Walsingham

Salty liquorice? Dear sweet mother of Mary... Enough with the Finn bashing, btw. I'd like to see any of you fight Soviet Russia in conventional warfare and win.

It seems I'm not not the only one who can't quite grasp the fullness of yor position.

*equally slowly and clearly* USELESS TO WHOM? To an unscrupulous politician or queasy homophobe some traditions may seem quite handy.

I'm struggling at present with these mutated creatures in Far Cry. My reaction speeds are very slow, so I tyically trade distance. But I'm now in a bunker and these damn beasts keep jumping me, and at teh difficulty I'm at they can kill in three punches. And there are many of them. I don't know if I will keep coming back indefinitely but I am likely to. I hate quitting.

I mean you came on strong talking about how you hated people guiding their lives by ancient principles, when what you really meant was that you hate people guiding their lives by any principle you dislike. Democracy, equality, habeus corpus, honour, chivalry are all old. I'm just saying you should be clearer in your targets, and not blame either tradition or religion. Your beef is with the violent and the ignorant, not the religious.

Far Cry is hella fun, i'll give it that, but Hollywood fun. I haven't downloaded ArmA yet. Probably give it a try tomorrow.

You mean like honour and chivalry, patriotism, anarchism, egalitarianism... Help me out here, Meta. I am thinking more along the lines of bigotry and hatred based on traditions/scriptures, arrange marriages, stupid dress codes, God, and the like. You mean simply you disapprove strongly of things you disapprove of.

OK, so I'm hearing ArmA and Red Orchestra? Using my bargain bin capital I just picked up Full Spectrum Warrior, and Far Cry.

You mean like honour and chivalry, patriotism, anarchism, egalitarianism... Help me out here, Meta.

I remember being in a class with a chap from Oman, and we got on pretty well. He even made an effort (unlike his colleagues also from Oman) to get to know the Indian and Pakistani students. Which I guess was something of a culture shock. Sadly there was some actual violence between the groups. Some of these skinny pimped up Omanis actually fancied themselves as gangsters and got handed their own asses when they picked on the much tougher guys from further east. Anyway, I got talking to this chap about his views on women, and he said words to the effect of "I wouldn't allow my wife to be in a room with another man. They'd obviously get up to no good." I laughed far too loudly out of surprise, and asked if this was inevitable. He said "Yes, women are like that." I asked if it was entirely the woman's fault, and he replied it was. So i asked if he would permit me to be in a room with his mother, and of course he went very quiet, knowing full well that I could be trusted, and so could his mother. He saw quickly tht teh notion that all women were hussies and couldn't be left alone was nonsense, and the very notion insulting to all parties. [Athough now I think on it, maybe thi sis a sad comment on how things work in the region] I must say that while I used to pick holes in many of the ideas he came to the UK with he was a tremendous gentleman, and never quit talking about things. Generous with his time, and attention. Sadly he wound up having to return home to take part in an arranged marriage to his cousin. No fooling. You've never seen anyone look so ill, but he had to do as he was told.

Pinecone sounds good to me. The third one looks like a carpet cross-section.

You mean you don't have a 'go mideast!' pennant on the wall?

I too drink stuff before bed. I usually go to the bathroom 2-3 times before even getting to sleep, then wake up once or twice during the night and usually wake up really early and can't get back to sleep. It freakin sucks so bad. I don't mean to alarm you, mate. But that's not a good sign. You should definitely get your diabetes check, and also have the doc look at your plumbing.

Great to have so many responses. I don't particularly mind setting, although firearms are key. I'm interested in whether you think it has the same... logic ... as a real battlefield. Op Flashpoint would be one of my top ones, but for two things: opponents are fething clairvoyant about spotting you over immense distances. A Red Army soldier once shot me from nearly 500 meteres away because he 'saw' me as I was lying under a hedge with 100m of wood between us, with no preamble of violence. Nor does combat have any side effects ioke confusing the hell out of you. Arma Assault really interests me, but I haven't the cash just now to be able to buy it. On the other hand the USMC have licensed a variant of ArmA as training tool.

I totally apologise if you felt I was accusing you of being bigoted. You made it very clear that you knew you'd been fed a weird slice of views on the culture. I should have been more clear. I just thought you might enjoy finding out more, and Steve could probably help. I also found it interesting to contrast this discussion with the huge rallies held today in Turkey by hundreds of thousands of Muslims demanding the continued division of church and state. It's got to drive the Islamists mental to see it, and sadly may mean Turkey gets targeted even more than before. It is also interesting to note that today saw protests against the lack of action against the genocide in Darfur. Another ostensibly Muslim regime. I think this huge range of country types in the 'same' faith give the lie to any notion that all Muslims are the same, if proof were needed.

I'm interested in fiding the best combat FPS games as measured by tehir realism. How sacry are they? How sensibly do they make you behave?

I'm not certain the glf emirates should be described as anything other than 'bizarre'. Too much money, not enough sense in my opinion. I noted this article on Saudi: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6592123.stm Indicating that massive percentages of young men in Saudi are sending porn amongst themselves. This seems to support the notion that living as a young man in Saudi must be quite stressful.

Interesting, as you say. Rather heavy handed, though.

not theocracies or faiths are evil, some people are Well, I agree that evil people are the big thing here, but bear in mind that people in the middle can be encouraged by institutions and circumstance to be worse than nature intended. I believe in the principle of democracy, that denial of equal rights before law, and the capacity for peaceful protest and expression are absolutely necessary. Remove these rights and you have an inevitable tendency to abuse by those in authority. Sluggo, you should consider chatting to Steve here a bit more. There is a great deal more to Islamic culture than living like jawas. Not that it wouldn't be cool, mind you.

Damn.

Hungover. Drinking everything.

Another half hour session today. Up until now it felt as if I were running beneath the crushing hammers of some demon drummer. This time it felt like I was the drummer, beating my own rhythm on the parched brown earth! Finsihed my run in time with 'We will rock you' by Queen.

Let go your conscious self ...and act on instinct! Seiously tho, if you don't feel it's right don't go for it too soon. I've always found women are more than willing to pounce on you if they are keen enough.

I agree with Gorgon, there is a definite difference. Many of the chaps I went to school with claimed to be patriotic and willing to fight for Blighty, but virtually none of them have volunteered at any time for either the regulars or even the reserves. Howwever, I would argue that there is an even smaller likelihood of someone actually strapping ona bomb if they have been brought up in an environment where such acts are not vocally encouraged. I have been considering this problem even more than usual of late. I think a large contributing factor is the massive increase in the number of jobless young men in many of the countries newly riven with extremism. Wea re talking here hundreds of thousands yearly growing to job-seeking age with no job and little prospect of one. Unscrupulous politicians and civil leaders are appealing to these people by claiming their position is the fault of some American conspiracy. The parallel with anti-semitic propraganda at the start of the last century is made laughably easy by the inclusion in many speeches of actual anti-semitic propaganda!

Compared with the thought of a resurgent imperialist Russia capitalising on a probably isolationist United States, Gitmo strikes me as about of as much consequence as a mimed fart.