~Di

Tough. You don't risk lives and the success of the mission to help someone's career portfolio. Way to ignore the revelant points in my post. What, Di, like this bit where you appear to suggest that the deaths of women is a new and interesting metric for pursuing a WAR IS EVAL agenda? Usually you are a overflowing spring of common-sense, but alas on this one I think not. Edit: I realise my post might appear harsh, I'm not trolling Di but that really is how I read it. It appeared rude and condescending, but this is a touchy subject for many and I like you personally so I'll give you a pass. I have consistently said that females should meet the same standards as males for any combat position they are assigned to. Right now, the law against women in combat is patently absurd because they are in combat alongside men right now, and have been for nearly a decade. If this no-combat law is repealed, then women who would like to apply for other combat positions and are qualified for those positions would be able to train for them. Do I think thousands of women would qualify for the strength and endurance required for infantry? No I do not. But some would, and they should be allowed. Some women could qualify for artillery, for tank warfare, for myriad positions which they are not allowed to hold because of the no-combat rule. Not once have I ever advocated lowering the standards for females; however, those females who can qualify alongside men, adhering to the same standards, should be given the same opportunities. Women fly fighter jets in wartime. They fly rescue choppers. They drive humvees through firefights, and they engage in firefights right this very minute. Combat effectiveness and unit cohesion not been eroded, according to the military commission that has studied this issue and concluded that the no-combat for females should be repealed. My comment about lines of coffins was directed at a poster who, IIRC, commented that Americans weren't ready to see lines of coffins filled with females returning home. If we can stand to see our sons die, then we can stand to see our daughters die. My preference, obviously, is that we get the hell out of both Iraq and Afghanistan so fewer of both die. I think that position displays perfect common sense.

Same thing it meant when folks warned that integrating blacks and gays into the military would compromise combat effectiveness. It means they don't want "those people who are not like us" integrated into the military.

Tough. You don't risk lives and the success of the mission to help someone's career portfolio. Way to ignore the revelant points in my post.

Indeed. Women are already on the front lines. They are involved in firefights, they are fighting and they are dying (273 females killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, many more wounded and maimed). The military simply insists that they are in non-combat positions while acknowledging that combat does come to them anyway. How disingenuous and insulting. It's okay for them to drive a humvee over an IED, or chopper troops into the heart of battle, or hunker down, surrounded, and fight the enemy close enough to see their faces... but it's not okay to admit that women are now and for the past decade have been in combat. Women are held back on how far they can advance because they are prevented from commanding combat troops, dispite the fact that they are qualified to do so... or would be, if allowed. The military commission has studied this at great lengths, and strongly recommends that the Pentagon repeal the ban on women serving in combat. As for the physical differences, not every woman is a 5'3 100-lb delicate flower. There are plenty of 5'8 160 lbs of muscle females out there. I say that if they can match men of their size in strength and endurance, they should be allowed infantry experience. There may not be many women who can compete on the infantry playing field, but if they can they should not be prevented from doing so because of their gender. I'm glad the military commission agrees with me. If the US can handle seeing lines of coffins of our dead sons, then it can damned well learn to handle lines of coffins of our dead daughters. They are all our children. They should be treated equally by our government and our military. Perhaps when enough have died, both the government and the military will decide that pre-emptive invasions and nation-building is not worth the blood of our children.

Actually, a military advisory commission is recommending that the policy banning women in combat units and submarines. About time, I say! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41083172/ns/us_news-life/

Ah. Thanks. I guess I should catch up more often, although I'll admit I'm not too keen on the direction Bio games are taking with all the DLC extras for sale that seem to me they should have been part of the game. DA:O without Shale would have been a real loss, since she was such an interesting character. I foresee a day when the game is released with *all* NPCs available as individual DLCs for $5-$10 bucks apiece.

Sorry to interrupt with what is probably old news, but I've just caught up and wondered if one can still pre-order and get the bonus NPC, or if the deadline has passed. Does anyone know? I really, really hate the Bioboards and would rather not go there if there's a choice.

This was a mentally-unstable guy, who was kicked out of college and refused re-entry until he had a clean psych report. His parents never got him the mental health care he needed. Evidence shows that he made the decision three years ago to kill Congresswoman Giffords. Nobody knows why because the shooter won't say a word. That damned Tucson sheriff needs to shut the eff up, quit flinging his personal political agenda out like kerosine on a campfire. His ass needs to be fired. There isn't a single iota of evidence that this sick sod had any political motive whatsoever, let alone a partisian one. Makes me nuts when people try to roll up their favorite scapegoats and wave 'em over their heads every time a damned crazy person does something crazy.

Has anyone heard from Hell Kitty lately? He mentioned on one thread that the floods were very near his house. Now the floods have become a huge emergency down there, and I haven't seen Hell Kitty post in quite a while. I'm worried. Edit: Never mind. I see that he posted something in Computer & Console yesterday. Phew!

no I thought Deep Roads were okay as well, and the reason is that unlike toooooooo many of DA:O's other dungeons where you were trapped like a rat until you made it through or died trying, you could actually leave the Deep Roads after every section, pop back to the city to sell and resupply and freshen up. So they weren't so overwhelmingly god-awful for me.

Yes. Just as we do for animals who are dying and in agony. We give them a painless death instead of throwing them off a freeway overpass. Only humans are expected to die gasping or screaming, in lieu of their other option, flinging themselves off a building so their skin splits apart, squirting internal organs that have been crushed into jello. I guess humans are just too evil to deserve a painless, dignified death. Edit: Sorry, Wals. My last off-topic post. I didn't mean to hijack your thread.

KLA was intentionally trying to provoke Serbs by committing terrorist acts against them, and they and other Muslim groups in the Balkans received support from both Al Qaeda and Iran. According to the Serbians the KLA were "trying to provoke Serbs"... but NATO found no evidence of this, nor has any legitimate evidence been brought forth to my knowledge to link the Albanians to Al Qaeda or Iran. NATO found huge amounts of evidence that Serbians were slaughtering Albanians, as evidenced by the corpses found in locked, burned out buildings and myriad mass graves.

Gawk! Good grief, WOD, just because Albanians are Muslim does not make them freaking Al Qaeda. I'll confess that the KLA were pretty damned harsh with captured Serbians, and not without reason, but I've yet to see an Albanian terror cell targeting western cities. Not every Muslim is a terrorist. I shouldn't even have to point this out.

Euthanasia is suicide. I would say it's pretty damn relevant to what you mentioned but whatever. It's a very different architecture, because it's an organised event. It's like comparing getting other people high with getting high yourself. The key distinction being that between an assault by another party and self harm. I cannot comprehend the hypocrisy of this post. How can you on the one hand champion an individual's right to choose what is best for them while on the other hand vilify those who would supply such an individual with the means or the information to enact that right? It's worse than simply not believing in individual freedoms at all - at least that is a consistent stance, albeit misguided. I agree about the inconsistency. It's difficult to understand one's desire to allow people to die with dignity in a manner of their own choosing, yet deny them access to those who could supply what they need to do so. Forcing dying people to blow their brains all over the wall, or hang themselves so their loved ones have to cut down their blue and bloated corpses is not allowing them to die with dignity. It's forcing them to commit a final, terrifying act that will traumatize their loved ones and leave their corpses maimed, split open, crushed or dismembered, shoveled into a closed coffin. It infuriates me that we alleviate the pain of dying animals with more compassion than we are willing to show their human counterparts.

Harsher than being brutally tortured and beheaded? Because that's what has happened to our captured male soldiers, and that seems pretty damned harsh to me.

It is indeed about time. I'm glad to see this, but seriously it should have been done two years ago via executive order, as Obama promised. Finally, we'll stop losing good soldiers because someone with a grudge outs him/her.

OMG, how could I have forgotten Anachronox?? I loved that quirky game, just loved it.

This. However, given how difficult it has been to legalize relatively harmless marijuana in "liberal, blue state" of California, I suspect the USA will end up being the last bastion of criminalized drug use on the planet... and still enriching delighted criminal cartels. It's much too sensible to empty out our prisons and court rooms, saving billions upon billions of dollars to ever get by the average cowaring, fear-mongered voter, let alone a government filled with ranting ideologues.

It's true, we cannot point to a single individual physically harmed by Wikileaks. However, our military does know that villages that had been cooperating with NATO were named last summer, and since then individuals from these villages, including elders, have been murdered. Since there were no notes attached to the bodies saying, "This is because we read Wikileaks, signed The Taliban", nobody can say they were physically harmed by the leaks. And of course the fact that our military has also confirmed that Afghanis are now terrified to talk to NATO soldiers, the vital information highway from the locals has dried up, while dozens of civilians who have provided information have flooded into NATO bases, begging for protection. But all in all, no harm done. Then there are the diplomats whose careers have been disrupted, possibly ended, because their ability to conduct confidential diplomacy has been irreparably compromised. But all in all, no harm done. Terrorists probably won't go after poorly-guarded pharmaceutical plants, communications systems and manufacturers of critical weapons components just because the USA finds them vital to its interests. Probably. But all in all, no harm done.

*sigh* ...6 posts, and it's hijacked right back to... America.

So darned sad. I was wondering why he didn't post any more. RIP. I enjoyed his posts.

This! Jagged Alliance 2 is probably my favorite game of all time. I think I have every fan mod available for it, and have played them all until their pixels are frayed. Also, Gothic 3 is really a great game, my fave of the Gothic series. It's the sandbox game that Elder Scrolls wishes it had been.

Hold on, let me get a violin for you. Wow. I'm sure chopping off the last line of my post was an inadvertent omission, since it would have made your sarcastic comment unnecessary and, well, silly. Let me fix that for you:

I wish I had an explanation why I've enjoyed playing it so much. I don't, I never do, not for ME(2), not for Deus Ex, not for Baldur's Gate 2. I just know what I like, and a bunch of internet know-it-alls won't change that for me. They might lessen my enjoyment for talking abou the games, but not for playing them. This. I loved ME1 and I loved ME2. I've played them multiple times, and will continue to play them. Then again, I play all the games I love to death... Deus Ex, Baldurs Gate 2, Jagged Alliance 2, even Gothic 3! I can't explain why I get immersed in these games and enjoy playing them. It shouldn't really matter. Different people like different things. But I also agree that coming to this forum and listening to people drone on about how horrible they are, how crappy they are, and imply that anyone who doesn't agree that said games are horrible and crappy must be some kind of mentally inferior jackwagon who wouldn't know decent writing and game design if it squatted on their foot and peed does tend to make me come here less often, and be less willing to post an opinion. Fortunately there are usually a few intellectually superior types who agree with me, and make it all worthwhile.