Hurlshort

I do get that it would be nice to see more of a pushback from a united Muslim community against terrorism. But the problem is there is no unity within Islam, it is tremendously fractured. Christianity suffers from splintering as well, but it is easy to point at a few central leaders that hold the reigns of power, and they all tend to be conservative rather than radical.

I would make artichokes every night if they weren't so expensive.

After a little wine tasting at an absolutely beautiful winery just a mile away from our house, we are now eating some salami, cheese, and crackers with a glass of red. I have artichokes cooking on the stove as well.

I heard of a few moderate Muslim organizations condemning the attackers. Here is a list of 45 of them. CAIR is at the top of them, even though WoD says they are a front for terrorism. 1. CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations 2. Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA Spokesperson Qasim 3. Muslim Council of Britain 4. French Muslim Council (CFCM) 5. Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF): 6. Arab League [a regional organization representing 22 Arab countries, all of which have a majority Muslim population] Uh, you get the idea. I tried to link to this article, but it isn't working. http://www.alternet.org/media/45-examples-muslim-outrage-about-charlie-hebdo-attack-fox-news-missed

When I read this thread title, I keep seeing it as "Dead Cat Island"

While I'm not going to say what I think, you'd have better said: 'Please tell me you think it's JFK. I fully believe what my government and the mainstream media told me in regards to all of the mentioned incidents and I've not looked into any of them much because to do so would possibly challenge those beliefs. There might be something to the idea they lied about what happened with J.F.K though, but I've not looked into it yet.'

My daughter just told me about the history of war between the werewolves and vampires. Thanks Monster High!

I don't mean to sound... well, mean, but have you perchance crossreferenced with any other scales? I mean, you look massive in all your photos. Are your bones hollow? Or is it that you have your own gravitational field that is somehow interfering with the scales? ^^ Then again, I'm 193 and your weight.. No meanness detected. I don't know what photos you're speaking of but I'm not a massive lumbering mountain of muscle. To clear things up, the inevitable picture. I have no cross references but my weight height ratio actually puts me on the border of the severely obese category, according to the BMI. Those BMI charts are pretty bogus for anyone with decent muscle mass. Trying to figure out your body fat would be more accurate. You look like you are in the 10% range. Most gyms can run the test with a decent amount of accuracy. I haven't done it since I was in my 20's.

Val, you seem to be accusing me of generalizing all conspiracy theories, which is not my intention. I am simply saying that your habit of generalizing most people as brainwashed undercuts your otherwise well stated arguments. Now conspiracy theories by their nature are the less than likely scenario. In the classroom, I do a tremendous amount of cause and effect scenarios and I love to let my students come up with whatever possibilities they can. I leave my personal opinions out of it. As a history teacher, I actually see my personal beliefs as dangerous, for many of the reasons you have stated on here. So this is a good place for me to be opinionated, it gives me an outlet away from the classroom. So I am going to look skeptically at most conspiracy theories. If you would stop calling me brainwashed because of that I would appreciate it.

Welcome to the forums!

I think it's best. If your hobby, and that's all gaming really is, is frustrating you, then find a better use of your free time. You will be happier and open up new realms of possibility.

This might just be my inner middle schooler who fell in love with Shadowrun 25 years ago speaking, but go back to the valley, poser!

The sheep is not a label for anyone who doesn't believe in the story, it's a label for people who use "Conspiracy Theorist" as an offensive term as soon as their preconceived notions are offended. An overused but still valid example is that people believed not too long ago that the stories claiming that the government listens in on everyone were conspiracy theories. They making the same claims as people in this thread are making now, it can't be done, it's to much information, too many people would know, etc... That's a bit misleading. No one I know doubted that the government was capable of listening in on people. The idea that they were listening in on EVERYONE made little sense. And honestly it still does, it seems like a terribly inefficient way to gather data. Clearly too many people did know, as well, because we had a contractor coming out and telling everyone about it. Leaks happen.

We should have a conspiracy theorist scoring system. Each conspiracy is rated and then you check off which ones you believe, and then you get a rating. Moon landing, JFK, 9/11, and now Charlie Hebdo.

Staging this would be a massive undertaking that would require a fairly sizeable amount of conspirators. This is the biggest problem with conspiracy theories, the more people involved, the less likely it is because most people are terrible at keeping secrets.

I keep seeing Lords of Xulima on these lists, but I can't get past the character creation. It is the party of 5 that throws me off. I have a ton of great ideas for parties of 4, but coming up with a 5th character always messes it up. The only group of 5 I can think of is the Fox show Party of 5, and I don't want to make my group after that.

I was actually very happy with the way LOST wrapped up, so even if they were just stumbling blindly toward the end, I'm happy with where it took them. I don't think you can go back though. It is done. Maybe a spin off, but the story is complete.

Claiming that everyone that doesn't buy into conspiracy theories is brainwashed really undercuts your otherwise interesting assertions and opinions.

I'll have to make my way down to the PBR, we usually do some shopping in the Miracle Mile Mall. Sin City Brewery has a few locations around the strip, I actually had a number of drinks there while my wife shopped last summer. By the end I was agreeing to pretty much anything she wanted to buy. I even bought her a major cleavage shirt from Sin City that basically is only wearable in Vegas or behind closed doors. Sin City Brewery actually brews all their beers at Gordon Beirsch, so they are pretty good. edit: $45 is nothing for dinners in Vegas, we are eating at Nobu one night and I expect it to be close to $300.

I assume you mean a week, a month in Vegas would be insane. I'm super pumped about my upcoming Vegas trip in February. Did you do Beer Pong at that new place in the Linq? We are staying at Caesar's and going to a couple very nice restaurants. I'm also too old for night clubs.

Get a desktop, you filthy casual. What specs ? Here it is: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-gt70-dominator-895-17-3-laptop-intel-core-i7-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-aluminum-black/5142092.p?id=1219111591490&skuId=5142092 My house is like a battleground. I prefer a mobile operations center to a stationary base. That way I can hide in a closet with my laptop when the stuff hits the fan.

I doubt Mike Shanahan was going to take the Raiders job.

I got my new laptop, it's shiny! Haven't tried any games on it yet. I also ran 3 miles on my lunch break, to make Woldan jealous, it was 70 degrees out. That's warm for you celsius folks.

Arcanum was awesome.

You obviously haven been around many SJWs. It's not like I just found the internet yesterday. If that is true, then these mythical creatures must not be all that pervasive, and probably don't warrant their own acronym and classification, or a thread devoted to belittling them.