Colrom

Heh! The Germans and Austrians and such are having a hard time changing their culture after all these years. Meanwhile we Americans are eagerly moving towards where they are pretending to be trying to get away from. Peace.

Although I don't particularly advocate free drugs - I think they should buy them at the real uncriminalized market price - approximately the price of dirt - more or less - I find it amazing that people who will eagerly support providing corporations with royalty free oil and wood and coal and almost everything else of value- and special tax breaks - which are amazing considering that corporations, unlike the rest of us, only pay what taxes they do pay on profits - after capital investments and such - and forgiveness on taxes on overseas harboring of revenues - and also will support wars and such costing billions primarily to enable future corporate profits - would choke on paying to give some addict a fix. But - like I said Go ahead Be tough Make em pay for it! How much for an aspirin?

Its because people who play D&D have a "weak personality"! The IDF needs people who have a strong personality! Weak vs Strong. It's as easy as that. Clearly a well thought out and researched policy. :crazy:

It is a loser to view the world in terms of "us" versus "them" units engaged in zero sum games. Again - arn't we talking mostly about making it possible for registered addicts to get a prescription to BUY addictive drugs? Even if we want to give away drugs to registered addicts the cost would not be much compared to other things we do. Di has a good point about the cost to society of incarcerating so many people as well as the cost to the people of our current policies.

"The Proud Tower" by Barbara Tuchman - a history book about the western society in the years leading up to WW I. She also wrote "The Guns of August" about the start of WW I and the German execution of von Schlieffen's plan up till the beginning of the French counter attack known as the "Miracle of the Marne". A great writer.

I didn't know we were talking about giving drugs out for free. That would be a social health care program. Gosh. I thought we were talking about legalizing drug use and making it available by prescription for registered addicts. If it is legalized it is just like other chemical use which is legal now. Comparisons and analogies to murder or violent crime or theft are bogus. :crazy:

I am a little confused because I thought that adreneline was already quite good at obliterating memories - of pain anyway. It would be good to see some popular and some technical journal articles. There has also been progress recently in identifying chemicals that help to build trust - chemicals which are apparantly produced in association with sexual arrousal - but also in other circumstances. Tests have shown they are easily administered as an inhaled spray and work well.

I heard some about that. We can make people forget what has happened to them - more or less. I don't think we are getting the whole story. Mind altering drugs are quite a research topic these days. Hmmmm. I don't know how we can evaluate whether a person is competent to make a decision to have such a drug used on them. I don't know how I would decide - and whether that decision might be good or bad. Strange.

Some thoughts: Whenever someone makes an argument about the correctness of an action or strategy based on some evaluation of the merit of likely outcomes they are applying utility theory over the top of some outcome value scheme (good outcomes vs. bad outcomes). Utility theory always has the potential to produce attrocities. A typical example would be justifying killing a healthy person in order to harvest their organs to save the lives of five unhealthy people. In order to avoid such nonsense most moral systems have a list of actions and strategies which are forbidden under almost all circumstances - except for immediate self defense (there is a utility theory consideration again) and then some proportionality is required. But paranoids can kill with impunity under that system too. And harvesting organs may even be rationalized by a really clever person. A few moral systems have a list of actions which are forbidden period. They get accused of being suicidally passive. The Amish might be an example. In the case of the orcs - it is important for some people that they are described as certainly being of no immediate threat and likely being of no long range threat - since this eliminates the typical exceptions which folks take as allowing killing them. All risk is eliminated. So then they find out whether your character thinks killing is generally OK. The issue of law doesn't arrise does it? It is just a good vs evil thing. I think if you kill them you should go evil based on those considerations.

I more had the impression that they could lead productive lives in the fact that they'd no longer have to be ostracized from society, and able to actually find a place into society. I don't think it necessarily means that being an addict is okay and that there is no reason to change. It just means that if you're an addict, we aren't going to shun you from society and make you resort to criminal acts to feed your addiction. It can also provide avenues for helping addicts. Being cut off and vilified in society can help to make the problems worse. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think that's right. Good summary. A person can be completely against drug use and see it as a problem behavior without wanting drug use to be a crime. Personally I find it tragic that so many people are harmed by cheap messed up drugs. Recently some dealers here have been substituting fentenyl for heroin - a big increase in potency and risk - and addicts were ODing and dying like crazy because of it until the word got out. Some poor teen around here got a PCP laced joint and got so hyped up he ran through some families plate glass window and cut himself to shreads and bled to death in their living room Thenthere is the famous story of the sloppy chemist who overcooked the heroin and produced an impurity called MPTP which is metabolized to produce MPP and other chemicals which damage the nervous system and produce Parkinsons like symptoms and in some famous cases, paralysis (see the movie Awakenings). Legalization would greatly reduce the incidence of these types of horror stories - not to mention the stories about people who get smacked on the side of the head and then killed and robbed by some passer by who is a crazed addict.

I'd personally prefer it if you didn't start tossing out racist accusations to people that disagree with you (including the ones that were actually part of that race) while you were on that high horse. Same goes with stereotyping people into "mobs" (again, your words) because they disagree with you. Enjoy your "high horse," as I wouldn't want anything to do with it. I prefer to associate myself with people that aren't gigantic hypocrites, and that also think they know better about a person than that person themselves. In case it isn't to painfully clear, I'm talking about you when I say this. This will undoubtedly be reported as a flame, and probably even be deleted. But if you think the right place to be is in a position where you feel so enlightened that you are more capable of making interpretations and decisions for an entire race of people that you don't belong to, then I pity you. When you then accuse other people of using similar arguments and getting all up in a huff about it, going on the defensive, then I just loathe you. Perhaps you could say that I am disgusted (to again use your words). It's a farce because Colrom, yet again, feels that someone else's opinion and interpretation of reality are wrong. These views do not coincide with his, and make an extrapolation that his (in)actions could be seen as support for something that is wrong (the supporting of insurgents that is). Since these views do not coincide with how he sees the world, this thread is naturally a farce. To save metadigital the link, you could probably make a stretch to this. Enjoy this post while you can <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You are putting words in my mouth. We can resurrect the thread about the veils and the crosses if you would like. I think you are misrepresenting my comments. I have never claimed to read your mind and probably never will. But I will characterize actions and talk about what "some folks" think or do - or claim to think to think or do. You might have included yourself in some group like that. I don't know. By the way, I don't understand how it matters if I am a Muslim or Arab - except perhaps in regard to having direct experience? Do I need to be an eagle to have views on how eagles should be treated, or a mushroom to have views on how mushrooms should be treated? I don't know why you would suggest I am a hypocrite. I try to stick close to Christian values. I walk the walk as best I can. But - as you know - I do have a problem with personal pride and being overly judgemental. But this thread is about a different topic - mostly - I think. My "farce" comment relates to the highlighted phrase "DIRECTLY supports the insurgents" which moves this thread closer to an veiled ( ) suggestion that those who speak against the war may be subject to investigation and legal consequence steming from the current homeland security laws in the US. That's why I talked about "threatening".

Yes - all those things are true. I will stay on my "high horse" because I think it is the right place to be. The terms of reference of this thread - good guys, bad guys, friends, enemies, patriotism, treason, authority, insurgent, are all chosen by Lord Walsy according to his views. I am disgusted by that group who drape themselves in the flag and wrap themselves in the valor of our soldiers to proclaim the rightousness of a path of war that they support - and they find dead soldiers the best for this purpose - and then when they are finished using the soldiers or when the live soldiers decide that they are finished being used these flag draped self proclaimed patriots throw their regard for the soldiers to the ground and wipe their feet on them or even Swift Boat them. I remember some soldiers who opposed a war that I supported - but when they were killed in that war some of those who supported the war decided that their dead soldier friends and children would be said to have supported the war because that was a more convenient memory for them - and they knew that was a lie. The soldiers will have to take heart that we care enough about policiy to debate it. In the end when wars end those who remain alive will all be happy to be alive if nothing else. We cannot continue wars forever just to satisfy some peoples pride.

Don't threaten people, Walsingham, with your rediculous bogus judgements and accusations of direct support for insurgents. :crazy: This thread is a farce. :angry:

I would like to see our troops in Iraq leave. We have caused alot of harm there and have the responsibility for that. But we have no proper authority to do anything there other than leave and on our way out say "We are so sorry we destroyed your country and killed your people and we will be leaving now and please accept this gift of 600 billion dollars as inadaquate compensation for the harm we have done." We can also put the right people here in jail where they belong. I would like to see our troops in Afganistan working under Nato given whatever it takes to hunt down that bastard Osama so we can put him in jail too. Those things would honor our troops. But as it stands now what folks mostly mean by supporting our troops is making sure that they don't come home and that we go on living the good life in teh meantime.

I think it is a good idea to make a variety of drugs available by perscription for registered addicts. Here are some considerations: * Many addicts can function reasonably well - in some cases extremely well - in society if they have a legal way to obtain their drug. * Addicts are much less likely to be killed by drugs if they get them legally as a well defined and regulated product which includes use directions. * Most drugs that addicts use would be dirt cheap to make and purchase if they were legalized. * Addicts with access to legal inexpensive drugs would be less likely to commit crimes to acquire funds to purchase drugs. * Addicts are more likely to be accessable for treatment outside of jail if they are registered and not involved in criminal activity. * The availablility of inexpensive legal drugs will significantly reduce the value and profit potential of illegal drugs. * The financial motivations for organized drug trafficing would be significantly reduced. * The violence associated with organized drug trafficing would be greatly reduced. * Unfortunately the benefits of the income available to poor folks from organized drug trafficing would also be reduced. I'm sure there is more.

Let me help him out here. As I approach the end of the game the conversations with my party members are just the same as they were at the start. Some party members still refuse to tell me things that I learned from other sources a long time ago in their presence. Any number of people are in two places at once. Sand regularly speaks when not present. Some quests are broken. You can go back to the old world by passing through the goblin caves. The game has suddenly become crazy difficult and I have had to switch to easy difficulty level to do anything. So - while Josh's achievment is impressive - they/he should have done more - and still should do more :angry: - to finish the game properly .

I don't have much use for racial slurs, when they are used as racial slurs, even when the speaker is describing themself. This guy was over the top.

Are you talking about the quickspell list you get by hitting F? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah. I guess it is OK. Still having fun in Chapter 1. I find the plot and characters very engaging. Some more minor bugs: * In the orc caves there are two ore deposits that, when selected, display an identifier like "XYZ-01" - some incomprehensible gibberish. In another cave the ore deposit dispays a sensible label like "ore deposit". * * The open door to Sand's shop shows the enter symbol when selected but the doorway does not. I have to select the door to go inside. I find it irritating that enemies will sometimes just materialize out of nothing in a room that I have just cleared. I wouldn't mind if I went back after some time and found enemies had repopulated a room but it doesn't make sense when they just form out of thin air. I have enough trouble protecting my sorcerer!

Lots of little bugs with the interface and graphics. Here's some: * the number of items, like healing potions, accessed by a quickslot frequently reads "0" and then later shows the correct number. * once I had a duplicate dagger show up in someone's inventory - I sold one of them. Later the duplicate disappeared. * a sideways barrel in the first orc caves has no graphics - just a black outline * the floor traps in the first orc caves don't trigger * there are some levitating stones near hanging over the cliff on the path out of Fort Locke. I haven't figured out how - if at all - the quickcast spell display shows whether a spell can still be used or not or how many castings remain. Doesn't seem to. Having fun with the game, but these things break the immersion.

I would be happier if more voting districts were convex polygons. My voting district looks like a C. It was designed to elect a Republican while sucking up as many Democratic votes as possible consistent with that. A regular convex polygon centered on my house would be 95% Republican.

New Jersey has taken to voting for bond props and constitutional amendments for all sorts of stuff. This year is the first without bond props. We still had three constitutional amendments. BTW, when the interest rate went down they refinanced the bonds to provide more money not lower payments. Nuts. Anyway, yipppee for my Dems! :joy:

Well, it is a great game so far , but saying that doesn't help the devs fix bugs and otherwise make it better. On the other hand criticisms might hurt sales. Stuck for choice. Maybe just say, "I'm having loads of fun, but it would be even more fun if ....."

I was upset by the amateurish handling of the buy and sell windows especially. Buy one potion and the selected item moves to the next item up or down one whether or not another potion of the same type immediately becomes available. So, to buy multiple potions you need to select and buy and select and buy and select and buy over and over one at a time. There are problems with the scrolling of the small windows too.

I liked Hades. Sand pisses me off. :D