Aileron

Congress is a legislative body. Their function is to create, modify, and remove laws. Since its impossible to p!@#$%^&* a law making it illegal for mother nature to throw hurricanes at us, a legislative body really has no place in this whole fiasco. This is hardly government looking at itself, its spreading blame and criticism to avoid being criticised themselves. Certainly I agree first off that it is way too early. Not only is there no evidence of anything yet, but these allegations serve to distract the people who are working on the problems at the moment. Its a hit below the belt, because the people they accuse can't defend themselves at the moment, they have to manage the recovery efforts. Pointing fingers and throwing around blame doesn't solve problems, and in this case it may even cause us a few new ones. I don't really think the response times could have been much faster anyway. It usually takes a few weeks to get everything straightened out after a normal hurricane, and this was a really bad hurricane. I guess my opinion was forged when I read some editorial...some moron was criticising the recovery times as if he was know-it-all on disaster recovery...and then wondered what government would do if Al Queda planned their attacks to coincide with the hurricane. (Apparently Bin Laden is in possession of the 2007 World Almanac.) At that point I stopped reading and threw out the newspaper.

Okay, this topic is very newsworthy but non-political, so admittingly there isn't much to discuss here. However, we haven't had any new topics in a while. I am finding the fact that Congress is criticising organizations (such as FEMA) for response times to the hurricane is rather pathetic. Its easy to sit behind a desk and yell that somebody else could have been faster. I mean Congress themselves should have their hands full at the moment. They have not one but two Supreme Court positions that need to be filled. We have problems with health care, social security, and prescription drugs. Yet here Congress is trying to figure out what to do about the hurricane. The answser: nothing. We have police, firefighters, national guard, and medical workers, as well as every Tom, !@#$%^&*, and Harry who picks up a tool and helps out. It is their job to give relief and they are giving it...though they can't undo the hurricane and thus the process will take time. Government should be like a Henry Ford style factory. One guy mounts the carborator and someone else mounts the alternator. The guy mounting the carborator shouldn't worry about whether or not the alternator is mounted correctly or quickly enough. While whether or not the alternator is mounted correctly is important, the carborator guy should worry about the carborator and let the alternator guy worry about the alternator. By the same token congress should stop worrying about the hurricane and get back to the Supreme Court nominations. (Though I think that mayhaps the attacks on FEMA might just be a clever way for the democrats to create a subs!@#$%^&*ute for a fillibuster.)

I can believe Tex beat him in a pokemon match...though I don't think he used a pikachu to do it...mine just keeps dying...even against water-types. *sends out Dragonite and hyper-beams Eagle's arbok* haha! pwned noob! Iamthe1337xorpokemoxormastaxor!!!!Ipwnu! !@#$%^&*....I sux at this haxxorspeech crap...I'll stick with english.

Wow...this cold steel necklace blocked the dagger and saved my life!! *stabs True Human in the back while he is waiting for me to respawn* *stabs him again 3 times to make sure he is dead* *wonders what I stabbed him with...my saber broke three posts back* *sets the poor chicken back on the ground and washes TH's blood off of it* *notices my sign is broken* *wonders why flamingstarch did that...he's technically a pirate* *grabs another saber and heads towards the battle between the NPCs* *hides amidst the NPCs, taking out as many NPC ninjas as possible.*

*gets lost in smoke* *wanders into pub* *sees X`terr* *smacks X`terr with sign* *X`terr goes flying, his pants fly off, fold themselves neatly, and nicely set themselves in the nearest drawer* (the bowl of sake X`terr was drinking wobbles, and some of the contents spill on the floor) {cultural note, for those who didn't know - sake is the alchoholic beverage native to Japan - see, this topic is educational as well.} Bartender> Fool! You spilled a ninja's sake!! uh oh! *runs* *hides behind flaming pirate*

Yes, we do need rules...for those who lack common sense and then go whining about their posts being deleted. If everyone had common sense, who would indeed be right.

As I said - the religious issues that have an effect on politics would still be allowed, thus all of the subjects you cited would still be allowed. The only thing not allowed would be a purely religious debate on a subject completely irrelevant to politics. I agree with SeVeR on the fact that respect is earned and not given. However, world leaders have earned their respect. Their jobs are not easy and the responsabilities they have are great. If these responsabilities were forced on any one of our shoulders at the current stage in our lives, they would break our minds and our spirits. I mean, it almost stands as common knowledge that most President's hair suddenly goes grey during their terms. They are professional people who have worked harder than you think to get the positions they are entrusted with. At very least, a democratically elected official deserves respect in order to respect the judgement of the millions of people who elected them. This is also why I didn't make the rule apply to celebreties. They have power over people who listen to them, but no responsability. I'd also apply considerable leniency on those who are disrespecting tyrants. The reason for 5 is that people work for those organizations, and not just the big shots in the corner offices on the top floor. For example, the tobacco industry have become a very easy target lately. However, what people forget is that most of the industry is made up of farmers who put in a very hard day's work each day. These people deserve respect because they live a very hard life, and it does not do them justice to have someone portray them as a whole industry as greedy s!@#$%^&*. Respect doesn't mean "agree with" or "never criticise". It just means that one elevates his or her language above the insults thrown around in elementary school. It means using "President Bush" instead of "Dubya". Doing this would not prevent your points from getting accrossed, unless your point is pure emotion and anger. The fact that somebody disagrees with you would not warrant disrespectfull behavior, and the fact the a leader would base his actions on the wishes of many people who disagree with you would not warrant disrespectfull behavior either.

[There aren't any pirates boarding the ship - they are all trying to get inside the dojo] Suddenly Ailer hears a woman's cry for health. *runs full speed and rams bamboo door* *door doesn't break due to being indestructable* oWwW *opens door nicely* *sees hot pirate chick being held hostage by a fat balding NPC ninja* *knocks ninja with sign - ninja goes flying into the ceiling, then falls back down unconcious - his shoes fly off out a window, and hit true human on the head* *unties hot pirate chick from her bounds* *carries hot pirate chick back to boat* *sets her one her feet just as true human's shurikans come flying my way* *blocks shurikans with sign* *smacks true human with sign* *true human goes flying, but his shoes stay on his feet* *rereads sign - notes the "inside dojo" at the end of it* *drops "please take off shoes inside dojo" sign* *goes to cabin, grabs that "please take off pants here" sign* *is about to rejoin battle, but is stopped by the hot pirate chick* *goes back into cabin with hot pirate chick* censored *goes back to rejoin battle*

Alright, I guess I was wrong on this point...but an automatic pistol still explains why the officer fired 8 shots.

Respect doesn't mean "don't criticise", it just means make criticisms in a mature and quasi-professional manner.

Alright, I'd like some suggestions of what you people want removed or added to these rules before I make them final.

Alright, it seems the "get everyone to suggest rules" idea didn't pan out. It also seems that Nintendo64 and I never made the time to have that chat, and it seems this forum doesn't have any rules. I guess the thing to do then is to do the opposite...I am going to come up with a list of rules, and you guys can tell me which ones don't work. 1) All SSForum.net rules apply here. 2) Treat all other forum members with respect 2a) This includes !@#$%^&*uming that the other person doesn't have all the facts...!@#$%^&*ume the other person is atleast as knowledgable on the subject as you are unless they prove otherwise. 2b) To go along with 2a...make sure you have a reasonable amount of knowledge on the subject. If you don't, just don't make any big statements. 3) Treat world leaders and political figures with respect. Note on 3) This rule does not necessarily apply to figures who do not hold, never held, have never ran or are currently running in election, and do not have a reasonable chance of ever holding a political, religious, military, business, journalistic, legal, governmental or international position. (Basically, if the target is a celebrity, only a celebrity, and nothing but a celebrity, insult away!) Note on the note on 3) A celebrity running for political office is considered a political candidate and thus 3 DOES apply. Other note on 3) Terrorists don't fall under rule 3 either 4) Treat nations and races as a whole with respect 5) Treat businesses and organizations with respect 6) Do not post wild conspiracy theories or libel. Not-so-wild conspiracy theories are allowed. The definition of libel can be found in any dictionary. The differance between a "wild" consipiracy theory and a "not-so-wild" would be that a "not-so-wild" theory has somewhat respectable (though admittingly not complete) evidence supporting it. Thus "More than one man killed JFK" would be allowed and "President Chirac has an extraterrestrial alien in his basement" is not. 7) Don't cite a fictional source. Do not discuss religion here. Its never wise to talk about politics or religion. Given the topic of this forum, we have to talk about politics, but the discussion of religion would only need to unnessessary flamefests. The impacts of religion on politics would still be allowed though. Suggestions: 1) Site sources when asked or when you make an outrageous claim 2) Try to keep you posts shorter...not only is there less to read, but it decreases the chances that you make a statement that gets picked apart. It also helps ensure that your more important points stand out. Punishment 2-8 merely results in your post being edited, and I'm not going to count how many times I have to edit a certain person's posts. Threads will be locked if things get out of hand. Threads will be deleted if things get out of hand and the contents of the post become somehow obscene or if there is no political meat on the topic whatsoever. However, punishments for SSForum rules will be dealt as SSForum rules.

[(settings of topic note:) By this time an intense battle of NPC pirates and NPC ninjas is occuring at the door of the dojo. Some of the huts in the village are on fire, and most of the villigers have fled for their lives, some going to the hills and some to the dojo.] *notices the huge battle at the door* *attempts to go in through the paper walls of the building* *tries to cut the paper wall with saber, but the building is indestructable according to topic rules* wth???? *notices an impact crater from cannon fire at the base of the building* *gets inside and quickly digs a whole using 1337 pirate digging skillz* (pirates can dig real well, because they bury treasure a lot) *digs a tunnel leading to inside the dojo* *uses tunnel* *notices sign, which for some strange reason is in English, "please take off shoes inside dojo" * *attempts to cut sign in two* *sword breaks - the sign is part of the dojo and hence indestructable* wth????? *grabs indestructable sign and uses it as a weapon* *smacks recently respawned ninjas with sign* *each smack sends the victim flying and knocks their shoes off as well* *fights my way towards another stash of treasure*

Yes, the logical flaws in the statement are obvious...hence the "for what it's worth" added to the begining of the statement. It was only meant as a very weak statement to begin with.

Yeah, but they weren't using pistols, they were using submachine guns.

this isn't an actual rpg you know...we are waiting for Manus to get off his !@#$%^&* and start a new 17th Parallel Bar topic.

*respawns* *loads flamingstarch into cannon* *fires flamingstarch at ninja dojo* *flamingstarch impales 5 ninjas yet somehow lives through it* *grabs saber back* *finds another flintlock pistol* *runs back to dojo to grab more treasure*

Spain and the UK aren't part of the US. Governments are responsable for their countries and only their countries, otherwise one is putting far too much power and responsability on one man's shoulders. There is one major difference between the US and UK, though a subtle one...in the US the populace overall supported the action in Iraq, where in the UK it didn't as much. That difference is subtle but very important. Generally it means that if the terrorists struck the US, the US would just get angry and hit them back. However, when the terrorists attacked Spain, Spain backed out, because they weren't as zealous as the US. They attacked the UK and Egypt under the same line of thinking. I will admit that I am clearly overanaylizing terrorist thinking...their cellular structure causes them to strike apart from the big overall strategy sometimes. I wouldn't put any stock in the color-coded threat level....it probably depends on little more than the mood of some commitee.

That report must have been innacurate then...law enforcement agencies never use Glocks...the primary advantage of a Glock is that they don't show up on metal detectors. Law enforcement personel do not have any use for such a feature, and would opt for something more effective. I'd especially have an easier time believing the picture I saw because MP5s are standard issue amongst SWAT teams, anti-terrorist teams, certain military teams, etc.

yeah...*throws rock at TH* *rock rematerialises in pocket* *throws rock at TH again* [repeat 50x]

*crawls out of bomb shelter* "Wow, some sort of nuke must have went off" *grabs club and breaks Maur's knees*

*gets bucket of water and puts out the flames* *notices a rope dangling from a post* *grabs the rope and swings on it* *travels in a circle back to Paine* *slashes Paine with sabre* *grabs treasure again* *carries treasure back to ship* *drops treasure in cargo hold* *goes back up on deck and mans one of the cannons* *fires a round of grapeshot through the door into the ninja dojo, killing all ninjas who just respawned* *starts loading cannon again*

Eww....I apologize for the bit of absence I had over the summer...I only have access to a decent internet connection at college. I really apologize for not being here to moderate this thread...the personal insults seemed to have stopped though, so I won't lock it for now. Do you have a similar link that shows the same video without going to a pornography site? Little kiddies do post here. Upstate NY must have the most non-representative government in the US...the NY state government and congressional positions are dictated by what NY city wants...I wonder if the people in upstate NY even vote for anyone above the local positions. I wouldn't criticise Bush's policy too much...for what its worth, the mainland US hasn't been attacked since Sept 11th. That doesn't mean much, but it does mean he hasn't made any major mistakes.

I guess the reason why the suspect was shot multiple times is because the officer had an MP5. (I saw a picture, that's the gun that was in his hands.) They have three settings: semi-auto, 3-round burst, and full auto. They are only set on semi-auto on rifle ranges. The officer probably had it on three-round burst and pulled the trigger twice. Monte...American police officers hardly handle matters like that, hence why the Americans in this forum are the ones concerned. For the British police officer, this was probably the first time he carried a firearm in about 5 years (British officers don't usually carry sidearms) so he was probably not used to using a weapon in the field.

[Pirate] *Deflects Shurikans with sword* *raises flintlock pistol* *fires at Paine* (miss) Dammit!! *throws pistol at Paine* (Knocks out both Paine and Cubbies, because Paine is attached to cubbies) *grabs a chest of ninja gold and runs back to the ship*