Walsingham

Sorry, but my buttocks are still sore from the DRM bull Ubisoft put me through last year. I'm not budging. If I feel like burning cash I'm posting my used pants to their headquarters.

Like so many sins in this life I am protected by both laziness and technical incompetence +10. So, if you want any cards, let me know. And tell me how to send em.

That sounds about right. They can have a computer gathering as much data as they want, but you still need a real person to sit down and look at it to make any sense of it. edit: And honestly if I am one of those 1.6% who are touched, the NSA has just wasted their time. This is a very good point. Data only becomes intelligence in a given context. The NSA isn't going to be just scooping every porn site you surf, because why would that be important? Right? Well, maybe it would, because even terrs use porn sites, and porn sites sometimes use credit cards to access. Credit cards give either addresses or thefts to track. But the point Hurlshot's making - obliquely - is that unless you try to analyse the data it's just noise. And unless you have an objective for the analysis, you can't analyse. The person he's talking about is just a means to that end.

I just had a weird thought: maybe there's now a Obsidz forum in the afterlife. Like a nerdy valhalla.

Not necessarily. Releasing non-strategic prisoners hardly adds measurably to the total number of militants. Plus they will cause all kinds of panic on the assumption that some may have been 'turned' or are being tracked by the intelligence services.

Relax, man. I diagnose an overdoes of all those female hormones you bathe in. I prescribe a 3lb rare steak, chargrilled, and staring at a live grizzly bear for ten minutes daily.

I would agree that 'creep' in the use of these terms devalues them, and undermines anti-terrorist action. It's lazy at best, and downright seditious at worst. Officials who indulge are a bigger strategic threat than many AlQ fundis. I'd like to see a couple sent to Gitmo pour encourager les autres.

I believe the 'orthodox' human sciences view is that as women get more status and are capable of independent earning, the more a niche opens up for men who are pretty and not much else. Personally, I think it's because women feel under a lot of pressure to take charge, and they want a bloke who's non-threatening, to lighten the stress.

I know from experience it will take a while for me to understand this has happened. But it is a real loss. He was a good man, and like Fio says, he understood and was part of what makes the community worthwhile. For the minute I just take 'satisfaction' knowing that he fought like a bastard and was suffering last I heard. No sense in suffering to no purpose. Glad it's over, for his sake.

LOL "Yeah. Yeah. Dude looks like a ladaaaaaay" This is kind of my objection. It's interesting to me that so many 'hot guys' from the last twenty years look like women. Compare that to the 1950s-1980s.

If I may make a harsh point gently... tactical 'what ifs' just make the whole debate sound ludicrous.

Cool. I shall have to trace a copy.

I think there's something wrong with me because all I thought, looking at that was "I wonder how much baby poop is now in those hedges" ~ Misread headline from the BBC. "Escaped Cow's Head for Housing Estate." More correctly should have read "Escaped Cows Head For Housing Estate"

...None of which can have surprised anyone. Promising it under those circumstances is blatant lying. Hardly a change you can believe in or whatever bosh he was selling.

Funnily enough, I don't think I've ever heard a South African complain abou tthe film. It's so transparently over-blown. Plus, you know, apartheid: evil.

Yeah. I only discovered about two years ago the scale of the deaths involved. Can you imagine if there had been a rising, rather than a transfer of power?

I'm not sure if you are referring to me personally, I've always expressed the opinion that the President has a lot less power than people give them credit for. But with the NSA and Drone strikes, the complaints about the President being Big Brother are as loud as they have ever been. I've been unimpressed by Bush and Obama. The last really effective President for me was LBJ. I don't agree that Obama has no power. But I would certainly agree if you mean it's only 'soft' power. Presidents are more than capable of exerting influence on a limited policy bandwidth. Provided, you know, they aren't a total ***ing amateur with no chops.

I don't want this to sound like a knee-jerk excuse, BUT... You have to remember that Britain was divesting itself of every colony/dependency it could, as fast as possible. It was an economic imperative, post-war. But if you read the correspondence flashing around the Colonial Office and in Hansard you can see this general tide of opinion that most of the troubles in these countries were caused by us. And that as soon as we left it would all be pretty much fine, because the locals would have to fix things, not just blame us. This view, I have to say, strikes me as being tantamount to the popular view these days that Britain shouldn't have been there in the first place. My own view is that a lot of the problem comes down to local cultures which emphasise partisan tribalism over national interest, and 'face' over pragmatism. You get fractured negotiation which is temperamentally incapable of behaving sensibly to resolve conflict. I don't think that perspective leads to healthy states. Period.

Well, at least she has confidence in you. She obviously wants you fronting the business every chance she can get. ~ Partly inspired by Guard Dog I agreed to having my ex come to visit. Neither of us are in the market for anything serious, but there's a hugely relaxing aspect to having someone from long ago come to visit. It's like, you've fought like banshees, and got all sweaty together, and consequently all the lies, and all the politics, and all the false modesty just gets chucked in the bin. You can just say "My feet hurt" and all that means is - give my feet a rub. Having said that it is still kind of cool, because you can also be very decorous and almost more romantic, without worrying about going too far and freaking anyone out. But it is also kind of sad. Because frankly age is starting to take its toll. You can ignore lines on your own face, but not on someone you are smiling at.

If you haven't already read "The Utility of Force" I'd recommend it.

I won't say he's making me 'humid', but Maj. Bunny Colvin (played by Robert Wisdom) from The Wire makes me sit up straight and listen.

I hope for everyone's sake she's not a honey trap that's gone off.

Conversely I can't stand being called 'sir'. The English in particular only ever call someone sir if it's illegal to just call them 'scum' to their face.

Ah. The old "I just failed so now you guys are all sub-****" response. Nice. Well, I'm sorry if my comments are not to your liking. I simply don't put Iraq debacle above or below homophobia. And I'm profoundly sorry that you seem intellectually satisfied with that.

You will note that 'modern' PR suggests that it is always better to push a different good when caught doing evil. So, "I smash puppies, but give away free ice-cream" is a better line than "I smash puppies, but those specific puppies were bastards."