Gromnir

qb troubles aside, am surprised at the problems the broncos have had on defense the past couple weeks. on the positive side, the broncos are facing the bears next week, and the bears, in spite o' their win against the rams, is depleted along both the d-line and o-line as well as at rb and wr... and alshon jefferies, arguably the bears best offensive weapon, is playing injured. *shrug* titans, jags, lions, browns, 49r's and bears is, in our opinion, the worst teams in the nfl as o' today... with chargers right on the bubble. broncos got seven wins and two games 'gainst chargers and one 'gainst bears on their remaining schedule. even with manning healthy, games vs. cincy and pats will be tough. raiders is capable o' beating any team in the nfl, but they is still a couple years away from being a complete team. steelers with roethlisberger is a very good team. looking at the remaining schedule, the bears game looks like one o' the few games the broncos should be confident about winning... particular w/o manning. HA! Good Fun!

oh, well, because you know it, it must be true. everyone knows that the majority o' media sources in malaysia is state controlled-- a tool for misleading their people. everyone knows that religious and personal freedoms in malaysia are limited compared to virtual all western nations. everyone knows that a disheartening percentage o' populace o' malaysians polled support isis, and that a disturbing number has joined to fight with isis. see, we can put "everyone knows" in front o' a statement and make it true. no? 'course our statements actual is true, but so it goes. bah. bruce is correct. this thread is complete off the rails and almost nobody is speaking 'bout paris attacks anyways. done. getting nowhere with increasingly agitated qistina or willingly following zor as he once again circles down the drain is pointless. HA! Good Fun!

"it's all about dialling back the expectations and making their policy not look like a hapless clusterasterisk at this point while trying to make sure Russia gets no credit." oh, zor. have been down this road with you many times. never change. as for responding to qistina, am thinking the board response is expected. we don't have a fundamentalist muslim pov on this board save for qistina. she expresses consternation that her nation and religion is being unfairly vilified, then she posts and seems to validate all those western misconceptions. most o' us is baffled/concerned by the dogma we tend to hear from muslim sources, but we almost never hear from ordinary folks living in malaysia or iran or wherever save for comments sections of various news sites... and how much can we rely on such contributions? so, when qistina posts 'bout how much malaysia protects religious rights o' non muslims (*snicker*) or when she speaks o' the antichrist, she seems to reaffirm many o' the preconceptions folks have 'bout FOREIGN followers o' islam. how many of us just don't understand the religious radical or fundamentalist pov? Gromnir has been on panels with muslim academics. we has, 'cause o' our job, frequent discussed issues o' free speech and religion with american muslims. but teh rheal muslims living in nations such as malaysia? HA! Good Fun!

am knowing that green bay has been hit hard by injuries, but the packers were similarly snake-bit earlier in the year. am admitted shocked at the speed with which the packers has gone from a nfc favorite to play in the super bowl to... whatever they are today. minnesota looks like the class o' the nfc north, not that such is saying much. however, while the vikings defense is getting less press than they should considering the excellent job they has done this far, they too are 1 injury away from disaster-- their lb corps has been hit hard. wacky year o' football, and so many teams is defined by their injury report as 'posed to actual play on the field. HA! Good Fun!

the US fears 'bout russian involvement in syria were that russia would get credit? you kidder. zor never changes. HA! Good Fun!

Like i said, America never give a fair deal, but that doesn't mean we no longer have dealings with USA...Presiden Obama just visited Malaysia you know...he come with a treaty, another unfair deal...the TTPA... It is a convenient the president visit us after the incident of MH370 and MH17............we know your game........ calling bs. if deal were so bad, then why were f/a 18 e/f a finalist along with grippen and russian su 30 mkms in malaysia's recent attempt to upgrade air force? malaysia continued to get hornet support from boeing and the us dod in the form o' continued training hardware upgrades. you are being fed bs from your media and naive if you think that the us provided empty hornet shells to malaysia over a decade ago and that malaysia has continued to cooperate with us to upgrade, maintain, and train pilots for those hornets... as well as making new hornets a finalist for their recent fighter aircraft upgrade. nonsense. all o' which is so utterly irrelevant to what is going on in paris and the middle east and africa. aside, we agree with bruce and others that focus on paris is unfortunate but understandable. we personal were annoyed when the charlie hebdo stuff were occupying headlines when at similar time an entire town in northern nigeria were razed by boko haram. we complained 'bout the lack o' sympathy for the folks o' baga on these boards (http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66161-boko-haram-and-the-kidnpping-of-the-school-girls/?p=1556307) nigeria claims that 150 people were killed and and thousands displaced (as opposed to the estimates o' anywhere from 1000 to 2000 fatalities from more objective sources). baga shoulda' garnered more attention. unfortunately, news o' violence in the middle east and africa is so common that it westerners rare pay attention to such stuff. have a story that only 150 people died in africa and middle east in 2015 due to sectarian violence and THAT would be a story. is terrible, but we expect violence and bloodshed in the middle east. is not news if is ordinary? maybe. HA! Good Fun! Gromnir why do feel the need to debate like this with Qistina ? You can't really feel the need to win this debate and it should be obvious that there is a language translation problem and lack of overall insight on certain matters,,,,this is not Zora you are debating with, with him you always have to win well, we had stopped... then we saw the antichrist stuff. *eye roll* spew that kinda nonsense and then claim that western media is giving distorted view o' malaysia's islamic state? were funny... and wrong. as an aside, we prefer our antichrist riding a trike https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg9-axPBw1g HA! Good Fun!

Like i said, America never give a fair deal, but that doesn't mean we no longer have dealings with USA...Presiden Obama just visited Malaysia you know...he come with a treaty, another unfair deal...the TTPA... It is a convenient the president visit us after the incident of MH370 and MH17............we know your game........ calling bs. if deal were so bad, then why were f/a 18 e/f a finalist along with grippen and russian su 30 mkms in malaysia's recent attempt to upgrade air force? malaysia continued to get hornet support from boeing and the us dod in the form o' continued training and hardware upgrades. you are being fed bs from your media and naive if you think that the us provided empty hornet shells to malaysia over a decade ago and that malaysia has continued to cooperate with us to upgrade, maintain, and train pilots for those hornets... as well as making new hornets a finalist for their recent fighter aircraft upgrade. nonsense. all o' which is so utterly irrelevant to what is going on in paris and the middle east and africa. aside, we agree with bruce and others that focus on paris is unfortunate but understandable. we personal were annoyed when the charlie hebdo stuff were occupying headlines when at similar time an entire town in northern nigeria were razed by boko haram. we complained 'bout the lack o' sympathy for the folks o' baga on these boards (http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66161-boko-haram-and-the-kidnpping-of-the-school-girls/?p=1556307) nigeria claims that 150 people were killed and and thousands displaced (as opposed to the estimates o' anywhere from 1000 to 2000 fatalities from more objective sources). baga shoulda' garnered more attention. unfortunately, news o' violence in the middle east and africa is so common that it westerners rare pay attention to such stuff. have a story that only 150 people died in africa and middle east in 2015 due to sectarian violence and THAT would be a story. is terrible, but we expect violence and bloodshed in the middle east. is not news if is ordinary? maybe. HA! Good Fun!

as an aside, malaysia still has f/a EIGHTEEN hornets in its air force, and has had such for many years. those hornets were not sold as empty shells. they has been continually upgraded via a contract with boeing. as recently as may o' 2015, malaysia was buying AIM-120 AMRAAM from the US in an effort to maintain their hornets. recently, malaysia were OFFERED f/a 18 e/f super hornets, but malaysia decided to choose russian alternatives. what sorta nonsense is malaysia media spinning, eh? HA! Good Fun!

... am sorry, but in our head we heard you add a xena war cry to punctuate that utterly ridiculous remark. HA! Good Fun!

am not a fan of mma, and our appreciation for boxing has waned over the years. is a shame too as we were a genuine boxing fan from time we were young and throughout our university years. am thinking that ppv kinda backfired for boxing as a whole. sure, for those fighters that can get a big ppv payout, the money is better now than ever before, but there were a time when boxing were in the conversation when speaking o' the most popular spectator sports in the USA. back in the day when abc wide world o' sports (and the other networks too) would have boxing on tv just about every saturday, it were easy to be a fan. typical, during spring and summer, saturday afternoon sports on tv were either boxing or bowling... and maybe a baseball game. then again, our appreciation o' boxing began to wane before ppv. had kinda a big impact on us. we continued to watch the major heavyweight battles up through tyson and holyfield years, but the whole sport seemed a bit too barbaric after the duk-koo kim fight. that is the reason we dont like mma. is even more obvious bloodsport than boxing. in any event, we always kinda chuckled when we heard rousey claim that she could beat mayweather in a fight, but most o' the elite athletes is supreme self-confident. didn't know much 'bout mma, but we saw positives from such a popular female athlete getting worldwide recognition. good on her if by trading barbs with mayweather she could increase her own legend. however, after ronda rousey's recent comments regarding domestic violence, coupled with revelations from her biography (am not gonna call it an autobio when somebody else did all the writing) am admitting that we couldn't suppress our schadenfreude when we heard she were ko'd in the fight yesterday. HA! Good Fun! ps mayweather is such a dirtbag that we were amused when he got involved in a twitter battle with rousey. given his domestic violence history, mayweather were metaphorical fighting with one hand tied behind his back when verbal fighting rousey.

Then don't act surprised, when some people say, that they do not have respect for the american culture as well... what thread are you reading? where do we act surprised by lack o' respect o' american culture. we expect lack o' respect for american culture and it don't actual bother us. we do express consternation when folks continue to presume that they know american legal protections o' fundamental rights, but such ignorance don't surprise us. you got no idea how many folks from parts unknown who has lectured us 'bout American protections o' fundamental rights o' speech and religion. no surprises yet. HA! Good Fun!

can you identify your logic fallacy, and in any event, what is the relevance o' your query? we didn't advocate western intervention in this thread. and how does our pov on western intervention western change the personal freedoms enjoyed or withheld from malaysians? *shrug* HA! Good Fun! ps you seem to forget that the majority o' western intervention comes in the form o' the benign or banal. medicine, engineering, coca-cola, etc.

as an aside, we got a long list o' cultural norms that offend us... have never suggested that all cultures should be respected. clubbing seals or hunting endangered species for their aphrodisiac imbued organs. ritiual sacrifice. slavery. oppressing 1/2 the population 'cause they lack a pen!s. etc. am not certain why some folks believe that all cultures and their idiosyncrasies must be respected... so no, no hypocrisy. HA! Good Fun!

Sorry, but you are the same hypocryte as you are accusing them... Badmouthing them about not respecting the western culture and meanwhile not respecting the culture which is their own... is not hypocrisy. am not asking for western culture to be respected. am not much o' a fan o' western culture. Gromnir is in favor o' personal liberty. where culture intrudes on basic fundamental rights, we believes culture should give way. that is what the Bill o' Rights is all 'bout. personal freedoms is very frequent in conflict with cultural norms. regardless, that weren't the issue were it? qistina were boasting 'bout freedoms in malaysia w/o seeming to realize just how oppressive malaysia can be insofar as religion, sexual orientation and a host o' other basic freedoms that westerners take for granted. HA! Good Fun!

what we actual said were the following:a muslim in malaysia can be executed for converting to christianity and celebrating christmas. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/10/us-religion-atheists-idUSBRE9B900G20131210 and again, how can you be missing the point? apostasy is not criminalized in the USA. loy would not need fight and lose her appeal. she would not need go into hiding. she could be whatever religion she so desired w/o fear o' criminalization. you suggest that western media is making malaysia look bad? w/o the recent airline troubles, we suspect most westerners would have a hard time pinpointing malaysia on a map, and am certain most westerners is unaware o' the common freedoms they have that would be denied to them in malaysia. HA! Good Fun!

lol where you hear that? No one being executed in Malaysia, in fact one ex Muslim won the case in the court to become a Christian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Joy did you read your link? loy were forced into hiding and, "In a majority verdict delivered on 30 May 2007, the Federal Court rejected her appeal.[7] Her appeal was dismissed 2-1 by Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim and Datuk Alauddin Mohd Sheriff." but seriously, do you genuine wanna claim that apostasy is Not criminalized in malaysia and that execution is a final sentence for those who not repent? we can quote the law if you need help. clear missing point however. the loy situation would never be an issue here in the USA, or virtual any western nation. HA! Good Fun!

a muslim in malaysia can be executed for converting to christianity and celebrating christmas. ... am not sure what you believe you prove with your links. HA! Good Fun!

in Gromnir's country (well, we sorta have dual citizenship) a christian can convert to islam and celebrate any religious holiday they wish to without fear o' being accused and convicted of apostasy. am thinking we win. HA! Good Fun!

am not a fan o' woody allen films before or after 1980, but his essays and articles is frequent insightful and funny. that being said, am gonna admit that we very much got the appeal of mighty aphrodite-- mira sorvino. oh sure, we didn't much like her character in woody's film, and am not much into blondes, but we definite got the appeal o' mira sorvino circa 1995. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqJ7EO4kBSg what can we say, Gromnir is a sucker for hot women with big.... brains. HA! Good Fun!

I fail to see how this is surprising at all. Pretty much everyone around the world is condemning the attack. Hezbollah is in government together with Lebanese Christian parties, Lebanon has good relations with France... They are probably as disgusted as everyone else, and with literally no reason to not condemn the attack. Hezballah disgusted by terrorism, that's a good one. well, it's easy to see why hezbollah would be disgusted by terrorists who recently targeted hezbollah in southern lebanon. in fact, pretty much any attack on a terrorist group is decried as state-sponsored terrorism perpetrated by ________________. fill in blank with great britain (particularly if we are speaking o' the ira as victims) or israel or the USA or your choice o' state. terrorism is often presented as a matter o' perspective. HA! Good Fun!

evangelism is NOT illegal in the US. hare krishnas or muslims or branch davidians can attempt to convert god fearing christians in virtual any public setting. heck, NOT getting accosted by religious evangelists at state fairs is rare nowadays. btw, muslims in malaysia does an excellent job o' making muslims look bad w/o media portrayals... which is largely non-existent. am suspecting that many folks in the west is hardly aware that malaysia and indonesia is muslim and that denial of religious and personal freedoms is the norm in those nations. freedom o' speech is limited as you already recognized but failed to realize. and can you imagine the media p00p storm if apostasy laws were put into effect in ANY western nation? the terrible reality is that malaysia is presented as some kinda model o' islamic moderation. hogwash. if christian fundamentalists took control o' a western nation and the State denied basic freedoms to a religious minority because o' their religion, there would be JUSTIFIED howls o' anguish and rage in from every other western nation. is there bigotry directed at muslims in western nations? sure there is, but for the most part, so bigotry is personal rather than systemic. the bigotry directed at muslims in the US is misguided. unfortunately, the bigotry american muslims suffer is largely due to fear and misunderstanding. "in a 2013 Pew Global Attitudes Survey, it was noted that “in Malaysia . . . roughly a quarter of Muslims (27 percent) take the view that attacks on civilians are sometimes or often justified.” However, if we add to this number the 12 percent who take the view that violence is “rarely justified” in defense of Islam (as opposed to never justified), essentially 39 percent of the Malaysian Muslims surveyed believed that violence can be justified against enemies of Islam." american muslims is almost universal patriotic and loyal americans. is terrible that so many is treated unfairly by their fellow american citizens. on the other hand, perhaps americans should be more concerned 'bout malay muslims, particularly given the relative high numbers o' malay nationals who support isis and who has joined isis. oh, and while a homosexual muslim in the US might have to be afraid o' rednecks, the malay muslim need be afraid o' arrest by police... and worse. is more than a few situations in which muslims is treated far better in the west than in a majority o' the islamic world. HA! Good Fun!

blame islam is wrong? sure, but is also bordering on willful obtuse to ignore the fact that there is a correlation 'tween islam and extremism. the polls, whether done by national media outlets or independent think tanks is... discouraging. typical numbers show that there is 'tween 15% to 25% o' muslims that is embracing extremism, and a majority o' terrorist groups on international watchlists is espousing jihadist philosophies. no other major religion today gots such frequency o' extremism. is there extremist christian groups? sure, but ignore how much more common such extremism is with islam would be idiotic. christianity has its own problems, but david koresh and jim jones is notable 'cause o' rarity. late 70s and early 90s, decades apart? the villainy o' jones and koresh is repeated monthly and even daily in parts o' the middle east and africa. furthermore, muslim clerics is notoriously ambivalent 'bout extremist elements within the faith. yes, many muslim leaders condemn acts o' extremism, but just as many encourage. there is a religious correlation. that being said, am thinking that causation and correlation is being used interchangeable, which is a frequent a mistake. populations that suffer from poverty and political marginalization is far more likely to embrace extremism. is axiomatic, no? power corrupts, but is powerlessness that corrupts absolutely. blame on religion is understandable when the terrorists in question is shouting jihadist dogma and when elements within the islamic faith has been legitimizing extremism for a long time. yeah, is stoopid and obtuse to ignore the correlation. even so, such extremism typical remains a fringe element unless it takes hold in soil made "fertile" by poverty and marginalization. HA! Good Fun!

... am embarrassed that we checked. answer is not simple no doubt because different artists added for visual kewlness w/o considering setting integrity. there is... conflict. the pauldrons that is sandtrooper-specific denote rank/role. black for privates. white = sergeant. orange is squad leader. however, there is also field trooper and imperial marine pauldrons that share and add colors but with different significance. ... we feel dirty. HA! Good Fun!

yeah, the problem with a few o' the romance companions is that they do not have a loving it option until romanced. providing gifts, even with the 10k cap pre 4.0, were less efficacious with many o' the non-romanced-but-romanceable options. kira for knight and risha for smuggler is prime examples. risha and kira love luxury, but only once you is romancing 'em. sadly, the romance gift trigger no longer... triggers. so, if for some reason you wanna bolster influence with kira, risha, doc, etc, you will have a more expensive route. there is also a few core characters who simple do not have a love option for gifts. is typical the early companions. qyzen is the most obvious example for Gromnir as we were experimenting with the consular. qyzen has weapons as a favorite, but no love. the second available consular companion is theran and he has a favorite o' technology, but he loves luxury. dunno. am not certain the developers fully considered their influence scheme. regardless, esseles and bt runs provide the largest single companion influence rewards in the game. skip as much combat as possible and do a speed run can result in a very quick esseles and bt mission... is even faster for stealthy characters. a ~7000 reward is nothing to sneeze at, particularly once you hit level 40 influence with a companion. tier 6 gifts that cost 30 common crystals apiece is providing only a fraction o' the influence you would gain from an influence optimized esseles or bt run. HA! Good Fun!

there is already considerable unique rewards for pvp, yes? the thing is, the pvp crowd is short-tempered, which is somewhat understandable given the unique nature o' wz. the duration o' a wz is relative brief with fast-pace action that is unforgiving to a new player. clear win and losses and individual stats is recorded and displayed which heightens the predictable nerd rage resulting from being handicapped with pvp incompetents who is only present to acquire peirce & 4x. wins also reduce number o' wz needed for the "weekly" so getting a pvp n00b in your group is annoying to the die-hard pvp player. regardless, it should been obvious that throwing pvp lambs in 'mongst the pvp wolves would cause discontent 'mongst both the lambs and the wolves. *shrug* as an aside, Gromnir has now run through esseles with t7, qyzen and corso, and am confused by the resulting influence numbers. choose all possible approval for t7 gets you right 'bout 7000 influence. qyzen results in 5400... maybe a bit more as we gotta check 2 conversations to make certain we ain't flubbing 1 or 2 approvals. corso is ~3500. the thing is, previous to 4.0, t7 and qyzen were providing same affection gains: 455. corso were relatively weak on influence gains with a mere 380, and jorgan actual were the king o' pre 4.0 affection with a 515 affection gain. black talon, btw, provided max o' +455 affection for all companions pre 4.0. have not done serious farming o' bt influence, so am not certain what is the new totals, but from our limited experiments, we were not garnering uniform results from bt as we did in the past. oh, and as one would expect, maxing affection/influence would result in 250 light side gain for all esseles runs. kaliyo and khem were getting dark for bt with vette and mako being light. am recollecting that the light or dark awards were actual a bit less for bt than esseles. 200 sounds right, but we didn't' bother to pay attention. HA! Good Fun! ps just noticed what the problem were with qyzen-- we weren't getting the legacy perk bonuses for dialogues. am not sure if is a bug specific to the character or the companion. since 4.0, we always take the legacy o' altruism and legacy o' persuasion perks. that should give us +30% for dialogues and gifting. inexplicable, we weren't getting on our qyzen esseles run(s). will try with a different consular. pps after checking on a different character, qyzen gets 7020 influence from 1 run of esseles. am not certain why we cant get max influence on our other consular.