EnderAndrew

Most states aren't down with legalizing gambling or prostitution, and I can argue in both of those cases that there isn't a victim. People say with pot there is no victim as well, but again addiction enters the picture. One can argue the user is a victim of addiction and doesn't realize it. I work for a chain of casinos, and trust me, we have to jump through alot of hoops when it comes to watching for gambling addictions. If someone has a problem, we ban them from our properties and refuse to take their money. We spend tons of money on education and advertising. We have employees whose job it is to watch the floor and look for warning signs. Given the drug industry today, I doubt they would treat pot nearly as responsibly as we do gambling. There is an acne medication accutane that has been linked to a bunch of deaths since it causes depression. Several of its users have been comitting suicide. It also causes massive birth defects. The only positive is that the drug curses acne. Does the drug save lives? No. Has the drug killed people? Yes. Will the drug be taken off the market? No. I don't trust the drug industry, tobacco companies, or the FDA to handle pot.

Roshan made a post without the letter i. I say he has been faking all along.

I don't know. When 9/11 happened, both DC and NYC were affected. Yet we didn't have a military response for about 5 hours. Getting troops actually into the area, airlifting thousand and thousands of people isn't easy. It takes time just to survey where the damage is, what reaction is needed, etc. We were a bit slow in providing relief, but it is not easy. With the tsunami all we had to do was write a check. This is a different process all together.

It is in the shape of a boat, with a pointed bow and rounded stern. Exact length as noted in biblical description, 515 feet or 300 Egyptian cubits. (Egyptian not Hebrew cubit would have been known to Moses who studied in Egypt then wrote Genesis.) It is on a mountain in Eastern Turkey, as stated in the Bible, "The ark rested . . . upon the mountains of Ararat" Genesis 8:4. (Ararat being the name of the ancient country Urartu which covered this region.) Contains petrified wood, as proven by lab analysis. Contains high-tech metal alloy fittings, as proven by separate lab analyses paid for by Ron Wyatt, then later Kevin Fisher of this web site. Aluminum was found in the fittings which is a MAN-MADE metal! Vertical rib timbers on its sides, comprising the skeletal superstructure of a boat. Regular patterns of horizontal and vertical deck support beams are also seen on the surface of the ark. Occupied ancient village at the ark site at 6,500 ft. elevation matching Flavius Josephus' statement "Its remains are shown there by the inhabitants to this day." Dr. Bill Shea found an ancient pottery sherd within a few yards of the ark which has a carving on it that depicts a bird, a fish, and a man with a hammer wearing a headdress that has the name "Noah" on it. In ancient times these items were created by the locals in the village to sell to visitors of the ark. The ark was a tourist attraction in ancient times and today. Recognized by Turkish Government as Noah's Ark National Park and a National Treasure. Official notice of its discovery appeared in the largest Turkish newspaper. Visitors' center built by the government to accommodate tourists further confirms its authenticity. Huge anchor stones were found near the ark and in a village, Kazan, 15 miles away, which hung off the rear of the ark to steady its ride. The ark rests upon Cesnakidag (or Cudi Dagi) Mountain, which is translated as "Doomsday" Mountain. Dr. Salih Bayraktutan of Ataturk University stated, "It is a man made structure, and for sure it's Noah's Ark" Common Sense. This same article also states "The site is immediately below the mountain of Al Judi, named in the Qur'an as the resting place of the Ark." Houd Sura 11:44 Radar scans show a regular pattern of timbers inside the ark formation, revealing keels, keelsons, gunnels, bulkheads, animal chambers, ramp system, door in right front, two large barrels in front 14 x 24', and an open center area for air flow to all three levels. I've been looking for a single site that debunks this, but I haven't found it. This is from a Scientist, not a Christian: And then there is this:

No, we didn't get an accurate dating on the wood. Each test yielded different results, and we also know that freezing alters the dating process. Yet several scientists have said that you can't get an accurate reading, and it very well may be thousands of years old. It has been covered by ice and snow for ages, and extremtly well preserved because of the ice. It only became visible after the hottest summer in over 500 years, the only partially revealed the Ark. The Bible mentions several cities that we discovered based on the description the Bible gave for where they would be. The Bible then said the Ark would be on Mount Ararat, and where did we find it? Mount Ararat. You compare it to Martians landing in England. Have scientists stood behind quanitifiable evidence of Martians in England? No. Have scientists stood behind quanitifiable evidence of the Ark on Mount Ararat? Yes. Your lack of objectivity in the matter is duly noted however.

I normally don't care for most FPS games. I do want to see more games come out with 64-bit support.

Cigarette maker, Liggett Group Inc., admitted that they lied to Congress about intentionally marketing to children and their knowledge about the addictive nature of tobacco. Understand that if pot were legalized, it would fall in the hands of an industry where you can lie to Congress, get away with it, and continue business as normal. You can market to kids. You can lie about the side-effects of your product. You can tell people your product isn't addictive, stand behind it and lie through your teeth. And at the end of the day, Congress will happily accept their tax dollars and move on. Given that both alcohol and tobacco are legal, and given the abundance of drug company lobbyists, I imagine there will be a day (perhaps soon) where pot is legalized. Pot's uses for medicinal purposes are weak, but who cares? Drug companies are in the business of making money. The major arguement against the legalization of pot stems from the addictive qualities of pot. But what legal precedent are we talking about? Addictive substances are governed by the FDA, but in 2000 the Supreme Court ruled that Congress had not given the FDA proper authority to regulate tobacco. That war is still really being fought today with victories and losses on both sides. I've seen lives destroyed first hand by addictions, all started via pot, yet tons of people swear up and down that it isn't a gateway drug. Every single person I know that has had addictions to harder drugs have told me firsthand pot was their gateway. Should I believe users who defend pot, and who may be victims of addiction currently and thusly incapable of logic and objectivity on the subject, or those who have overcome their addictions and look back in hindsight? Addiction is a mental condition that we don't fully understand, but what we do know if it is scary. Somewhere addiction has to enter the arguement. Again, that brings us back to other addictive substances. Do two wrongs make a right? Tobacco is the leading killer in this country that can be prevented, but most smokers will tell you that it will "kill you when you're 70 so who cares"? We are a society where millions believe smoking isn't that bad for you, despite the smoker's cough or various health problems that arise in a few short years of smoking. And now people want to legalize pot, ingesting smoke for medicinal purposes. I was under the impression that doctors said inhaling smoke was never healthy on any level. What is the real agenda and what is the real issue?

Sedition specifically.

The Bible is a funny thing. On one hand, it has described lost cities which we lated discovered with incredible accuracy. We even found Noah's Ark right where the Bible said it was. Yet, if you take the Bible very literally, and assume it is a DIRECT chronicle with no missing information from the first human to today, the chronicle of humanity is a mere 5,000 - 10,000 years assuming 30 year generation gaps. Then again, the Bible also lists some people living hundreds of years, but we just throw that out the window. What is metaphor and what is literal? People can take and choose what portions of the Bible they want to present whatever interpretation they want. In a period of one week I saw two seperate people try to prove to me that the Bible proved their views. They quoted the same verse from Matthew. One said the verse proved aliens exist. The next guy said it proved the Book of Mormon. In certain aspects the Bible can be a good historical reference, and a very bad historical reference. Beyond that I won't venture on this forum.

I'm guessing Calx is talking about Moses?

I told you, it is Mornington Crescene rules (Calvinball variant).

Halo's redeeming factor is multiplayer, which KOTOR lacks.

It's not the specs so much as what you do with it. For data, DVD wasn't a hyge leap above CD's. Game publishers still ship on multiple CD's rather than a single CD. But with DVD's we suddenly got tons of new features that VHS didn't offer. When we leaped from cassette tapes to CD, I was less impressed with what it did for music, but blown away with its applications for the computer. I believe Blu-Ray will win this fight, and I don't know why Toshiba wouldn't accept the proposed merged standard simply because it was "mostly" Blu-Ray. What I'm curious about is what they will do with this new medium.

The combat is boring and doesn't get any better. The art keeps getting recycled, and the dialogue isn't great. The characters got a bit annoying. People love KOTOR because of the plot. When you beat the game, and can comment on the plot, you may enjoy the game more. But I think KOTOR on the whole is decent, but overrated.

Friendly fire is a great oxymoron.

Commisar said a few weeks ago we don't have enoug heated debate. The Gaza Strip thread was largely succesful, but ended getting closed regardless. Here is a topic that should fire up some heated debate, but perhaps not as heated as the Gaza Strip. Should a bloke get to toke up?

It's okay. I'm doped up on Sudafed and out of today.

It is good. TOMBS = The Online Messageboard Simulator. It is Obsidian's flagship product, and you are currently playing it. http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=36187&st=0

The stadiums are still largely empty in regular season games. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It is a niche sport. Most start up sports leagues go belly-up in three years. The fact that the MLS is making a profit and continuing to exist when no one gave it a chance to succeed is noteworthy. Then again, there are NFL games and MLB games with empty stadiums as well.

Oddly enough our professional men's league (MLS) has been doing well, while the our professional women's league (WUSA) completely failed, despite the success of the Women's National team.

They are releasing a 64-bit version of the game, and doing a contest with AMD, but they are "recommending" a 3.0gHz Pentium 4. Grrrr.

We may be ranked a bit high at 6, but I don't think it is beyond arguement to call the US squad a top-10 team. Top-10 in the world isn't bad. Again, I don't think it takes winning the WC to be considered a good team. People say we don't play soccer here, and yet apparently we do.

Atari refused to pay for patches for ToEE, claiming that since ToEE wasn't shipped on time, any budget that would have went towards patches went towards production instead. Troika developed patches on their own dime and worked with the fans on fan-made patches. Atari is not a great publisher. I credit Bioware for what they have down with NWN-post release. I think Bioware is overrated as a development house, but they do support their products. I wouldn't be shocked if we saw more premium content as well as a commercial persistant world this time around. Atari might seek to cash in on NWN:2 more.

I agree with Lucius. But I think it should be noted that the US is not the push over it once was. We were never a player when it came to international soccer matches before, and we must at very least be contended with and taken seriously. Consider how many nations play soccer in the world. If our men's team is in the top 16, I won't scoff at that. Winning the World Cup, and Olympic Gold on the women's side shouldn't be overlooked either, but it completely is. If professional soccer becomes economically more feasible, you'll start seeing American soccer superstars, but at the moment, great athletes will seek out other sports because that is where the money lies.

I don't doubt massive nuclear war would likely kill off the vast majority of humanity. There have been major asteroids, ice ages, etc. and yet all life on the planet has not been destroyed. That is a hefty task and I think that is the contention.