BruceVC

It is brilliant, haunting and moving. Great series I am watching Tell Me a Story, very entertaining psychological series about the stories of different people and how certain events have parallels to fairy tales but its set in modern day New York https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_Me_a_Story_(TV_series)

You cant enforce an undemocratic system on an established historic Democracy, its going to get huge push back because people prefer Democracy and things like a fair and transparent judicial system, human rights and freedom to criticize your government China doesnt believe and allow these things and is slowly trying to change HK to there ways..its never going to be accepted

https://www.independent.ie/world-news/hong-kong-protesters-take-over-legislative-chamber-on-handover-anniversary-38270002.html HK heating up again as protesters have taken over the legislative building in the city...China is going to battle to control this city in there normal undemocratic way

On a tangent not related to the doings of the Cristian churches here, how would you, generic you, not Hurlshot you, measure most persecuted anyway? Number of individuals? Degree of persecution (i.e. being fed to lions or just not being allowed to stone women who get raped or by duration? In which case the Jews probably wins). Most persecution of Christians these days is done by other Christian denominations. Notable exceptions being places like Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt and Nigeria where the persecution is done by Muslims. Gorthfuscious why you trying to destroy Christianity? Empires have attempted that and it has failed ....look at the Vikings and the Romans, eventually they converted Its easy to sometimes misunderstand where someones post was directed towards, so Hurlshot was making the point towards sharp but you raised an interesting broader question about religious prosecution in the modern world ...how do we define it and where the issues lies? I dont want to look at this historically because of the complexity and numerous factors....for example some religions and or ethic groups in ancient times were effectively obliterated based primarily on there religious beliefs. We could argue historically they were the most prosecuted, like the Babylonians. So lets discuss this in the last 30 years or so as we have the most information and active data both anecdotal and easily accessible It is relevant as you mentioned to define " persecution " in the context of religious persecution. I would break it into " hard " and " soft " persecution to answer that So " hard " persecution would for example be killings, new laws being interacted specifically targeting the religion , denying someone access to courts and or someone not being able to practice there religion meaningfully in any country because they represent a certain religious group Christians nowadays are subjected to this in some places like targeted attacks from ISIS throughout the ME, violence in Africa where groups like Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab attempt to single out Christians only and generally end up killing all innocents in there typical appalling logic and the reality of being able to be Christian and how to practice it in parts of India and or China But Muslims surely face the most hard persecution and there are many examples of this like Myanmar, huge targeting of Chinese Muslims by the Chinese government and then the killing of Muslims by ISIS in the ME. However it is also self-inflicted meaning Muslims and most deaths are caused within the Muslim community....like the Shia/Sunni conflict and the violence we see through the outcomes of the Arab Spring. This is Muslims killing Muslims " Soft " persecution I define as where nowadays we see attempts to undermine or legally change religious values or religious culture that has always existed in a particular country. And ironically this seems to be more common in " Western " Christian countries which have the greatest freedoms, I think it is wrong and divisive So trying to stop people celebrating or openly supporting Xmas in countries where most people are Christian is wrong ( they even celebrate Xmas in parts of the UAE), stopping schools from singing Christian hymns in a predominantly Christian school seems misplaced and illogical ....you cant force someone to sing but you shouldn't stop people who want to. And then when people want to criticize how intolerant religion is they generally bring up examples of certain Christian churches...as if Christianity is the problem compared to all religions when in fact I can give many other examples of how intolerant other religions are throughout the world. So it creates this view its easy to criticize Christianity because Christians will just accept it in the interests of freedom of speech. And I am not suggesting we shouldnt raise valid issues with religion and that religions shouldnt be progressive in certain ways but the narrative should be balanced and not target one group Interesting topic to debate, I look forward to your comments and other peoples views

I call those statistics nonsense and lacking in real analysis on outcomes, DUI checkpoints really work and are both a deterrent and a way to enforce the law I live in a country where we see real carnage on the roads and drunk driving is a major contributor towards this. I speak directly from my own experience and many people I know, about 10 years ago it was normal to drink and drive...not inebriated but still over the limit. We dont do that anymore and now use Uber to go to social functions or stay over at friends houses if we drinking Roadblocks are the main reason for this as they have been implemented in many places strictly and also we want to be better citizens So the guy protesting the DUI roadblock is just wasting everyone's time with some pointless and counter productive social justice experiment when the real question he should be asking is " is this a deterrent to drunk driving " and it is

I have had an extremely busy work week but its been very constructive as I learn the customer landscape in CPT, its interesting but CPT doesnt have the head offices of any of the major SA banks but it does have large insurance, retirement fund HQ and investment managers so the work is similar to what I did in JHB and so is the expected projects and methodology around specific deliverable's Tomorrow Im working from lunchtime and then Sunday I'm seeing some of family for lunch so its going to be a relaxed but good weekend

I have to say Hoonding makes me laugh because of his studious attempts to be controversial and provocative For example when he said the UK needs more Muslim members of parliament and he would vote for a Muslim representative....no he wouldnt

I watched the last episode, Valery Legasov was very brave for the position he took at the trial. I admire him and the ultimate sacrifice many others made to address the numerous problems created by the meltdown I found it both reassuring and sad that it was his suicide that finally made the USSR make the necessary changes to the nuclear rods to avoid another potential disaster but at least they made the required changes Again, what a brilliant and captivating series

Drones are very expensive hardware devices and when one is shot down over international waters it is considered an aggressive act, yes its not the same as shooting down a plane and killing pilots but its still considered a belligerent act

Iran or rather the more influential conservatism element ,who has the real power in Iran, like the Republican Guard have always been in contempt of the previous Nuclear deal Remember they agreed after much USA flag burning and belligerent anti-Western rhetoric to the Nuclear deal in 2015 and then continued to destabilize the region through proxy wars, funding brutal dictatorships like Syria and deploying there Quds special forces. But worst of all after agreeing to not develop Nuclear they tested Ballistic missiles....how is this in keeping with the spirit of peace and regional stability in the region? https://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/23/middleeast/iran-ballistic-missile-test/index.html https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-30/did-iran-just-break-nuclear-deal-again-ballistic-missile-test-launch I agree that Iran will continue to push the boundaries but they also seem to want to provoke the USA so as I mentioned earlier whatever happens is on them No you not crazy but merely mistaken, you dont need irrefutable evidence when Iran is clearly disinterested in peace and stability in the region as we can see from there actions over the last 2-3 years

I just watched a really entertaining series, called Charite at War , its a true story about a hospital and its staff who operate in Berlin during WW2 So you get to experience several aspects of life under the Nazis like eugenics and the utter intolerance for what the Nazis considered anathema and should be exterminated, like homosexuals. But its really about the amazing job numerous doctors did under terrible conditions. Well worth watching

I have just watched an interview with Trump where Justin Trudeau was present, Trump was asked several questions around this incident and he actually played it down He made several comments like " people must wait for his response " , " its not the same as USA soldiers being attacked as its basically a robot " and " it was probably a mistake from Iran and they didnt mean to it " So we will have to see how this unfolds ....but it was a mistake from Iran on several levels. They not in a position to be over-zealous and jingoistic with the USA, why provoke countries you cant possibly win a war against. That kind of hubris is really counter productive to Irans future

Iran claims the drone was over there territory, the Pentagon says it wasn't. Either way Iran shouldn't have shot down the drone I believe the Pentagon, lets see how it unfolds but the Revolutionary Guard is not thinking clearly to provoke the USA like this and whatever happens is on them

I see its on Netflix, is it worth watching. How would you compare it to ?

I dont think Trump is very religious at all, I think he adopted a " renewal\belief " in faith because he wanted to connect to part of his base to gain support and win the 2016 election. Trump is someone who can read successfully certain voting patterns and peoples concerns and he knows how to reach out to those groups and what they want to hear him say It helped him win in 2016 but its uncertain if the same methodology will help him win in 2020 ?

Im on episode 4 of Chernobyl, its brilliant Its sad, evocative and haunting .....hard to believe how many people had to die and how many lives were irrevocably altered because the USSR decided not to be honest initially about the disaster

Congrats 2133, nice one

True

QFT, that is what a RPG experience is about. Its fantasy and about creating a journey with people you think about....but I cant RP with something I cannot understand on certain levels, like Romance with a mindflayer

You make several good points and I agree with several But I just want to add something relevant to the whole perceived and real" Saudi Arabia is spreading and funding Islamic extremism ", you can make the argument that there are different types of Islamic extremism and not all of them we need to be concerned with to achieve my previous objectives of a stable ME What are the most destabilizing and militant groups are the likes of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, these are not supported by the Saudi government but rather funded by certain wealthy Saudis, and other people in the ME, who have there own ideological objectives outside the official Saudi government. Saudi Arabia has been a key partner to the USA and its allies in the war against Islamic extremism, yes they really started this alliance when they were targeted by extremism themselves but the outcome is still the same. They have played, and other countries like Jordan and UAE, an important role and assisted in fighting Islamic extremism

Okay but we focusing on the wrong developments over the last 20 years in the ME if you want to address or understand the geopolitical, historical and societal problems if you think " Americans illegally invaded Iran and Libya , they to blame for the chaos ", I will contend those events ostensibly contributed towards aspects of instability in the region but they not the fundamental reasons for the problems But before we can have this debate everyone needs to ask themselves a simple question " what do we expect from the ME " because then we can see a way forward to achieve and agree on common and sustainable objectives I have spent quite a lot of time travelling for business to the region and trying to understand the complicated political undercurrents that influence the region and I have changed my view several times on what is the best way forward. What I want to see is simply Effective ME governments that offer quality of life to there citizens, this in turn would make the region stable Oil production must continue and oil prices must be manageable and fair I am not asking for things I use to think would work like implementing Democracy or even expecting ME governments to necessarily believe in the correct " Western " way of belief in human rights So then we have to identify what are the core strategies we would implement to achieve these goals and that mean articulating the problems, in summary the main problems that have lead to instability in the ME are The historical Shia/Sunni conflict 9/11 which lead to the rise of ISIS which has been a major source of conflict and sectarian violence The Arab Spring You will notice none of these developments were caused by the invasions of Iraq or Libya, these interventions were symptoms and outcomes of some of the points above but not the actual reasons these events occurred. Finally if you disagree then can anyone give honest and proven justifications how for example " the Iraq invasion " contributed towards these events from a foundation perspective?

Im unsure from an aesthetics perspective if that will work for me ...can you imagine courting a mindflayer Part of the Romance arc is where you literally RP the dating experience like most other things in a RPG so the person has to have some level of physical connection Actually that would be an effective way for me to lose interest in Romance, you can only create Romance options around party members like mindflayers

I hope there are Romance options, there should be as it was part of BG2 and added immersive and realistic dialogue options and also lets you build more meaningful relationships with your party members...like the beautiful Viconia

Well Iraq use to have WMD and used them against both the Kurds and Iran in the past, also the worlds credible intelligence agencies said Sadam Hussein still had them ....Im sure you can appreciate how these things can be misunderstood Also we cant keep bringing up Iraq every time we want to dismiss other blatant breaches of law and order or attacks like this latest Iranian aggression. Elerond sometimes we just need to accept what we observe as true

https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2019-06-13/us-says-iran-removed-unexploded-mine-from-oil-tanker Occam's razor, Iran is responsible because of the US sanctions having a hugely negative impact on there ability to sell oil so they want to interfere with the Saudis oil resources The link I posted is further evidence of Irans Revolutionary Guard being involved in the latest attacks, its irrefutable