Aristes

You know, Monte, my supposedly lackluster education aside, Hitler managed to increase the national boundaries of Germany by quite a huge margin. In fact, had he not misjudged Chamberlain and the British people, then he would have had half of Poland still be at 'peace' with his neighbors. I'm not praising Hitler. I'm not calling him a good person or advocating any nazi school of thought. However, nothing argues like success and Hitler was successful. We cannot understand anything in history if we cannot have a frank discussion about the events. Just because Hitler was a wicked man at the head of a terrible ideology does not mean that he was a blithering idiot. Yes, the German high command suggested that he do things differently, but the same high command had been urging caution all along, from his occupation of the rhineland to his occupation of Sudetenland and annexation of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain finally held the line at Poland. I need no lectures from you or anyone else about how I view history. I am somewhat educated in history myself. I've even read a book or two along the way. Perhaps you're more educated as to the facts. Maybe not. *shrug* At any rate, I'd rather have a candid discussion about the event rather than have you try to spin the truth. Hitler was a villain and therefore could not have been brilliant? Ridiculous. Imagine, for a moment, that Hitler had succeeded in taking a great slice of Poland with no outbreak of a larger war and then stopped to consolidate his successes. What if that had been the end of the conflict. What would we call him then? Just because he failed dismally, for which we should all be thankful, doesn't mean his preceding moves were not intelligent. To our chagrin, Hitler was quite crafty. EDIT: And I agree with alan as well. The fact is the Weimar Republic was on shaky ground. Evidence? They ended up with Hitler. I think we should discuss the facts rather than my use of the ****ing word 'brilliant.' Whether you like it or not, I'm going to continue believing that his moves were both daring and brilliant, even if his ideology and goals were evil.

I think folks should recognize the fact that Hitler was actually quite brilliant in his policies leading up to the war. Clearly his policies in regards to Jews and other ethnic groups was evil. However, Hitler was amazingly successful and, worse for Germany, most of those moves were daring. I think Hitler, and Germany, were undone like most people are in history, by the feeling of invincibility that came as the byproduct of early success. This is something quite different from the slow decay that tends to accompany and eventually undermine folks who carry their initial success into the long term.

I think conventional wisdom is that Germany could not have won the war. However, once we get into counterfactual arguments, it's always easier on the "couldn't have happened any other way" side. I think anything couild have happened, although I tend to agree with folks like Ros who say that German might have won, but consolidating and keeping what they'd taken would have been a different story. My main points are, one, I think Hitler's instincts about Soviet morale would have born true if two things had happened: Moscow had fallen and by some miracle Stalin had been killed in the battle. That assumes, of course, that no other Soviet leader would have stepped up to the plate, but Stalin did have a habit of doing away with anyone talented or intelligent enough to compete with him. The points about Japan are still valid as well. Had things gone differently for them, then the United States certainly would have been forced to rethink its Europe first strategy. All of this is a little on the modern history side for me, but that's how I see it from a relatively uninformed point of view. Keep in mind that, while the nazi philosophy is completely evil, the German high command was actually quite excellent. The Germans didn't make any more blunders than the allies did. They were saddled with the Italians, who were apparently quite incompetent, and they suffered from severe manpower disavantages, but they actually did better than you should really expect. I want to throw my two cents about any proposed invasion of England. The Germans would have lost sooner had they attempted to invade England without air superiority. Now, Hitler really screwed himself at various times in the air campaign against England, particularly in regards to targets, but the British never lost air superiority over the channel or the coast. Without that, the Germans would have failed in my opinion.

I just needed to 'figure out' the acronym. UR so GR8! EDIT: I figured I should probably put in a smiley so folks realized I wasn't trying to pick a fight over the acronym.

Yeah, apparently you need to take a few classes in leetspeak to understand what folks say in a thread about Dragon Age.

What the hell is an MEPC? I simply give up.

I will keep the political discussion out of the what you did today thread as requested. Still burns me and none of the 'explanations' make it clear to me exactly why they went about it that way, but I'll start a separate thread if I want to pursue the argument. Now that I've sent off my email and finished my letter, I'll probably not bring it up again unless something happens out of it.

I sent a letter to flag@whitehouse.gov reporting myself. I then sent a letter to my personal friends and family telling them what I'd done and why and urging them to do the same. I must say that the Obama administration has sunk so terribly low in my opinion since he first won the presidency. I pride myself on not raging about politics, but the idea that they would post this in a whitehouse blog is boggling:

So we should repudiate all aspects of society? The mind control part of society comes after the promise of safety and stability. A world without society might sound cool, but that's probably going to be you in the saber tooth's stomach.

Politics and religion make strange bedfellows, but they do sleep together. You know what it would take for ultranationalists and religious fundamentalists to work together? Self interest.

I don't think that's bad, Meshugger, but I also think it's flawed. For example, a lot of teenagers don't have sex. *gasp* It's true. I mean, especially if that's an inclusive list between 13 and 19. Teenagers discuss sex a hell of lot more often than they have it. I mean, yeah, I could cite example from my own life that included sex during my teenage years, starting at 16. However, I know that my friends and I fixated on it a hell of lot more than we had it. Another thing is that, growing up during the cold war, my friends and I talked about what we'd do during an impending soviet nuclear attack. Fair enough, right? It was a genuine fear, but we mostly either joked about it or daydreamed about what we'd do. heh. However, while I don't worry about a soviet nuclear attack, I do worry about similar sorts of threats. Okay, in that regard, teenager and adult fears are the same. However, while I joke about it in a sort of dark humor way, I no longer day dream about the wonderful adventure of reclaiming the nuclear wastes. I look at it with out and out dread, thinking of what I'd do to protect my wife and make sure she had enough to eat. Before feminists bombard me with utterly stupid crap about my being 'macho' or some other nonsense, I sure as hell hope my wife would have the same concerns about me. There is no romance in the concept of a nuclear war. My point is, I think your list is a great starting point for discussion, but I also think there's more to it. Hell, having been a teacher, I can tell you elementary students have ideas and discussions of sexuality, both girls and boys. Some of them even have detailed discussions with one another. Haha, a friend of my wife's used to be a student councelor at an elementary school. She found out that some of the 5th grade girls were performing oral sex on some of the 6th grade boys in exchange for the boys' lunch money. Worlds oldest profession. They had to call in the cops and the parents and it was a complete mess. Luckily for the students, the records are sealed. I actually would love to have a discussion about what constitutes mature and also a discussion of realism in games, but I'm afraid we're comletely leaving Dragon Age farther and farther behind us to do that. *shrug* I won't tell if you don't.

I've been taking my practice LSAT tests. I've thought my scores were dismal, but it turns out that my first few attempts were actually quite presentable, if not exciting, and my scores have improved as well. I don't know where my ceiling is, but I'm trying to do what I can, including changing my sleep hours from 8am to 3pm so I have the time I need. I have to say, I'm fairly fatalistic about it. I'm competing with people younger and smarter than me, which is never fun. I can only hope that the preparation I'm putting into this endeavor will work. Even if it does, I might still not choose to attend or even apply to law school. If I had done this even five years ago, I think it would have been better.

It's kind of funny to cite James Bond in a thread that says that American game companies overplay American capabilities. haha I like James Bond, damned Brit. I wonder if he ever wears Union Jack underwear? Hey, I agree, the US clearly can't go at everything alone, and it's perfectly legit for a game to convey that message. On the other hand, it really depends on how seriously the game treats the topic. Yeah, Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein 3D are pretty much about an American kicking ass, but they're not meant to be real commentary. Anyhow, when I first played Wolfenstein, the hero was British. Hmm, I wonder if the original Wolfenstein were developed by Englishmen?

No, I think you're right. The specifics are always a bitch and, frankly, anyone can cherry pick counter examples to anything you say. Especially clever people. Society clearly conditions our brains. I don't think that's universally bad, but I do think it's imperative to try to look at things from different angles. yeah, you don't want a mind so open it lacks any discipline, but you don't want society to cram you into a box either.

Actually, that's the feeling I've been getting also. I liked KotOR, skipped JE and ME. I also liked their ol' skool games. Like Hurlshot, I think it's going to somewhat more like the BG series. However, I think folks expecting it to be a return to the BG series will be disappointed.

The wife just finished Wall-E. I watched some of it with her. Not a bad little cartoon.

Sounds Lawful Evil! And slavery did work well for labor intensive industries like mining and farming. Now we have technology. I still hate slavery, though. That's because I'm one of those misguided Americans who believes in freedom. oh my goodness! I said something positive about my country? Oh noes! haha

Actually, slavery was quite contentious from virtually the very beginning. It was always the 800lb gorilla in the room. Most assuredly, most folks in the 1800s were not okay with it. The issue was contentious and most folks probably wanted the issue to go away one way or the other. However, your larger point seems fair enough. I mean, the Romans literally had a slave economy. Most of them were okay with it for the reasons you said. Even then, there were plenty of folks in antiquity who argued against slavery.

And when folks have tried to put the story first, they've been ridiculed for being uppity.

It does. ...And I sometimes think about your mom. How's that for this damned message board getting into my head. I hope all is well. Hearing about other folks' aged and ailing parents is not a laughing matter for me at my stage in life.

Not exactly. The elves don't have souls like humans and hobbits and whatnot. So their spirits fly off to Valinor when they die and end up being born again into a new elf body. The living elves, and some notable figures, can go off to Valinor and live. Elves live forever, and, since Valinor is kind of like a paradise, they are quite happy. The thoughts regarding how Valinor is are kind of varied. Since Tolkien didn't give a definitive answer during his life, folks fight over the meaning in his works with some folks contending that heading to Valinor equates to being granted immortality. Other folks, however, say that it is not explicitly clear that merely reaching Valinor grants immortality and thus it's just some place Frodo and Bilbo visit but they will still die. The elves view human death strangely, since Humans have souls and therefore can go to 'heaven' so to speak. Not quite the same thing as Valinor. Frankly, I'm not quite enough of a nerd to give you the best answer. Only enough of a nerd to know a little bit, and that's relying on a faulty memory at 4am. I think the ending was quite short compared to the books. I'm not nitpicking arguments based on the books, though. I basically agree with TN about the movies themselves. They were long and I think most folks were happy to have a nice, long, lingering farewell. However, because I enjoy arguing both sides sometimes, I can see some folks being irritated by the lingering just a wee bit too long specifically at the dock. It's like, get on the damned boat and go to paradise, you stupid hobbit! EDIT: Gorth beat me to the punch. Sorry about the confusion. I didn't see the Great Gorth's post before I made mine.

'Swivel-eyed loons' Okay, I admit that I've been awake for quite a while at this point, but I just found that image histerical. Ugh, I don't want to wake up the wife. Must. Stop. Laughing. I went to lunch with my recently widowered friend. He's been dating this woman. Started dating her about three months of his wife died. Just... weird. I've been having lunch with him once a week as our schedules allow. Hey, I'm his buddy. I don't judge him, but I can think it's a bit strange. Frankly, since his wife had cancer for several years, I know that he's actually feeling suddenly free. He was a doting husband to her while she was alive, but I think the stress was going to end up killing him soon if she hadn't died. Serious as the heart attack he had last year. In other news, I find that the phone ringing, the sounds of the gardeners, and other things that will be absent at the LSAT are distracting me during the day and so I've decided to sleep during the day for the next month and do my practice tests at night. This is the first night and I only came up with the idea because I couldn't sleep this evening. So.... tried it out. Began strong, but I'm too fatigued to think straight. It's not that the answers are hard, but the 3 section took too long. I had to guess the last five answers and screwed up the order. I'm going to go to sleep after I make breakfast and tea for the wife and get up in the early afternoon. Not ideal, but I'm going to try it.

lol "a badly produced Unicef ad" hahaha You jerk!

I'm not riled up you yutz! I'm not angry and I'll shoot the first man who says I am! hahahaha Sorry, couldn't help myself. Anyhow, maybe it's a language thing. I thought the cards were funny. Like MC, I did have my character accidently sleep with someone. After that, I basically only slept with that red haired waif looking doctor chic. Heh, monogamous cartoon sex for the win! The hang-up might be a language barrier thing. Mature is a classification, and in that regard a mature rating opens up content that is only available to adults. Mature, however, also refers to a sort of "grown up" attitude. It describes a frame of mind which treats issues in a serious and thought provoking manner. So the content of the Witcher is mature, and some of the topics have mature overtones, but the mental and emotional outlook depicted in the sec scenes isn't mature, even if the content is rated as such. English, like all other languages I've seen, has words that pull multiple duties and 'mature' is one of them. I don't think that most folks would disagree with you that the sex cards were meant to be humorous and weren't 'mature' in the sense that they treated the topic in a sober sort of stuffed shirt manner. A lot of even seemed to think they were funny. I'm not joking, I guffawed the first time I saw one. I simply wasn't expecing a sexual intercourse minigame. They were certainly 'mature' in that most folks wouldn't want their children exposed to the content. At least most Americans. I guess maybe we're uptight and whatnot, but I don't see the point in exposing small children to sex in a video game. *shrug* ...But it wil take more than this to rile me up, pilgrim!

Okay, you win! Have to admit, I only skimmed it, but sounds cool.