Guard Dog

I caught the New Zealand vs Argentina match. It was tighter than I thought with some bad penalties but the All Blacks turned it on in the 2nd half. Two things I noticed, 1) Nobody moves the ball the way the All Blacks do. It is a thing of beauty. 2) Those dudes are BIG. Argentina's players looked like kids against them.

Why does the choice of a VP mean anything to you? It's barely even an after thought to me unless the candidate is elderly or in ill health. And people like that are unelectable anyway. All Sarah Palin would ever do is attend briefings and maybe cast a tie breaking senate vote every once in a great while. You are an educated man so I'll wager you know who John Nance Garner was an his observations of the value of the Vice Presidency. I'm curious how you feel about choosing Obama over McCain now. I just cant see John McCain suggesting returning combat vets were likely terrorists and deserving of special police surveillance. Or that they should pay for their own healthcare for combat injuries.

And Team USA drops it's first match to Samoa. Ugh. I caught the second half. It was uninspiring. Now I'm hoping everyone in the pool loses at least once.

Barack Obama didn't disavow his Missouri campaign ad that if Mitt Romney won more black churches would burn. He didn't disavow the ad in Arizona that Hispanics should support him because he would "punish their enemies" while referring to the state trying to stop criminals from crossing the border. He didn't disavow his California campaign staffer Karen Bass for saying John McCain wanted to bring back slavery or Whoopi Goldberg for repeating that idiotic statement on the air to McCain's face. Racism is only what the democrats say it is. And it only exists when you say something against them apparently. So no Trump, nor any of the others is in any way obligated to defend Obama, his administration, or anyone else even when the comments are stupid and false.

I gave the head start a look. I took a generic fighter through a generic random dungeon. Overall the game play is nothing special. They didn't embarrass themselves but they didn't knock it out of the park either. The races, voice sets, animations, sound effects are all just average. If the OC & moddability turn out good it will be a worthwhile purchase once the price drops a bit. It's not as pretty as PoE or as detailed. The voices are so annoying so you will probably dream of the days BG & PST text banter. And as dungeons crawls go IWD had way more soul. One thing I didn't like is that even though I'd cleared the mines of zombies, you still heard the sound effects of zombies. Meaning the sounds are placements not dynamic. NWN did that and it always annoyed me. I guess the best was to sum it up is it's just ok. It's average. It's a ham sandwich. But that's ok if you just want a ham sandwich.

France had no trouble with Italy.

South Africa has it's hands full with Japan right now. It was 10-12 at the half, now 29-29. If Japan pulls this off it will be a HUGE upset.

Obama has done a lot to make people believe nefarious things about him. Some of it has not been his fault. His childhood and early education could certainly be described as unconventional for a US politician. His administration had doubled down on the powers enabled by the Patriot Act. Wiretaps were increased almost 35% since 2009, they are openly collecting private emails and monitoring wireless devices now. This administration has sold a LOT of surplus military equipment to police forces that are becoming more heavy handed and looking much more like an army and much less like, well, police. During the ACA debate they had a website where you could report people speaking "incorrectly" about the ACA. They notified local police to pay special attention to Veterans and "Militia Groups" (code words for white republicans) as likely terrorist threats all while refusing to call acts of violence by actual Muslim terrorists terrorism. Oh and lest we forget his justice department, before being called down for it, asserted it would be perfectly ok for them to kill an American with a drone with no judicial oversight or due process. Now granted there are different perspective to take on all of these facts and for the most part none of them advanced beyond words. But I do think there is one thing we can all agree that Barack Obama DOES believe. He does believe the power of the State over the people is absolute. To my thinking that, and that alone, is what makes him a terrible President.

I can't figure out if that means it was terrible, or you just got really drunk and literally put a mop in your mouth.

I remember you had interest in Rugby seven, didn't you go support them in Vegas? And yes you will find the full Rugby games much more entertaining and intense. I'm glad you are going to watch them, you won't be disappointed And yes you right NZ, like South Africa, has a very good pool draw and will definitely get through. Also remember two teams from each pool get through Pool A is the hardest by far. Australia, England and Wales...I predict Wales and Australia Yeah I went to the Rugby Sevens WC tournament there a few years ago, South Africa and New Zealand played for the championship (what a surprise). I actually was hanging out with one of the players from Team Canada at the Stratosphere, the guy I was there with knew him. Those Rugby players are "babe magnets " hey GD...somehow I doubt they battle to find dates No this dude had no trouble at all. I was hoping to catch one of his castoffs. He shrewdly wore is Team Canada polo shirt too.

That guy was a complete moron. He was impressively stupid. I'm sorry but how can Trump allow someone to say " Obama is a Muslim " and not correct them? Apart from the factual inaccuracy the insinuation is that somehow its bad to be a Muslim...or that all Muslims want to kill Americans? Come on guys....do we really need to have that type ignorance in the USA during what is suppose to be reasonable political debate ? It wasn't a political debate it was a rally. Hyperbole is common enough in a forum like that. And if Obama is a muslim so what? He doesn't appear to be a very devout one. Personally I don't think he believe in much of anything. Keith Ellison the congressman from Minnesota is a muslim and by all accounts somewhat anti-American but to my knowledge he hasn't blown anything up. I am a Christian but I don't need my political leaders to be of the same faith as me. All I ask from them is that they be competent, respect the US constitution and the limits of their position, respect MY liberty and freedom, and zealously defend those things. If an atheist meets those requirements they would get my vote. As far as my faith goes the only soul God will ask me to account for is my own.

Oh I am certainly opposed to any US Military involvement in anything east of Bermuda or west of the Aleutians barring an immediate threat to US security. Asia is Asia's problem IMO. The worrisome thing is that the nations who want to do business with Iran do not want them to have nuclear weapons but are not interested in stopping them either. There is an expectation that if Iran was a nuclear power it would behave as responsibly as the others have so far. I don't know that that is realistic given all their ties to terrorism of the apocalyptic bent of the mullahs that rule that country. But we are going OT here.

I remember you had interest in Rugby seven, didn't you go support them in Vegas? And yes you will find the full Rugby games much more entertaining and intense. I'm glad you are going to watch them, you won't be disappointed And yes you right NZ, like South Africa, has a very good pool draw and will definitely get through. Also remember two teams from each pool get through Pool A is the hardest by far. Australia, England and Wales...I predict Wales and Australia Yeah I went to the Rugby Sevens WC tournament there a few years ago, South Africa and New Zealand played for the championship (what a surprise). I actually was hanging out with one of the players from Team Canada at the Stratosphere, the guy I was there with knew him.

England has already beaten Fiji 35-11. The US has Samoa on Sunday. I'll be watching. Hey Bruce, on 10/7 the Boks are getting bopped! Go Eagles!

Wow did the All Blacks make out or what? They got the easiest pool of them all. I think 15 guys of this board could make it out of Pool C. Pool A will be the hardest to advance from I'd think. After spending so much time watching Rugby Sevens it's odd to see a full team out there.

Following WW2 the strategy of the US concerning the military is to have the capability of fighting two major wars in two different places simultaneously. Speaking from my own experience all of our training was for large unit actions against enemies of equal strength. Basically we were practicing to fight the Soviets and the Chinese. The world has changed quite a bit since then. It is a much smaller and more interconnected place with nations far more reliant on commerce with each other. This makes the probability of a large scale, multinational war much lower. In the 1990's following the collapse of the USSR and the elimination of what we perceived as the greatest threat to our survival the US began reducing the size of the military significantly. It is certainly not capable of fighting two major wars simultaneously now so from that perspective it is weaker now than it once was. All comparisons are relative. Not that Obama had anything to do with that. He has reduced defense spending since he has been in office but the large scale reductions were completed while he was still teaching law not making it. As far as where we rank in the world now in terms of numbers we are not first, or even second. As far as capability and the ability to "project power" we are first and second is not close. We are spending more on defense than the next ten nations combined (exempting Russia) and seven of those are allies. As long as the military is used as a tool to enhance US influence abroad it will have to remain as large. Unfortunately due to bad management over the last 20 years we no longer have our biggest stick; economic power. Diplomacy is meaningless without enforcement. That is why this whole Iran deal is nothing more than a steaming pile of monkey poop. If (when) they violate the treaty there is no enforcement militarily and the US cannot hurt them economically without the cooperation of other nations eager to do business there and we lack the economic strength to dissuade them from doing so. That is why nations like Iran should be destroyed utterly or left alone. These limp-wristed half measures just make us look weak when they do as they please and no one can stop them.

Just out of curiosity I was looking at how much it would cost to go to England for the Rugby World Cup. Wow. Now that pay per view doesn't seem so bad.

Re reading ASoIaF. Skimming it really but I'm finding I've forgotten quite a bit and had the TV show confuse other parts.

Says you. I say they are free to do so. The problem is the ones who are willing are not the ones we want to see.

How did the last two moderates do? Besides, even if he won; he'd be a terrible president. America needs real change; not the same old same old. Vote Bernie, only he is willing to stand against the TPP and the FREEDOM ACT(PATRIOT ACT 2 for those unaware). And Rand Paul. He is opposed to both as well.

That is just the infantry and the armor. There are also 4 FSSGs and 4 Airwings. The total headcount is in the neighborhood of 200k. But the Marine Corps really is all about the infantry. Everything else is just support. I was in the airwing and we heard that all the time.

Correction, the Corps has 3 Divisions and 1 reserve. Not regiments. Each Division has 6 regiments, each regiment has 4 battalions, each battalion has five companies. Each company has four platoons. Each platoon has three squads, each squad has three fire teams each fire team has four Marines. A fire team leader, a SAW gunner, and two riflemen.

In the US Marines "Brigade" is a fluid term. Usually a brigade is a combination of different units from different groups to do a specific thing. The force breakdown of the Marines is 3 Infantry/Armor Regiments active with 1 reserve. 3 Force Service Support Groups with 1 reserve, 3 Marine Air Wings with 1 reserve. I think the total muster of the Corps is around 200K. But GD don't you think what Carly Fiorina is suggesting..50 Marine Brigades is preposterous ? Yes but only because she is using the wrong words/doesn't know what she is talking about. As for what she actually said, I couldn't tell you. I didn't watch. The Rays/Yankees game was on and I am far more interested in who wins that than a staged debate between a herd of empty suits most of whom I would not even p--s on if they were on fire. In the end who wins the Republican nomination is a fact of little worth to me. I am a registered Libertarian so I don't get a vote and I am voting against the Democrat anyway so I'd take any one of those empty suits over the democrat candidate whomever that ends up being. That's my $.02

In the US Marines "Brigade" is a fluid term. Usually a brigade is a combination of different units from different groups to do a specific thing. The force breakdown of the Marines is 3 Infantry/Armor Divisions of 6 regiments active with 1 reserve. 3 Force Service Support Groups with 1 reserve, 3 Marine Air Wings with 1 reserve. I think the total muster of the Corps is around 200K.

http://southpark.cc.com/clips/dwjnfq/pleasure-model