HeyYou

If you are sleeping on your arm, you are probably just cutting off circulation to it, in which event, it goes 'dead'..... go long enough, and when you wake up, you won't feel it, you won't be able to control it, it will just hang there, until circulation resumes. That's when you get the pins and needles sensation..... which can be painful on occasion. Don't make a habit of it... it isn't really good for your arm..... not sure how long it can go before permanent damage starts happening.

Might wanna do a bit of Research on Israel's "samson option".......

My point is, it seems we press harder on our 'enemies' than we do on our allies for nuclear inspection. And even then, 'enemies' that are closer to OIL, get pressed all the harder. At this point, we have a selection of countries with nukes, some of which we are pretty certain support terrorism, (yes, pakistan, I am looking at YOU.) yet are we screaming for inspections there? Supposedly, the whole premise here is, we don't want Iran to have nukes, because we are afraid they will use them. Ok, once again, what about N. Korea? They HAVE the bomb. They are testing long range delivery systems. Why isn't ANYONE screaming to high heaven that we go in there and blow up their stuff?? Seems to me, at the moment, N. Korea is the bigger nuclear threat, but, no one seems to care. And why is that? NO OIL. Iran has every right to object, when they are being singled out for attention, when there are other folks that are setting off bombs, that don't get a second glance. Can you blame them for being uncooperative? Not to mention the fact that we are convicting them of a crime with little or no proof, and we are rapidly heading for a military confrontation, based on rumors and innuendo. (and pressure from Israel.....) Iran insists they are not building a bomb. Why should we not take them at their word, right up to the point they set off their first test bomb? At that point, some manner of intervention would be a good idea, but, unless/until they actually use a weapon on someone outside their borders, they are guilty of nothing more than a desire for some self defense.

You and I both know that if you have to go.... fast is the preferred method...living in one of the other primary target zones I'll have just enough time to have a smoke and watch the flash. On topic..I absolutely am not a conspiracy advocate..so no I don't buy into mysterious cabals plotting away wearing hooded robes with chanting in the background. :whistling: How did you know they were wearing hooded robes, and have chanting in the background? OH GOD!!! A IS ONE OF THEM!!!!!! :ohmy: The Grand Master assures me that we don't exist..... :ninja: Really? Cool. That is SUCH a relief. :D

Yes. The IAEA visits all sorts of civilian nuclear sites, reviewing for safety and suggesting security upgrades where there's a proliferation threat. After a nuclear accident, the IAEA also assists in the clean-up. In the past 10 years, the IAEA has made 100 official visits to power plants and enrichment facilities, 120 to border crossings, and 200 to hospitals. Note: CIVILIAN nuclear facilities. I am not entirely sure Iran has ANY non-military nuclear facilities..... their government is a tad different than ours..... that, and the IAEA isn't telling Iran squat about what goes on in our facilities.... meanwhile, they release reports about their 'findings' everywhere else they inspect. (and which Israel does NOT appear on the list....)

S. Korea isn't as 'good' an ally as Israel?

You and I both know that if you have to go.... fast is the preferred method...living in one of the other primary target zones I'll have just enough time to have a smoke and watch the flash. On topic..I absolutely am not a conspiracy advocate..so no I don't buy into mysterious cabals plotting away wearing hooded robes with chanting in the background. :whistling: How did you know they were wearing hooded robes, and have chanting in the background? OH GOD!!! A IS ONE OF THEM!!!!!! :ohmy:

Trouble is, even today, only the very wealthy can afford the kind of coverage you want for everyone. Back in the day, when folks graduated from High School, or college, and went to work for a company, and STAYED THERE for 20 or 30 years, the companies could provide pretty good health coverage, and it was actually affordable. Now, if folks stay in a job more than three years, it is unusual..... no one wants to provide health care for a temporary employee...... and with the advances in 'modern science', there are ever newer, (more expensive...) tests that can be performed, so that when you get dragged into court, you can point and say "Well, I did EVERYTHING possible....."

Exactly. Ahmedinajad is by no definition rational. And, if they have nothing to hide, why not let those inspectors in as Aurelius said? After all they would gain a tremendous propaganda coup by so doing, and make us in the West, and the Israelis too, look very foolish and warmongering. But they aren't letting the inspectors in, which makes me think that they are not innocent and are trying to make nukes - they probably are too incompetent so far or have been frustrated by the Israelis to date. I agree with Nintii too about the Straits of Hormuz. Do we have IAEA inspectors in the US, going thru all of our nuclear facilities, and telling our secrets to our potential enemies? What about North Korea? We KNOW FOR A FACT that they have the bomb, but, where's the hue and cry to go and blow up THEIR facilities? Is the government there more rational than Iran?? Why should Iran allow their nuclear program to be put under a microscope, when it appears to be common knowledge that Israel has nukes, but, there aren't any inspections there either? Why are we singling out Iran from all the 'potential' nuclear powers for such scrutiny? Why should Iran allow them in, when it appears many others get a pass on it? I can see their point really. Maybe it isn't because they have something to hide, perhaps they view inspectors as a violation of their sovereignty, or some such. There is also the real possibility that by our very actions, with all the sanctions, and bluster, that we are actually DRIVING Iran to develop the bomb, in what in their view is "self defense". Relieve the pressure, and they would have less reason to NEED a nuke. Are WE our own worst enemy here??? (not like that hasn't happened before....) The current president of Iran is basically just a figure-head. Nothing he says carries any weight within his own borders. He has alienated most of his supporters, including the supreme head of Iran, without whose approval, Achwhatever can't even go to the john. :D He is all bluster and noise, signifying nothing.

You make a host of valid points, chief of which is, Something Needs To Change. So far, everyone is looking at this from the consumption side, why not take a look at the other side of the equation? If you want to decrease cost, INCREASE SUPPLY. What needs to happen is, the environment that doctors and other health care workers operate in, needs to be a LOT less hostile. Controls need to be put in place so that health care workers aren't basically cowering in terror each time they make a decision. Starting with Tort reform. Make it easier to BE a health care worker, and maybe more folks will be inclined to go into the field, increasing supply.

Instigating a nuclear war would just be flat out stupid. In a strategic nuclear war (everybody launches what they got) there are NO winners. The surface of the earth will be pretty much unlivable for decades, if not centuries. Expecting to keep it to a 'limited exchange' is self-delusion. (not that politicians aren't good at that....) Even areas that aren't directly bombed, will be affected by fallout, rendering most of the arable land unsuitable for agriculture. No, strategic nuclear war would be the end of the human race. (though, the cockroaches wouldn't mind....) I would not be surprised to see the *probable* upcoming war in Iran spiral out of control, and degenerate into a general free-for-all though. Starting a war there, is going to do bad things™ for everyone. Not just the combatants. That has GREAT potential to escalate into WWIII. Not that it would even be a concern for me.... as I live in the middle of a number of primary targets, and depending on how often Russia updates their target list, I probably have a primary target less then four miles away. I would just be radioactive dust, blowing on the wind. :D Now, I do indeed believe that a horrendous economic collapse is coming, but, I do NOT believe that it is being purposely orchestrated by some shadow group or other. Merely the stupidity, and greed, of politicians.

Go and hide somewhere with NO NPC's around for three and a half days. (or, whatever your respawn timer is set to, plus a half a day.) Then try the trip again.

What speed is your internet connection? The version on the disk is outdated, (surprise!) so, the first thing steam does is download the patches and such. If you are on something like dialup, or even some of the slower flavors of DSL, that can indeed take a long time...... One of the drawbacks of tying the game to steam.

Hilarious in its' accuracy of describing some forum personalities. :D Most of which, fortunately, we don't see here.

Israel wants something to happen with Iran. After all, they are in close proximity, and are an acknowledged target of some of the rhetoric coming from Tehran. Not to mention the 'boogey-man' that a nuclear armed Iran represents makes a great distraction for the politicians, to keep attention away from what they are screwing up right here at home. I don't think anyone is advocating 'boots on the ground' there yet though. Seems most just want some tactical bombing done, to set back, if not destroy, Irans current nuclear capability. Cruise missiles, and possibly aircraft I think would be the most we would see going in at this point. Conventional weapons at that, as the west using nukes there would SERIOUSLY piss off the middle east. (among others......) We don't wanna precipitate WWIII here. That would be just stupid. (although, I will grant, I have seen some pretty stupid decisions come out of washington in the past......) In all reality, simply rendering the facilities un-usable, or inaccessible, would be adequate to the task, we don't actually have to destroy them...... And then there is the real possibility that Iran is telling the truth, and they are NOT actually attempting to develop the bomb. No one really seems to want to buy into that theory though..... Everyone wants to paint Iran as 'the bad guys', to justify whatever actions they finally decide to take. If the Iranian government appeared a bit more rational, this would really be a non-issue. However, since the world perceives them as "radicals"..... no one trusts them. If it were up to me, I would dump all the sanctions and such, and let Iran rejoin the world economy. Let them get their economy back on track, and perhaps they would get the idea that we are NOT their enemy, and are not looking to bring about regime change in yet another country. After all, if they ARE going to develop the bomb, they are going to have to test at least one, and THAT will be immediately obvious to every geological society that monitors earthquakes. (nukes have a VERY specific signature, unlike ANYTHING found in nature. the equipment scattered about the world WILL register an Iranian nuke test.) Should that particular event come to pass, deal with it then. The real question becomes, I suppose, what right do we, as a nuclear armed nation, have telling Iran that they CAN'T develop the bomb? There is a big difference between having one, and actually using it. We are basically trying to put someone in prison (figuratively) for something they MIGHT do....... If we tried to do that to an american citizen, the hue and cry would be heard from coast to coast. What justifies convicting some country of a crime that they haven't committed? Is it simply because we don't like their form of government? Also, Iran knows VERY well exactly what would happen should they, or some third party they supply, sets off a nuke outside their national borders. (say, Jerusalem, for instance.....) We can trace the bomb back to its origins, and the price to be paid for that particular indiscretion would be terrible. It would be a quite simple matter to reduce Iran to a glass coated parking lot in about an hour. (flight time of the missiles.....) Does anyone seriously think that the powers that be in Iran would really consider such folly? I seriously doubt that EVERYONE in that government is insane........ even religious zealotry doesn't go quite that far.

Any sort of age-based rationing will never fly, for a variety of reasons. Sadly, I think the primary reason is, live people generate income. Dead ones do not. At this point in time, doctors/health care providers will go to extreme measures to keep someone alive, long past the point it makes any sense to.

I am curious how they plan to kill off 90% of the worlds population. Trials, or even assassinations would take incredibly long, and humans breed faster than they could execute them...... Some genetically engineered disease? This one I could see....... and I would not be surprised to learn we already have the capability of doing this. (actually, I would be surprised to learn that we did NOT have the capability to do this.....) But, killing off a boatload of people, and then expecting to enslave the remainder? Unrealistic. WAY too much territory to hide in.

And what's really funny is, congress is attempting/has passed a 'tax break' that reduces the social security tax for both workers, and employers. Nice huh. The republicans like to scream that SS is broke, and needs to be revamped, but, they still vote to gut it some more.......

I heard that SubjectProphet was a figment of the board servers imagination, I also heard, that he is the personification of the server....... :D

Part of the problem with the rising cost of health care.... is litigation. The doctors, are forever in their CYA mode, will run test after test, and procedure after procedure, all in the interest of 'being thorough', so that if something bad happens, they won't lose their shirt in the ensuing lawsuit. Doctors are more afraid of lawyers, than they are any disease that may walk into their clinic.

The trouble with a lot of those non-producing wells is.... not enough volume to make it worth while, or, too much trouble with environmentalists to make it worth while, or, a host of other valid reasons. Granted, a fair few of them are capped, just waiting for the price of oil to get high enough, to make them profitable. (which probably happened some time ago....) I think the main trouble is, the oil companies don't WANT the price of oil to go down.... it might cut in to their trend of posting record profits every quarter. Putting folks back to work in just the oil industry isn't going to help the economy in the long term. We need to scrap the free trade agreements currently in place, and implement FAIR trade. We need to get rid of the tax incentives to corporations to move jobs overseas. We need to get our manufacturing right back here where it belongs. We also need to do something about our dependence on vital resources that we can get right here at home, but, we don't, because the environmentalists make it impossible to do so. There MUST be a compromise reached, something other than the environmentalists "Not at All" approach. (rare earths mostly here.) We need to STOP being the worlds police force. We can't afford it. Simple as that. You want american military intervention? Ok, be prepared to PAY for it. We need to STOP nation building as well. We suck at it..... Going into an 'enemy' country, spending billions to blow the crap out of it, and then spending billions MORE to rebuild it is just stupid. That may have worked after WWII, but, not anymore. Look at Iraq, are the average Iraqis better off now, than when Saddam was in power? (whom WE put in power, I might add......) Are the Afghani's any better off now? (yeah, one could argue the women are...... at least, in some areas......) You simply cannot introduce democracy, at the point of a gun. It's blatantly obvious to me that our government suffers from the illusion that those folks want the same things as americans want, and sure, there is some overlap there, but, for the most part, nope. Not the case. They have been tribal cultures for centuries, we aren't going to change that overnight, or even in a couple decades, no matter how much ammo we expend.

I do believe it was Reagan that stated: "Deficits don't matter." The dems like "tax and spend." The repubbies seem to like "borrow and spend." The commonality there? SPEND..... THAT is what needs to change. In this case, I think the line item veto would be a wonderful tool to control government spending. What I also find amusing is, when a republican was president, LIV was passed into law, shortly after elections, when a dem was in the whitehouse, it was suddenly unconstitutional. Amazing. Quite frankly, I don't see this is a Liberal/Conservative battle. Government in general has become a self-perpetuation institution designed to make millionaires out of the folks that get elected, and THAT is all the folks in washington seem interested in protecting. Sure, they talk a good game, but, that's only during election cycles. Once elected, it's right back to the same old same old, and to hell with the american public. We haven't had government "FOR the PEOPLE" in decades.

Lol..,,,Age getting the better of your memory? We have lost 20 SR 71's due to malfunctions of various sorts but none to enemy fire. :whistling: Isn't that what I said? :D The SR 71 is in IMO the most esthetically pleasing aircraft ever built, even though it leaked like sieve when on the deck but in flight was an aerial work of art. It was the only aircraft that I ever envied of that other ( slightly less skilled, which is why they needed a Navy aviator to be the first test pilot ) service's repertoire. :whistling: http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/7240/sr71a04.jpg Oh hell yeah. It still is one of the most gorgeous aircraft I have ever seen. I got a chance to get 'up close and personal' with one for several hours. (We had one make an emergency landing at the base I was stationed at, so, of course, it had to be guarded..... I volunteered. :D) and yep, they don't fuel them until shortly before take off, simply because it looks like a damn rainstorm underneath it when they do. (no smoking on that post.......) In flight though, when the skin heats up, and things expand appropriately..... it kinda seals itself up. I loved that aircraft. I wanted to fly it. But, as I wore glasses, no military pilot training for me. Damn.

I too fall into the category of Disabled. (I have MS.) I am also 51 years old, so, rapidly approaching 'elderly' status as well..... None of the health care reform applies to me though, as I am also a veteran, and my health care is taken care of by the veterans administration. So what's my dog in this hunt? Congress assuming powers that are what I consider WELL beyond anything they are constitutionally entitled to. If the supreme court upholds the individual mandate on health insurance, that basically gives them the power to mandate folks purchasing other products as well, simply because it would help the economy. Kinda. After all, the housing market is in deep dark trouble, now, if everyone were legally required to buy a house, the market would recover..... or the automotive industry.. if everyone were required to buy a car, that would be a big shot in the arm for them. There are many other examples that could fall into the same category. I, for one, Do NOT want the government dictating how I spend my money.

The war ended in a stalemate, but, the emperor had no choice but to sign? Seems to me, if the empire fought them to a stalemate, to the point the thalmor were willing to talk, that one minor detail could have been left out, and what were the elves going to do? Continue the war?