Walsingham

I had an uncle once who used too many cliches. He got ague, but was run over by an ox cart.

Well, Rostere has a point in dragging us back to pure geopolitics. Pakistan is a country with many inherent weaknesses. It is geographically and culturally a mess, with a naturally insecure eastern border with a huge and angry neighbour on it. This absorbs every possible attention and as a consequence I think Pakistan plays the game to keep Afghan in a state of flux. Since classically this would have effectively neutralised that border for teh Russians or Persians who might otherwise seek to move in. Unfortunately this thinking is a bit 19th Century. The advent of terrorism means that the Afghans themselves can pose a strategic threat to Pakistan by applying political violence as they are.

Keeps getting to me first thing in the morning when I should be working.

Point. Nonetheless I have to agree with Monte in as much as I think the England team have perhaps too much of a good thing money wise. In fact I've been thinking for some time now that you can ALWAYS have too much of a good thing. It destabilizes efforts to control the system in question. In this case the money and the lifestyle is a distraction. On the other hand they earn their bosses squillions more so why shouldn't they get a share? Not that this changes my impression of the useless hoofers. On teh other hand I thoght Algeria played greatly to their own credit. Well done.

I'm not spotting a single theme here. Can anyone else?

Honesty is good, but I think you underestimate him. I used to get royally annoyed by him, as anyone will tell you, but over time I thinkI understood that he was a lot more complex than this medium could really get a handle on. I think it's one of the reasons he used to shift alts all the time. Like a velociraptor shifting uncomfortably on a child's tricycle. Not that there's much point to you changing your mind. I just thought I should report his cause aright to those who would remember him.

Inventory list is here http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?showtopic=54890 I suggest you start by buying one chainmail shirt (red).

Purkake: the way to fidn the last guy is autocannon^fire + autocannon^ high explosive. Just hammer away like billyo and the little bastards will either die, pass out, or run away.

But Gorth, metagaming simply doesn't work all the time. I can't speak for several of the games you mention, but in ones like Kotor II and Dragon Age you are best off simply following a roleplaying approach. Since you can head off down approaches where you are scoring small influence points, but walling yourself into a shallow and facile relationship. Taking hits can allwo you to reshape the companion's perspective on certain issues. Thus to my way of thinking the obvious points system royally shafts metagamers and should be applauded for doing so.

Woop woop woop woop. The Soviet Union never had sufficient means to exert their will by pure force of arms? That's supposed to be wittily ironic?

Note to self: do not again forget that fully cleaning of the teeth and gums is inadvisable directly after eating. This is particularly true when you have just eaten hot chilli. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Hmm... A nation with a tiny appendix of an armed force, supplemented by a bunch of maudlin psychopaths, against a nation almost entirely focussed on war since its inception? Could be fun to watch. For about ten minutes.

You got any inside gen for us on Serbia, Boo?

It's taken me three days to see this one. Not funny. And I don't mean in a finger wagging 'you are not allowed to chuckle at this' kinda way. Just plain not funny. Like a joke that had to be explained to you, after which you go 'ohh', not *grin*. Yeah. I'm actually quite proud it took me that long to see it.

Sometimes you need a square on, no frills punch to the sentiment glands. Well, I do, anyway. The other one which gets me is . I heard it at a friend's house, looking out over broad expanses of English rainy field. I can't quite describe what gets me, beside the fact that I absolutely always coast to a halt when I listen to it. There's something vehemently peaceful about it.

Well, this is surely the dilemma. If we ask for rich complex stories with genuine choice with genuine consequences we can hardly burst into tears when we get it. Which is arguably the root of all his criticisms.

+10

Condensing things slightly ebcause otherwise no-one will read what we're saying: 1. If you think the Raj or anywhere else we conquered (with the exception of the poor bloody hottentots and bushmen) were peaceful harmonious peoples then I think that says everything it needs to about your historical scholarship. 2. Killing an animal for its meat rather than keeping it for its milk and offspring - which is what will happen if you strip the so-called 'assets' of BP and collapse it - says much about your grasp of basic economics. 3. This has nothing to do with BP and everything to do with your opposition to corporations in general. As you yourself confess.

Without really thinking I surfed to this rendition of this morning. I don't know exactly what it was, but it suddenly brought it all home for me. My grandmother loved it when she was alive because my grandfather loved it (he was Irish). My mum loved it because my grandmother loved it. My uncle too, though he's not dead just living thousands of miles away. My brother likes it though he's not dead just loopy. I guess my whole family has atomised these last few years like a wayward rebel planet with no weapons. Anyway, the point is it set me blubbing when I've been pretty stiff-upper-lipped trhough almost everything. And I wondered if everyone has a tune like that, and ifw e share tunes or if the tunes have similarities despite differences in culture and ordinary taste.

That's only because we delete all the horse porn before you see them. Imposible. Once you've seen horse porn it stays seen.

Great news to hear he's back home and doing well-ish. I meant to ask last night but got distracted by the need to be pompous.

I love hate to sound like Moff Tarkin, but I grow tired of saying this: We will win by a long term process, matching military security with economic development, galvanised through a dynamic political movement. Like the wood, oxygen, and the spark. Of course we refuse to deliver on the economic development, and Msr. Karzai seems to lack a certain dynamism so far as actual Afghans are concerned.

Long overdue. Nice one.

Unfortunately I have a pretty low opinion of the New Scientist. Whenever they talk about anything I actually know about they are almost invariably about four years behind the times. And I've had many friends and colleagues say the same. So for the time being I'm sticking to the initial assessment.