Give Cardinal Richeli---errrr Ashcroft some credit. I'm thinking of submitting a grant proposal for stem cell research so that the Venus de Milo can get a new head and arms grown for her. Sure, its redimix stem cells, but c'est la vie. I'm sure I can get him to go for this as long as I tell him that with the new arms she'll be able to put her burqha on.
Causality and ethics...oh hell. Listening to "action is what counts..." rings to me like "what the definition of 'is' is."
These prosecutions are being pursued only because the general state of the economy is poor. If the overall economy was still riding the bubble, these case would be glossed over.
The theft and corruption has become so rampant that it can no longer be ignored. As long as the market was riding irrational euphoria...it was ignored.
Boom! "You (other readers) do know that it is the *current* administration that actually lifted a finger to prosicute and jail the folks at Enron and WorldCom, yes?"
OK....I'll bite.
So you mean the same administration that met with Lay, et al. to formulate "energy policy"? What you see as righteous prosecution I see as CYA once the public outcry against corporate banditry got too loud.
The contention that DOJ or the Bush are acting out of altruism is ludicrous. This is an echo of Ambrose's statments about Nixon: he let everyone else take the hit until there was no one else left. Skilling, the WorldCom guy getting jammed this week, they are all sacrificial lambs for the Cons. They were useful allies as long as the smoke and mirrors stock bubble was cruising. Now they are liabilities.
DOJ has ended up looking like doofuses because Elliot Spitzer is doing an Elliot Ness impersonation. Spitzer is burning Wall Streeters in NY while the DOJ is hassling hospitals for abortion records. Ashcroft hasn't exactly pursued a full court press on the MSFT antitrust stuff, either.
Lifting a finger? Balls. They're cutting accomplices loose.
I knew I wasn't going to buy MP2 after the hostage thing in the demo.
HalfLife, on the other hand, seemed to rarely break you out of interactivity. In the parts I have played up to, dialog and plot are all progressed in the engine, rather than cutscenes. This may change later in the game, I don't know.
In ST:Elite Force I experimented with going berserk in the armory and just zapping everyone in sight. I can't remember exactly, but a security crew came in and blasted me or they exposed the chamber to vaccuum. I had violated the "logical" rules of behavior for that situation. But the action took place in the engine--at least til I was dead.
Context--and how much I like the universe the game is set in--makes a huge difference. Betraying your comrades in WC, JK or ST games leads to death or imprisonment. In GTA, it leads to just about anything.
In some games blasting Chewbacca (guilty...) should activate a sequence of unpleasant resolutions. Or shift your focus to the dark side (JK and NWN). But some games should have more open frameworks.
"The Old Republic was the Republic of legend, greater than distance or time. No need to note where it was or whence it came, only to know that...it was the Republic.
Once, under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the Jedi Knights, the Republic throve and grew. But, as often happens when wealth and power pass beyond the admirable and attain the awesome, then appear those evil ones who have greed to match.
So it was with the Republic at its height. Like the greatest of trees, able to withstand any external attack, the Republic rotted from within though the danger was not visible from the outside.
Aided and abetted by restless, power-hungry individuals within the government, and the massive organs of commerce..."
Begin Rant Capture 04282003 "Ironic that the theft of artifacts is the only thing the left is willing to criticize Saddam's administration about, and they still lay the blame on the US, instead of the people who actually did the looting." End Rant Capture 04282003
Begin Ad Hominem Attack Capture 04282003 "In conclusion, you and your misplaced priorities disgust me. People rate over museum collections anyday and it takes a diseased mind to miss that." End Ad Hominem Attack Capture 04282003
To paraphrase and possibly pervert the Great Electric Monk: Civilizations pass through three distinct stages. 1.How can we obtain food? 2.Why do we need nourishment to sustain our corporeal forms? 3.Where shall we have lunch?
Obviously all truly vigorous societies seek to solve and answer all three questions...all the time. Protecting archaeological artifacts is a function of a society which values the answers to the second and third questions---in addition to creating the environment to answer the first question: provide food and water.
In response to your vitriol, why is the right so interested in shifting the justification for this war? Iraq attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11th becomes Iraq met with Al Qaeda agents becomes Iraq will give WMD to Al Qaeda..Iraq has WMD...Iraq is a fascist hole that imprisons and murders thousands...
Why the statement that disagreement over national policy is the product of a diseased mind? Why the fear of speaking out in opposition to national policy? (Natalie Maines)
I liken the ideological right to a society suffering from failure by false analogy. They identify those that they hate and generate a broad set of terms to define those that they hate. Anyone---Osama, Jose Padilla, Natalie Maines, Saranda Robbinson, me---who fits any of their terms or argues about the definitions of those terms must be a "diseased mind."
A free society does not imprison hundreds of people without trial or legal representation. A free society does not imprison people without any communication with the outside world. A free society does not require the registration of certain ethnic groups. These actions are representative of a society in decline.
I disagree with you. I do not believe you are mentally diseased. I seek a society where we can reach consensus and agreement. You seem to seek a society where those who disagree with you are--at the very least---ostracized and shouted down.
Sorry to bother you. I need to go back to cutting my palm trees now.
I don't have anything concrete but you can point to the fact that Foster has written a lot of science fiction novelizations: Outland, Alien, Aliens, The Last Starfighter, The Black Hole.
Also, I know that I read about Foster's involvement in the Star Wars novelization being a public secret in at least one or two compendia/enclyclopedia of Science Fiction author bios I have browsed through. It seems that Foster is also the semi- or uncredited author of the Star Trek: Motion Picture and Close Encounters novelizations as well.
The most damning evidence that I have read is from Foster's work itself. In one or two places in the Star Wars novel computers are reffered to by the goofy abbrevition "'puter". I have only seen this shortening in one other place: in one of Foster's Humanx or one of his other original novels. Thin, I know, but the goofiness of it is so jarring that I can't believe it is emulation by another author who thought it "clever". Give me a few hours and I can find the books and page references.
"We battled for the consumer at every step." Danger, Will Robinson. Call me user, call me prole, hell call me Ishmael, but when I am "consumer" little warning lights go off. I suddenly become the doofus who doesn't need to be troubled with all that irritating source. You know what, I wouldn't do a damn thing with the source. But the fact that he waffles about releasing it brands him as someone who has used other people's work to create something that HE SELLS. He received information and will not return his contributions to the pool. That kind of behavior is bullshit. "And while the code is important, that is not what it will take to get Linux to "20 million desktops." Robertson says to help more people understand Open Source, better marketing and lobbying is needed. "And yes, battling Microsoft and their huge coffers which influence OEMs, retailers, politicians, and the press in ways you only understand if you talk to them personally, which I have." Huh...one way of understanding open source is...to release the source.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry... Hawaii.
But again...still native-born.
Obama was born in Kansas.
Technically...part of the U.S.
"To the everlasting glory of the infantry
shines the name
shines the name
of Rodger Young!"
On the MSFT engine:
"bill gates asshole" = no results
On Google:
"bill gates asshole" = 29,000 results.
Odd.
"...clearly involved in nerferious activities against our nation..."
Hmm.
Maybe Shrub thought Nerf Cannons were weapons of mass destruction.
"I also predict nanotech will be the source of unspeakable weapons and disasters in the coming decades."
This is from you...the most dangerous man in England?!?
Nice infrastructure for civilization you've got 'ere. Be a shame if sumpfin' 'appened to it.
Athens, Atlanta, or Savannah?
Thanks, I'll be here all millenium.
Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, you insensitive clod.
"I keeeeed, I keeeeeeed."
That's only half correct. Russian and Western blood allowed German children to ask those questions.
Nazi Germany spun completely into nihilistic insanity inside of a decade.
If the Republic is strangled and paralyzed by money and tyranny...who is going to bail out my grandchildren? The Chinese? The Iranians? The French?
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
That was inspired. Inspiring.
Well...jeez. I wish the tides turn in our lifetimes so that people start thinking this way.
Ah...you have made me chuckle.
"...consulting ENERGY experts to formulate ENERGY policies? What a ludicrous idea!"
Indeed...when the results, content and context and details of such consultation are kept paranoiacally (---spelling cops?) secret.
Public policy is....PUBLIC.
RES PUBLICAM. Of the people. Republic.
Republican. Screw the people. Oh...the bitter fly in my chardonnay that isn't actually irony of it all...swoon.
Give Cardinal Richeli---errrr Ashcroft some credit.
I'm thinking of submitting a grant proposal for stem cell research so that the Venus de Milo can get a new head and arms grown for her. Sure, its redimix stem cells, but c'est la vie. I'm sure I can get him to go for this as long as I tell him that with the new arms she'll be able to put her burqha on.
Causality and ethics...oh hell.
Listening to "action is what counts..." rings to me like "what the definition of 'is' is."
These prosecutions are being pursued only because the general state of the economy is poor. If the overall economy was still riding the bubble, these case would be glossed over.
The theft and corruption has become so rampant that it can no longer be ignored. As long as the market was riding irrational euphoria...it was ignored.
"...but give me a DOJ that attempts to protect the defensless, like pre-born children, anyday!"
If you are so morally outraged by the right of women to keep control of their own bodies and reproduction...why did you post this anonymously?
Boom!
"You (other readers) do know that it is the *current* administration that actually lifted a finger to prosicute and jail the folks at Enron and WorldCom, yes?"
OK....I'll bite.
So you mean the same administration that met with Lay, et al. to formulate "energy policy"? What you see as righteous prosecution I see as CYA once the public outcry against corporate banditry got too loud.
The contention that DOJ or the Bush are acting out of altruism is ludicrous. This is an echo of Ambrose's statments about Nixon: he let everyone else take the hit until there was no one else left. Skilling, the WorldCom guy getting jammed this week, they are all sacrificial lambs for the Cons. They were useful allies as long as the smoke and mirrors stock bubble was cruising. Now they are liabilities.
DOJ has ended up looking like doofuses because Elliot Spitzer is doing an Elliot Ness impersonation. Spitzer is burning Wall Streeters in NY while the DOJ is hassling hospitals for abortion records. Ashcroft hasn't exactly pursued a full court press on the MSFT antitrust stuff, either.
Lifting a finger? Balls. They're cutting accomplices loose.
Excellent post.
I knew I wasn't going to buy MP2 after the hostage thing in the demo.
HalfLife, on the other hand, seemed to rarely break you out of interactivity. In the parts I have played up to, dialog and plot are all progressed in the engine, rather than cutscenes. This may change later in the game, I don't know.
In ST:Elite Force I experimented with going berserk in the armory and just zapping everyone in sight. I can't remember exactly, but a security crew came in and blasted me or they exposed the chamber to vaccuum. I had violated the "logical" rules of behavior for that situation. But the action took place in the engine--at least til I was dead.
Context--and how much I like the universe the game is set in--makes a huge difference. Betraying your comrades in WC, JK or ST games leads to death or imprisonment. In GTA, it leads to just about anything.
In some games blasting Chewbacca (guilty...) should activate a sequence of unpleasant resolutions. Or shift your focus to the dark side (JK and NWN). But some games should have more open frameworks.
From the First Saga, Journal of the Whills
"The Old Republic was the Republic of legend, greater than distance or time. No need to note where it was or whence it came, only to know that...it was the Republic.
Once, under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the Jedi Knights, the Republic throve and grew. But, as often happens when wealth and power pass beyond the admirable and attain the awesome, then appear those evil ones who have greed to match.
So it was with the Republic at its height. Like the greatest of trees, able to withstand any external attack, the Republic rotted from within though the danger was not visible from the outside.
Aided and abetted by restless, power-hungry individuals within the government, and the massive organs of commerce..."
...its the only way to be sure.
I can see from your phrasing that you would prefer to see Ewoks CG'ed out and replaced with Motie Watchmakers.
I thought I was only the third person to ever use that expression.
Verbosity? Guilty.
Unfounded? Hmmmmmmm....
Its the absolutisim of "demanding that people protect artifacts instead of people is what is sick" that drives me to cut palm trees.
A hundred divisions for the oil ministry...but not one platoon for cuneiform!
C'mon...was our military truly that pressed?
And if it was...maybe send a hundred extra troops.
We should always find the ability to satisfy all three human levels of need: Survival, Inquiry, and Sophistication.
(chop...chop...chop...)
Begin Rant Capture 04282003
"Ironic that the theft of artifacts is the only thing the left is willing to criticize Saddam's administration about, and they still lay the blame on the US, instead of the people who actually did the looting."
End Rant Capture 04282003
Begin Ad Hominem Attack Capture 04282003
"In conclusion, you and your misplaced priorities disgust me. People rate over museum collections anyday and it takes a diseased mind to miss that."
End Ad Hominem Attack Capture 04282003
To paraphrase and possibly pervert the Great Electric Monk:
Civilizations pass through three distinct stages.
1.How can we obtain food?
2.Why do we need nourishment to sustain our corporeal forms?
3.Where shall we have lunch?
Obviously all truly vigorous societies seek to solve and answer all three questions...all the time. Protecting archaeological artifacts is a function of a society which values the answers to the second and third questions---in addition to creating the environment to answer the first question: provide food and water.
In response to your vitriol, why is the right so interested in shifting the justification for this war? Iraq attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11th becomes Iraq met with Al Qaeda agents becomes Iraq will give WMD to Al Qaeda..Iraq has WMD...Iraq is a fascist hole that imprisons and murders thousands...
Why the statement that disagreement over national policy is the product of a diseased mind? Why the fear of speaking out in opposition to national policy? (Natalie Maines)
I liken the ideological right to a society suffering from failure by false analogy. They identify those that they hate and generate a broad set of terms to define those that they hate. Anyone---Osama, Jose Padilla, Natalie Maines, Saranda Robbinson, me---who fits any of their terms or argues about the definitions of those terms must be a "diseased mind."
A free society does not imprison hundreds of people without trial or legal representation. A free society does not imprison people without any communication with the outside world. A free society does not require the registration of certain ethnic groups. These actions are representative of a society in decline.
I disagree with you. I do not believe you are mentally diseased. I seek a society where we can reach consensus and agreement. You seem to seek a society where those who disagree with you are--at the very least---ostracized and shouted down.
Sorry to bother you. I need to go back to cutting my palm trees now.
"You were right about one thing, Master...the negotiations were short."
"There's always a bigger fish."
"A podracer, eh? I hope you didn't kill someone I know to get it..."
"Wipe them out. All of them."
"At last we shall reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we shall have our revenge."
Oh...and I almost forgot:
"ROGER, ROGER."
I don't have anything concrete but you can point to the fact that Foster has written a lot of science fiction novelizations: Outland, Alien, Aliens, The Last Starfighter, The Black Hole.
/enclyclopedia of Science Fiction author bios I have browsed through. It seems that Foster is also the semi- or uncredited author of the Star Trek: Motion Picture and Close Encounters novelizations as well.
Also, I know that I read about Foster's involvement in the Star Wars novelization being a public secret in at least one or two compendia
The most damning evidence that I have read is from Foster's work itself. In one or two places in the Star Wars novel computers are reffered to by the goofy abbrevition "'puter". I have only seen this shortening in one other place: in one of Foster's Humanx or one of his other original novels. Thin, I know, but the goofiness of it is so jarring that I can't believe it is emulation by another author who thought it "clever". Give me a few hours and I can find the books and page references.
"We battled for the consumer at every step."
Danger, Will Robinson.
Call me user, call me prole, hell call me Ishmael,
but when I am "consumer" little warning lights go off. I suddenly become the doofus who doesn't need to be troubled with all that irritating source. You know what, I wouldn't do a damn thing with the source. But the fact that he waffles about releasing it brands him as someone who has used other people's work to create something that HE SELLS. He received information and will not return his contributions to the pool.
That kind of behavior is bullshit.
"And while the code is important, that is not what it will take to get Linux to "20 million desktops." Robertson says to help more people understand Open Source, better marketing and lobbying is needed. "And yes, battling Microsoft and their huge coffers which influence OEMs, retailers, politicians, and the press in ways you only understand if you talk to them personally, which I have."
Huh...one way of understanding open source is...to release the source.