Fringy MacGee

Originally Posted By: Harehunter You seem to be suggesting that the motivation may be more political than religious. I do not disagree. But how to distinguish the primary motivation? I leave the question for you to answer. Then I shall. While religious ideology might have been the spark that started the fire, I would argue the 'primary' reason a person would suicide bomb anything is because their lives are pathetic and horrible and why not, it's not like they have much to lose in the first place. Thus society's cure for terrorism is the nice pacifying lifestyle that keeps the rest of us busy. You know, a median income, bills to pay, hamburgers, TV, marriage, 2 children, a mortgage, liquor, pornography, sports, CRPGs... Wow I could go on forever listing all the things that keep us pacified and tethered to society. (The above is just an example, other players might have different things to pacify them, but we all play the game.)

Originally Posted By: Othar Trygvassen: Gentleman "If you don't like your job, just work somewhere else!" Anyone who thinks this argument holds water for most people has not read any news about the economy in the last...4 years, let's say? It's true! I was watching some TV show from the late 90s the other day, where the character was starting her first day on a new job, and the manager says to her "So why do you want to work here? You seem like a smart girl, and there are lots of other jobs out there-" I burst out laughing. (Then I cried, because I've been out of work for over a month and a half.)

I demand a bigger sample size! Bigger, I say!

What?!?! Did anyone else just see the story on Rachel Maddow about how Ron Paul is secretly winning all the caucuses (delegate-wise), even having lost them (vote-wise)? Determining your nominee by caucus is now officially sillier than using the applause-o-meter.

Originally Posted By: Soul of Wit Originally Posted By: Fringy MacGee {various musings about bubbles] Your three bubbles are blatant examples of generalizations. I agree. They are generalizations. In real life, people don't fit cleanly into categories. My point was, why can't there be a form of newsmedia or infomedia which actually cares more about separating fact from believe than promoting an ideology? I blame human nature. When will we finally put robots in charge of everything? Edit: Also, newspapers? Who reads those? I read the free ones on the metro sometimes to help me learn French, but that's it.

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S I have to say, I find it a little appalling the way people toss around condescending statements about people from the other party, somehow assuming that they make sense to everyone else. They don't. That's because Spidweb exists outside the bubble. People come here from all over. (The Fox Bubble, the MSNBC Bubble, the post-grad academia bubble - the evilest and most condecending of all bubbles...) Things that are "facts" inside each of the various bubbles, make little sense outside of the bubble. I don't know when facts stopped being universal, I guess it happened gradually over time. Click to reveal.. Fox People - believe it is a fact that Obama is a socialist who has destroyed the economy and the solution is to slash government spending and regulation across the board. Many also doubt the veracity of Obama's birth/religion, and fear that he's coming for their guns. MSNBC People - believe it is a fact that Republicans arranged for, or at least allowed 9/11 to happen as a false-flag thingymajig. Also that all Republicans are stupid or evil. Academic People - believe it is a fact that whomever is president and which party is in power makes no difference. This whole left vs. right thing is just bread and circuses, while the politicians are just figureheads whose strings are pulled by the Plutocrats (the super wealthy). FYI, if you think you're all worldy because you get your news from Al-Jazeera and various blogs, you belong to the 3rd bubble.

Wow, so many "Primary day" advocates on the Spidweb, I had no idea. The current system may serve the media (and we all hate them obviously), but whom would a national primary day serve? It would serve rich candidates and/or candidates pre-coronated by the party establishment. Think about it. Candidates like Rick Santorum (not that I like him) would have no chance. All the hard work he put in kissing babies and shaking hands and promising ethanol subsidies to Iowans would be for not. Small states would no longer matter at all (not even for 1 week every 4 years). All that would matter is national TV coverage in the biggest markets. AKA $$$. I think the randomized state order is much more brilliant idea. Just think how much fun it would be. Disclaimer: I am also Canadian, and I don't even participate in our crappy primaries.

Romney has been coronated since he won the invisible primary, certainly after Iowa. The only real obstacle in his way is the idea of Ron Paul gathering enough delegates to make a big stink at the convention, and him potentially running as a 3rd party. I think Obama's probably going to win in either case, but if Ron Paul runs it will be a cakewalk for him. Now, the real question. Who's going to win in 2016? Chris Christie with a side of Tim Pawlenty?

Edit: Bah. Server Error.

Finally got some free time to play this demo. Yay! So, I'm playing in 1280x720 (windowed) on my 720p Plasma, and it looks awesome BUT... I'm finding that the play area is way too small (vertically). I get that you can collapse the party/mini-map overlays, but the overlay at the bottom is huge! Can it be collapsed/removed? In the settings, there is an option for "Play Area" (small, normal, full window) Changing this option doesn't seem to do anything at all. Is it supposed to? Thanks!

It periodically gives your party disease and confusion(?), if confusion is the thing where you can't remember any of your spells.

Originally Posted By: Lt. Sullust So what you're saying is that you completely defiled the tomb and you expect to get out unharmed? That's correct. *chuckle* I tried the reset hostile towns thing, it didn't work. I guess the tomb is not a "town". Oh well, thanks anyway. It's really not such a bad curse, it's just annoying how frequently it occurs when wandering outdoors.

Well this should provide some of you oldbies with a brief LOL. So, I decided to replay this, my favourite spidweb game of all time. Went through Vahkos's Tomb, looted everything, went behind the tomb, used the old begin/end combat trick to get back there and smash the crystal, THEN killed Vahkos on my way out. Much later, I discovered the Vahkos cursed me! Dutifully I went back to the tomb to try and re-smash the crystal, but it was too late, the crystal would have none of it. Amazingly enough, I decided to use only one savefile for my whole adventure so... yeah. Anyone know an SDF to unsmash the crystal or something? I could just play the whole game with the curse on my head, but I thought I'd give the forums a shot. Thanks in advance

Hmm, homicidal run-through would be a good idea. Tough, but good. I'll give it a shot, but it may take me a while, so don't hold your breath.

ARG!!!!!!!!! Ok, so I played a game all the way to Rising, then after killing Stanis, I saved, and when I went back to Barzal, I got stuck in a dialogue loop. (You just say "I have killed Stanis" over and over again). So... I started an entirely new game, played all the way up to Rising again, FORGAVE Stanis, only to find out that I was stuck in the same dialogue loop with Barzal (You just say "Ok" over and over again) moral of the story: I hate Geneforge 2.