Gorth

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

Sounds a bit like Sri Lanka where elections are "Winner takes all" and the loser gets dragged away in handcuffs and done away with. What happened to good old Roman gladiatorial fights? Lets reintroduce arenas for politicians. That ought to leave us only with the truly passionate and the idealists (and the vicious brutes, but you can't win them all).

If you want to attribute words to me, at least do it correctly What I said was: I never said they must leave. They have the freedom of choice to leave if they find the place so awful. Also, you seem to have taken offense at my use of the terms "guest" and "host". Let me ask you this... If somebody moves into your place, yet clearly states they don't want to be part of your household. Do you consider them family or guests? If they not only do not want to be part of your household, but wants to wreck the place, then I think "guest" is being a very generous term.

We could clean out some of the prisons by sending the inmates on a rocket to England. Just imagine the irony

I can't argue that. Personally, I'd take the boobie cards as well. AT least they don't have bad dialogue. I don't know. True enough for the cards themselves, but the dialogue you had to suffer through to get them was at times quite horrendous. "Nice dress, lets have sex!"... whats so bad about that dialogue?

Heh, what would the next step be... a Chinese style firewall to protect Texas against the damaging influences from the rest of the world?!? Whatever happened to presenting information from different sources and teach the kids critical reading and questioning their sources?

The only fun mini game in years, the Collectible Card Game, is gone. Does that mean I have to grow up?

Never heard about them I have some nice old Sony headset bought years ago (set me back 125 kiwi dollars). The headset itself is Ok, but the real selling point was the external usb soundcard. I use Skype a lot, so having separate audio devices and not having to switch between them in the control panel is a plus. I could use a new headset though

As DRM's become more and more obnoxious and intrusive, they loom ever larger in peoples consciousness.

Wouldn't the difference be the way its done? Legally, nobody is allowed to distribute the original files, in part or full. Receiving such a file would make you an accessory to an illegal activity. But that doesn't cover other ways of doing it that doesn't involve distribution of original files. No, I am not going to provide a list of options

The previews looks interesting. I think The Witcher 2 just joined my list (increasing it by 100%)

...and a few posts snipped. This thread does seem to suffer from a rise in temperature.

Guys, don't make me come and pull your ears... Disagree, don't insult. I was just about to say, that goes for everybody, but that would mean including me then.

It may be a cultural thing. Religion may be important in some parts of the world. It isn't in other parts of the world. If respecting other cultures means giving up your own (i.e. would you give up your democracy/secular state because somebody threatened you with bodily harm), would you do it or would you object to it?

"I Guess..." is part of the problem. Too much guessing and too much bias going into the guessing. Not everybody is "out to get you all the time". Danish Muslims are generally a good bunch of people, counting some of them as my friends. Learn more and guess less.

No NKVD agents here...

Seconded I keep hearing about those two games called Deus Ex and System Shock 2. Maybe I should put some effort into finding them someday. Probably needs to show up on a place like GamersGate or similar though.

We curse the stones on the footpath for blocking the way for out feet dammit! I think CIA needs to take lessons from Mossad. Heck, they could outsource the job of killing Bin Laden to Mossad. As for Iraq, well, I know I like a good conspiracy theory, but I honestly think that it was the old man Bush who pulled the strings and told Bush Junior to go finish the mess that he himself had left behind. "Son, that guy is still sitting there in Baghdad mocking me. If you do nothing else with your presidency, you God damn get that sucker to bite the dust good or God help me, you are no son of mine" (add heavy Texan accent).

No, I think you may be missing the point. It does require you to know the entire story though. The (original) cartoons were a protest by the Danish artists against the Imans who had tried to form a polarized atmosphere between Muslims and Christians by threatening the authors of a series of childrens books, which explained about Islam. They couldn't get anybody to illustrate the books out of fear for their safety. Since the freedom of speech is part of the constitution, it is illegal to threaten people to "shut up". Wrong. The Imams are living in a foreign country as guests. If they don't like their hosts and don't want to respect their laws, nothing prevents them from leaving, unmolested and unharmed. That is what being a free country is all about. I wouldn't know. I am Danish, not Greek, Bulgarian or Armenian. I do know that all of them have strained relations with Turkey after centuries of occupation and oppression by its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire. Changing a state doesn't make old grudges go away overnight.

Thread pruned a bit. Guys, lets keep it "clean"? Otherwise I get to do work. I already got that 20 hours a day. More makes me grumpy...

There are people who pay for crpgs just because they have "romances" in them... You do the math

Somebody expressed concern that this was turning into a Two Worlds discussion club exclusively, so related discussions has been aplit off and located here

Me want!