Gorth

So, if they blow people up we like, they are terrorists, if they blow people up we don't like, they are freedom fighters? (thats a generic "we" not necessarily expressing my own likes and dislikes. Substitute "like" with "allied with" whatever) No, blowing up subways is pretty much an act of terror, period. I'm just trying to figure out if she really has been indoctrinated to believe that Russia's treatment of Chechens really has no bearing on the fact that Chechens have repeatedly attacked Russian targets, and if she really believes that other countries are the reasons the Chechens are attacking them. At least American kids learn that the reason our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are being attacked is because we invaded their countries and basically attacked them first. Russian kids don't seem to have that cause/effect connection, if our poster is an average Russian kid. Not sure why you felt your comment was an appropriate response to mine... but I'm pretty sure it wasn't meant to be complimentary. Your post did sound rather "judgemental". You imply that a territory in another sovereign country is entitled to autonomy, that the same country has invaded one of its parts as if it was an act of war between two countries and pretty much implies that the Russian government is to blame for it. Accusing other forum members of being "indoctrinated", implying you know better than somebody living there doesn't really help. North Ossetia and Abkhasia didn't exactly get a lot of sympathy from western Europe and the US when they decided that they would rather be a part of the Russian Federation than being part of Georgia, which tought me one thing, that western media have very little credibility as sources for the conflicts in the Caucasus (which often has its root causes found in history books rather than newspapers).

So, if they blow people up we like, they are terrorists, if they blow people up we don't like, they are freedom fighters? (thats a generic "we" not necessarily expressing my own likes and dislikes. Substitute "like" with "allied with" whatever)

That is because I speak broken English when distracted by work Silly Life intrudes upon my escapist escapades.

That end game part was actually fairly well done. Talk about consequences of your choices

Well, we all do our own reading and draw our own conclusions: The effects of psychological inhibitors or lack of (i.e. a few cards short of a full deck) The kind of research that the Aussie tax payers (hey look, thats me) money goes to The press (for whatever its worth) About justification through cognitive distortion Check the section about "Social, interpersonal, and intimacy deficits" Lots of books available on the subject of what makes tick too

I'm not really a beer drinker (except on warm summer days), but I do like the odd Stella Artois. I'm mostly a Cognac person though, so my knowledge of the other "stronger" stuff is limited to brand recognition and primitive consumption in moderate quantities on special occasions.

There is something Kevin Rudd hasn't told us...

How many games are there really out there, where you are a heroic mass murderer, killing because you like to inflict suffering (the "Postal" games are the only ones I know from top of my head). Most other seems to offer some justification, a 'cause' if you want, that to some degree rationalises your violence. I.e. fight this or fight that, liberate something or somebody. "Murder" games, "Rape" games, whatever plays on different emotions and less easy to accept motivations. Edit: I do not count Carmageddon among them, because I enjoy running over pedestrians

King Smurf was democratically elected too... (read the plot summary if you haven't read the comic)

My feelings were hurt. Nothing could console me

It gives you a fighting chance to survive nerve gas (sarin etc.) attacks, which was in plentiful supply everywhere during the cold war. Part of your abc training (atomic, biological and chemical).

Makes you wonder what kinder of people find any thrills in playing a loser. Considering that your average rapist is a youngish male, often lonely, insecure in his "manhood" and a general failure in life (i.e. no control over their lives). That is probably why games where you play "winner" types have more appeal.

Not true. What bugs are you refering to? I didn't encounter a single one in my playthrough. On PeeCee. How can you actually state, explicitly that my experience hasn't been buggy. I knew you was dim but geez. It's been everything from CTD, to items removing themselves from the inventory, to not recieve'in quest rewards. This is when I've gone back and played through the original campign after installing the expansion, which wasn't so bad . The one that nailed the lid in the coffin for me was getting rather permanently locked out by the treacherous dwarves. So much for trying to complete it as a dwarven commoner. It had its share of minor bugs, but that was the only gamebreaking one I ran into.

In Denmark, way back in time when my hair still had little grey in it, the draft was a "lottery". You would pick a number from a ballot and the lower the number, the more likely you were to get military service. The higher numbers got sent to the civil defence and the highest numbers went "free". I ended up in the civil defence and had generally a good time (apart from being irritated by not being able to dispose over my time myself). I was tought things like firefighting, rescue service in disaster areas, etc. Not too bad really. Oh, and we got to crawl through a lot of sewers and subterranean tunnels too, trying to rescue those 80kg dummies that the trainers had hidden down there Edit: Never got to shoot our self with those little Atropine injection thingies though. Turns out that the cold war ended before there was any real need for them anyway.

Maybe if the ears where equipped with venomous tips for those up close and personal fights?

Heh, I uninstalled DA a few weeks ago, not really imagining myself ever coming back to the world of Ferelden. You guys are doing a lousy job of convincing me to pick it up and get expansion

My problem with mixing faith and science is, that faith sort of implies a stop for the search for answers, since you believe you know them. I would rather keep the two separate

Yay for Pop! Thanks for sharing Not lets get this thing in the stores already so the rest of us can watch it dammit.

I've seen two movies lately. One, Drag me to Hell which I bought on DVD together with a handful of other DVD's and Halloween Resurrection showing late last night on tv. Drag me to Hell... sheesh, what a disappointment. Talk about a movie that doesn't know what it wants. It's like it's trying to mix romantic comedy, horror comedy and funny comedy, but none of it is particularly funny. The cast is completely wrong, the story (with one microscopic exception towards the end) completely predictable. Like something you would read in a bad comic book and forget the day after, never to revisit. I sure hope it was one of the cheaper movies in my pile Halloween Resurrection... What a refreshing change from the above. No aiming for mediocrisy here, but going straight for abysmal failure right away. As if somebody tried to create a bastard child between Blair Witch Project and Americas next Top Model. Bad script, bad acting, bad direction, bad screen play and godawful choice of music. The good part? It made Drag me to Hell look good by comparison

Nick Cave - The Weeping song "Father why are all the children weeping? They are merely crying son. O, are they merely crying father? Yes, true weeping is yet to come." Such a sad song

You have a problem?

"There are only four types of officer. First, there are the lazy, stupid ones. Leave them alone, they do no harm

Unfortunately, that is the way the world works sometimes. People remember the emotionally charged debates, the insults, the many people killed, the bombings, the embassy burnings, the reprints, eventually forgetting the lesson of the why it happened in the first place Today it has become some kind of thing that is being fought over for its perceived symbolic values, rather than what it originally was about, everybody projecting their own bias into the debate, seing only that aspect of it that suits their preconceptions.

Out of curiosity, when is it warranted to stand up for free speech? Ever asked yourself why they were published in the first place? They were a protest against intimidation attempts against book publishers, trying to tell them what they could print and what not. A group of artists decided to protest with the tools of their trade, the pen, portraying people who commit violence in the name religion, giving an artists interpretation of how they saw it. Sometimes the pen is mightier than the sword when trying to get a message through. I honestly don't believe you mean that everytime somebody threatens you, the right thing to do, is to give up your civil rights, because it might hurt the sensibilities of those who threatens you.

I turn all green with envy Looking forward to hear your experiences