Calax

Honestly? http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/51537-the-community-is-5-years-old/ That >.> Yes, I know it's a big selfish, but COME ON!

I'm driving a van to and from the airport. Similar pay to McDonalds, but better people I'm working with.

Well, today is my day of training and tomorrow is my first "solo" run.

Give Belldandy about 24 minutes and she'll get ya sorted out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83j4ICes2i4 Wals, is that what you're thinking of?

I feel that automatically condemning a nation for attempting to get nukes is shortsighted and rather stupid. The inherent problem with Nukes is that it creates the "haves" and "have nots" in international relations and military arms. It creates an inherently unequal playing field, and nobody I know of would like an unequal playing field like that. It's highly hypocritical of the US to say "Yes, we have nukes, but you can't have them!" to everyone who might develop Nukes on their own. Even if I had no intention of using the suckers, as a world leader I'd practically force my R&D crew to make em simply because I didn't want to have to deal with a foreign leader who could come to me and say "Give me your economy, or die in nuclear fire" Right now, what's creating a stronger lasting peace isn't Iran trying to weave around being blown up by NATO and the USSR, it's the economic interdependence created by the increasing infrastructure. China wouldn't go after America, we MAKE their entire economy. Russia wouldn't endanger it's relationship with the west for similar reasons (although they won't let the west go nuts either). The issue with the middle east is that the main actors there don't have much in the way of necessary trading partners that are on the other side of their conflict (due to sanctions etc) and if they do have VERY strong ties (Israel) nobody is even thinking of using the economic ties to attempt a change.

I admit, I feel a bit validated today. https://twitter.com/Calaxprimal/status/346156809633013760

I'm hating my Community College Poly Sci teacher right now. He wants us to explain, analyze, and resolve a political issue. Two of the issues are Kosovo, and the Kurds. How the HELL am I supposed to write out a roadmap to "peace" in a land where I wouldn't even know what the people are saying, much less how they think and feel about the land.

Well DAD You got four glasses of BOOZE! Why can't I have a SODA!? /8 year old logic

Not gonna lie, I kinda giggled because I have to drill that exact lesson (or rather had) into every trainee at my store. Today was my last real day, Tuesday is the last technical day, but that shift is only 2 hours for a meeting. Thursday is the start of the new job. And tomorrow I have to write a 8ish page paper on Kosovo (wheeeeee )

True, although Begins made them all much more grounded in reality, and basically caused a reboot of almost every single comic property since it came out.

Reception it got at the time was good for the time it was released. However since then most of the "OH EM GEE GUYZ! THIS IS AWESOME!" is overblown. Begins was the film that made comics viable again, and Batman works in the "Gritty real world" setting. Superman doesn't. Saw the Last Stand with Arnie. Arnie honestly, one of the best action flicks I've seen in a while. Doesn't bump it's scope to high, and is perfect for what it wants to be. And it's actually more memorable than a lot of action movies. Particularly in not having twitchy camera all over the place, and giving some good old fashioned FX for gore etc (not all of it though)

I am far more concerned about that actually. From what I understand since Obama has been in office every prominent conservative pundit has been audited multiple times. And everyone knows they were going all out to stop or even prosecute conservative PACs while rubber stamping liberal ones. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/conservative-activist-green-name-gets-irs-stamp-approval-193457897.html He is turning the IRS into his own secret police. Now they are even training tax agents with automatic weapons. What the hell is going on here? Who are they planning on fighting? I have an idea. http://nation.foxnews.com/business/2010/03/22/irs-hiring-thousands-armed-tax-agents-enforce-obamacare http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/06/12/Rep-Jeff-Duncam-Questions-IRS-Training-With-Automatic-Rifles-Video http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/06/breaking-obama-irs-agents-seen-training-with-ar15s/ GD, were they actually IRS? OR from the Treasury and people assumed they were IRS? Because technically Treasury also runs the Secret Service.

People have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Meaning that unless the record in question is public knowledge, or extremely easy to collect, it's considered private. By the same token, Employers have your phone number, but they cannot hand out your phone number to anyone that comes along (even the government) without good reason. Same with my work schedule. Sure my employers know when I'm supposed to be att he store, but they can't inform anyone of that, only I can.

You have me confused. The IRS targeted groups with "Patriot" "Tea Party" and such in their names for audits. Not specific people who registered republican in "battleground" states. And like I said before, the IRS targeting those groups could have just been them targeting groups they suspected were abusing the 501©(3) system to have a tax free PAC, when 501©(3) designation is designed to be a-political. And the NSA overstepped their bounds in the same manner as if they'd tapped everyone's phones. Innocent until proven guilty isn't just some word you toss around, it's how the law enforcement agencies are supposed to operate, but because of the creation of this fear machine by the government (and both parties) everyone operates as if we're all just foreign agents who are only waiting for the opportunity to sell the USA to [insert current enemy here]. No Prism isn't legal, it's the 'net equivalent of warrant less wiretaps on random yahoos for no other purpose than to perv on the phone sex.

Nope

Did some more of my new job. Need to buy 2 to three pairs of comfortable pants. Got my first training day done, and am doing a proper "Run" next weekend. That might be in one of the minibusses instead of the actual van.

Bakersfield? Are you going Vegas or something? *thinks* ok, I can understand it, although I probably would have taken 50 to carson city and down 95 More Scenic in the Sierras.

I think that it's the fact that Bombs and splosions are controllable, more so than a gas. A bomb, you hit a spot, it explodes, and that spot is gone, you cut loose with Sarin and you've got your target zone, and anything down wind contaminated.

Just out of question, but how much do you expect this sort of thing happened previously? The ACLU is fighting the government over the wiretapping (they just filed suit recently), the bible thing is always contentious given how "CHRISTIANITY!" this whole state is (Betcha 20 bucks that if it'd been a Qua'ran the church groups would have filed suit), I don't know about the Military stuff. Homeland security buying ammo and equipment is understandable. And even more so since Sarin Gas got turned loose in Syria today. THe IRS thing, I can't really comment on. Yes what they did was bad, but I'm not sure if they went all the way to Obama for "political motivation" or just on their own. And technically the outcry is over something you don't even need. And technically they were filing as "501©3" organizations, which are by definition And specifically a-political. But anything with Patriot, Tea Party, etc is going to be political and thus shouldn't really be covered under the 501©3 exemption no? It looks bad on paper, yes, but the IRS thing is them just doing their jobs, and now they're getting 'audited' for it. Prism is gonna get fought over in court, like everything else. Personally I'm just more pissed off that the same crowd that is screaming that "the 2nd amendment shall be totally sacred and nothing shall ever EVER breach it's commandment or curtail it in any way shape or form!" are right now going (effectively) "Yep, your right to privacy is totally curtailed for Terrorist huntin! And your right to speech is curtailed for the same reason SUCKA!" Edit: I should point out that where I was going initially with each item is that the reason you hear about all this stuff is because the news wants to sell ad space. There could be perfectly legit reasons for each, but right now the circumstances are kept relatively vague to sell you on what's going on.

Not Russian based, but apparently Syria just fired off a Sarin Gas attack which "crossed the red line" for the USA.

The historian in me is thinking of a roman centurion going nuts on a guitar right now. Because of you wals. Right now I am sitting outside the new jobs office waiting for my new employer to show up to full out the paperwork. Then I have to jump in my car and take off for my old job where I have a very boring day "babysitting" the slowest store in the company

Well it looks like E3 has not been kind to EA. looking at their stick prices, they've been dropping pretty intensely since the conference. Same with acti, but GameStop seems to be doing well.

Well, I think my phone is dead as a phone but everything else still works. http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/38137/Microphone+not+working+when+making-receiving+calls

Apparently one of the kotaku guys got yanked aside after he took a picture of the laptops that were running the Forza demo's at their event.