~Di

I must say that I thought Obama's first presidential act would be to eliminate that ridiculous "don't ask, don't tell" thing and allow gays to serve openly in the military. At least I'd hoped it would be his first act, and his campaign promises seemed to indicate as much. But no. To my chagrin, in Obama's drive to make everyone happy and have everyone like him personally, he has given in to the military hardliners, ignoring the problem altogether. I'm disappointed in him.

Damn. I nearly choked on my ice water when I heard about this. Y'all realize that Obama must have been on the "short list" a year ago, before he was even elected? I mean, good Lord. Look, I hope that history will show Obama's presidency as the most successful in recent memory. After he gets his sea legs and, you know, actually does something, that may very well be true. So far all he's done is jaunt around the world, give speeches and hit every tv program that will book him in what seems a lot like a continuation of his presidential campaign. I'd love to have Obama get the Nobel Peace Prize... but I'd sure like him to do something, anything, to earn it first.

Exactly. That's precisely what I said in my post #160. ...Which was ignored in order to nag on about the issue of illegals, apparently more fun to hassle folks over than the real problem: An inept, spend-thrift legislature.

There is no argument, it's a problem, period end of story if you don't think it is well good on you but it's a huge issue. Though hasn't it always been a problem? Or has it gotten worse? It's gotten much, much worse. Twenty times worse since Reagan declared amnesty to the then-1/2 million illegals in the USA. Now there are between 15-20 million illegals, and it hits the border states hard. The cost of required bilingual education has skyrocketed. Over 60 hospitals closed in California alone from 1993-2003, bankrupted by the enormous cost of providing services to illegals. It's estimated that more than 70-80% of hospital births in some border states are to illegals, and the cost is not reimbursed. Illegals have jobs in all areas of the economy, but because they are using stolen green card or social security numbers, they don't pay state or federal income taxes... and in fact make life a nightmare for the real owners of those stolen numbers, who are charged with taxes on income they never received. And half of the prisoners in our over-crowded prison system are illegals. The cost of housing them is enormous. Nobody wants to do anything about it because they're afraid of losing the Hispanic vote. Thing is, there are a hell of a lot of legal immigrants who resent those who didn't wait their turn. The legal immigrants are suffering the backlash for problems caused by the illegals. Yeah. It's a big problem. Big. Problem. Do you have any idea where I could get the prison numbers? The best I found was this document from this page. The page seems to have a bit of a left slant during my brief look this evening, though the document itself has been referenced on a couple of sites now. Unfortunately it doesn't do an analysis of illegal immigrants. http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/200...27/114208.shtml "Justice Dept. Figures on Incarcerated Illegals"......"As Investors Business Daily reported in March 2005: "The U.S. Justice Department estimated that 270,000 illegal immigrants served jail time nationally in 2003. Of those, 108,000 were in California. Some estimates show illegals now make up half of California's prison population" Nobody knows the exact number because schools, hospitals, welfare departments, even law enforcement are not allowed to ask about legal status. However, the 12 million figure is a lowball estimate used by one political faction, and 20 million is the highball estimate used by the other political faction. These numbers have been used for years, and everyone agrees that between 1 and 2 million illegals enter the USA every year. Therefore, I think my 15-20 million estimate is probably pretty danged accurate, since between 3 and 6 million have illegally entered since January 2006, which your Wiki source quotes. According to the article, foreignborn counts both citizen and noncitizen, and they define "noncitizen" as "A foreign-born person who is not a naturalized U.S. citizen. Noncitizens may be in the country legally on a permanent or temporary visa (tourist, business, or student) or may be in the country illegally." "Foreign born" has nothing to do with the discussion of illegals. There are millions of "foreign born" non-citizens in this country who have permission to live and work here. Harping on the exact number of illegals in the country does nothing to address the very real facts that the sheer volume has caused massive problems in all facets of our economy and our society. You seem focused on challenging numbers, and are ignoring the problems. That's something that has always annoyed me, that people who do not live here repeated tell those of us who do that there is no problem. Really pretty danged arrogant, actually.

I'm all for his personal freedoms and right to dress the way he wishes... except when he's in school. Many if not most schools have dress codes (which have been upheld in court). Can't have gang members sporting their colors on the quad. Can't have obscene teeshirts wandering the halls. Can't have girls wearing skirts so short their crotch shows. So yes, schools have a right to dictate what apparel is off-limits on their campuses. Personally, if I was in charge of that school, I'd allow it so long as it otherwise conformed with the dress codes... for both sexes.

Illegals are indeed an immense drain on California's economy, but the bigger drain are California's public service unions. California's state employees are the highest paid in the nation. Our prison guards are also the highest paid in the nation. And since they're all unionized, California is stuck with contracts that prohibit the kind of cuts we need to balance our budget. Add to that a completely whacked out, spend-spend-spend ultra-liberal legislature that lavishes itself with dozens of highly-paid staffers, junkets around the globe at state expense, and new automobiles for all every danged year... THAT is why California is struggling and nearly bankrupt. There is enough money to give Californians what they need; there just isn't enough to give the unions and spend-thrift legislators what they want for themselves as well. Not any more.

Seriously, that's a myth. About 20 years ago a legal Mexican immigrant named Ceasar Chavaz organized the farm workers, unionized them and finally achieved his goal of decent wages and working conditions. Chavaz was death on illegals, because he knew they would be exploited, work for less and be too intimidated to complain, so he made sure that all members of the farm workers union had legitimate green cards. For decades, these legal immigrants took care of all our agricultural needs. Then illegals began entering at higher and higher volumes. Soon what Chavaz feared had happened. Illegals took the labor from his legal union pickers, exploitation and poor working conditions exploded, the union workers found less and less work (I think it eventually disappeared entirely), and the big ag corps are again saying that without illegal labor, their industry will fail. No, it won't. They'll just have to treat legal green card workers fairly again, and they don't want to do it.

There is no argument, it's a problem, period end of story if you don't think it is well good on you but it's a huge issue. Though hasn't it always been a problem? Or has it gotten worse? It's gotten much, much worse. Twenty times worse since Reagan declared amnesty to the then-1/2 million illegals in the USA. Now there are between 15-20 million illegals, and it hits the border states hard. The cost of required bilingual education has skyrocketed. Over 60 hospitals closed in California alone from 1993-2003, bankrupted by the enormous cost of providing services to illegals. It's estimated that more than 70-80% of hospital births in some border states are to illegals, and the cost is not reimbursed. Illegals have jobs in all areas of the economy, but because they are using stolen green card or social security numbers, they don't pay state or federal income taxes... and in fact make life a nightmare for the real owners of those stolen numbers, who are charged with taxes on income they never received. And half of the prisoners in our over-crowded prison system are illegals. The cost of housing them is enormous. Nobody wants to do anything about it because they're afraid of losing the Hispanic vote. Thing is, there are a hell of a lot of legal immigrants who resent those who didn't wait their turn. The legal immigrants are suffering the backlash for problems caused by the illegals. Yeah. It's a big problem. Big. Problem.

Aww, I think they're adorable.

I'll try one last time to get through to you, although nobody else has been able to so I don't have high hopes. Please read carefully: He was indicted by a Grand Jury, which found sufficient evidence to charge him with several felonies. He didn't have a trial because... this is the part that counts... he plead guilty. Guilty!! He said to a judge, "Yes, I did it. I am guilty." He then had to allocute to the crime in front of the judge, which means he had to tell the judge every single thing he did to that child, including the facts that he drugged her and she did not consent to the intercourse. Please, for the love of all that is holy, stop going on about "no evidence", and she might be lying, etc. She was not lying because Polanski said in front of the judge that she was not lying, that he had indeed done everything she said that he had. Lordy.

Using gender-based insults among the same gender seems pretty redundant. I guess people just went for the low-hanging fruit there, like calling people with glasses four-eyes and so on. Indeed, which may be why there aren't too many females who post on game boards compared to the number of females who are actually gamers. Our opinions are frequently dismissed as "what do girls know"? Early in AP's development, I was watching the AP board even though the idea of playing a male spy ala Jason Bourne/James Bond didn't totally appeal to me (I've played as male characters frequently; had to if I wanted to play at all! I do prefer playing as a female because I feel the PC is an extension of me. When I play as a male, I feel like I'm just sitting on his should watching him do his thing. ) Anyway, I read one of the developer's interviews in which he bragged that Michael Thornton would be able to have sex with every female in the game... as if that was a terrific selling point. Well, that annoyed me and I posted on the AP forum why it annoyed me. Good God. You'd have thought I killed the puppies of nearly every male on the forum. They attacked me mercilessly. I crossed AP off my "maybe" list, and never went back to the forum again... until tonight, when I followed you link and saw that little had changed over there. Too many male gamers look down on female gamers, I think. It comes across in forums like this. Fortunately, there are a lot of good guys out there as well. They just get drowned out by the jerks.

Woman makes legitimate complaint. Woman is called a brain-dead b*tch. Maria decides not to read page 2. It's just as well. I kept reading until I was ready to skewer the first male that wandered into my line of sight... which would have been my husband, so I decided it would be better to close the thread and pour a drink. It's odd that males can argue amongst themselves about what they do and do not like in games, but never seem to resort to gender-based insults of each other. If a woman enters the equasion, you can pretty much bet that some ya-hoo is going to pull out an insulting gender joke. Go figure. That said, Purkake and others did not stoop to that level, and did call out others who did.

Disturbing stuff. Even more disturbing is she admitted she had sex twice before being raped by Polanski. That's three times she's been raped. Whether consensual or not, it's still rape. What happened to the other person(s) that had sex with her. Why the outcry over Polanski and not the one(s) before Polanski? Could you give a source for your allegation? For example, the page of the trial transcript in which the admission was made? from linked transcript: page 13, line 28. Thank you. God, what a terrible thing for that family to see those details splashed all over the net. I feel so sorry for them. Pages upon pages of rape, where she said no and he did it anyway, and some people look at those couple of lines that indicate she'd had sex before, and ignore everything else.

mom were foolish. 'course if setting were dirt water missouri and we were talking 'bout private math lessons or private piano lessons, most parents probable wouldn't be over concerned. hollywood "photographer" wants to take photos o' your 13 year old girl? yeah, some warning bell shoulda' gone off in mom's head. woulda' been another reason why victim's family didn't want trial at the time... mom/daughter/family woulda' been raked over coals til you weren't certain who were on trial no more. before rape shield, the victim's prior sexual experience were fair game. girl and family woulda' been violated in court and in press over and over again. HA! Good Fun! Absolutely why they didn't want a trial back then, and why the plea bargain was struck. It's also probably why they want the matter dropped now. Every facet of salaciousness about what was done to her is now dredged up in the media and internet. The victims' children are probably reading about it, along with allegations of whether their young teen mom had been sexually promiscuous, perhaps even a prostitute, whether she had seduced the guy, had "asked for it", etc. And folks like me wondering what in hell their grandparents were thinking to have allowed a situation where this could have occurred. Then of course, there's the matter of the cushy settlement the family got from Polanski way back when... a new trial would make the entire bunch look like they pimped their daughter for the cash. No wonder the victim wants this to go away. No matter which way it ends up, her family would be publicly trashed. It's already happening.

Disturbing stuff. Even more disturbing is she admitted she had sex twice before being raped by Polanski. That's three times she's been raped. Whether consensual or not, it's still rape. What happened to the other person(s) that had sex with her. Why the outcry over Polanski and not the one(s) before Polanski? Could you give a source for your allegation? For example, the page of the trial transcript in which the admission was made?

Pop: It wasn't "date rape." They weren't on a date. Polanski told the girl and her mother that he wanted to do a private photo shoot of her. Yes, I have huge issues with the mother giving her approval for her 13 year old daughter to have a private photo shoot with a 44 year old man... but the fact remains that it was never a "date".

Sad but predictable that so many comments are about the victim... whether she had sex before, whether she was actually a prostitute, whether she basically "asked for it." She was a 13 year old girl, whose mother inexplicably gave permission for a private photo shoot with a 44 year old man. Polanski gave her liquor and Quaaluds, told her to go into the hot tub and insisted she remove her clothing. She was scared, and protested, but eventually did as she was told. When he got into the tub with her, he was nude. She told him she had asthma, and ran into the bathroom. She told him she had to go home. He told her to lie down on his bed. Instead she ran to the couch, because she was afraid. He began to perform oral sex with her. She cried and told him no. He ignored her protests, although she told him no over and over again. He then raped her and sodomized her, and told her not to tell her mother. She was not a whore. She did not give consent. She was a scared little girl who thought she was going to have pictures taken of her by a 44 year old film director. And... she... was... raped. So now we go through a huge process of deciding whether it should really be against the law to rape 13 year olds, and whether or not she really liked it because now, 30 years later, she just wants this case to be over so she can finally lead a quiet private life. This guy escaped his sentence (a sweetheart plea bargain deal, by the way), then took off to Europe to avoid sentencing, and has lived happily protected by his European buddies for decades. Hell, yes, it's time for him to take the punishment he's earned... and a bit more for violating the plea agreement and flight to avoid prosecution. I don't care what the stupid, big mouth celebrities like Whoopi say.

Believe it or not, I agree with you. I really hate the dumb robes, especially for male wizards. They look so danged dorky. If one is traversing the world, one should dress accordingly!

Exactly what level of misogyny do you find entertaining... hmmm?

The only good thing about Unfinished Business is that it was used as the base for the best JA2 community mods!

And therein lies the rub. All the cutscenes and 'choices' and influence points with NPCs resulted in... the same outcomes. Which is what Bioware does. How about... "I chose not to seek help, and despite fighting valiantly we were forced to retreat from the monstrous horde. From our vantage point we had to watch the villagers slaughtered, their houses burnt, their crops despoilt. We could not return again to seek aid or succour or +5 magical swords from the blacksmith or indulge in puerile dialogue asking a barmaid for a kiss." Why, Bio? WHY? P.S. Re. the interview... I've always liked Dave G. A lot. But if he gets any smugger he'll actually warp the space / time continuum. Mate, your making a video game, not capturing the Higgs Boson. Cheers MC If you read the article, you saw that if you didn't help the town it would indeed be crushed... which would probably eliminate your chance of getting help there later. So yes, it's a consequence and depending on what you might need in that town later, it could be a big consequence. Also, I'd say that having to fight and kill your own comrades because they disagreed with your action is a rather significant consequence. Will you inevitably have to follow the same plot to the same conclusion? Well, duh. But what resources you will have available to you in getting to that conclusion will obviously be drastically affected by the choices you make. Not terribly different that the BG series, actually. You always end up at the same place fighting the same villain, but who you have to help you and what you have available depended upon the choices you made throughout the game. In reading your posts, it seems to me that Bio is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't, because you are determined to complain about every single detail you learn about the game even before you've played the thing.

You can fast travel. Once you reach a town/destination, you'll get the message that you have found XXX. From then on, you can click on the map to travel there. Be sure you talk to everyone so you get as many quests as possible. Also, turn on your radio and listen to 3-Dog. He hints at quests that are available. If you find 3-Dog early on and take care of his quests, it ups the station's frequency so you can hear it all over the wasteland.

Obviously since JA2 is my favorite game of all time, I play some version of it at least once/twice a year. But I just had to agree that Anachronox is simply awesome! I still drag it out to play, and it's still a blast. I was so bummed to learn that the planned sequel was squashed. Deus Ex is another game I simply must play every few months. Love it!

Yes, but an oil change and annual maintenance inspection does not cost nearly $5,000. That's the bill my husband racked up for an ultrasound, MRI and a couple of stress tests when he clocked an "abnormal" EKG before a minor surgical procedure earlier this year. Humans cost more than cars to maintain. Much, much more.