Gromnir

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.

kinda surprised we ain't talking manifested off a 12-story ledge today. the depleted chargers lost to an equally depleted bears team, a bears team that gave up a red-zone fumble and a pick six in the first half. ... think he mentioned playing tomb raider. perhaps that game is a balm for his charred football soul. HA! Good Fun!

it is expected given that we are talking 'bout a fallout game not made by troika... not that troika ever made a fallout game. we fully expect the ANGARMONKIES to throw their noisome 0 metacritic scores at onlookers in the vain attempt to punish bethesda for the unmitigated gall o' making yet another fallout game. HA! Good Fun!

Has a coldness dial, 0 is off 5 causes ice in liquids and frosts veggies, we keep it on 3, he turns it to 0. This was like the 6th time he's done it but the first we didn't catch it within a couple hours. Took until now to realize that I can pull the dial off. Ever since the youngin' around here has been walking, we've had to pull the knobs off the front of the stove whenever it's not in use. His persistence in trying to blow up the house is a little unnerving. In other news, we're nuts enough after dealing with this one (and assorted failures along the way) to be expecting Youngin' the Sequel next May. well, congratulations. this is a congratulatory matter, yes? am recollecting more than a few stories o' enoch jr. illness, and is sounding as if a healthy crumbsnatcher is as much a handful as one laid low by communicable disease or adverse condition. well, at the very least, you has proven your continued virility to your fellow man and to the universe itself. huzzah. so, tip back a self congratulatory glass/fifth o' rye... and try to get some sleep while you still can. HA! Good Fun!

Let me see if I can do impressions. Relatively unknown actors and directors is what made the original movies great ... claiming you don't like them is bad strawman, Strawnir, you're flailing again, like a teenager. You can't trust Harrison because he's a stoner, but he is an honest stoner, and when he says the project that made his career is in good hands, you better listen. Or keep flailing, no one can understand you anyway. *chuckle* that being said, the original film were indeed mostly a collection o' unknowns... with a few notable exceptions. gonna observe that peter cushing and alec guiness were hardly unknowns. regardless, am not certain if unknowns is what made new hope great, but Gromnir were kinda young at the time, so our knowledge o' directors and casting choices were limited. our favorite director in 1977? had only been to the movies 2 time previous... though we did like rocky very much. even so, is unlikely that we aware o' Lucas' (or harrison ford's) work on american graffiti. am pretty sure that whatever anticipation we had 'bout the first star wars were limited to having seen kids with star wars t-shirts and lunchboxes. we rare went to school, but as we didn't own a tv, is difficult to come up with reasons for a young Gromnir to buy into star wars hype. am doubting we had more anticipation 'bout the original star wars than we does 'bout the current 2015 offering. HA! Good Fun!

we wouldn't trust harrison ford regarding quality o' scripts (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000148/) particularly o' a project he is starring in and has monetary reasons to hope for its success. kasdan also ain't exactly a can't miss writer... and keep in mind that the script itself were re-tooled by kasdan and abrams after arndt left the project. *shrug* am not a fan o' abrams. have not been a fan o' a star wars movie since empire. truth to tell, the only star wars storytelling we has genuine enjoyed this century were kotor, kotor2 (til the end) and star wars: clone wars (2003). our anticipation is guarded. typically, director and actors are what draw us to a project. writing credits is so misleading nowadays. for chrissakes, damon and affleck got an academy award and their script apparent included gun battles and car chases before william goldman came onto the good will hunting project as an uncredited consultant. actors and directors. a collection o' relative unknowns and a director we don't like. HA! Good Fun!

not to be a bucket o' cold water, but am suspecting that the phantom menace trailer gave you (and many others) chills. we like the trailers, but as soon as we recollect that jj abrams is directing and gets writing credit... well, we prepare for plot holes big enough to swallow a death star, and a nonsensical ending that makes us long for superman (1978). HA! Good Fun!

am not one to quote monty python, but... am s'posing that for an englishman it is tough not to channel your inner imperialist, from time to time. HA! Good Fun!

well, it is worth observing that there has been few advances in the basics o' sex in the past 50 years. the only big change in contraception in that time has been the "morning after" pill, yes? now admittedly, if you were teaching in japan, we expect the class would need be a bit more complex. need explaining that being sexually assaulted on a train is Not a healthy and normal sexual encounter for a pre-teen girl? and am suspecting that no American class need have clarification o' tentacles. HA! Good Fun!

yeah, am having had a few nightmare flashpoint runs since 4.0, so we quit fps altogether. the changes to heroics and fps has not worked as advertised. for heroics, people is less likely to group now 'cause the vast majority o' such missions is soloable. get all rewards for self and not need wait 'round for folks to show up at heroic locale. and tactical fps has us praying to infernal powers that mando raiders will require less than 2 hours and/or a half-dozen wipes. current hm fps is making us recall when hammer station were first made a hm fp with the level 55(?) increase... but replace every boss with the bonus boss. took a couple months for folks to get gear or experience enough to make the hammer station bonus anything other than gulag. for the time being, am more focused on getting 1-2 companions to 50 influence on most o' or characters. the crafting and resource gathering bonuses for 50 influence is considerable. a 50 influence companion also makes possible to solo the star fortress stuff if need be. is likely we create a new consular and do the esseles solo tactical fp approach to take full advantage o' qyzen influence before bioware alters/changes. HA! Good Fun!

"i think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren't going to want to go on living." is something said by a character in a vonnegut book... speaking to a psychiatrist. vonnegut's mother committed suicide. vonnegut attempted suicide in the mid 80s. nevertheless, vonnegut never stopped trying to find wonderful new lies. he were extreme active in support o' suicide prevention organizations regardless o' vonnegut's own uncertainty regarding the value and meaning o' life. even so, nobody can tell you why life is worth living. sorry. still... “Why bother? Here's my answer. Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about…You are not alone.” --kurt vonnegut you are not alone. is that recognition enough? perhaps not. personally, Gromnir has always found genghis khan to be a kindred spirit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEpsVSdtfcc HA! Good Fun!