Farbautisonn

Problem is that people will still want to kill eachother. Criminals will still be able to get military grade firearms. Terrorists will be able to get them. Breivik type "lone wolfs" will be able to get them. And kitchen knives will still top the statistics for most used murder weapon. Having guns for home defense is a good idea in principle, however having a gun for home defense usually means that its a gun that has to be readily available, fast to reach, and not everyone decides to take the entire family to shooting ranges where security can be drilled into them. And kids will be kids. The bat****e insane and the calculating massmurderers will be the same. One might argue that a firearm makes you able to kill alot more, but then so does any number of homecooked crap contraptions and chemicals that you can find recepies for online in less than five minutes. Even the nations with the most restrictive gunlaws have armed crime. In my home nation of Denmark, military grade and semi auto firearms have become increasingly prevalent in crime, and here a gun permit for a handgun takes two years of active membership of a gun club, plus cops can enter your house and search it at will. To own a shotgun or a hunting rifle you have to take extensive hunters licenses. A knife of a blade of more than 12 cm is banned for anything but hunters or "Professionals". Switchblades and bali songs are prohibited. Even gas / cap weapons are regulated as are airguns and paintball shooters. And still we have armed crime, we have the occasional person who either eats a bullet, puts his hunting rifle at his wife and kids, or the criminal who sprays automatic fire to the point where its a miracle than no civillian hasnt been hit yet. Personally I think the laws in the US are a bit too easy going and I do not see the need for most civillians to own a gun. However I know the US tradition for firearms is a very strong one, and I recognize that many criminals in the US turn weapons on civillians in both home invasions and robberies. I myself would prolly own a handgun if I lived stateside. I do not see an easy or clear cut way out of this. But I do enjoy this discussion.

Would "real science" be akin to a "true scotsman"?

I agree. An "Assassin" type ability is one that could have several backgrounds, but also one that would have highly specialized training. And without having too much knowledge of a "ninja" society then I would suspect that it would be a clan'esque thives guild where individuals might have recieved such highly specialized training but where others focused on intelligence gathering, cutpursing, forgeries etc. Ofcourse, but I do not see the point of accepting a contract and then not carrying it out. You would then likely become a mark yourself, and then the next person coming after you could very well be an individual with a singular skillset such as that of an assassin. Rogues usually gravitate toward the morally gray. They usually come from a lower and likely more brutal sociocultural setting. Murder either covert or overty would likely be part and parcel of the social background. Whilst politicians, bureaucrats and blue blood generally have been very good clients with assassins, the assassins themselves have usually not been part of those classes, those backgrounds. Assassination isnt nessesarily a part of the job. Killing silently and effectively might be, but that isnt nessesarily the same as knowing precisely where to stab and slice or what herbs and tools to use to get an instant or innocently looking kill. It would be a "specialization". Quite true. But whilst an "assassination talent" or "feat" shouldnt be restricted to a certain class, it would likely have both sociocultural class and/or status background because generally assassins would be exposed to that kind of training only in a few places, namely those that are dark and certainly those that are secretive. A cipher might be excellently skilled at causing "natural death" but his skillset seems more focused toward gaining intelligence by reading the mind and surface thoughts of a person. That would make him valuable as an advisor or a machiavellian type councillor. More valuable it would seem to me.

Today most elite units are trained in killing people in a second, Usually by severing the vertebrae of a human. SAS, DELTA, DEVGRU and other units have this expertize. A rogue/assassin type caracter would/should be able to do the same. Ofcourse this usually only works against the unsuspecting sentry or in extremely lucky close combat situations and It shouldnt be some spree where the rogue could kill 2 people plus in an instant. And if youre up against someone in plate, then it should be very hard. But then most assassins dont really aim to kill guards in plate. Their victims are usually softer targets such as diplomats, politicians, businessmen, people with low profile sentries or bodyguards watching their back. And you dont try to top someone in broad daylight infront of the palace guard. You do it when the mark is at his most vunerable. Its a "feat" I wouldnt mind seeing in other classes. A Cypher should be able to cause massive haemmorage or strokes etc but It should be a discipline that would take significant focus. After all, even if your average high end tactical unit member is usually above averagely intelligent (and educated) he isnt a master of everything. He might be crosstrained in several fieldcrafts such as battlefield medicine, small arms, languages, humint etc but he would rarely have more than 3 areas of expertize and never more than four. Throatslits btw are discouraged in most elite units. It makes a ****ing mess if you sever the arteries and you generally want to keep a sterile environment. Topping someone silently and disposing of the body is nice, but if there are bloodsplatters all over then the next person passing knows precisely what happend and sounds the alarm.

Please. No more dogs. I dont like animals as it is and if I had to have a companion let it be something original or something thats an easter egg. Floating skull (Morte), Hamster (boo) or a rabid rabbit with fangs (Monty Phyton). No dogs, cats, badgers, or rats. No harry potter owls or rideable tigers. Id rather have a companion from a sentient race, like a pixie or a treeant. Hell even a fairy or a blob. Would actually be fun to have a gelatinous cube or blob of snot follow you around.

Norway is infamously expensive, but with their oilfund they can generally afford it. Salaries are insanely high. Too high. Alot of other scandinavians work on oil rigs and in the medical field in the norwegian rural areas where norwegians cant be arsed to work. Sweden... Second highest tax rates of the world (denmark and sweden compete on having the highest tax pressure in the world, with Denmark currently in the lead), and its beer is ****. They eat rotten fish too. Plus they export crap pop musicians that make normal peoples ears bleed. Denmark. Top tax bracket, punitive taxes on alcohol, tobacco and especially cars. 300% taxes for your average car, 400% plus for luxory vehicules... or what the danish DMV considers "luxory". 25pct value added tax on everything to boot, plus registration fees on most anything. On the bright side, our beer is good, our akvavit is better and the blondes are the best. Unless we compare the blondes to the finnish lasses but those are slightly bat****e insane. And finally Danes are rather laid back about most things and generally only get our knickers in a twist if people tell us what to believe and what to draw. Then we get cranky.

Logic is more like this: Two people are interlocked in a strife over land that is the result of post colonialism. The dispute can only be resolved through negotiations between the two parties. Everyone agrees on this fact. Others can promote and help, but the dispute remains in the end only solveable by the two nations leaderships. Only there are not two leaderships. There are three. And then the second party needs to strengthen its own image against the third so it antagonizes the first, to "top" the third, by going to a fourth supranational entity. One that is completely impotent but highly good for public relations in the west where the money comes from. The first party feels railroaded and happens to be a democracy, not a dictatorship like the two latter. So the voters want "retribution" or they vote a hawk into office instead of the pragmatist, that is still listening and is still able to compromise. The Pragmatist knows this so he has to give the voters a pound of flesh. His voters dont trust the supranational entity, and rightly so, because it has before abandoned its cause, and it doesnt trust anyone else because even those that do support it, mostly have political leadership that does it reluctantly. The pound of flesh is promised at first through a third rate official, and when noone rushes in with a deal that will soften the blow, the pragmatist follows through and signs the deal. Its politics. No matter what the voters anywhere else says, an israeli president answers solely to his voters and to noone else. Noone else will protect his nation or his citizens, noone else has ever wanted to, and that supranational entity that tried has proven itself a complete and utter impotent farce. The international communitys perception of Israel means nothing when israeli voters are getting killed, maimed or live in terror. You end up giving your voters what they want. If you dont, they vote someone into office who will. If the rockets do not stop, then in the end the israeli electorate will vote for whoever makes it stop, and they wont care how he does it. And Unlike other powers in the region, Israel does have the power to make it stop. By blunt force if nessesary. The will isnt there. The popular support for it isnt there. Yet. But an israeli hawk can wait.Time is working for him. His population is growing increasingly right wing because of the rocket attacks and the terror. The "New right" in europe is feeding the antagonism agaisnt the arab populations and "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". And with every terrorist attack in the west, this antagonism grows exponentially. His enemies are dissolving into petty dictatorships on wellfare and religion, whilst his own is becomming self sufficiant in oil, food, arms, tech and likely nuclear weapons. The worlds only superpower has an electorate that is fiercely in favour of his nation and deeply suspicious of his enemy. The politicians that are now in power in the west grew up in a generation where everyone who labelled themselves "freedomfighters" got a knee jerk reaction of support, but they are growing close to retirement... in a couple of decades they wont be there, the antagonism in the west will have grown, and his own population will have grown more in favour of him, because the rockets and terror, threats of war and demonizing from the neigbors will continue. Sooner or later, he will come into power. It isnt going to end well. And that should scare the ****e out of people, especially the palestinians. But they arent scared, because their own leadership feeds them lies, propaganda, religious dogma of martyrship and hope of winning everything back. Thats not going to happen. Ever. The only hope for peace is compromise. Gaza has to stop with rockets, terror has to end, Israel has to stop and indeed roll back the settlements plus swallow the biggest camel of all, trusting the arabs and the surrounding nations have to stop using the palestinian cause as a propaganda tool against their own populations. Whats the prospect of that happening? Zilch.

Thats the best kind.

Google Stürmer or the russian less known "Krokoill" propaganda mags. Plenty of "functional art" there. Personally I prefer Art that is from someone who hasnt gone through the inane artschools and academies where passion and drive is subjugated to witless provocation and chilidish form... or worse rules and regulations that stifle any passion. Most of my art is from artists that either never made it commercially or from their pre academy years. Thick oilpaintings where the texture, form and colours scream out at me and challenge me to feel and form an opinion, good or bad. It also has the advantage of being dirt cheap compared to some of the "installations" that pass for art these days.

As long as the gods are flawed, hypocritical, and vindictive (like in most good polytheist pantheons) I really dont care. I want the good gods to have sides that are not so good. A god of good and selfishless deeds might be tormented by a flipside of pride and innocents slain occasionally "loosing it" in some paladin esque crusader fury. A god of victory and glory, should sometimes give victory and glory to those undeserving but more willing to sacrifice and honour his name. A god of Trickery and deceit should be honest in some instances, IE telling the truth about the other gods and their deeds and actions at the most innapropriate times. A god of invincibility and bravery should be slain by the most inconspicuous item or beast, having his bravery falter him at a critical moment. A god of beauty should be shallow and coy, sometimes spitefull and murderous of those that reject her ideals of beauty. Im partial to the Norse pantheon where most gods have flipsides that are every bit as unpleasent as the pleasent ones but most oriental polytheist systems have more or less similar charactaristics.

Rudyard Kipling.

Dont think I ever stated that or even implied that. Gaza has a five star hotel. Hotels generally run because there are clients for them. They arent charities, and I doubt the average gazean can afford a five star hotel. What the implication is to me is that whilst its not "fine and dandy", its not a concentration camp, a batustan or an apartheid akin to what was prevalent stateside 70 years ago or in SA 50 years ago. And yet it still exists, and "obviously" doesnt make for very good evidence in the empirical sense just because you say so. There is enough food to get obese. There is enough food to ensure that there are no KZ camp images. There are hundreds of thousands that are treated in israeli hospitals, plus a plethora of other empirical instances that refute your claims. Gaza is the number one recipient of UN support funds per capita in the world. Israel donates funds, collects taxes (and gives these to the PA) and takes care of alot of the PAs apparent inability to police their own, govern themselves, build infrastructure and maintain it, etc. And all it gets in return, is "No peace till you leave" / Right of return for us, but no jews inside our borders / you are nazis running a concentration camp / etc ad nauseam. Israel is there, its not going away, and the sooner the palestinians learn to accept that fact, and accept the fact that if they wont give an israeli state security, it will take it at any cost, the better.

And Canada's resident Minister of Buffoonery John Baird vowed there would be consequences, because how dare the UN abandon the method of achieving peace in the middle east that they have been employing for the last 65 years? Maybe because its not working? *sigh* Maybe those 3.000 new homes for Haredi on the West Bank (just for starters) is what people who were opposed to this was referring to. Israel has to react to this unilateral move. Bibi has to look strong, especially after he caved in on a cease fire where most of the Israelis wanted a new Cast Lead and got nothing but crap in return for doing so. So. New settlements, and other "measures" that will ensure more rockets from Hamas, Fatah trying to apply pressure unilaterally, a palestinian population that is increasingly hawkish, an Israeli population that is ditto, and nobody who has power to do **** all except escalate the situation. Grats. More strife in the mideast for the chance of rubbing your nipples with morals and ethics that noone in the mid east respects anyway. .

My evidence is "andecdotal"... Really? So...The sources I have are completely untrue then? Thats just grand. Its "hearsay" and "didnt happen"... except now Israel supply "some" energy but since they dont supply "enough" that invalidates facts? Really? Where is that sort of logic acceptable? I want to know. Ill be able to get a Ph.d. In rhetoric from there in no time too. :D. Facts are, you stated that Israel did not supply power nor treat palestinians and I proved they did. Sorry scooter. You lost.

Nevermind, Delete pls, I have enough beehives I have stuck my head in .

I know a couple of the secular egyptian activists, one of whom has had a regular blog on Jpost... of all places. Things are looking significantly worse on the street than we see images of. Alot of people in the west who saw the "arab spring" as a postive absolute arent really interested in showing and telling how bad it actually is. Its gotten worse for the copts and secular bloggers/opnionators for instance. Some of them have allready left Egypt out of fear, taking families and relatives with them. Others are abandoning their families and hope that the police wont retaliate against family for writing in a tone than the brotherhood approves of. If things go as they would seem to go, Egypt just replaced a secular(ish) dictator for a religious one.

Oh... ok. If You could start by refuting these sources that would be just aces then. Electricity. Both the Diesel to power the palestinian plant and the extra to alliviate some of the shortcommings in the palestinian territories (some 160MW) come from Israel. Its been discussed if pulling the plug wouldnt be a good Idea, but since they dont supply any energy, then Israel can just do the crime since they are allready doing the time (public relations wise). Israel can use the power better on its own. Send a nice letter to Israel where you refuse the power and the diesel. That would be aces. Thanks. Medical services? Well, Israel does that too. From Haniyas brother in laws heart problems to Childbirth. Cancer patients and women to be treated for burns who decide to wear bomb belts to blow up hospitals. From the Al Jazeera Article: Wrong link for the hotel. Sorry. Here it is. . Obesity and poverty does have some correlation. But generally speaking, if you are obese, you have stuff you can eat. You might get a wrong diet (and I believe the staple for the poorest in the region is basically wheat products (white bread) and oil, Both of which arent precisely benificial to your healty, but we arent talking Gulag or KZesque hunger camps, correct? I am ofcourse looking forward to you debunking all of the articles, especially that of Al Jazeera. Im looking forward to hearing how you will blame the Foxnews of the mid east for taking a "pro zionist" bias.

Well... Ponder this: The problems isnt with "palestinians". The problem is with Hamas's "Gaza". There comes no rockets and extremely few "episodes" from the West bank. Strange... as the West Bank has equally many factions, is significantly larger, has better access to weapons, and logistics, more people and yet Fatah is able to keep a lid on most of the crap... Whilst Hamas seemlingly "cant stop rogues", but CAN ferret out "Zionist collaborators" (fatah members or just random people they dont like apparently) plug them and then drive them through the streets towed after a bike. Hamas can also levy "taxes" on the tunnels, "protection fees" from hotels, shops and other enterprises, has "guard duty" and "consultant work" for the UN in Gaza. And despite the hundreds (or thousands depending on sources) of rockets going into Israel, Israel still lets convoys through to the "extermination camp" (that btw has obesity problems and five star luxory hotels), Israel still provides electricity, medical services, and other essentials. Israel didnt go russian tactics and field MRLS with sattelite uplinks that instantly fires barrages at firering points. Instead they have the curtesy to emply Cellphone calls and drop pamphlets that explain "we are comming, go there, do this and you will be safe". Do others do that? Have they ever? They also invest in "passive" or "reactive" material... IE the "Dome" tech. Stuff that fetches a percentage of the incomming rocketry. I find the "nazi" analogies and comparisons that you hear in many discussions on this topic to be rather vile. They water out the terms to the point where they mean nothing. "Nazi" has all but lost its sting in most discussions, and has mostly reached the point where a guy who is called a "nazi" will triumphantly call "Ad Hitlerum" and the person employing the term will default on all credibility. Im not claiming that Israel is flawless or do not do critizisable stuff. But I just find it odd that its seemlingly only Gaza that has "issues".

Not really. Life in the universe is quite likely plentyful.....

Visit a mosque arond "eid". Dopamine will be quite high there too :D. Neurochemicals is a strange thing.... We will get the primordial "fight or flee" or "hunters instincts" at a soccer game. The neuro chedmical responese is interesting but its matched in ohter aspectsof life.

I am all for live and let live. I will point out, though, that when a person lives by a saying such a "Trying to get me to "convert" is not going to work however." ..then he has left rationalism behind. It is an oxymoron to think yourself a rational thinker if you dismiss everything that does not correlate with what you decided to believe, just because it (the information that is) doesn't agree. It is a big problem when people take things personally, or see it as others trying to 'convert' them, every time a new piece of fact, truth or knowledge is discovered that doesn't fit into the faith they adhere to. Im afraid you misundestand. Either deliberately or involuntarily. Im as rational as they come. I will hammer you in a discussion for using logical fallacies or using nonpeer reviewed or biased sources. But the thing is, faith is an abstract you cant "quatitize" or "qualitize" if you will permit such terms. Faith, in its nature is not logical. You can have faith in your dogs behaviour, in your partners loyalty, in your childs love, but you dont KNOW if you are indeed correct from a logical / normative / empirical stance if the dog does indeed love you, if your partner is loyal (by your definition in action and thought) or if you kids/significant other really "loves" you (and the definition of love varies between persons too). Its faith. Its got **** all to do with logic. You can build ad hoc and subjective narratives and "evidence" for its existence buy you cant scientifically prove any of it. If you can define and scientifically prove "love" however, I will defer. I dont take much personally. Im danish. We like cartoons and taking the piss out on our gods. We have been doing it for 1 thousand years. We still do it to the point where people burn our embassies and even that we dont take too seriously. Give us beer bacon and boobs and we are quite open for compromise. :D. We generally dont disregard facts of life... and neither do I. Just dont try to cram your definition of love, faith, morals or ethics down our throat. We generally dont like to be told what to believe.

Because Bioware decided that they were going to can their two major franchises by "streamlining" them to the point where they were not rpgs, not third person shooter, not storytelling and a complete ****up of the lore and insetting logic. They did it to the point where their fans voted them "worst company in america" beating Bank of America. Thats no mean feat. From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows... its allmost Hans Christian Andersen Esque in of itself. Dont hate the employees... well... staunch dislike for the "artistic vision" of some of them, but thats not hate. Dont wish them any harm. Just wish they would review past successes and build on them... instead of flushing them down the tube.

Faith is food for the soul, science is food for the mind. Faith is just that. Faith in some untangible abstract of philosophy, morality, ethics, religion, code or whatever. Its not cast in iron and its basically highly subjective no matter who with what size sombrero says what. Even amongst those of the same faith, morality, ethical persuasion etc there are plenty of diversions. Personally I subscribe to my own version of Pascals wager: I have faith, (polytheist) and it gives me some measure of comfort and inspiration for a modicum of effort. I dont consider myself a slave of my faith, nor do I go around proselyting my faith. My kids and my family knows my religious practices but I ensure that they make up their own mind. Im not forcing them to do anything nor am I forcing my beliefsystem on them. My faith is allways secondary to science and what I can put my foot and hand on. If there is nothing beyond the tomb,I have lost nothing because I had some measure of comfort in life. If there is something beyond the grave, I hopefully go whereever I am "supposed" to go and enjoy the benefits of that. Its a win win. Being of faith doesnt mean I cant enjoy and even agree with Hitchens and others of the same stripe. I undestand where they are comming from. Its just a matter of perspective . The dangers of adhering to and proselyting faith is that it inheritly breeds contempt and intolerance if it gets too far. As long as people tolerate that I believe in my santas in the sky, I have no problem with them believing in their santas or in no santa. Its when people try to convince me that I am "wrong", I get miffed. I like my santas. Leave me and my santas the **** alone. Mock them, have fun at their expense, at my expense for believing in them, thats just aces. Make all the "Life of Santa" Youtube and Monty flicks you want. Ill even laugh at them. I have no problem with that. Trying to get me to "convert" is not going to work however.

May a thousand firebeetles infest your breeches!

Im not sture I agree here. Whilst I liked OWB and loved the Sierra Madre, I found the pickup on the burningman to be trivial at best, and Ulyssus to be downright offensive to my intelligence. The main storyline for NV was great, no question, but I hold Obsidian to a bit higher standart than Bethesda. Obsidian had an engine and a framework delivered on a platter, and they are the FO lore gurus. They had to deliver. And they did. But it wasnt something where I thought : "Wow... didnt see that comming". Its something I prize in RPGs and CRPGs. The moral and ethical conundrum that instantly faces me with a decision that isnt black or white. But my favorite colour: Gray. And with Lonesomeroad I felt pidgeonholed and attributed motives and actions I dont have a bat****e influence on, to the point where I felt like it was breaking submersion of disbelief. I have made a point of killing Ulyssus off in every game because his incessent pseudo intellectual musings and presumptions annoy the **** out of me. I suppose that could be labelled a storytelling success as well (getting that kind of rise out of me), but its not the kind I enjoy. Lacking perhaps... I wouldnt go so far as to say "dismal" but thats semantics and subjective opinions. I thought that was one of the better done quests too, and whilst I agree it wasnt "Pitt esque" It wasnt bad. .Those were quite decent, I agree. But I found several DC entries at museeums etc to be rather interesting as well. No arguements here. I see your point however I liked the outcasts as an Idea pretty much and I rather loved their "go bang rocks together local" quotes and attitudes, as it epitomizes the "original BoS" attitude toward the locals. Overall it wasnt great, but then they were trying to find their ground in the new franchise. I can forgive alot for that. At least they revived it. And yes, Lamplight was not the brightest moment of storytelling. It also broke my suspension of disbelief more than a bit. It was not thought out and it made you wonder what the hell was happening. Again I agree. But I think thats something (I hope at least) its something they will have learned from.