Walsingham

I can't tell if you're serious or not, Prosper, but on the offchance you are: stream of consciousness postings aren't really going to impress anyone. If you're trying to present yourself seriously you need to streamline what skills you've been developing and evidence them. Stick to just a couple at once. However, I strongly suspect you are just arsing about. In which case, more power to you!

Zor, you're a smart guy, but you're talking through your hat. Can you honestly tell me you've read a single book on Al Qaeda's history and methodology?

I've only actually faced Turk organ guns once. Surprised the crap out of me, and unluckily for my AI opponent my fight response kicked in. The entire army bore down on the luckless battery. Only got off one more salvo. Did very little gaming this weeked. Sleeping in the garden and reading, mostly. Still coughing up green chunks. Hopefully won't last much beyond today.

I've read a couple of Hemingway. I can see how when they came out they were very important. But now... I can get the same 'hit' from Fleming, but with racier plots and more nudity!

By not provoking them? If I thought it would do the slightest good I would spang myself with a frying pan. 'Provoke them'? You do realise that AlQ argued originally that NON intervention (Balkans, Chechnya) in the muslim world was proof we wanted to destroy all muslims. Then when we did intervene they said that proved it even more. Now we 'provoke' Al Qaeda simply by existing. By having a sense of humour, by voting, by insisting on equality for women. You want to stop provoking them, and you can kiss it all goodbye.

Scrapping Human rights = bad Scrapping the act written at one time to protect those rights, and which we now understand to have been grossly badly worded = up for debate It makes me very sad that so many opportunists are calling the govt. 'evil' and 'nasty' for wanting to reject the act. We've got convicted child rapists using the 'family life' provision to claim asylum here! And what doesn't help is that it's being adjudicated by a European court which has not a single democratic tie to this country. I can see some benefits in having a transnational authority to adjudicate on grosss abuses of human rights. But forcing the UK to provides homes and support to people who commit grotesque crimes against the rights of people in the UK is complete insanity. It erodes the rule of law, and the entire foundation of the state.

It's pretty straightforward. After playing three ubisoft games that took me two days to set up because of 'anti-piracy' BS, and one game which simply failed to work because of 'anti-piracy' I no-longer buy ANY ubisoft games. Well done, fellahs. Way to make sales happen and protect your business.

IIRC from the Fallout wiki it is every 24 hours. My advice is keep an eye on the clock and just be ready for them. I use staging posts for travel, rather than direct travelling everywhere. Stash a 'nade launcher and plenty of ammo. You arrive, tool up, stroll out, kill the assassins, come back, stash equipment, move on as normal. EDIT: If you handle it this way, with weapon repair kits, you'll make at least 5k a day off the basatrds. Which is always handy.

I disagree further because of Afghanistan. We're bugging out in the next couple of years, and I don't see the infrastructure or social structure to resist Talib/Al Qaeda influence. Althugh whether it will generate substantially more terrorists than Pakistan is breeding is another matter. We've got another challenge right here in the west. Plenty of people - and I include many non-muslims - hate what we stand for. Whether from a maudlin 'liberal' self-hatred, or a strident neo-fascist urge among young muslims, it doesn't much matter. AlQ is a very advanced movement for taking advantage of that hatred. I don't think it could really be much better evolved to operate in such an atmosphere. How do you kill that?

It's like arguing with a cat in a sack! I don't think I've said a single one of those things, but you're obviously enjoyng yourself. Crack on.

Do try harder, Volo.

If you look in the PDF version of the Adeptus Titanicus manual there are all sorts of bored asides.

If you look at the fall of the communist-ish terror groups of the 60s and 70s it was a combination of factors. In fact I think it HAS to be a combination of factors. Trouble in only one sense just provokes them to fix it. i.e. move countries or hire more people. If they get all sorts of problems at once that's when they give up. It must be pretty dispiriting for AlQ about now. I'm not talking islamism in general, which is still nuzzled close into the fold sof western society like a particularly hairy leech. But true desert dwelling AlQ is having its upper echelons pummeled. What is it? 5 major players dead so far this year?

Is it weird if I say I'm a non-smoker and I actually rather like the smell of good tobacco? Must be associative, I guess.

Terrible night's sleep. But gorgeous daya here, and out into the garden with Dr No in hardback. I always forget how good Ian Fleming's writing can be. Two of my associates sat indoors all day. One working on a work side project. The other is my housemate who has been tidying the divide in Lonesome Road. Only just got my PC back. The alternate has gone out for beer. My housemate has declined. I suspect he just wants to stay close to the PC, so I threw him off.

I certainly hope you are right. I think, however, that AlQ is going to surge forward as the new 'democracies' fail to deliver. Look at the upsurge recently of islamist action in Egypt. Weapon stockpiles are being formed, attacks on gas and government targets.

Interesting point about vehicles. I've lived in several major cities where I'd wake up with a nose full of black gunk from the pollution. Leaving aside other factors from more complex chemicals. I guess what I'm now arguing for is consistency. Democracy is free to chose any deicison framework it likes, but inconsistency within that framework is probably a bad idea. In this context my original objection was that we argue that prohibition is intended to save lives. I am suggesting that there is evidence that not only does it fail to save lives at our end, but it actually costs more lives at the source end. Am I getting any clearer or am I simply chasing my own tail like a happy puppy?

That all sounds fine, Hurlshot. But what about other activities which smell? Barbecues? What if I cook a strong curry? We live in cities, we tread on one another's toes. We breath each other's armpits. I say this as a pretty reserved and private person. But I'm also a townbug. I can't cope out of the city. I actually MISS all the intrusions. The companionable annoyance of it all. I'm drifting off my point. I believe this debate - not so much here but in general - is being driven entirely by inconsistent emotional tides, and simplistic moral codes about evil and good. That doesn't strike me as a healthy way of creating policy!

If the argument were purely financial, surely the cost could be borne on a rational basis? My undersatdning - correct me if I'm wrong - was that smokers get charged far far more than what they cost.

Another long meeting today means I'm now at the stage where my voice is barely a whisper. I sound like the bad guy in Dangermouse.

Fair point. The main source I'm relying on is the book The Nearly Men, by Mike Green. A quick wikiblast reveals that the original ATLAS rockets were radio guided from a ground station. The MINUTEMAN series were onboard guided, and they were in the 1970s. EDIT: Gorth, you fool, they're clearly valve computers. You can SEE the bloody valves when they get broken. Plus they're very simple.

It's like Hunter S. Thompson came back as ...as... I have no idea.

I'm not saying it's good exactly. But I've never seen it that colour for long.

I don't normally associate Greeks with extreme sporting! Plus not sold at all on the notion that wanting an extra pint or three is the same as statist client buying and corruption. If we're getting that tenuous I might just as well accuse you healthists of being facists EDIT: I charged off in completely the wrong direction there. Thought I'd leave it in so you can point and mock me. The problem with taking the 'it affects others' line is chiefly in where you draw the line and the inherent complexity of modern life. We're currently BOTH arguing we need to fix drug policy for the sake of others. You're saying it affects those near the consumer. I'm saying it affects those near the producer. I'm actually pretty happy to include external effects, hence my OP. I'm simply saying that we're wrecking whole nations and killing hundreds of thousands of people through prohibition. On the other hand there must be some point where we say 'actually chaps that's your problem not ours'. It woudl be awesome if we coudl generate some sort of metric for where the line should be.

If it's green and not yellow, you're really ****ed. I'd go see a doc. Nah. It goes that colour when it's old. It's white when it's being made fresh. I'm on the mend now.