Walsingham

i was confused, disturbed and aroused by that "mistake". <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Those emotions happen to you when you turn on a lightswitch. For pete's sake.

I should add that I would also consider resigning. But even once I resigned I would feel legally and morally obliged to keep schtumm. EDIT: I should add another point - I believe firmly that while government service is not the boyscouts, one can and should expect government agencies to act within the law, and within the bounds of morality. Unless government servants bear this in mind government itself becomes unjust and unsound. I merely recognise my own fallibility and my own obligation to act within the laws that I agree to abide by. Such as the obligation to remain silent on secret matters.

*does the dance of closing threads*

I would recognise that a) In the UK I have sworn to keep government activity secret. b) I would tell the correct superiors that I felt the action were immoral/illegal. Meaning my boss or in extremis the Commons select committee. c) If neither of those parties took action I would have to assume my interpretation of morality or the law was possibly incorrect, and remembering A, keep my piehole shut. d) Utterly mock and revile anyone who breaks their word and the chain of command because they think the public need to know. e) watch as the public lose interest in the scandal within five minutes, and possibly see servicement/informants/the national interest suffer.

It just occurred to me that if all our meat were free range, we'd have no choice but to hunt.

The basic idea sounds much like the old game Twilight 2000. That was set in WW3. But I do think there is much scope for roleplaying the European theatre, 1939-1941. The Geramsn hadn't got fully into the swing of occupation, and virtually every world power had agents interested in running around. Even if the players don't want to be an oficial agents then they can get mixed up in wild world events. The other good tihing about this period is that players should be offerred strong incentives to collude with the Nazis. Perhaps make them feel they can work to prevent the holocaus from within, that sort of thing, or just pay them off in stolen gold!

I would stay away from self-administered antibiotics. Here is my plan: 1) Consider possibility that you have a sinus infection. These can be extremely serious. 2) Assume for time being you merely have inflamed nose gubbins. 3) Prepare mixture of camphor oil, cloves, and friar's balsam. 4) Go for long run. Whatever will really get your system whirring. 5) When you return from the run take your inhalation mixture, and add to boiling water in a bowl. Put your head over the bowl, and cover with a towel, so you inhale the fumes. This will feel like being strangled by hippies. 6) Repeat as necessary once a day. 7) At best this will bring down your inflammation. At worst it will make you realise there are worse things than your present condition, and burn off some Christmas flab. Go visit a damn doctor.

I don't hold with causing needless suffering. However, growing up in various countrysides has taught me that the animals themselves have a very relaxed definition of 'need'. I'll hunt anything if I think it will be delicious, safe in the knowledge that a blow out of nowhere is typically at least as good as death in a slaughterhouse. It's also a shade or two better than getting torn apart in the wild. Having said this I find 'manly' hunting pretty repellent. There's nothing macho about besting a deer when you have every advanced piece of kit. As for hunting purely for sport, I don't think it is wrong. Merely sub-optimal. As a friend once put it: "Why do I go angling? Why, for the satisfaction of outwitting the fish, of course!"

I found out that the Mesopotamians gave us beer! That's the Iraqis! Surely we owe them all support for that fact alone....

There speaks a man who has never spent any significant amount of time with a monkey.

Has anyone ever seen a revolver shotgun?

I recall this being mooted earlier. I argued then and now that unless you allow the guy who finds/colonises stuff to keep it then there is precious little incentive for doing it at all. And since space exploration is our only strategic fallback when Mother Earth inevitably has a grand catastrophe here, we NEED space exploration. So I say let people get all greedy. Greed is a great motivator.

Are we? I hadn't noticed swarms of star wars nerds? And shouldn't we be happy that Obs are getting fans turning up here?

Now then gentlemen, we all want to hogtie Mr Lucas, coat him in honey and feed him to the baboons, after the last couple of films. There's no need to yell about it.

I suppose you could argue that since SMGs now get issued mainly to the military police, rear echelon and tankers they don't need to be flash. They will rarely get fired.

I remember really REALLY disliking those pesky mindflayers in BG. I didn't realise they permanently drained your INT. It was only much much later that I realised my main character had become a cretin. Yuck.

I tried playing Mage, which is the mad wizardy thing. It made my head hurt. I felt like the actor in the Stargate episode where they are making a show about a stargate, and he can't work out what is real and what is not real. Scene: MdL is talking to PdL" MdL: This isn't a real show? PdL: No. It's not a real show. MdL: If it's not a real show, then why are you telling me what to do? How could this not be a real show if we're doing it? Right now? MdL: Am I getting paid real money? PdL: Yeah you're getting paid real money. MdL: So what plane of reality are we on right now? " (transcribed by Lizzie Ann, whoever that is)

"-But Ive got a sweet backstory, see, I have to kill the bear who took my paw.. get it? "

So far it sounds pretty simiolar to other systems I've played. Not necessarily a bad thing, but why not try something at least slightly wacky? 1) Damage Make a couple of silhouettes of people, one standing and one kneeling. Cut the backs off some cereal packets, and glue the silhouettes into the interior of the rest of the packet, so they sit inside the box. When your characters shoot they make a roll against %age. If they get under the goal roof, then they move to the silhouettes. Here they drop something like a dice from a specified height like a foot above the box. Wherever the dice land is where the round hits. Use common sense and or a medical textbook to determine what gets munged by the round when it hits. Take into account body armour quickly and intuitively by cutting out some dinky little cardboard vests. If the thrown object falls outside the silhouette then count it as a graze/near miss/catch splinters and have the target be supressed for one round. If you wanted to get really cleevr you could drop the whole throwing objects thing and use a crosshairs and some normal distribution tables. But unless you are a freak you probably won't. 2) Characters get rated on high or low stress preference and risk taking. High stress and risk characters get penalised when trying to do any skill in a low stress low rsik context, like building a house or working in a library. Low stress characters get penalised when the bullets start flying. Players may all opt for high stress characters, so you could have high stress people standing a chance of starting with a criminal record. 3) Characters have to include their notion of a 'perfect day' in their profile. ~~ Any good?

Ah, I see. Apologies for misunderstanding. However, I'm not sure I understand how/why the US should pursue a no-troops approach. In the last five years we've seen military force accomplish what decades of talking failed to do. Expensive certainly, but quite within the national budget. The load would be lighter still if the really expensive toys were left at home. In any event with the electoral process as it stands in the US I can't see money getting cut from military spending even without the odd excursion. The political ethic seems rather darwinian over your way. I can't see the US govt 'looking after' its own citizens any better no atter what stance you take externally. And this ignores all the trade advantages of being the Big Cheese.

I used to like his 'Wild Card' series. Not fantasy. More like comics in print.

I'm sorry to hear you're still feeling so negative about people in general, Judge. I would have thought that having the simplest faith in oneself translates into the notion that others can be at least as good. Never mind the evidence all around of people being very good indeed to one another. As for self-interest I think the last century has shown that nutbars and failed states breed threats like infected wounds. Not just terrorism, but drugs, piracy, people smuggling, and wars. Also US isolationism has twice been followed by massive wars, while US interventionism during the Cold War saw probably the longest period of peace between the Great Powers in all history. *shrugs* But each to their own, I guess. Back to the thread, Gabs :"> : 1) After the surprisingly good turnout during the recent elections, and first hand reports coming back from Iraq it seems that this is a long long way from a second Vietnam. 2) A failure to successfully prosecute the war now we are in Iraq will be taken as proof by Islamic extremists the world over that the West can be beaten and otherthrown because it lacks resolve. Withraw before the Iraqis can hold tehir own and we will see a rise in attacks globally. Extremist terrorism is not going to vanish away just because we run home and hide. 3) The media have almost completely failed to give attention to the stupendous progress being made in Afghanistan. We went in there to effect regime change. It got done. And the people have hope for the future. I don't see why Iraq could not be headed in a comparably good direction without the disruption being effected by the insurgents. 4) I can't say enough about the death toll. Daily deaths of civilians in Iraq are around a third the level achieved by Saddam Hussein. And the average is dropping. Indeed, violent deaths are substantially higher in many countries presently at peace, notably South Africa.

I don't see why the Us shouldn't license the rights to make it. Besides, I hardly think that America would become critically dependent on Germany for parts and so forth. We all know that if Germany put on the squeeze the US would happily start churning copies out domestically within weeks.