Posts made by bossk

No, actually, I think you’re wrong. the rules state that a fighter can be moved from any territory to and adjacent sea zone for a CAP. Besides, why would you want to launch a CAP from a carrier? They defend with the carrier anyway. I just don’t see the point.

Wow, I just reread the rule and realized you don’t actually use Japan’s planes on the gameboard for kamikaze attacks. This changes the game considerably. I guess you learn something new everyday. I had always assumed that you had to designate an actual fighter unit that was already in existance on the gameboard as a kamikaze. This makes life considerably easier.

You mean if you have an ally’s fighter on your carrier as you move into combat with it? This is a fascinating question. I think that the fighter can’t take part in the battle in any way, including as fodder. Since the fighter is cargo on the carrier, I would treat it like any other cargo on a transport, since it’s basicly the same thing except with a fighter. Since the ally’s fighter cannot attack with your forces and it didn’t take off before the carrier moved, it must be considered on the carrier if it sinks. “If the fighter doesn’t take off before you move the carrier, the fighter is treated as cargo for the remained of your turn and may not fly, fight or be used as a casualty” (p. 32)

I saw a movie the other night that was quite fascinating. It’s called Equilibrium and was released late last year. It’s about a distopia that was formed after a third world war and the ensuing nuclear holocaust (kind of tried, I know). The novel part of it is that the war so moved the leaders of the post-war world that they decided to end war by ending the source of most human conflicts, emotion. The suppression of emotion is accomplished by taking a drug every few hours and anyone caught feeling is convicted of a sense-crime and summarily exicuted by an organization called the Grammatron Cleric. If you haven’t seen it I recomend it highly, it’s probably one of the best sci-fi films of the past few years.

@dIfrenT:

I have a problem with that too. It is too easy, but IMO your explanation is too easy as well. I believe that there is only ONE way to the ONE true God. That’s through Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. That cannot be defined as easy because it offends too many people.

It’s not the same God. Jesus Christ is God, and reincarnation is a wrong philosophy.

You seriously believe 4 billion people are going to hell becuase they are simple misguided in you mind? Even if some of them have had religous experiences that surpass yours and have convinced them that their religion is true. I could not believe in a god that would do that, it seems cold and heartless. A cold and heartless god is not really something I’d want to believe in.

That’s an impartial piece of reporting if I ever saw one.

@ZimZaxZeo:

Mr. bossk,

I would suggest that a “pure democracy” – by which we mean direct rule of the people – can only exist on Gilligan’s Island, or some other very-low-population enclave.

Representative democracy, where mass votes are funneled into some type of legislature, isn’t referred to as democracy, but as a republic – correct?

So, as you mentioned, we have a democratic republic as our form of government in the U.S.

Yes, I believe you would be correct. The way I see a pure democracy is every citizen being able to vote on every decision that faces the nation. Obviously a throughly impractical idea (possibly even dangerous under some circumstances). So, the way I see it, the only possible form of democracy would be a so called bastardized version.

@Janus:

i know doom has books, but the difference is Halo’s books are good.

I have a friend who would disagree with you here, but then again I’m not sure I would trust his judgement. I’ve read his own attempts at novel writing.

Sure Metriod Prime has a few puzzles, but if it’s not an FPS then what is it? All the action of the game is focused around it, and isn’t the point of FPS’s to emulate reality to some degree? I say it’s better at doing this becuase reality involves problem solving. You know, I just became extremely disapointed in myself becuase I forgot to mention Goldeneye. Now, if we don’t agree that Goldeneye is definately in the top 5 FPS produced to date then we’re never going to agree about anything.

In that case I would be very much a liberal.

If democracy is seperate and distinct, explain to me what a purely democractic system is, and how it is actually achievable.

I’m a leftist of some sort. I tend to hover between Democratic Socialist and Communist of the Trotskiest variety. What I’m wondering is why democracy on this poll is seperate from everything else, it’s not really mutually exclusive of very many of the other choices. Besides, what is a democracy? it seems more like a descriptor of a kind of government rather than a definition of a government. For instance, The US is a democratic republic; I, personally, would go for a democratic socialist government.

As for political parties in the US, I don’t really want to identify myself with either of them. Politics in the US has degenerated into pandering to the precieved public will and has very little to do with what the actual candidates and parties believe in.

Hey, Doom has books too, and the story line in the Doom games is highly entertaining; besides what’s wrong with shooting things up? I find it very satisfying, especailly with a plasma rifle, heh heh. The beauty of the games I mentioned is their simplicity; you don’t need a comprehensive understanding of light-infantry tactics to play these games, they’re just plain fun. As for the objectives being non-existent, do you consider single-handedly saving the human race from demons from another dimention an unworthy objective? My statements about personality, I was refering to the way thegame feels. I find nothing immersive about Halo, just a pretty fun game that results in loss of hand-eye coordination and eye strain if I play it for too long. Although the multi-player alone makes the game worth owning, it is not the great first-person shooter experience you are claiming it to be, in my opinion. You’ll also notice that I didn’t limit my choices for great FPS to Dark Forces, Doom, and Wolfenstien, but I also included Metriod Prime which I consider to be far superior to Halo, despite the lack of multi-player. It has a character with an actual backstory (I know Halo has novels explaining it’s back story, but would a gamer just picking the game up and poping it into his console know it?) and a massive envorinment (not just missions) in which one must solve puzzels to advance. I’m not sure exactly how to quantify what I mean about games being souless with words, but I do know that that is exactly how I feel about Halo.

I agree with Yanny on this one. Halo is not the ultimate gaming experience. It is a very fun game, but it just doesn’t compare to some classics like Asteroids or nearly any Zelda game. And as for first-person shooters, it is not the best, I believe that title belongs to either the first Dark Forces game or one of id’s first games (Doom or Wolfenstien). I personally even like Metriod Prime quite a bit more than Halo (although the lack of multi-player is a drawback). There’s just something kind of souless to Halo, like it just doesn’t have a life of it’s own. I like games that have some sort of personality, ifthat makes any sense, and that’s something that Halo (and I think a lot of game for Xbox) just don’t have.

I know you don’t hate arabs or muslims, I just got this feeling from your post that you believe that many arab leaders are out to get democracy. I’m probably wrong, shouldn’t trust those feelings all the time.

@Jacob_Duhm:

If Truth changes, it isn’t Truth. Truth is an absolute. You cannot escape absolutes. If I said that all truth was subjective and that there is no absolutes, I would be creating an absolute. Call it: “The Absolute of No Absolutes,” if you will. However, an absolute that is not an absolute is illogical.

Ah, you’re using Truth, I’m talking about truths (notice capitalization difference). You’re right about Truth not changing, but I’m saying there is no absolute Truth. One of my truths is that truths can change, it’s not an absolute.
@Jacob_Duhm:

Also, if there is no objective standard for right and wrong, should you stop me from stealing your car? Stealing, may, after all, be ethical for me, but by stoping me, you would be holding me to your standard, which would imply that you think your system of ethics is supirior to mine, and that my code of morality is somehow flawed. Now, I wouldn’t consider going out and stealing anyone’s car because I think that is stealing, but how would a relativist deal with that situation and still retain his “relativism?”

You’re forgetting that we live in a society. A society doesn’t fuction too well without rules, so the truths that a majority of the population seems to share becomes law. Law is, I suppose, the closest you can get to a societal “Truth.” As a relativist I would naturally think that the person who stole my car was wrong, becuase according to my values he would be. Being a relativist just means that I cannot believe that there is an absolute Truth of any sort, the universe just doesn’t work that way.

Ah, you pulled out Truth (with a capital “T”). I believe there is no Truth, only a few truths. These truths must be determined in each society and by each individual, and therefore truth is constantly changing. To say truth is static would be denying history. You may call me relativist scum, but I’ll never give in to absolutism.

Wow. Are you taking any meds for schizophrenia? Do you seriously believe that all the arab nations are out to kill democracy? Do you even know anything about the governments of most arab nations? If you did, rather than assuming that all nations with a Muslim majority were fundamentalist theocracies, you’d find that Eygpt is a republic and Jordan is a consititutional monarcy (kind of like our great liberating allies, the UK). So you see, it’s not a huge Islamic conspiracy to take over southern Asia, unless Syria and Iran team up against the rest of the Middle East.

I think that in following the nonmaleficience principle you would have to give the great number of people the operation, seeing as it would do the least harm. If you give one person the operation five times while potentially letting 4 other people die of this problem, I would see it as doing more harm than if 5 people were given the operation with one dying later becuase his lifestyle required him to need the surgery again. Of course it’s never this simple, but if it were then this is what I would do.

I have it for Gameboy. Got 81440, and 129 lines the other day. I think that’s a new personal record. Anyone else here play Tertris?

Indeed, F_alk. You should see the rule book of ASL, it’s massive. I bought it a few months ago and I’m still trying to understand most of the concepts presented.

Wow, the Western conference is weaker than I thought, then. I mean, two shutouts in a row? Only 32 shots on goal in the series so far? Either the Ducks are really inconsistent or they’re not as good as they had hoped. I mean, even the Oilers beat NJ once.