You don't think there are more important things to do here on earth, like guarantee it still exists when your zero-g factory sends its first shipment of space-twinkies home?
I'm all for space travel, etc. but Bush just invaded a country, promising to rebuild it, now he's all about using up money they desperately need on some long-shot gamble? That's hardly responsible statesmanship. Sheesh.
As long as there are fascists, there will always be a Second Amendment, the NRA, and Republicans.;)
I don't think it would work... GTA works because you're the only lunatic driving recklessly in the town. Think of all the tight squeezes round corners, etc. Imagine playing on a map with 20 14-year olds. They're going to be driving round like complete idiots, jamming up the whole map. They'd have to seriously rethink that before creating an on-line version. I'd love it if they did make one, though:)
Weak XP Media Center? I take it you've never used it:) Seriously - what's weak about it? Nice remote control, excellent smooth interface, live TV support, picture-in-picture, media player for playing videos, slideshows, play-over-network support, tv guide, auto media info download from the internet, etc.
There's nothing out there that can even compete with Media Center. It's head-and-shoulders above the competition. I've been using it for about a year now.
VGA monitors have square pixels in a grid form, so aliasing is highly visible. TVs have a different configuration, with alternating columns offset 1/2 way between the next. That makes for a much smoother picture, with considerably less aliasing. Also, a cheap TV has much better color than a cheap monitor;)
If someone wanted to kill the population of a country, they will. No amount of "Look! I'm a soldier at the weekends!" accountants and building laborers running around with AR15s and Coors can stop an army. An army has infrastructure. Guys with guns just have other guys with guns. When their ammo runs out, there is no logistical support. They'd have to send their wives to the nearest sporting goods stores. "COVERING FIRE!":-P
Having a gun doesn't instantly make you invulnerable. It doesn't guarantee anything. Apart from the risk to your friends and family (that's statistically guaranteed).
Look what happened in India with Gandhi. He pissed the Brits off 100% without firing a shot. He had brains. He realised that to pick up a gun is taking a step back. It's one up from picking up a rock. To have a real, concisive victory it's IDEAS that have to win. The greatest victory, both morally and physically, is to step away from violence.
We're not monkeys any more. Surely you can see that guns don't solve anything. Ideology does.
What hatred? I feel hatred for no-one. I was simply responding to a ludicrous post from an ignorant person. I don't blame that guy, and I don't blame America. I just don't want people slinging round untruths which hurt and lessen those who actually did do something, selflessly, for the rest of the world.
I'm not anti-American, I'm just anti-insular-narrow-view-tv-fuelled-bullshit:-P There's nothing wrong with that, is there?;)
Right... "The average firearm owning American knows his surroundings well [...] They know the lay of the land, they know the wooded areas around their house"
You're trying to make gun owners sound like cowboys, or some sort of sleeping well-trained army. Come off it. If the shit hits the fan, they're going to be screwed just like the rest of the country. The "average firearm-owning American" lives in the midwest, drinks too much, and dislikes non-white people.
I can't understand why Americans think having a gun makes you more than you are - you're just average joe with a dangerous weapon you shouldn't have. It doesn't make you a patriot. It doesn't make you a hero. It just makes you dangerous to those you love, and more likely to kill a family member than an intruder/US soldier/whatever.
Also, what makes you think you having a gun will make you a good soldier? You're living in a dream world. Your AR15 isn't going to stand up to an F15, that's for sure.
I hope for your sake, you never have to use your "one man army":-P
And you have to remember that most US soldiers couldn't hit the broad-side of an barn with an abrams from 20 yards away. All that weaponry and no IQ. They keep demonstrating that every single time they fight.
I think we'd only need about 10 girl guides with guns made out of toast to take 'em on and win:)
Yeah - thanks for showing up 3 years late and doing nothing when you did. Seriously. Thanks.
One point -> D-Day would have been pretty useless if launched from Florida with 10,000 men. After D-Day, it took over one month for there to be more US troops in Europe than Commonwealth troops. You wouldn't think it if you watch Saving Private Ryan, which (unfortunately) is most of America's grasp of WWII. If you read the books, you'd realise that the only reason the US helped anyone in WWII was for self-gain, and the only reason they could help was because the US was thousands of miles from Japan and Germany (and wasn't being carpet-bombed nightly).
I think it's you who should be thanking us. If we'd given up when we were fighting Germany on our own, for years, you'd be speaking German too.
Amen!
One point, though:
"The U.S. has lost or is in the process of losing all the freedoms they hated us for.
"
The terrorists don't hate the US because of the freedoms enjoyed there - that's pure US government propaganda. Think about it for a minute - how can you want freedom so much yourself and want to blow the crap out of people? The real reason the terrorists don't like the US is because the US sees the middle east as a big sandbox to put its soldiers in case the oil needs defending. The US doesn't seem to respect muslim holy land, or even culture. Look how many innocent iraqis they kill every day.
Yeah - that got us all choked up and dreamy for America.
If you suggest to most Europeans to act like America, they'd be likely to laugh at you. Seriously. America almost a joke over here (if it weren't for all the US's weapons of mass distruction, and the chimp on the button). Like a child, when America's words failed, it lashed out at the rest of the world. Hardly the actions of a model country. That's not going to get people to look up to the US, just to despise it.
Most Europeans can see that the US's constitution is being used to mop up after sloppy joes in the White House cafeteria. We're not blinded by the assumption that anything with "US" on it is inherently good.
If there's another "9/11" in the US, a lot less countries are going to be offering their support out of sympathy, and more out of fear for themselves.
America has made its bed, now it's time for a good long nap.
dave
(And don't get me started on America's human rights abuses. They'd turn your apple pie sour.)
... but they still ship 'em with one button mice. And as for the notebooks (iBook/Powerbook) - the built-in touchpads have only one button. That can't be solved easily;)
You didn't "take" Afghanistan - you poured in so many people shooting wildly that probability states they'd kill enough of the bad guys to shake up the country. Same goes for Iraq. The North Korean situation is nothing for the US to be proud of AT ALL. The fact you even mention it shows how little you know. Oh, and you seem to be forgetting Vietnam. Slip your mind, did it?:-P
Don't you realise that the US force in Iraq was there to liberate the Iraqi people, not conquer them? Even having the US flag on Iraqi soil is a bad idea, and shows what little respect the US has for other countries. Your statement about not shooting the wrong people is absolutely laughable. The US troops were shooting their own. What about the grenade attack? What about when the missile landed in the US base and the US soldiers started shooting each other?? Is that fine soldiering? What about when the US troops shot down a Tornado Jet? Another display of military excellence?? Your argument has little to no merit what-so-ever, and further illustrates the blind faith you have in America, and anything American, which is one of the most un-American views a person could possibly entertain.
Just because a military force is large doesn't mean it's effective. Remember the "Patriot" missile defense system from Gulf War I? It didn't shoot down a single Scud. They had to send the SAS in to blow up the launchers by hand. That's another demonstration of the flawed idea that money==good military, and the American propaganda machine at work.
You seem to forget that the first white settlers to America were "dirty foreigners crawling onto our soil" too. How you can differentiate between those first immigrants and the current lot highlights your racist attitudes. That's hardly American (the constitution certainly thinks it's un-American), is it?
Your point about reading the newspaper daily and listening to the presidential address just shows how little news you actually receive. The US media, both on TV and in print is incredibly one-sided. They suffer from the same ideology you do - that everything American is good, and everything foreign is "dirty" or "bad". If, perhaps, you read some other source of media OUTSIDE the states, you'd see the real story.
And the fact you call yourself a Christian and you talk so harshly of others shows your hypocrisy. The Republicans are the party that cares not about the small person. They don't care about poor people, or those who need help. The fact you pray to God in their name is ridiculous. Surely you know Jesus was a socialist? He didn't mention "trickle-down economics" or "shareholders" once.
If you're so anti-drugs, what do you say about Bush's cocaine habit? Don't remember that?:)
What I'm doing to defend and support America? I'm bringing attention to the fact that GwB is systematically ripping up the constitution. You're the one supporting it being destroyed. I'm highlighting the fact that the US military is incredibly lacking in training, and can't hope to help Iraq nearly as much as the UN can (it's not all to do with money, you know).
I don't even know where to start with you. You're blinded by the idea that "anything the US flag touches must, by very definition, be good". It's a common way to think in the US. That way of thinking, however, is inherently flawed as all someone has to do is claim to be "defending America" against some "horrible foe", and by default, "patriots" will stand guard and blindly believe it. Every comment you make is adding weight to that argument.
You don't even see that the US military is the laughing stock of the world. A bunch of idiots with buzz-cuts running around the world shooting the wrong people. You want your son to be that idiot up the Saddam statue draping the US flag over it?
Obviously, the American propaganda machine has got to you. There is no hope for your kind, as there was no hope for the average German pre-1939. It's gonna get a lot tougher for you before it gets any better.
For one thing, you're the one trivializing the lives of those who died by thinking that an american flag on your Dodge Caravan is some incredible tribute to their deaths.
In case you haven't noticed, you're the one blindly following an idiotic despotic leader because of the flag he waves.
Would the founding fathers approve of that? I don't think so.
Also, God didn't make the US great. God didn't put the US first. As you can read in the constitution you hold so proudly, there is no connection between God and the US. You can't have your cake and eat it.
Just because the US pissed off some terrorists, who got one over on the US government by parking jet-liners half-way up the WTC, you think the government shouldn't change a dangerous and out-dated law? How does that make sense??
Oh, and btw - those flags were probably not made in the US, but by a "dirty foreigner" (the attitude that foreigners are all dirty, btw is what drives terrorists to blow up sizeable chunks of the US - keep it up.)
I did read it. That's why I wrote it. It's obviously someone trying to make money. If they want to kick up a fuss and actually change things, the 2nd ammendment would/should be their target. Not someone making a piece of software. The software didn't put a gun in their hands. Without the guns, they would just be sitting behind a tree, pointing a stick at the cars and going "pow! bang!". I don't think they'd kill anyone that way.
"Ghyslain made a video of himself as part of a school project, but when some of his classmates found it they put it on the internet."
I'm not calling you a liar (far from it), but most people seem to think that it was unlawfully (and most definitely unethically) removed from him and distributed. Do you have any URLs? I'd be most interested to get the whole story.
The kid made a tape of him pretending to be a jedi. It's something we can all relate to (I mean, how many of us at one point in our lives wanted to be jedis?:)). Then, he put it in a locked filing cabinet.
Some kids then stole the video, digitized it, and put it on kazaa.
Now, please tell me, where those kids haven't done anything wrong? They stole a PRIVATE video and released on the internet, for the purpose of embarassing the kid (who, is now receiving therapy at a mental health institute.)
Sure, the kid got an iPod and some money, but he's going to be affected by this for a long time to come. Those kids deserve everything they get.
In GTA4 I managed to capsize the speedboat with lance in it. He was trapped underneath, then it blew up. He was ok in the next mission. It seems it's harder to die than we think!:-P
Slashdot Mirror
hehehehe
I'm all for space travel, etc. but Bush just invaded a country, promising to rebuild it, now he's all about using up money they desperately need on some long-shot gamble? That's hardly responsible statesmanship. Sheesh.
As long as there are fascists, there will always be a Second Amendment, the NRA, and Republicans. ;)
I don't think it would work... GTA works because you're the only lunatic driving recklessly in the town. Think of all the tight squeezes round corners, etc. Imagine playing on a map with 20 14-year olds. They're going to be driving round like complete idiots, jamming up the whole map. They'd have to seriously rethink that before creating an on-line version. I'd love it if they did make one, though :)
Massive as in impact, not size. sheesh. :-P
There's nothing out there that can even compete with Media Center. It's head-and-shoulders above the competition. I've been using it for about a year now.
VGA monitors have square pixels in a grid form, so aliasing is highly visible. TVs have a different configuration, with alternating columns offset 1/2 way between the next. That makes for a much smoother picture, with considerably less aliasing. Also, a cheap TV has much better color than a cheap monitor ;)
If someone wanted to kill the population of a country, they will. No amount of "Look! I'm a soldier at the weekends!" accountants and building laborers running around with AR15s and Coors can stop an army. An army has infrastructure. Guys with guns just have other guys with guns. When their ammo runs out, there is no logistical support. They'd have to send their wives to the nearest sporting goods stores. "COVERING FIRE!" :-P
Having a gun doesn't instantly make you invulnerable. It doesn't guarantee anything. Apart from the risk to your friends and family (that's statistically guaranteed).
Look what happened in India with Gandhi. He pissed the Brits off 100% without firing a shot. He had brains. He realised that to pick up a gun is taking a step back. It's one up from picking up a rock. To have a real, concisive victory it's IDEAS that have to win. The greatest victory, both morally and physically, is to step away from violence.
We're not monkeys any more. Surely you can see that guns don't solve anything. Ideology does.
I'm not anti-American, I'm just anti-insular-narrow-view-tv-fuelled-bullshit :-P There's nothing wrong with that, is there? ;)
You're trying to make gun owners sound like cowboys, or some sort of sleeping well-trained army. Come off it. If the shit hits the fan, they're going to be screwed just like the rest of the country. The "average firearm-owning American" lives in the midwest, drinks too much, and dislikes non-white people.
I can't understand why Americans think having a gun makes you more than you are - you're just average joe with a dangerous weapon you shouldn't have. It doesn't make you a patriot. It doesn't make you a hero. It just makes you dangerous to those you love, and more likely to kill a family member than an intruder/US soldier/whatever.
Also, what makes you think you having a gun will make you a good soldier? You're living in a dream world. Your AR15 isn't going to stand up to an F15, that's for sure.
I hope for your sake, you never have to use your "one man army" :-P
I think we'd only need about 10 girl guides with guns made out of toast to take 'em on and win :)
One point -> D-Day would have been pretty useless if launched from Florida with 10,000 men. After D-Day, it took over one month for there to be more US troops in Europe than Commonwealth troops. You wouldn't think it if you watch Saving Private Ryan, which (unfortunately) is most of America's grasp of WWII. If you read the books, you'd realise that the only reason the US helped anyone in WWII was for self-gain, and the only reason they could help was because the US was thousands of miles from Japan and Germany (and wasn't being carpet-bombed nightly).
I think it's you who should be thanking us. If we'd given up when we were fighting Germany on our own, for years, you'd be speaking German too.
The terrorists don't hate the US because of the freedoms enjoyed there - that's pure US government propaganda. Think about it for a minute - how can you want freedom so much yourself and want to blow the crap out of people? The real reason the terrorists don't like the US is because the US sees the middle east as a big sandbox to put its soldiers in case the oil needs defending. The US doesn't seem to respect muslim holy land, or even culture. Look how many innocent iraqis they kill every day.
That's the reason the terrorists hate the US.
"Don't mess with texas!"
Yeah - that got us all choked up and dreamy for America.
If you suggest to most Europeans to act like America, they'd be likely to laugh at you. Seriously. America almost a joke over here (if it weren't for all the US's weapons of mass distruction, and the chimp on the button). Like a child, when America's words failed, it lashed out at the rest of the world. Hardly the actions of a model country. That's not going to get people to look up to the US, just to despise it.
Most Europeans can see that the US's constitution is being used to mop up after sloppy joes in the White House cafeteria. We're not blinded by the assumption that anything with "US" on it is inherently good.
If there's another "9/11" in the US, a lot less countries are going to be offering their support out of sympathy, and more out of fear for themselves.
America has made its bed, now it's time for a good long nap.
dave
(And don't get me started on America's human rights abuses. They'd turn your apple pie sour.)
... but they still ship 'em with one button mice. And as for the notebooks (iBook/Powerbook) - the built-in touchpads have only one button. That can't be solved easily ;)
Don't you realise that the US force in Iraq was there to liberate the Iraqi people, not conquer them? Even having the US flag on Iraqi soil is a bad idea, and shows what little respect the US has for other countries. Your statement about not shooting the wrong people is absolutely laughable. The US troops were shooting their own. What about the grenade attack? What about when the missile landed in the US base and the US soldiers started shooting each other?? Is that fine soldiering? What about when the US troops shot down a Tornado Jet? Another display of military excellence?? Your argument has little to no merit what-so-ever, and further illustrates the blind faith you have in America, and anything American, which is one of the most un-American views a person could possibly entertain.
Just because a military force is large doesn't mean it's effective. Remember the "Patriot" missile defense system from Gulf War I? It didn't shoot down a single Scud. They had to send the SAS in to blow up the launchers by hand. That's another demonstration of the flawed idea that money==good military, and the American propaganda machine at work. You seem to forget that the first white settlers to America were "dirty foreigners crawling onto our soil" too. How you can differentiate between those first immigrants and the current lot highlights your racist attitudes. That's hardly American (the constitution certainly thinks it's un-American), is it?
Your point about reading the newspaper daily and listening to the presidential address just shows how little news you actually receive. The US media, both on TV and in print is incredibly one-sided. They suffer from the same ideology you do - that everything American is good, and everything foreign is "dirty" or "bad". If, perhaps, you read some other source of media OUTSIDE the states, you'd see the real story.
And the fact you call yourself a Christian and you talk so harshly of others shows your hypocrisy. The Republicans are the party that cares not about the small person. They don't care about poor people, or those who need help. The fact you pray to God in their name is ridiculous. Surely you know Jesus was a socialist? He didn't mention "trickle-down economics" or "shareholders" once.
If you're so anti-drugs, what do you say about Bush's cocaine habit? Don't remember that? :)
I don't even know where to start with you. You're blinded by the idea that "anything the US flag touches must, by very definition, be good". It's a common way to think in the US. That way of thinking, however, is inherently flawed as all someone has to do is claim to be "defending America" against some "horrible foe", and by default, "patriots" will stand guard and blindly believe it. Every comment you make is adding weight to that argument.
You don't even see that the US military is the laughing stock of the world. A bunch of idiots with buzz-cuts running around the world shooting the wrong people. You want your son to be that idiot up the Saddam statue draping the US flag over it?
Obviously, the American propaganda machine has got to you. There is no hope for your kind, as there was no hope for the average German pre-1939. It's gonna get a lot tougher for you before it gets any better.
For one thing, you're the one trivializing the lives of those who died by thinking that an american flag on your Dodge Caravan is some incredible tribute to their deaths.
In case you haven't noticed, you're the one blindly following an idiotic despotic leader because of the flag he waves.
Would the founding fathers approve of that? I don't think so.
Also, God didn't make the US great. God didn't put the US first. As you can read in the constitution you hold so proudly, there is no connection between God and the US. You can't have your cake and eat it.
Oh, and btw - those flags were probably not made in the US, but by a "dirty foreigner" (the attitude that foreigners are all dirty, btw is what drives terrorists to blow up sizeable chunks of the US - keep it up.)
I did read it. That's why I wrote it. It's obviously someone trying to make money. If they want to kick up a fuss and actually change things, the 2nd ammendment would/should be their target. Not someone making a piece of software. The software didn't put a gun in their hands. Without the guns, they would just be sitting behind a tree, pointing a stick at the cars and going "pow! bang!". I don't think they'd kill anyone that way.
"Ghyslain made a video of himself as part of a school project, but when some of his classmates found it they put it on the internet."
I'm not calling you a liar (far from it), but most people seem to think that it was unlawfully (and most definitely unethically) removed from him and distributed. Do you have any URLs? I'd be most interested to get the whole story.
I'd expect it from Fox "News". Come to think of it, I'd also expect it from Slashdot :-P Never mind... ;)
I'm not being rude, but obviously. I mean, he's not exactly going to be playing Yoda, or be the Millennium Falcon now, is he?
Some kids then stole the video, digitized it, and put it on kazaa.
Now, please tell me, where those kids haven't done anything wrong? They stole a PRIVATE video and released on the internet, for the purpose of embarassing the kid (who, is now receiving therapy at a mental health institute.)
Sure, the kid got an iPod and some money, but he's going to be affected by this for a long time to come. Those kids deserve everything they get.
In GTA4 I managed to capsize the speedboat with lance in it. He was trapped underneath, then it blew up. He was ok in the next mission. It seems it's harder to die than we think! :-P