Gorth

I actually found it more interesting to hear about BBC's failed attempts to get access to eastern Ukraine before the war... hence trying to emphasize the article itself and not Lavrov (as funny/sad as it is, the quoted line is probably the first true words he had said for a very long time)

Since I was spending a bit of time in the 80's recently, I suddenly remembered that once upon a time, I actually spoke a bit of French too (never mind that I haven't used it for close to 40 years, so don't ask me to show it, it's gone) Sadly some of those old, non-English videos haven't been preserved well, if at all...

I know, not the man anyone here wants to hear from, but I found the article as a whole interesting (it covers more than just the interview) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61825525 Lavrov: "Russia is not squeaky clean. Russia is what it is. And we are not ashamed of showing who we are."

No idea if it's any good in a fight, but I will give it a few bonus points for the artistic impression 😎

Inspired by the obituary thread... I've never seen Twin Peaks, but I remember the voice 😢

I haven't turned all casual (yet), but I do struggle with games I would have played 24/7 and "devoured" 20 years ago. I still haven't finished neither Witcher III nor Pillars or Eternity. Shorter games that I know well are fine. Love playing a game of Master of Orion 2, War in Russia (old SSI turnbased strategy), Jagged Alliance 2 etc. Games I can save and put aside after an hour or two. Same thing with Guild Wars 2. I deliberately stay clear of anything that looks like raiding or other team activities that *used* to be like a second day job when it came to time commitment required....

That sounds like 20 years of my life... 😛

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/mar/11/george-pell-appeal-cardinals-lawyers-argue-jury-wrong-to-reject-improbability-claim https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-07/george-pell-appeal-jury-system/12129940 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/30/george-pell-returns-to-rome-after-acquittal-on-child-abuse-charges https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/29/australias-holy-see-ambassador-under-fire-for-saying-she-wants-to-change-narrative-away-from-george-pell https://www.cathnews.com/cathnews/43029-why-did-vatican-send-2m-to-australia-cardinal-pell He effectively got what was life without parole (6 years) because of his age, for raping two young boys. He had powerful friends however, including a very religious Scott Morrison (no kidding, for being a liar, a fraud and a thief, the guy claims to be very Christian), so eventually he was allowed to appeal. Since the appeal was a confirmation of his guilt (as established already by a jury), more appeals were needed in a few more courts until they found a judge, which just so happens to be an old mate of Scott Morrisons. Still, it was a 2-1 decision (of course in Murdoch media, 2-1 is "unanimous" 🙄) Tl;dr; between them, they managed to put the whole legal system in doubt. What's the point of having a trial by jury system if you can go free anyway fi you have rich and powerful friends? For those of us who are not above the law... we'll just sing along with Tim Minchin. Edit: As for the systemic sexual abuse of children in the church... the Royal Commission registered a bit more than 40.000 cases of sexual abuse of minors, of which ca. 2500 could be prosecuted https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/

You've posted enough over the years to recognize a "pattern". Now how people interpret those patterns may vary. I'm sure there are at least 42 different opinions about what kind of person I am. But you come across as someone with an almost primordial fear, not of fire, but of anything that may hurt bottom lines on balance sheets, to the exclusion of all else. Somehow "the far left" has become your bogeyman and you see it everywhere, imagined or not ( because sometimes they *are* out to get you after all). That, and the obsession with BLM as the new Illuminati, which has reached a level where I'm sure it will be a forum meme for a long time still 😝 The above mindset affects a lot of posts about politics and social issues.... influencing the tone, nuances, choice of words, choice of real world examples, the direction you want a debate to head etc. It's fine to be opinionated though, Odin knows, I sure am 😇 But the conversations seems to always repeat themselves. You love the capitalist world and dislike anything that threatens to destabilize it (that is at least my impression from your posts). Some of us (that means myself and the voices in my head) are less enthusiastic about a number of aspects of western values and would love to see changes (anarchist on deck) in areas of responsibility and accountability. Especially the latter. To answer your original question, the use any agreeable answer to throw back at people and claim "BLM are criminals and people here agree with me"....

Uh oh... dad's in trouble now 😨

That is rich coming from the head of the worlds largest pedophile ring... the same guy who paid millions of dollars to get a child rapist out of jail and flown back to Rome so he could go free 🙄

No idea if it's something I would like watching, but props to the animators. That has to be some of the most expressive facial animations I've seen in a long, long time 👍

I don't A bit busy today, so I might not give you a better until (i.e. more than two lines or a clever remark) later today or tomorrow

@BruceVC let's look at your question then... would people who identify themselves (as opposed to those labeled as such by e.g. Murdoch media) commit crime, or did in fact commit crime? Would you label BLM as a group of criminals if say 50% of them committed crimes? 10%? 0.05%? Would you hold politicians to the same standards? Are they all criminals if say 10% of them commit crimes? Should say Proud Boys be forcefully dismantled and locked up if more than 25% of their members have a criminal history? Should all Republicans go to jail if one of them committed a crime? I honestly don't see the point of the question unless it's to further some as of yet unknown narrative (or bias confirmation).

Peace for our time! https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61801682 After almost 50 years, Denmark and Canada has agreed to the terms of a peace treaty to end the war over Hans Island. Aka the "Whisky Wars" Tl;dr; both countries would take turns sending in their navy to land troops, place a flag, a bottle of booze (Canadian Whisky and Danish Schnaps) and sometimes written notices, on the island... for 49 years. "...Over the following 49 years, dozens of Canadians and Danes took part in the ritual and visitors to the island describe a sea of slightly tattered flags and notices." I noticed that the two countries forces left the flags behind and only took the booze bottles as "war trophies" 😂 "The deal will be signed once both countries grant parliamentary approval and will see the island split along a naturally occurring cleft on the rocky outcrop, according to a deal published by the Danish foreign ministry on Tuesday. Once signed off, Canada and Denmark will have established the world's longest maritime border at 3,882km."

Awww... just look how hard it is to do a bit of private enterprise in those socialist northern countries. No free market economy there 😢

I remember this one from my teenage years... lots of memories of drunken parties letting loose to this 😇 As a curiosity, Ram Jam didn't invent this song, it has a longer history than the 70's https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-meaning-of-the-song-black-betty-by-ram-jam/ "The original song, “Black Betty,” started as a work song, sung predominately by Black people in the early 20th century. "

In an ideal world (not that there is anything ideal about this war), yes. But some things take on a life and a momentum of their own once you start it. The hand that sets something in motion can't always stop it. E.g. Hitlers Germany (because, we haven't used him as a reference for several pages I'm sure) didn't really have any other option than war. It doesn't make sense to sensible people, but once you start a movement along a certain trajectory, especially when relying a lot on nationalism as the tool to mobilize popular support, you also have to follow through with your declared intentions. Whether it be German "Unification" or restoration of the old CCCP. If you slow down or even stop, the crowd gets restless and you (the despot/autocrat) lose control.

Strange... I could have sworn this was what you said 🤔 You apparently know way more about Nicholas John Roske than the combined world press, as no quote worthy source has identified any political affiliation of the guy. Just a nutcase on medication, being mad about school shootings and the potential trip back to the stone age socially by reversing Roe vs. Wade. But... he was probably hired by the BLM top secret global head quarters to carry out the assassination

You were implying they have bigger problems than those who wants to do away with congress and democracy. Two important parts of the identity of the US. You could argue street violence, gang wars and high crime rates are part of it too, but those don't directly threaten the above the same way the far right does.

There, fixed it for you....

Ooh, kinky!

Crazy Rally moments...

Sitting and staring at the cds with two of my old games. Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield Vietnam. They are the original cds from around 2004. I wonder both if the discs still work and whether the games will run on 64 bit windows 10 🤔

My first summer in Australia was after moving from Wellington (NZ) to Adelaide (South Australia). Say hello to 5 weeks of 44C-46C degrees (111F-115F) 😅 Queensland has better balanced weather though (IMHO). Less excessive heat in summer (very humid though) and less frigid in winter. Adelaide was close to 0C C(32F) at night every now and then in winter, I suppose that's part of having effectively desert climate. Where I live now it's more like 10C-22C (50F-72F) in the winter and 20C-32C (68F-90F) in the summer (typical night and day values, extremes happens of course). It's like a little "Garden of Eden" here with the subtropical climate ☺️