JadedWolf

You have my sympathy. It's not exactly high class football, is it?

But I think Hurlshot's point in the overall context of what Christians believe is also valid. For example if you google "Christians who believe the earth was created in 6 days" you will find links and websites of what I would consider are more fundamentalist views on this topic. But if you go to his church and ask the people who attend the church " do you think the earth is only 6000 years old and man lived alongside dinosaurs" I can guarantee you they will say no we don't believe that. But they still have a spiritual believe in the importance and relevance of Christianity, they just don't take everything in the bible literally. Most of the Christians I know also have this perspective For the record I am an agnostic but I also agree with what Hurlshot is saying Well, it depends what Christians you ask. What made me change my mind was reading about Young Earth Creationism and its popularity in the U.S. I'll admit that I didn't know much about that subject, since you don't come across it much where I live. Here such ideas certainly exist at the fringe, at the sort of communities where parents refuse to inoculate their children because everything is the will of God. Edit: for the record, I'm an atheist, if that has any bearing on anything.

Edit: actually Azdeus, I concede your point. After doing some research, there do seem to be more Christians who actually literally believe in that earth was created in six days than I thought. Shocking.

Technically though, there are still Christians out there who do take the "God created the earth in six days and rested the 7th" literally. They exist on the fringe, certainly, in the direction of the sort of Christianity where people hide their television because they don't want the neighbours to know they have one. But they still do exist.

The fact such a website even exists makes my brain want to crawl out of my ears and hide in some dark corner. Unless it's a parody. But it isn't a parody, is it? Actually, it is. (And does a damn fine job at it, IMHO.) Eh, well. I didn't get it. I am guessing I'm not their target audience. -Shrug- But good to know that at least it's not serious.

The fact such a website even exists makes my brain want to crawl out of my ears and hide in some dark corner. Unless it's a parody. But it isn't a parody, is it?

To follow up on that, let's make it mandatory for couples to have to go to a special office where they are put through a thorough verbal exam before they are allowed to even think of having children. The first question should be what they plan to do with the child when they inevitably split up. Another question could be: "You are in a supermarket, your child is crying for that candy they had their eye on, what do you do?" The answer to that question in particular should decide whether they would be allowed to have children or not. (In case you're wondering, I am only half joking).

NWN2 is definitely a contender in my book - especially the roleplaying servers. But honestly, I think a lot of the Obsidian games because of their focus on story are just as appealing to women as to men. Sadly, I couldn't get my girlfriend (who is an avid player of computer games) into the BG games. I did try but she felt the gameplay was boring and the character abilities for rogues (her favourite class in RPG games) were too limited. I don't think these boards are really representative of the Obsidian fanbase anyway. I know a lot of people who have played Obsidian games and who have never even so much as glanced at these boards.

Hamster beer. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/507/1572/ The best Dutch "witbier" - a light coloured rather sweet, fruity beer. If you ever manage to get your hands on it, I highly recommend it. Perfect for sitting outside on a pleasant summer afternoon.

You make it sound like such a sweet deal, but no thanks anyway.

I always picked parties based on which characters I thought welded together personality wise. For example in BG2 playing as a paladin, it makes sense to pick up Keldorn, Mazzy and even that douche Anomen.

Okay, in a new twist of things, the Nigerian president's wife has ordered the arrest of protest leaders calling for a return of the missing school children. She also claims that the abductions never happened, and that the protesters are in fact Boko Haram members themselves, who wish to give Nigeria a bad name. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/05/nigeria-first-lady-orders-arrest-of-protest-leaders_n_5265872.html

"Wives" is probably too pleasant a word. If the media are to be believed, and I have no reason not to, they are taken from school because Boko Haram is against educating women and then used as sex-slaves, because they interpret Islam in such a way that when they steal women they are allowed to use them for sex. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27216931

You can correct me if I am wrong, because I'll be the first to admit I know nothing of Nigeria, but it seems to me Nigeria is a divided country. The North has a Muslim population and apparently the secular government is so powerless here that they had to allow local authorities to institute the Sharia. How would the people here look upon any Western presence - would they applaud it, or would they feel the need to join up to fight the foreign invader? Can you be sure that your solution would solve the problem and not make it worse?

The problem with that is at least so far as I've been watching, everything goes exactly according to plan for Frank. He manages to manipulate everyone exactly the way he wants to, and any loose end is quickly and effortlessly dealt with. I don't find that all that interesting.

I stopped watching House of Cards because quite frankly I couldn't sympathise with any of the characters. I suppose you're not really supposed to sympathise with Frank, but when the most sympathetic figure in a series is a drunk who manages to massively shaft his constituents by getting them all unemployed, I sort of have to scratch my chin and wonder why I'm watching.

Let's not generalize to everyone, shall we? Probably the most effective thing we can do is train the Nigerians to respond to those kinds of problems themselves. I'm not sure a military intervention would work out so well, and is bound to be very controversial, which alone means Obama won't do it. Okay now, I don't know all that much about Nigeria, but what I've read doesn't exactly paint a nice picture of the Nigerian army. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-08/nigeria-army-abuses-may-undermine-fight-against-islamists.html If by training Nigerians, you mean the Nigerian soldiers would be taught not to vent their frustration on civilians, then yes, that'd probably be a good first step.

What would you like to see done, then? You talk about apathy, but for me the matter is that I haven't seen anyone come forward with a good gameplan of what exactly needs to be done here. It's a very complex matter, and it needs a bit more thought than "Hey, let's just send in the marines."

I have no idea what the Vampire Diaries is. Sounds dire. Do these vampires twinkle or sparkle? By the way, count me as one in favour of a Charlie's Adventures in Oz spinoff. Not that I would watch it, but if it meant Charlie would never appear in Supernatural again that'd be a massive win in my book.

Jadedmeister Yes Somali does have some oil reserves that are obviously not in production due to the violence that has been raging in the country the last 20 years. But you raise an interesting point. The initial background to Black Hawk Down was the humanitarian crisis, there is no doubt around that point. But lets say the Americans had stabilized the country and then the various energy corporations started investigating sources of potential oil. Lets say they did find oil and started building refineries. What is wrong with that? Someone has to make the huge capital investment to refine and produce oil and gas. Why cant it be Western countries, would you prefer Chinese companies that didn't contribute towards ensuring peace? These energy companies employ thousands of people and still pay tax to the home country but the reality is there will always be some large corporation behind the building of refineries. But for me the more important point is that Somalia would have had a working and growing economy as opposed the reality of the country now which is basically one of the worst failed states in the world where most of the people live in dire poverty. If some Western companies making a quick buck would be a nice byproduct of increasing the safety and the well-being of the people in Somalia, and if the people in Somalia would see an economic benefit of the exploitation of their natural resources as well, I don't think anyone would be against that.

Where in this thread do you see anyone saying that Boko Haram fanatics are "plucky revolutionaries"? I'm quite confused, I don't see anyone here cheering them on or even remotely defending them.

BruceVC, I always find it difficult to tell when there is an "intervention" whether or not lurking in the background are some economic benefits to be gained from it. For example, some people claim the intervention in Somalia was because of oil interests. Now, I don't really have enough information to judge, but I wouldn't be able to say confidently that these interventions you are talking about were all purely based on a desire for justice and the well-being of the people involved.