Posts made by Zero Pilot

Actually I don’t see the middle 3 choices coming from Bush Co.

@newpaintbrush:

For these boards, the tournament scene is a move a day.  A move a DAY!  :roll:

Come on, I wouldn’t want to be eliminated from the Big Tournament just because I like to sleep in a few times a week.  :-D

I know a move a day as a minimum seems painfully slooow to complete a game so I totally understand the rule. But that’s actually why I’ve never signed up for an A&A.org tournament. My problem is that sometimes my dsl connection just doesn’t want to be a dsl connection. I think it’s a wiring thing because sustained high winds often cause connection problems. So I might have a couple days here and there where I can’t reliably get online. So I just don’t sign up for the tournaments at all instead of becoming blacklisted as some bum who craps out and forfeits games all the time. ~ZP

You need to have a certain amount of post to give karma, I think it’s 100. I guess that’s meant to prevent unscrupulous individuals from signing up with a dozen different names just to blast a bunch of negative karma around, or give themself a bunch of positive. ~ZP

@ncscswitch:

Vote the bums out.  Vote out every single politician that has voted for pork, or programs, or whatever beyond the strict limits of Article 1, Section 8.

I agree. But who does that leave, seriously?

I think that by and large “we the people” still care a great deal. Certainly well beyond our means to easily change things. If we can no longer find politicians ready and willing to make the changes that need to happen then we have been essentially sidelined from the democratic process. It’s no longer “we the people” collectively as in government representing the constituents. Government and people have become “us and them”, a breakdown of the wealthy elite and the rest. The haves and the have not’s.

We could take to the streets like was done in the 60’s and 70’s and maybe that’s really what needs to happen. But in this day and age I just can’t see that happening. We face a modern quandary. This is an age of technological distraction. 200+ channels on the tv, cell phones, internet, home game systems, and so on. Actually the internet has a positive effect in all of this though because it is one of the few places you can still find information that has not been filtered through the slanderous bias of “big media”. But unfortunately most people don’t read. Far too many weak minded individual just stare at the “glowing little box” all day and let the “glowing little box” hand their opinions to them (inbetween mind numbing doses of ET and American Idol). So they don’t know. Therefore they don’t care.

So the quandry is the youth of the nation, who has historically been the ones to take things to the streets, has become distracted and hooked on technology of the age. Most seem more wrapped up “things” rather than ideals, such important fundamental ideals such as democracy and freedom. As long as they have access to cell phones, a nintendo wii and a myspace account and a microwave dinner well, they’re more or less complacent. They’re not taking to the streets, and it’s not really their fault. They’ve been bought off by the system and a future of status quo.

The quandary for the non-youth (like you and I) is that we know very well the importance of the ideals like freedom and democracy. We can plainly can see what’s going on and what’s being lost. We see something must be done and must be done now. But what? Who to vote for? Because other than the vote… where to go and what do do? We’re not taking it to the streets either because we’ve been distracted in an entirely different way. Hell we gotta be at work tomorrow! So it’s not really our fault either. We’ve been integrated into the system of a future status quo.

So I think the single biggest problem is there isn’t a true representation of “we the people” in government anymore. There aren’t any political choices left to make the changes that need to be made. I’m not taking about this or that particular stance, program or funding. I’m talking about the fundamental principles of democracy. Like Habeas Corpus! We’re all outraged that this true pillar of democracy has been quietly removed at the sole discretion of the president in the name of “war on terror”. With terror being merely a concept also subject to the sole interpretation of the president. So sad really.

We the people are outraged yet again but there isn’t a single damn politician to be found willing to do anything about it. The Dems got marginal control of Congress and spent weeks and weeks barking up the Scooter Libby tree, and the Alberto Gonzales tree. Neither were the top level instigators themselves to the crimes of course. But what happened? Libby got pardoned immediately and Gonzales quietly resigned while Congress was on break. And that was that. No investigative follow up the food chain like should have been done. And not even a single consequence for those blowing off Congressional subpoenas. Just sigh nothing.

The people care, there just aren’t any politicians left who care. Government has become the embodiment of status quo. Politicians run on their touted platforms of health care and economic recovery and it’s all completely abstract to them. They don’t face unemployment or realistic economic woes. They have no worries about how to pay for their health care or the consequences of Asian outsourcing. They’ve become too far removed from we the people to even remotely rationalize a true representation of what it is to be an American citizen.

And if there are no politicians left to make the changes, to let us make the changes we want to see made through them… then this system of democratic representation has become a farce, a charade, just a quaint antiquated idea who’s time has come and gone. The only other option is taking it to the streets and unfortunately I just can’t see that happening anymore in this day and age.

In the article I linked to the right most column tells you the % of households.

Graphic Designer in the printing industry. ~ZP

@Cmdr:

Illinois was the state with the ninth most home foreclosures for last year.

We had a total of 91 homes foreclosed on.  Yea, that’s right, 91.  Not even 100.  91 out of millions of homes.  Sounds like we have an epidemic alright!

What?!? I think you missed the 3 zeros on the end of that.

91 foreclosures? Does that even sound remotely plausible?

Illinois actually had 90,782 foreclosures in 2007.

Here are the total 2007 foreclosure figures for the country listed by state:

http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/celebrity/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0922/20080129/0501275434.htm

Well according to our commander-in-chief WWIII is apparently not avoidable unless Iran suspends it’s nuclear weapons program - a program which in fact Iran does not even have, according to all credible sources including our very own NIE.

So apparently WWIII comes about once we have a world power leader so bent on ultimate control and dominance that they will no longer listen to the facts and reason of their advisers or the rest of the world.

Are we there yet?  :roll:

Japan is also my favorite nation to play (hence my username) because it offers the most flexibility in the game. In classic I often went with an IC in Manchuria, but in revised I almost never build an IC. I kinda started to see the wisdom in what peeps had often said about it taking a couple turns to get an IC going versus transports. In many close games where Japan’s final thrust might be just one turn ahead of… or one turn behind Russia for the win those extra turns started to really make a difference. So anymore I favor the quick deployment and flexibility offered by good 'ol transports. Much like with the UK, our gaming group doesn’t see ICs built as Japan very often anymore unless it’s late in the game and Japan is having a tough time placing all their IPCs usefully. ~ZP

@Cmdr:

No.  It is the government’s job to print the money.

Not after 1913. ~ZP

Way to go Switch! :-D  ~ZP

And the Federal Reserve has slashed interest rates (again) in an “emergency move”:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEgwdDHD5Fbs&refer=home

Gee, must be 'cause the Federal Reserve are such nice guys and decided to make less money… surely not to stave off impending economic doom. /sarcasm

Ahh… an ex-native keystone stater eh Switch? I’m in Lancaster County, PA. ~ZP

@ncscswitch:

Forecast is for up to 4 inches… paltry by PA standards

Not so paltry for PA this year though. We got maybe 6" here all year so far. Farmshow week, which was last week, is notorious for coinciding with a blizzard or snow dump or at the very least torrential rains. No snow… no rain… it got up to 65 here last week! ~ZP

@Scalenex:

I’m relatively new to Axis and Allies having played two games.  Both of which Japan takes India the turn after an industrial center is built there.  I’m told that was a fluke.

I wouldn’t say fluke since in both cases the IC was built without the defenses to keep it. Having Japan go after it full bore is pretty typical too. Our gaming group found that an IC in India just becomes an instant bullseye for Japan and the road to Moscow will be paved through India without fail. Other players may do things differently but our group went down that road often enough so that it’s not even tried now.

The only exception is possibly late game when the Allies are doing so well… with US forces transversing North Africa past Trans-Jordan (and beyond) while the UK is raking in enough IPCs so that their 8 unit placement limitation is keeping them from deploying all their IPCs… then you might see an IC in India. Obviously by that time it’s a game ending move rather than a game winning one. ~ZP

@stuka:

To me, it is of most importance that our nation at war should be what we should be voting about.

I was trying my best not jump into this rather sensitive thread… but I have to say I absolutely agree.

I think it’s really sad to see the (voting) pubic become complacant with this war just continuing apparently “off in the background”. The whole situation just lends itself to no one coming up with a plan or conditions for withdrawal, ever.

And now just days ago McCain is quoted as saying we’ll be in Iraq “maybe 100 years”. Those words should be the death knoll for any perspective candidate. And yet amazingly… apparently they aren’t.

Perhaps to many the '08 elections are nothing more than a glorified version of American Idol. They no longer even begin to realize what’s at stake: the uncertain future of a nation at war. ~ZP

Actually umm… no.  :-P The orig. Russian sub is typically IS the Russian navy.

What round did Russia make this big navy purchase? And what was Japan doing (or not doing) to allow this? Just wondering. ~ZP

@balungaloaf:

i’ll figure out how people show the maps on these forums with tripleA, then post it.

What version of Triplea are you running? The more recent versions of Triplea include a feature to save a screenshot of the entire gameboard (Game > Save Screenshot…). ~ZP

On the twelfth day of (A&A) Christmas my Opponent gave to Meee…

Twelve Bombers bombing
Eleven Fighters fighting
Ten Tanks attacking
Nine Infantry shooting
Eight Artillery firing
Seven Subs submerging
Six Destroyers detecting

FIVE AA HITS!!!

Four Carrier fleet
Three Transports
Two IC’s
and a Battleship bombardment at 1

:-D

Merry Christmas to All… and to All a Good Night. ~ZP