Draginol

Bad Karma and 9/11 in Politics JoeUser Forums

There is often a basic problem when trying to debate geo politics. You have one side that seems to be ruled by emotion or at least believes in "spiritual forces". You have the other side that seems to be ruled by logic and believes in direct causes and effects. The two don't mingle too well in debates. And nothing brings that up into sharper contrast than the debate about "root causes" of 9/11. For instance, some try to argue that the United States

Reply to Michael Moore takes a pounding on the net in Politics JoeUser Forums

If someone can make teh case for why American civilians just going to work or being on vacation or whatever deserved death please make it. 9/11 was specifically the hijackign of 4 civilian jetliners and crashing 3 of them into buildings full of people. They weren't attacks on troops. They were attacks on civilians. The attack had been in the works since the mid 90s. Please feel free to show what we did that deserved that. I am unaware of the United States intentionally massacr

Reply to Michael Moore takes a pounding on the net in Politics JoeUser Forums

You don't address the main issue: You seem to be implying (or more than implying) that the US "had it coming". That thousands of American civilians deserved to die simply because the United States, which did a lot for Afghanistan (helping free them from the Soviets and being the world's leading supplier of humanitarian aid) just didn't do enough. I'm sorry but I find that view incredibly warped. By that kind of thinking, the US would have been better off doing nothing at all. Of cours

Galactic Civilizations Expanded Universe Finished in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

Phew. It's done. So after 4 months of work we've finished up the expansion pack for Galactic Civilizations. And we're giving it away for free. I wonder, looking back in a year or two, what the verdict will be on having made this expansion pack for free. I think it's safe to say we could have sold this expansion pack for $15 to $20. But my "ulterior" motive is that with GalCiv we have a real hit on our hands and it is better to sacrifice short term profi

Reply to Michael Moore takes a pounding on the net in Politics JoeUser Forums

Falaffel: Are you suggesting that because the US didn't go and rebuild Afganistan after the soviets left that we deserved 9/11? That's absurd. I'd say we did plenty to help them win their freedom. It would be like us being mad at the French for not building up the United States after the revolutionary war. The US did send million in aid via the various relief agencies to help the people of Afghanistan. Tom: You seem too far gone to reason with. The websites I pointed to in my

Michael Moore takes a pounding on the net in Politics JoeUser Forums

Believe it or not, there is an entire website dedicated to debunking Michael Moore . Even more unbelievable, I am very glad it exists. Michael Moore is the master of plausible falsehoods. When you read one of his books or watch one of his "documentaries", you are left with the impression of "Well, I may not agree with his politics but he makes some good points..." Except he doesn't because he twists, exaggerate

Galactic Civilizations Chat Schedule in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

Tomorrow (Tuesday, September 16) we're goign to have a live chat at 8pm Eastern Standard Time in the #galciv channel on irc.stardock.com. Here's the way we currently plan on doing it. There will be two channels: #galciv and #galcivQA In #galciv, no one but ops will be able to speak. I will answer questions posted in #galcivQA. From 8:00pm to 8:15pm I will answer questions from #galcivQA in the #galciv channel. Then at 8:16pm we'll open it

Summer! Come back Summer! I didn't mean it! in Blogging JoeUser Forums

The nights are getting cooler. The days shorter. The trees are starting to show some color. Summer is almost over. Lots of people say they like the Fall. They think it's a ball. But not me. In the Fall I just don't feel free. Just another month. Just a little more time. I just want to run a bit more in the sun. Then I would really feel fine. I had wanted to go on a holiday. A trip, a jaunt, some time for fun. Just a little more time to be in the sun. Take me back to Ma

Reply to Michael Moore takes a pounding on the net in Politics JoeUser Forums

You can also go to http://www.bowlingfortruth.com/ to get specific debunking on Bowling for Columbine.

Reply to Summer! Come back Summer! I didn't mean it! in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Boo karmagirl!

Reply to JoeUser Development Updates in Software Development JoeUser Forums

The blog groups aren't working for me yet. Looks like they need more tweaking.

German Foreign Minister operates in accelerated time in Politics JoeUser Forums

Steven Den Beste has an interesting article that responds to some of the statements that the German Foreign Minister put out this week. But it got me thinking about how much the world has changed in just the past 50 years. 50 years ago, we expected strategies to play out over decades. Now, we have the German Foreign Minister claiming that the domino strategy in the middle east has failed. Huh? We've only been over there a few months. Germany

Reply to Oooh, real staars... in Software Development JoeUser Forums

That looks sooo cool.

Reply to The Day The Music Died (Again) in Current Events JoeUser Forums

John Ritter died too. That was a real bummer as well.

Reply to Behind the Art Of GalCiv2 - In the begning... in Software Development JoeUser Forums

Use an HTML editor. ;)

Why does the French Political class despise America? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Chicago Boyz has an article that outlines the continuing problems between the French and the UK. The French perspective seems to be "How can you Brits side with the Americans?" the British view tends to be "How can you not?" British Foreign Minister Jack Straw thinks the problem comes from differing experiences from the second world war. IT was a watershed moment for the French.

Reply to 9/11: BBC recriminations and American progress in Current Events JoeUser Forums

New feature needed: quoting. Re rhetorical devices: Chornsky says things like "No reasonable person can deny...". I, on the other hand, did not say that. I said, in MY opinion, no reasonable person. The difference is signfiicant because one is unqualified, the other is. The former implies that his opinion is already excepted fact. The other leaves open for others to disagree. I didn't write the extra words "in my opinion" for no reason. I considered it an important qualification.

Reply to 9/11: BBC recriminations and American progress in Current Events JoeUser Forums

Brab: In what way did bush "lie" about WMD? Bush's position was the same as the Clinton position. In addition, what "sold" the war was Saddam's non-compliance with UN resolutions. If the police think you have drugs in your home and you refuse to let them in your house despite a warrant and they break in and it turns out you don't have any drugs, does that mean the police are in the wrong? No. They had a warrant. Saddam had agreed to abide by UN resolutions as part of the 1991 cease fire. <

Reply to 9/11: BBC recriminations and American progress in Current Events JoeUser Forums

Re O'reilly: Being in favor of gay marriage is not moderate. That's the problem with some people on the left. They consider their views so "civilized" that something like support of gay marriage is just a "moderate" view. Same for gun control. Re Fox News: I have already posted on that topic -- I have said that they lean to the right about as much as CNN leans to the left. I think FNC leans to the right because its people are conservatives which is why I suspect most other media center

Reply to Oooh, staaaars.... in Software Development JoeUser Forums

Sweet!

Why Customize your PC desktop? in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

See a video of this desktop in action Why? What's wrong with the default Windows look? That's the question I sometimes get from friends and family. For the life of them, they don't understand why anyone would spend the time, let alone money, to customize Windows.

9/11: BBC recriminations and American progress in Current Events JoeUser Forums

If you think CNN is biased, you should try listening to the BBC. The BBC's partianship is so extreme at times that it just comes across as sloppy journalism. A mere symptom of a disease known as "lack of competition operating on a level playing field." The BBC lacks significant domestic competition and has slowly drifted into being completely out of touch with reality. For example, this morning the news report (i.e. allegedly hard news) talked about the "draconian" changes to American la

Reply to 9/11: BBC recriminations and American progress in Current Events JoeUser Forums

First off, you are counting in combat deaths. I never claimed that civilian life is safer than actual combat. The question is how many people have died since the cessation of hostilities. The number is roughly 90. Therefore, the occupation of Iraq is about as dangerous for US soldiers as the fatality rate mentioned in your statistics. In addition, your statistics are for all people aged 15-24. What about MALES aged 15-24. The number is probably closer to 120 or higher per 100,000 annua

Reply to 9/11: BBC recriminations and American progress in Current Events JoeUser Forums

How would you define progress? Iraq is in allied hands. Its resources in allied hands. Its cities controlled by the allies. Progress comes in the form of getting services back up and running and building a new Iraqi government, security force, etc. All of these things are happening.

Opening up JoeUser for others in Blogging JoeUser Forums

For the past year I have been blogging about the various things that interest me. If you click on the JoeUser classic link near the top you can see the kinds of things I've talked about over the past year. It's been really fun. But I was distressed by a few things during my blogging: It sometimes felt like blogging is already a clique. A handful of blog sites got all the "glory". Part of my job at Stardock is to analyze the popularity of various websites. So