BruceVC

Just because Russia has the power of vetoing UNSC decisions that does not make it powerful or a great nation, it just means there is a fundamental problem with how the UN operates. Look at the Syria crisis, this is a direct result of the power of the veto. And can people please stop suggesting that Russia "beat" the USA when they vetoed military action in Syria. There is a clause around the UNSC veto and voting system that still allows military intervention in the interests of human rights that the USA could have used if they really wanted to intervene in Syria. But of course the succession around Assad is unclear now so why would the USA really want to get involved, there is no defined end goal to any intervention if you remove Assad Now I want to be clear, I don't know if there is a better system than what we have got at the moment around the UNSC. I get frustrated at times with Russia and China but it goes both ways and the other members can veto military action by China or Russia that they want UN support for.

I am about to play Skyrim for the first time and I always use Mods with Bethesda games. What Mods did you use to make it more challenging?

Damn, I was hoping that since your regal return to the forums that you would stay out of political discussions There is a fellow Serb who is active in these political debates, Sarex. But he is an extremist, very jingoistic and very anti-western. He's not a bad person, he is just misinformed because he believes in conspiracy theories And remember these debates are nothing personal, its just global politics

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/08/world/europe/ukraine-donetsk-protesters-walsh/index.html So this is another surreptitious strategy by Russia and pro-Russian supporters in areas of eastern Ukraine to annex parts of Ukraine. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. In summary pro-Russian supporters have basically stormed and occupied Ukrainian government buildings in areas like Donetsk. At the same time we have tens of thousands of Russian troops massed on the eastern Ukrainian border. The Ukrainian government needs to remove these protesters but due to the volatile situation there will probably be loss of life as the pro-Russian supporters are removed I can see the response from Putin now " Russian speaking Ukrainians have been killed, we need to protect them" and the Russian troops on the eastern border move in to "protect" Russian speaking Ukrainians and annex parts of eastern Ukraine. Despite the fact no government in this world would allow occupation of its government buildings by protesters for extended periods of time. Interesting development to watch

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/04/09/the-evil-within-trailer/#more-200413 Guys take a look at this trailer for "The Evil Within" As usual I think it looks excellent

Sorry to hear that

Sorry, but no. Russia has great potential considering it's strategic resources but that's pretty much it. If anything I'd personally say Russia is currently a second-rate world power (but that of course depends on how you classify a "world power"). That analysis is based solely on the size of their economy, which is the basis for every kind of power, whether economic or military. During the Cold War, Russia was the leader of an important political movement, which made it the second most powerful country on earth. Today, Russia is the leader of pretty much nothing at all. And if you consider Russia by itself it's not very big (except geographically), or very important in any sense. It's just you being ignorant when you see the size of Russia on a map or reminisce about the Cold War days. Secondly, it's certainly not important due to it's leadership, I'd rather say despite it. Saying otherwise is completely and utterly ridiculous. Putin has shown us time and time again that he is more keen on keeping hopeless dictators in place, or adding more unimportant places on the world map to Russia. He's like a newbie kid playing Europa Universalis, only interested in these banal issues and not in more important but more difficult questions such as developing the economy. Idiots reading the news will think that "Ooo, Putin stopped Obama's plans in Syria, that must mean Russia is very powerful". They don't take into consideration at all what would have happened if China, or Japan, or Germany, or even France, the UK or Brazil would have spazzed out instead of Russia. The big problem with Russia is that despite their current post-Cold War relative obscurity, they still retain their seat on the UNSC. So it's free for them to turn the UNSC into their own kindergarten which is kind of why countries such as Syria came under their wing in the first place. Now, the more political capital Putin expends on idiotic foreign policy adventures, the less stability and long term growth there will be for the Russian economy. Meanwhile, stupid commentators will continue to talk about how "powerful" he is. Just look at PNAC in the US. They had pretty much the same jingoist goals for the US as the current Russian leadership has for Russia. But they still ended up shooting themselves in the foot - because long-term power does not follow from bellicose politics, posturing and buffoonery. Buffoonery and jingoism gives the impression of power at the expense of building trust and stability, which is so much more important in economy and foreign politics. (As I said before, I believe Crimea should be independent or a part of Russia rather than the Ukraine, but I think that Putin's current politics of confrontation is deeply harmful to Russia) That's an excellent post Ros, very erudite

Hi Drowsie darling Where have you been? I meant to say hello earlier but I kept forgetting. Anyway good to see you back on the forums

While I share your dislike of FF X-2 (that game, for me, marks the moment where the Final Fantasy series fell off a cliff, quality wise), what exactly makes western RPGs any more "legitimate" than Japanese RPGs? I have never played a Japanese RPG before but I'm going to attempt to answer this one. JRPG have no Romance in them....that's what makes them a pseudo-RPG You apparently don't realize that Final Fantasy X (which X2 is a sequel to) is about Tidus and Yuna's relationship (and to a lesser degree, Wakka and Lulu's) and Final Fantasy X-2 involves Yuna after the events of FFX seperates her and Tidus (which happens shortly after Yuna proclaims her love for Tidus, IIRC). Or you're trying to be funny. Anyhow, I enjoyed X-2, so... I thought it was quite funny considering the topic and the reality

While I share your dislike of FF X-2 (that game, for me, marks the moment where the Final Fantasy series fell off a cliff, quality wise), what exactly makes western RPGs any more "legitimate" than Japanese RPGs? I have never played a Japanese RPG before but I'm going to attempt to answer this one. JRPG have no Romance in them....that's what makes them a pseudo-RPG

To be fair these weren't professional killers, just people who were prepared to kill someone for £1500. And yes you would find people prepared to do it in SA for that price, not many but some but they won't be very efficient or thoughtful about the job. As you can see from this murder

Yeah she was hot, very hot. But you have asked a good question..."why did he do it" ? So there are some theories, the one that makes the most sense is he needed a way out of the marriage but he also needed her considerable wealth. But of course this is speculation. We may never know the truth

Romance? Did someone mention Romance...excellent idea. Who is keen for another Romance thread and a discussion of the importance of Romance in RPG? Who is with me !!!!

No you right, the planning of the murder seems almost clichéd. If he is found guilty, and all the evidence indicates that, he will probably end up in a mental asylum for criminals. But you never know he may make a miraculous recovery around his mental state and end up in a normal prison. But either way incarceration in South Africa isn't a picnic.

The problem we face is the inconsistency with our legal system, in some cases the police and the judicial system are effective and in other cases the ball really gets dropped. We get criminals from international syndicates who choose to make there home in South Africa thinking they will get an easy ride. But that's not always the case. On another point, am I the only person who is tired of the Pistorius trial. I suppose I can understand the interest within South Africa but all the international news channels, except Al-Jazeera , seem to show large parts of the trial. I am surprised people consider this worthy international news ?

So this has been a really interesting story and development. I know most of you probably haven't even heard of Anni Dewani but if you like stories of crime and justice I would suggest you read the timeline link below to get familiar with the story so far http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-13226067 In summary in 2010 a UK honeymoon couple on holiday in South Africa became a victim of our terrible crime rate, well that's how it initially appeared. The Dewani couple were visiting a black township near Cape Town when the car they were using was hijacked. And the beautiful wife of the man was murdered while he was left alive in the car This obviously created bad publicity for South Africa for a number of reasons, one of them being the utterly cruel and callous nature of the crime. " Imagine your wife getting killed in front of you while you are on your honeymoon. What type of people would perpetuate such a deed" The husband, Shrien Dewani, returned to the UK distraught and upset and the South African police started investigating. Within a few weeks several suspects were arrested and an interesting aspect to the murder emerged. Evidence and testimony by the killers revealed that in fact they were hired by Shrien Dewani to kill his own wife and he wanted to make the murder of his wife to appear like it was another example of violent crime in South Africa South Africa immediately applied for extradition of Shrien to answer many questions. For the last 3 years he has been using every trick in the book to avoid extradition. He claims he is deeply depressed, the jails in South Africa aren't safe and he won't get a fair trail in South Africa But despite his best efforts he finally arrived in South Africa this week to face the charges against him http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2599621/Shrien-Dewani-arrives-court-South-Africa-extradited-private-jet-face-charges-new-bride-murdered-honeymoon.html For me this is real justice. He thought he could come to a country that had an ineffective justice system or an ineffectual police force and plan a reprehensible and egregious murder. He obviously has absolute disdain for the idea that "he somehow may have been caught by the ignorant South African authorities" But what bothers me the most is what type of person can live with himself after planning a honeymoon with his wife but then arranging her murder and letting her get killed in front of him. He then drove around with the killers and his dead wife for about 30 minutes until he was dropped off. The scales of justice may appear to move slowly, but in most cases they do eventually move

May have taken a certain amount of liberty with the end of the quote though. Anyone convinced Oby is a troll should stick him on ignore but most of all stop following him around giving him attention. If he is a troll you are giving him exactly what he wants, ie suppurating haemorrhoid class butthurt. Besides, this is taking attention away from the foreign sponsored non popular terrorism taking place in Ukraine that is trying to set aside a democratically elected government and will hopefully be suppressed peacefully by the riot police as occupying buildings and being violent is evil and should be suppressed with the perpetrators being prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Something something Russians are responsible for all that is evil in the universe but this isn't bigotry something something Euromaidan was completely different something something no I don't use my irony to put creaseys in my shirtys but maybe I should thanks for the suggestion. I detect the slightest whiff of sarcasm in your post Zora?

That's bigotry? Gee, you learn new things every day. Sorry Sarex but Tagaziel is correct, that's a very weak showing of you giving us examples of bigotry. You need to try harder if you want people to take accusations from you seriously

Wowzers, this is getting exciting and entertaining

Malc that's probably the sixteenth or seventeenth most offensive thing you have said to me. Its a pity you don't remember what I tell you. Remember I'm only trying to make you a more fulfilled and balanced person

I've mentioned this before but I find these monosyllabic responses from Volo unhelpful to the principle of debate. Lately he has been a bit more detailed but most of the time he doesn't care to explain his view and I can understand this annoying people

Yeah some comments also really make me laugh

Have I ever told you that your company sounds like a terrible place to work at ?

I had no idea what it means, I just thought it was some kind of occult symbol. What does it mean?

I've never asked her directly about her diet and the exact reasons she ended up in hospital, she has always alluded to certain health problems. But the issue of her health has always bothered me. Anyway thanks for the input. I will give serious thought to what I say and how I say it