madhaha

Yeah, go back to taking Ground Warfare you lazy ship stealers... Its not like the MG ones are any good anyway

-Deleted Double Post-

Yes. The US is an empire. An empire is a group of countries under the control of a central authority. Nuclear weapons have already been used in war. Did you miss it? Nuclear weapons are also used in modern warfare (although usually in "low-yield" weapons) as well as a nuclear deterrant. Nuclear weapons are perfectly viable as agents of destruction. Their proliferation does not limit their effectiveness, after all not every country has the missile warning system the US does or the time and means to shoot missiles down or if worse comes to the worse the land to rebuild in. George Bush's intelligence is irrelevant and his history (and that of his family) for bankrupting companies suggests that he is highly capable of social manipulation (to get himself in power) and coverups (to shut people up after they steal their money and then block access to the records). One explaination of socialism: Whereas capitalists emphasize freedom for the individual to possess private property, socialists emphasize the well-being of the community. They strive to achieve this through many methods, including public ownership, regulation, and state-sponsored social programs. Public ownership, regulation and state-sponsored programs exist in most of the EU and even to some extent in the states. Your other opinions are unsupported/unproven.

How about deleting this redundant thread instead of dumping it here...

Interesting... We can definately establish the validity of some of the arguments presented (the dates in the tree for example). It also ties in very neatly with what we know about the severe tampering of media reports at the fall of Baghdad (examine the orchastration of the fall of Sadam's statue, the carefully selected camera views, the conveniently handy american crane and pre-show arrangement for the flag that was on the WTC at 9/11 to be draped on tthe statue's face etc.). Which leads us to questions like why was there a three month delay? The possibilities that occur to me are: the evidence tampering required more time (unlikely considering the speed at which they work and the funding), the interrogators needed more time before they excecute Saddam, the conspirators needed more propaganda (a higher death toll and/or more visible proof of America rebuilding Iraq "look we've built playgrounds!"), the political timing wasn't right (perhaps they were looking for an opportunity to use it as a smokescreen at a later date?) OR the whole thing was planned to co-incide with Christmas.

Too few facts Aileron. I see many MANY !@#$%^&*umptions and lots of speculation built on pretty poor logic. What we have is a rationalisation, a believer defying commonsense, past experience and hard evidence. Please open yourself to objective analysis. Also your conclusion is NOT supported by current evidence. How about we wait a year and then count the number of words you have to eat Scruff: George Bush's percieved intelligence has little/no bearing on the matter. You're aware that his policies are decided by other parties and are enacted by his military. His intelligence is irrelevant. I see his actions as criminal hiding behind inep!@#$%^&*ude. Perhaps you could research further instead of taking everything at face value. One thing that's nagging me about this whole issue is how Saddam's location was pinpointed. The press says information was "extracted" from a large number of his supporters, extracted being a common euphemism for torture/blackmail. What has happened to these people? Who were they? How widespread was the extraction of information?

A lot of people seem to be ignoring the fact that it'd be a relatively simple task to launch a domestic war on the US. A civil war is both more likely to occur, and to succeed that a majority of international threats. There are exceptions.

Maka, why are so many of your posts called something-or-other THE TRUTH. You learn your literary skills from some third-rate New York tabloid hack? Another "staff sux" thread. Ok, so wtf are people going to do?

Please add the option for an ambivalent response and reset the poll. On second thoughts, since the poll is completely pointless and since you aren't getting any helpful feedback why not just ditch the thread? The map plays ok. The non-cosmetic changes were not substantial enough to make a change to gameplaying patterns with the possible exception of the solid logo in the middle which has discouraged people who have nothing better to do than mine the centre all day and providing a tiny bit more cover. Tileset reminds me of lego technic and it hasn't made any visible impression on new players although we've stopped having the "ew this zone looks old" comments (instead we have "ew it looks like lego/bric-a-brac" comments). The new gfx is a royal pain in the arse. The ball is OK. People who use the ship status graphics seemed pissed off because the current rendition is just as confusing as the previous one and no-one has got used to it. The new mine graphics are in my opinion a) unnecessary and harder to see. Please make them a little brighter. Also the craftier players have expressed they preferred the green mines because they look like greens. That choice is up to you.

*bumps thread back to the top* Given the current slew of events, things aren't looking too rosy for the EU. Comments?

The current state of world politics and power is essentially the product of the Second World War. As I have mentioned, America is basically the last colonial power. Its two main goals are expansion and creating profit for those in power. This is leading to a slow domestic decline. There is a considerable gap between rich and poor that is continuing to widen. This may or may not cause domestic unrest depending on how it is handled. Given time, there is a good probability of an attempted revolution, perhaps even an out right civil war unless all likely leaders are killed (with an increasing likelyhood of one slipping "through the net" as time goes on). On the world front, America is gradually losing its economic lead to developing countries (especially China). The EU is currently looking too unstable to provide any serious opposition. In terms of military power, things are extremely uncertain both due to the availibility of nuclear arms and also due to advancements in technology (computer based warfare and the chinese space program being touted as the biggest new threats to America aside from good old nuke/bio/chem). Few countries have the motivation or the commitment to carry out a full scale war against the US but many have the means to at the very least do some serious damage. The US can sustain its current rate of development for maybe a decade or two without serious trouble i.e. trouble that the government has to do something about. If I had to make a prediction then I'd say that the US has a feasible chance of lasting that long. Any longer would be pure speculation.

http://www.ssforum.net/index.php?showtopic=2177&st=0entry28773

So let me get this straight... It takes the combined military might of America and the British how many months to find one man hidden in a cellar CUNNINGLY camoflaged by a carpet and 4 bricks? We levelled whole areas of cities, killed a literally uncounted number of people and basically annexed another country to find a man who didn't even have a telephone line or radio to organise any form of resistance. We're lead to believe this man is a major threat to the civilised world. Where is his "band of fanatically loyal bodyguards"? -*BAD WORD*- he didn't even have a camera to record propaganda footage.

Thankyou oh deleter of forum posts. Please have UP TO DATE backups next time.

My take on US politics: The US political system is a scam. It promises stability, investment in public infrastructure, individual freedom and the protection of the US and its interests abroad, a solid judicial system yada yada yada. Mere lip service is paid to these issues and the minimal amount of work is done to ensure that people keep voting. The chief use of the US political system is not unlike an organised crime racket. Leaders of opposing families fight for control of the country through a system of rigged polls and "encouragement". Their goal is personal wealth, to remain in power for as long as they can while ensuring continuity for their family line or political party. The US foreign policy is a subtle rehash of the colonial system designed to funnel all the wealth to the presidency, his family and the party in power. The US establishes widespread military bases, not unlike the religious missions of the previous era. Their goal is to set up trade they can control and belief in the capitalist model to make the money/resources flow. Key contracts are given to those with connections to the presidency or giving large donations to the ruling party. Strangely enough, the companies that are headed by those with "connections" will collapse with much of the money going to the before mentioned individuals and the whole mess swept conveniently under the carpet by "law". The system is merely a front to prevent the public from revolting as it were. Basically, the same as any other age of man.

I love it when people repeat what I've said months ago

Its called a subtle ironic hint for the forum moderators to WAKE UP AND DO THEIR JOBS!

BTW if anyone wants my copy of subseven LEGO.exe they're welcome to it Do people want a minimum framerate limit? I'm not sure how long you're allowed to have a low framerate before you get kicked outl. Anyone experimented with a test server?

-*BAD WORD*-, all of Leveticus is probably now politically incorrect. Anyone know if Jews follow Lv 15:30 whereby a woman must offer a 2 doves to a priest for sacrifice every time she has a period?

Only if you can catch the spammers, which in most cases isn't possible. Its going to cost more to find and prosecute spammers than to ignore them and since the overheads of running a spamming operation are minimal whereas the overheads of finding spammers are going to be very expensive, at least in terms of manpower, catching spammers isn't really a sustainable activity. You seem to view spammers are companies. They're more like individuals although there are numerous "spammer rings". They make lots of money and when you catch one you don't affect the others. -*BAD WORD*-, you make it more viable for the others to spam.

Shows how bad your reading skills are. "These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat." Its saying eat fish. But not anything else that lives in the water. "And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:" So not s-*BAD WORD*-fish, crabs, lobsters, shrimp, jellyfish etc. It also has some strange nonsense about not eating rabbits because they "cheweth the cud" which of course they don't.

Aileron, you don't understand the true scale of the economics. Internet backbone providers charge by the bandwidth used. Spam means good buisness for them. It is not in their interests to stop spam although they can make changes that would radically reduce spam. Local ISPs foot the bill but have no hope of stopping spam globally. The legislation tries to scare of spammers. Who will enforce it? Probably the poor local ISPs and the courts. Spammer make lots of money. They can fight hard long legal battles if they have to and its easy for them to setup stall again. They are very costly to catch and go to extreme lengths (often up to the level of "anonimity" that government agencies have) to not get caught. Whats more, companies can STILL legitimately sell tools who only purpose is to spam WITHOUT FACING ANY CONSEQUENCES. They can effectively DoS a local ISP with spam if they make a fuss. Also, telemarketters have a BIG (if indirect) influence on the US senate. You can do you own dirt digging here. So. They have the tools. They have the cash. They have support from high up. They have no morals. They can almost guarantee not being caught if they're smart. Anyone want to suggest a Better way of stopping them?

Question posed: Will the EU survive? Survive what? How long would you consider "survive" to be? A year? 10 years? 100 years? A millenium? Clarify.

List contradictions? From which version? King James? I believe the "politically correct" version you're referring to is the God awful (excuse the pun) mess called the "New English Translation". While the King James had discreprecies, at least the tone was well set and the passages read like poetry. Does anyone personally know people who strictly observe Leviticus Chapter 11 (the section on food abominations). Here is the "skeptics" version although please note that I understand that some of (a lot of) the annotations throughout the site can easily be refuted or are just plain wrong. http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/lev/11.html Interestingly, all freebie versions of the bible that I get given now omit the old testament but retain things like the 10 commandments.

Akai: Let me know if you make any changes to That arena.