 25%chance and the effect is no applied to an already "blessed" ennemy (I think). (I thought wrongly) This last can inflict like a cascade some effects that can also crit : Shattering Head (AoE from Frostfall), Slow Grind (High Harbinger's Robes), Zandethus's Draconic Fury , Blood Frenzy and Avenging Storm. That apply also the Sysifo's stone. In the capture below, I didnt "attack" Birta or anyone else, just peacefully walked around. But this is not a damaging icy patch, rather than a self repeated affliction optimisation. I didnt find a better way for a damaging icy patch. Does somebody have an idea?

If you cast on yourself or on other party member Borrowed instincts (while confused), you can suspend the hostile part of the spell , and this one determine the duration of the beneficial part. Once suspended, you are not confuse anymore, and dont suffering from the -8 penalty in intellect and resolve, only get the +20acc and +20 defenses ; and because the suspending effect can be extended by SoT or WoD if a wizard, you can turn it into a regular buff. That can be very useful against an high will target or high resolve one, in boss fight. It is also amazing as a cipher-wizard imo. I suppose it should work with every other "drain" spells, excepted for the Kaihôa Lost in Time. About cipher's spell, Driving Echoes is not restricted to combat and can be extended after the fight! I didnt know that before today.

I noticed on my Geomancer this run that these spells drain stats but they don't put an affliction on the enemy. Does that mean they work on enemies that are immune or resistant to standard intellect/resolve afflictions? I've been loving using these spells this run as you can debuff enemy will defense into oblivion with them plus other spells and then that makes landing will effects quite easy. Got a lot of mileage in Beast of Winter out of Aloth + his Phantom using Black bow while my Geomancer debuffed will saves into oblivion. Everything was terrified all the time. Also helps my phantom land CDT.

So I had hubby call my phone and asked him to answer it. He took my phone and made this long swiping motion over it and it worked. I was all ...I swear I never "swiped" to answer it before. One of those many phone updates must have made it mandatory or something. ...I'm old and tapping a button looking circle just makes sense to me, swiping over a "button" never crossed my mind. Stupid touchscreens.

The Arkemyr's Wondrous Torment is not working as the description say ; in reality, the spell attack a single ennemy, and apply this effect. After a few time, another bouncing "small" spell is launched from the caster, but this effect refresh the first spell if that hit the first target. And finally a last version is launched , with the same effect than the previous. On top of his inherent PL bonus, this spell is really good against single ennemy.

Neither did the Wheel of Time.

Ah I did not realize this. My Geo is using Willbreaker plus modal so I guess I'm getting a double bonus on debuff enemies for Aloth :).

Here is one of the most powerful parties you can build - works very well on AI and each character is a real powerhouse on its own. Berseker/Devoted with Lord Darryn's Voulge - melee AoE dps Priest/Bellower - Support/damage dealer Helwalker/Ghost Heart with Frostseeker - ranged single/AoE dps Soulblade/Trickster with Sun and Moon & Tuotilo's Palm/WotEP - melee single/AoE dps Paladin/Bloodmage - tank/damage dealer If you have the Community Patch then you can play instead: Ascendant/Arcane Archer with Frostseeker - ranged AoE/CC Forbidden Fist/Trickster - melee single dps

Ah, a side effect I had not considered. That's true, but I didn't spend a whole lot of effort or time writing the post, to be honest. I could have put up helpful links to read through regarding the debates around what is and isn't fascism as the term moves more and more towards what you've mentioned, i.e. any sort of law and order type of police state or a nation more run by corporate interests than those of its people (often both, for somewhat obvious reasons). In the more expanded sense, we have a good deal more fascists on the board than just him, even though they've been curiously quiet in the past weeks. I could have looked up some of the many articles about Snowden or Assange, and linked those, put in more of a structure, anything really. What I should have done though is differentiate a little in the legal system part of the post before Gromnir swoops in and counter-rants. No, of course the US legal system is better than that of many nations, because by far and large it is functional. It does, however, have a number of downsides, and when you read that someone in Missouri has been wrongfully imprisoned for 42 years and isn't pardonned immediately after realizing that fact because "he's probably guilty of something" and "his pardon is not a priority" then that's just ludicrous and not worth emulating. An anecdote? Perhaps. What's not one is the horrible state the US prisons are in, including the systematic violence, or the fact that no other Western nation has more inmates per capita, which is really not something that is readily explained away by way of saying "the US is different than other places on the planet", which might hold true for gun related violence or th sheer, easily underestimated size of absolutely nothing in between the coasts (re: posts about a first world nation with third world infrastructure), but not for the fact that there are too many people imprisoned over crimes that should not carry any prison sentence in the first place and that the courts seem to get mired in dealing with little things that should be done with a slap on the wrist. I think that's something that could use some reform. It also has a couple of upsides. Class action lawsuits are something that I'd love to see here too. VW, having bought Germany's CDU, was more than just slapped on the wrist for their manipulated exhaust tests in the US, while in Germany and by extension the rest of the EU they got off way too easily - but yeah, that's Germany for you. Where one can get the idea that big oil and the military-industrial complex owns the United States government, the automobile companies certainly own Germany's. Of course, for any of the points, we could argue that somewhere else is worse. Of course, there almost always is a place where things are worse, but that can't be the standard we're holding everything to. "It's worse somewhere else" as the basis for not trying to improve seems like the perfect way for things to deteriorate until the barbarian hordes (not talking about the illegal immigrant issue here) are at the gate and it is too late.

**** you, there's too many opportunities for quotes here. And really too much effort. Wall of texts are for magical girls and Star Trek (including the hoax show that isn't real), not telling what is at best a bad faith troll why their uncritical support for authoritarianism and police states to defend the corporateland is fascist. He is just going to respond with a boiler plate "you funny " and a statement with a question mark at the end, showing that all your words banged into an impenetrable wall of bad faith or true believer ideology. Just call him a name or post a smug anime face lmao.

Made in Abyss is something else.

late 80s animation tells us all dogs go to heaven and that burt reynolds was not a great choice for a musical... which is so weird 'cause it weren't even the first musical in which he sang. regardless is perhaps appropriate that in the afterlife kennels should be for those who go to a different destination than heaven. @Guard Dog find where we said you is a trump supporter. will wait. ... still waiting. of course the they are all bad silliness precludes you from acknowledging any kinda support trump or any other holder o' national office. duh. however, and perhaps curiously, you are a functional trump apologist, working kinda hard at times to minimize the magnitude o' his failings, 'cause they are all bad doesn't work if you got an example far worse than the other options, eh? subvert rule of law, and indulge in transparent graft while seeking to overturn the results o' free and fair elections? tough to find a balance for such unless you first convince self that trump offenses weren't as bad as described or visible to any paying attention. HA! Good Fun!

I completed Bioshock 1 after 50 hours and it was a great gaming experience worthy of a 67/100 on the globally revered " BruceVC game rating " system Now I am moving onto Bards Tale Trilogy, I am not playing this CRPG in Legacy Mode because I am new to CRPG and I prefer auto-mapping and other features that are convenient for modern RPG I am very excited, its my first CRPG I am playing since I got back into gaming in 2007 and when I get back on 4 January I will really apply myself

I met a boar that was apparently the reincarnation of Moses.

Right! Sorry, I somehow messed that up with +50% PEN.

Blinded will actually retroactively remove all effects of gaze abilities. e.g. If you use Gaze of the Adragan first, then follow up with Chill Fog, it will remove the petrify effect.

It's not the hand sign that makes a flag pledge by school children a bit on the fascist side.

Unless I'm mistaken (which is always very possible) Crits prolongs duration by x25%, not +50%. Right?

Yes, and also that they stack with stuff like Bewildering Blows. Miasma + Bewilderung Blows lowers enemies' Will by 65 points (no immunity). Interestingly Caedebald's Blackbow targets Fortitude instead of Deflection (with the corrode damage) - so lowering enemies' Fortitude is also quite benefical in order to get to the terrifying part (which targets Will). The terrify effect also gets the accuracy bonus from the weapon scaling which is nice. Debuffing the Will defense on top of that makes crits pretty common then (+50% +25% terrify duration).

Yes, and you get a similar buffing version with the chanter's ...Each Kill Fed His Fury, giving insteed of the inspirations from the anterior spell The Brideman... the stats bonus. Also, the Barbarian Wild Sprint give you the immunity to engagement on top of Nimble, insteed of Swift, to prevent an eventually dex affliction for the engagement immunity.

No

After quickly browsing a book on oaths in Sweden, people that wanted to become Swedish citizens no longer had to make an oath of allegiance in 1924, and politicians that took office didn't have to do it anymore on Jan 1, 1975. If I read it correctly, I'll admit that it was a woefully boring read.

Not since 1945...

I think the last time Sweden put any trust in "God" was when Carolus Rex proclaimed his crown didn't come from the Church but from god. Not really serious I'll be honest, the thought of anyone but soldiers and doctors giving any kind of oath outside possibly a courtroom is completely foreign to me. I never even came across it until I was in my upper 20's I think so I've never really asked anyone about it. I hadn't even thought about it again until I read it here.

I am Christian and I also am 100% sure that Jesus was NOT born in December. So that makes the whole "war on Christmas" kinda stupid IMO. The target must be Santa Claus I guess. Anyway, I hope all you fine folks and all your families have a merry and bright and wonderful Christmas, New Year, and I surely hope 2022 treats you better than 2021.

The celebration of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I have a lot of problems with you people! On a serious note, Merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate, everyone. I'm technically Christian, but I'm not going to preach nor push a Bible in anyone's face. I just like spending time with family at this time of year. I'll leave you with the best Christmas song ever:

Yes ! Yes, this is why I said "you can see it against a dex resistant ennemy", or yourself with a resistant while confused : on top of the character appears Hobbled in cascade, same for damages numbers.

This show is gonna be so bad. They hired a physical intimacy expert as a consultant for sex scenes.

In fact, no, even with 35 resolves, the potion, the clarity of agony ect, you cant alone make this exploit. You need to reduce the Hobbled effect to 0.1s for that, then you constantly clear and refresh the hobble status. But you can with a Fast Switching Shield Darcozzi Paladin and the Outworn shield on your side. Then you get an very potent self Forbidden Fist healing. The optimist presence buff is provided to ennemies also if you are before confused, that is why I dont pick this enchantment with a berserker or a confused character The frostfall enchantment Blessed by the Void is weapon type, and can trigger the other enchantment Shaterring Head (AoE freeze/pierce damages), also weapon type, both triggering Avenging Storm and Blood Frenzy (on crit) when you just walk

Fwiw, never did that as a Swede

Amazon Justifies ‘Lord of the Rings’ Series’ $465 Million Budget | IndieWire

Sometimes spoilers are just a nice way of keeping different trains of information separate from one another. But just for that, I'm going to write a script real quick that will recursively spoiler the rest of my reply and let it run for an hour. Oh, really? I almost actually included it the first time around when I was making the list, but then I sat and pondered it for a minute and was like "well...when I really think about it, nothing too special happened in it I suppose, it was just...a really nice, cute, and comfy episode with our four main characters doing something utterly mundane". For some reason, though, that's exactly what I love... If I had a criticism to make, the trapped room/Lock wasn't really the most interesting implementation of a card, .

Rebel Galaxy, or Redneck EVE as I am seeing it as, is a fun game. Rather annoying how few missiles I get, although their effectiveness compensates.

I have to say, Witcher amused me with how the guy in the harbour critiquing Jaskier's song are all the major complaints fans had about season 1. A nice little touch to the whole thing.

I'm wrapping up presents today and tomorrow. I'm also pushing myself to somewhat flip my schedule in preparation for the drive to southern Florida. Wednesday evening I'm driving 2 hours northeast to the Greensboro Coliseum for the All Elite Wrestling Holiday Bash event. As a longtime rasslin fan, a big show at the Greensboro Coliseum is a bucket list item. I'll probably get home Thursday early morning around 2 am and the plan is to stay up until at least 7 am, then crash, wake up late afternoon/evening, then start the roughly 11 hour drive at 10 pm-ish.

Sup All So as we all know this is our second Xmas with the virus running amok in many of our countries and that travel plans can be impacted. Some of you may remember last year I cancelled my Xmas trip to DBN to see my family because I wasnt vaccinated at the time and we were going through a second wave Anyway this year I have my flight booked to DBN from the 21/12-4/01 and despite the new wave I have no intention of cancelling my Xmas flight Its been 2 years since I have seen my cousins and we all planning on our normal Xmas lunches at our beach cottages and I really cant wait, its easy to take things for granted in life and this pandemic has reminded me of how important family and friends are who are healthy and alive. So my Xmas will be at our beach cottage with my whole family on my dads side. What is everyone else planning?

I'm headed down to southern Florida for roughly a week for maximum Omicron exposure.

I agree completely. Soul Blade is by far my favorite cipher subclass. It's just amazing once you get Seeker's Fang.