BruceVC

Thats a great story about the trust or lack of trust in government But Gorth why you being so cynical about our American friends, Im sure @Guard Dog will tell you thats exactly what he feels when the US government tells US citizens whats best for them

Zora you sound cynical? Next thing you going to say you question the sincerity of politicians kissing babies? @Gorth Talking about Denmark, I was watching on CNN how they have dropped all pandemic regulations and they asking " how has Denmark been able to do this " Do you know 90% of Danish citizens trust their government and this is similar to other Nordic countries So this tells us that one of the secrets to a happy and prosperous country is to trust your government So you see why I generally say " we all should trust our governments or at least give them benefit of doubt " unless they clearly involved in wrong doing And then I have another question for you, why dont you live in Denmark because it seems like a very well run country with an effective government? What made you such a wanderer and why did you decide to settle in Oz ? ( and I like Oz but Denmark seems overall better ? )

Their is no valid reason that any religious person should be homophobic and discriminate against LGBT based on their interpretation of scripture You can absolutely be Christian and be proud of that without practicing this type of bigotry

You know I only trust anything based on factors like the historical precedent, the observed reality of things and then empirical evidence of what people or organizations say So for me I do still believe vaccines are the the most effective way to reduce deaths and hospitalizations and its based on data that we know from every country that provides information about its pandemic response. Its constant and irrefutable that 85%-95% of people in hospitals are the unvaccinated so why not take your vaccine just to reduce this reality when it comes to dangerous variants? But I do agree with @Keyrock that goalposts have been changing and so have many governments responses when it comes to overall virus preventative measures. But this is not a generalization and we need to look at each case and country separately

True but I think one thing that has jaded people when it comes to the virus and lockdowns is the harm to livelihoods when the variants are less deadly but many governments continued with the same lockdowns And what makes the economic damage more unpalatable is everyone in the public sector didn't have to go through retrenchments or salary cuts because its the public sector and tax payers money fund this In SA its the private sector that ensures we have a sustainable economy because the public sector is just bleeding money and effectively runs at a loss when our SOE require constant bailouts So when citizens hear stores of " another variant and continued lockdowns " they question this because we not all in the same boat when it comes to the direct impact continued lockdowns have

Gorthfuscious what would you do if scientists acknowledged that all these vaccines were not necessary and they only recommended them to make money for large international, greedy, Capitalist pharmaceutical companies? I am feeling very rough and hangover after my Valentines drinking celebration last night, we had a great time and all the various single people were in a festive mood. I really think I found love....I just dont know how much I paid for it

Thanks, I see this link has a comprehensive list to other links at the end which is a collaboration of the Afghan Files developments. So its a very informative link and in fact so detailed it made me create a new folder in Chrome in Bookmark Manager called " Australian&NZ Politics " which I will add these links and Zora's links to store and reference later.....its not often I create new folders in my Bookmark manager but I do when their is loads of data Im pleasantly surprised you were thinking of me while you were in bed...what was I wearing ?

Thats interesting around what women in Japan do on Valentines, I wonder how that would go down in our cultures

King Crab !!! Lovely

Thanks, these types of stories fascinate me so I will go through this in detail after work today And I know you know that their is a difference between someone who is a guilty of spousal abuse, which is a cowardly criminal act, and a war criminal. He could be both but I just like to separate the two because they not the same type of criminality For example someone could be guilty of war crimes but treats his family very well

Interesting story. I am very reluctant to ever accuse someone of war crimes, especially in a theater of war, unless I know the facts and context of what that person did What military intervention was he involved in and what is he accused of doing? Also in future when you make interesting posts like this please use a link so those of us who want to follow the story can do our own assessment

https://fullview.co.za/top-stories/item/16576-huawei-sued-for-allegedly-violating-sa-employment-equity-rules Our Labor department is suing Huawei SA for being in violation of our labor laws and basically having 90% Chinese foreign nationals working for the SA based branch where they suppose to have 60 % South Africans at least The only thing that surprises me about this lawsuit is the fact that anyone is surprised that any Chinese company would have type of hiring practice

Considering the last terrible 2 years we have all had due to the pandemic I consider these types of events more important than ever So for those of you in meaningful relationships or married what are you planning to do today if anything? I can imagine if you have been married for a long time, like @Gfted1, this day may not be much different to other days ? But @Guard Dog GD you in a new relationship and I imagine you may be planning something romantic? And then @Hurlshot, @majestic or @ShadySands do you guys have any exciting plans ? I am planning on visiting my local bar\bars where their are always other single people out and about looking for "romance "

I tend to agree but I want to make sure we all on the same page going forward Does this mean you will support countries threatening to invade other countries if they dont agree to certain demands from the invading country? I am fine with that if you are because as you know I support regime change in certain cases but normally my view on those types of geopolitical events gets heavily criticized. So it will make a nice change to get you behind me in certain examples?

You make some good points, many of us have started questioning the latest global response around lockdowns and specifically Omicron What is your main reason for deciding you wont take a booster or further vaccines? Is it because you dont trust the big pharmaceutical companies or you dont trust people like Fauci or the US CDC and can you clarify exactly what you mean by not trusting the likes of Fauci? Do you feel their has been exaggeration or degrees of exaggeration about the efficacy of vaccines generally I will still be taking my booster but I do think how most of the world responds to variants has been more about a kneejerk reaction even if its well meaning so I can understand the pushback from many people like you

Yes but Elerond you know how this works, when it comes to criticizing the US and Western countries suddenly the appalling human rights and historical deeds of autocratic states dont matter Because people like Zora and Dark are suddenly " concerned " with how the Taliban are being treated and suddenly " we care about the people of Afghanistan " Yet you wont find a single post from them in the last 10 years where they have ever cared about the reality of Afghanistan....until now when they raise this because its a good opportunity to malign the West Its nothing unusual for this type of anti-Western sentiment, its very normal so no need to take it seriously

Hi Hawke Nice to chat again. Great review and it sounds like a worthwhile game Any Romance options...I know you mentioned the taciturn nature of the protagonist but you never know ?

You should consider eating more venison, I am not a food nutritional expert in any sense but I know its low in fat and generally considered " healthier " than normal beef or pork . I checked for what venison is available in your state and I know from the US cooking shows I watch that you have a nice selection. This article also highlights the health reasons for eating Venison and its from your state https://www.aameats.net/exotic-meats-lakewood-wa

I just posted that link because I wasn't sure if you guys were aware of it, it had nothing anymore to do with the meeting with Lavrov which is why I didnt mention it when I made this post

@Gorth and @Zoraptor https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/kate-o-connell-women-appearance-politics-2311912-Sep2015/ If you interested here is what I was talking about how their is form of sexism where women are judged on what they wear and not in the same way men are judged which often has nothing to do with their appearance

Of course the invasion was better than life under the old Taliban unless you think women not being educated is a good thing?

Its disappointing when people mischaracterize you but it doesnt often happen so I cant say Im sick and tired of it because I dont get offended or really worry about it...but yes its disappointing. I dont want to attribute false emotion to how I feel

No they not looting 7bn, they only taking 3.5bn for 9/11 families and giving the rest to Afghanistan humanitarian aid. From the article The funds, held in the US, were frozen following the collapse of the central government in Kabul in August. Half the remaining assets -- $3.5 billion -- will go toward providing relief inside the country, where fears of mass starvation have taken hold in the months since the Taliban took over. The remaining $3.5 billion will be made available for terror victims, who have been fighting in court for compensation using the frozen funds. Their claims will still be litigated in court. Its fair and reasonable considering the ongoing aid of hundreds of millions of dollars the US still provides Also remember the Taliban allowed AQ to commit 9/11 and now they run Afghanistan. They can pay something to the 9/11 families

I really am having fun in NWN EE SoU I mentioned I love the D&D ruleset and the myriad of combat strategies in these games and here is one example to illustrate that point I encountered my first Shield Guardian and its immune to level 4 spells and below and my character is a wizard who didnt have access to level 5 spells. Plus my familiar cant harm it and my henchmen, who is Dorna, can only do minimal damage so I got slaughted the first 3 times I tried to defeat it And then I realized I luckily had some level 5 scrolls. So I used Bigbys Interposing hand to make the Guardians attacks more ineffective, used Chain Lighting and Cone of Cold and threw numerous Alchemist Fire at the foul creature. And with Dorna hacking away I was able to defeat it ...great battle