Walsingham

Using double questions is a check in the system to see if people are telling the truth or answering randomly. It's normal. I got higher stats than you cos I is skillz.

Neutral Good Dwarf Wizard (5th Level) Ability Scores: Strength- 13 Dexterity- 12 Constitution- 11 Intelligence- 16 Wisdom- 13 Charisma- 15 I don't think some of the questions make any sense. Stuff about what were you in school? We were nerds! What other person would even try the quiz!?

I strongly oppose any loadinng of the Supreme Court. Why does every appointment have to be an attempt to crowbar the system?

I've read a lot of stuff about torture of PoWs over the years, and spoken to British pows from Korea. I can see what you're saying on general principles, but you should read some of the accounts of what prisoners did by way of resistance before you ignore the real potential for heroism. If you can't be bothered to read anything, watch Bridge over the River Kwai. It has Obi wan Kenobi in it.

You somehow remind me of Burt from Tremors Got to love it when that worm thing bursts in and finds itself face first in a firing range.

I'm trying to come witha half flaws/mezzanine gag, but failing.

Loving all the feedback. Sorry it took so long to respond. I wanted time to read this properly with a good coffee. I see a division between tech and politics in the feedback. Tech: 1. Lemurs. Lots and lots of lemurs. 2. Non-oil energy 3. Wireless comms speed increases Geopolitics: 1. China growing 2. Mideast shrinking in economic importance 3. Growth of democracy lite 4. Mideast reform ~ To me it seems there are clear interlinks between tech and some of these changes. Viz the Mideast changes and growth of non-oil tech. And I agree with most of what you've said. However, there seem to be some missing links. I wonder if you agree. 1. Chinese growth is likely to come at a cost in the State's capacity to control itself. Many commentators think China is proving that autocracies are optimal capitalist systems, but rampant instability in the Chinese high capital markets suggests otherwise to me. 2. Chinese growth will be tied to information access. Will information speeds be mirrored by information control, or the reverse? This will be criticial to defining Chinese stability. 3. I agree that many nations are following China's autocratic 'potemkin' democracy model. However, if China shakes itself apart like a leprous bicyclist then what about those countries following it? 4. Non-oil technologies may generate changes in how we produce power, but what will happen to the petro-dollars accrued by these states in the meantime? Will they be invested in other power technologies? 5. No-one has mentioned population shifts. Africa could be facing a 40-60% death rate from HIV in the next ten years, which no-one seems to give a **** about. While the Mideast is looking at rapidly growing underclasses of Angry Young Men .

Sergeant was telling us how he was firing one and it fizzled. He had to sit motionless waiting for the rocket motor to finally ignite. Best part of a half hour. He laughed about how quicky everyone moved gently away from him.

Well, you could argue - not unreasonably in my view - that responsibilty for some crimes does not solely accrue to the individual. If a kid shoots someone who's to blame? Shared accountability could be very interesting.

Not a clue what you're talking about. Sorry. But out of interest, why an X-wing?

Go outside Europe. Try Vietnamese. Mongolian. You'll never get really exotic sounding names if you stick to such vanilla phonetics.

Or ogryns. Some of my favourite quotes are ogryn based. "Blessed is the mind too small for doubt." And "Let's see how these degenerate sophisticates handle a dose of pure unreasoning violence."

I've beeen spending much of today pondering the question of change. Change is a driving factor in much of what makes profit. But it is also much of what makes loss. What would you say are going to be the greatest areas of change in the next ten years? They can be regions, technologies, or cultures. Cut loose!

You mean if citizens started shooting the thugs then our Dictatormatic could declare martial law?

If only he was smoking a pipe...

That headbutt is should have been an automatic sending off, though. But I do understand it was provoked. It was like a one inch headbutt. Good game, however. Plenty to see. Plenty of fun. It's actually sometimes nice to watch a game where you don't care who wins.

I hope for your sake that your life is a never ending fight montage. You'd feel a bit daft buttering toast to that.

Well, like I also said, they're not a deterrent against the Army, but Zimbabwe shows how a much more likely tool of oppression (to begin with) would be bully boys. Small arms really are a credible deterrent to that sort of thing.

I think you should have everyone kick off the wake with Mr E's Beautiful Blues.

Speaking of which, what IS he wearing? EDIT: I think I may have found a new avatar. Stylish, don't you think?

Good lyric, great tune.

"Assault weapons" are not assault rifles, as far as this discussion is concerned. They are just some semi auto weapons that "look militaristic". And anyway, assault rifles alone aren't very good at making a credible threat out of a civilian militia at any rate - "destructive devices", which are already heavily restricted (or banned altogether in some places) would be. Is there anyone pushing for the freedom to own a M72 LAW or .50 M2 Browning? Heh... I already said that I thought the defence was stretching creidbility. But if a citizen militia is going to be credible it is completely impossible that it would be armed with handguns. And yes, frankly if you're serious about it then citizes should be encouraged to keep support weapons like mortars, and anti-tank. They should probably also own CBRN masks as well. Because you know war has moved on a bit since 1780.

What if they combine the email snooping with this? They'll arrest you for saying mean things about someone behind their back.

That was my understanding, too. I think it must take unbelievable moral courage to refuse to budge after that much torture.

I've actually fired surprisingly few, considering how many I've been around. My main ones would be SA80 (new and old), a .22 recalibration of a Short Magazine Lee-Enfield, and dinky silenced .22 carbine which was ancient and broke down into parts in a little case like something from a movie. Other than that a bunch of pistols and a shotgun. I dislike automatics intensely, and much prefer revolvers. The new SA80 is quite a good beast, in my limited experience. Although it is aboslutely shocking how long it took to get all the blindingly obvious problems sorted.