Inroduction

Morden, the thing to keep in mind about the American system is we have absolutley no concept of the loyal opposition. Our head of government & head of state are the same person. There is no way to say in this country, "well the prime minister should be taken out and shot like the rabid dog he is, but god save the queen."

Nice guessing Jarinor, close but no cigar in 2 of 3. As for the other, I spent 13 months in the USMC untill they found out how old I realy was & kicked me out. And 5 months in VMA ditto, but not for age. Beatnick before the hippie days, picked up a lot of hippie gloss. Grenwich Village folk singer. I was a radical in the 60s. Still am I guess. Freedom rides & ban the bomb* long before 'Nam. Old radical ralling cry, "Sure the liberals are behind us, far behind us," Hung out with a lot of those student political groups, SNCC, ROTC (13 months of service does not get you out of that one in a land grant college in the 60s), YPSL. At one time I could identify seven different flavors of communists by year & vinyard. Suffice it to say, I would need an essay to explain my politics.

And as for Fallout II, I just got it days ago, & am a loooong way from the PipBoy. Is there no way to sleep & heal? Pass time quickly so I can use first aid again? Without some gadget that comes hours of gameplay from here?

I know there are cons down under, they raise enough cash to send a fan to worldcon every year, & I don't think the DUFF is funded with car washes.

Clothos_Vermillion, you can easily edit quotes. Just be careful about the [...]s & hit preview.

To everyone, if you haven't already, read Philip K. Dick.

*As my CO in the MC once said, "They drop that thing son, and we're all out of work."

 

Arn't we all?

Octillicus, I'm in my second year at college, and took up Poitics at AS. (Good to get a few extra UCAS points for when I go to University.) I'll probably go to Bristol Uni to study history and or Sociolgy, but I was tempted by Exeter's military history course. Still, Bristol's within walking distance, and I can mooch off my parents for accomodation.

Qilikatal, are you talking about the black gay guy? I've nothing agaist blacks or gays, but the guy does soud a bit "eccentric", so I'll heed your warning.

Jarinor, I've seen some of Eros Rex's posts in the Vault. We got loads of people like that over at Vault 13, and they were handled pretty much the same by our mods as Eros was by yours. I don't like to slag off anyone, but if the mods feel like somone's causing trouble, there's proably a reason why. (The posts make entertaining reading, though.)

Clothos, good to know you're a conservative, I have the same political and social standpoint myself, and am pro- British. It probably comes from having quite a long military history in my family, which IMO is something to be proud of. (However, I'm no war-monger.)

Yeah, In the Begininng is a brilliant film, some of the scenes being really quite moving. (Christopher Franke's score, which I have on CD, is quite tear-jerking in places.) The Battle of the Line, although short is fantastic and intense as anything. If I ever had the money, I'd comission a emake of the battle with all the latest CGI effects and release a special edition of the movie. (I have a lot of pipe-dream projects like this!)

Shadygrove, looking at the British system, Bush has a lot to be jealous of when seeing how much power our Prime Minister really holds. The President to my knowledge, has to get permission from Congress to sanction acts such as war, the Prime Minister needs no such permission. In fact, Blair is seen over here as pretty much a dominating "Presidential" figure, wheras his governmental power is actually greater than that wielded by Bush. Personally, I don't trust the b*stard, not just because I'm a Conservative. Blair's policies are often quite right-wing, despite being the head of a supposed left-wing party. Despite having no love for the left, he's betrayed a lot of traditional socialists, not just in his own paryty, among the public as a whole.

About Fallout 2, you should get the Pipboy when you get your ancestor's vault suit after you complete the temple of trials at the very beginning of the game.

Regards,
Morden

 

A friend of mine from uni has the entire box set of videos of the series and the movies. I borrowed them from him last summer and spent three days solid watching the whole lot from start to finish.

That was nice.

 

Not anymore. The last war we got into that way was WWII. But I was not trying to express the way the system worked, but more how our mindset works. With no concept of a loyal opposition & a lapdog press (have you seen American "news" or read any of our newspapers?) republican presidents eaisly steamroller the democrats in a way impossible in europe or the UK.

Ah, you noticed. in the post cold war era, a lot of the old labels are not changing when they really should. Conservitaves here used to avoid war & forigen entanglements, let alone empire. Here many people, Retard for one, think Clinton was a liberal despite the well known fact that he was the head of the democratic leadership council, the conservative wing of the party

Thanks, found it last night. For some reason, I thought a fresh tribal would have noyhing more technicly advanced than a spear.

 

1. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is widely recognised as the greatest political satire of the pre-war period (With the possible exception of Gulliver) some parts are humorous, but not in a "hah-hah" way, I can never suppress a smile at the little phrases: "Ten cubic centimetres are worth ten gloomy sentiments", "a gram is worth a damn" etc. I see your point; however, appreciating Huxley's work relies on significant knowledge of the pre-war period, especially mass production and the "Fordian Philosophy". Oh, and I do enjoy a well-written parody, especially the Diskworld series.

2. I was tempted to attend the University of Essex for similar reasons, Morden, but the university's architecture is cyclopean and incredibly oppressive; the place would've driven me to suicide within a few hours. Plus the people who enjoy an education at that dystopia are *arrogant cough* hardly my types of chaps.

3. The Prime Minister is not as powerful as you imply, Morden, I would type out why if I wasn't actually hallucinating from fatigue. The AS course is a little guilty of simplifying our mind-bogglingly complicated system of conventions and "Checks and balances" a result of that is the presentation of the PM as more powerful that they are in reality.

4. I am an avid conservative (and I always thought we were a dying breed), mind you the current "opposition" is hardly worth supporting, the sooner we have ol' Ian Dunkies taken out back and altruistically shot and give Portillo the job, the sooner we can start dismantling the resource-sapping bureaucracies that swallow billions of pounds each month.
Also, while Bushy's whipping-boy is more Tory than Charles I, Gordon brown is subtly twisting the country back to *shudder* the tax 'n' spend system that almost reduced us to a GNP of thirteenth century Bolivia in the post-war period.

5. Oh dear, this post has been rather serious *frowns* My light-hearted demeanour is my only saving grace, better avoid all further political topics and just stick to naked butter-wrestling and tempting choir-boys.

 

i usually check every day, but there are really never many topics to respond to. and welcome morden

 

Good to know I'm not the only conservative in here.

Oh, Shadygrove, I do have to admit, your political standings left me befuddled. What else left me befuddled is that you basically called Clinton a Republican. Or conservative, at least. That is sooo funny. Really, where do you get this stuff, dude? You're like a coherent Charles B. Hoff.

Also, you still insist that the Republicans have iron-fist control over the media. Dude, do you know why Fox news is beating out the other major media corps? No, not because of the vast array of fiiiiiine legs and pussy they display (although that helps, I'm sure) It's because their logo, "Fox News, Fair and Balanced" is actually dead on the money. They cover stories that ABC, NBC, PBS, MSNBC, and others wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole. Dan Rather interviewed both our president, and Saddam Hussein. He basically attacked Bush, right out of the starting gate, and the entire interview consisted of Bush trying to fend off Rather's slanted and cropped attacks. The Hussein interview, however, Rather spent one whole hour kissing Saddam's ass. "Oh, the U.S., it's so bad, isn't it, Mr. Hussein? Yes, bad America. You don't have any Weapons of Mass Destruction, do you Mr. Hussein? You don't? See, that's what I've been saying, all along, but no, the conservatives just roll over us. You wouldn't lie, would you, Mr. Hussein? Oh, yes, I know you wouldn't lie, it's just our vast right-wing conspiracists."

Hey, watch one of the afore mentioned station's nightly newscast, and count how many times you hear a Republican called as "Mr. so-and-so, a right-winger" or "The right-wing Mr. so-and-so" or "the very conservative Mr so-and-so"

Then, count how many times someone is referred to as liberal, or left-wing, or Democrat. For every mention of this, I'll kiss your ass once.

 

I'm getting really fucking sick of people who see conspiracies everywhere. I've noticed they also tend to be the people who perpetrate the farce that is poetry (although I really do admire good haiku) and art in general as works that should be outrageously priced, and highly significant snapshots of modern life.

People who are always rebelling against the government, The Man, and all authority, should just stop fucking complaining and move somewhere else...oh, except in the places where they'd have nothing to bitch about, there also wouldn't be any welfare/social security/dole, so they'd actually have to get fucking jobs and become worthwhile members of society. I'm sick of all those lazy bastards, their whinging, their attitudes, and their whole goddamn attitude to life - "Hey, man, it's my right to do [insert appropriate action here]", which is all bullshit.

I could rant for ages, but it comes off much better in person, and it's way off track here. But I'm really fucking sick of all those anti-war, free the refugee types.

 

Can't get enough of those wonderful people who manage to see the Government and the Social State as different things.
The GOVERNMENT is controlled by the NWO and the UFO PEOPLE and made AIDS and SARS to kill humanity so the VAMPIRES can take over and build a giant MERRY-GO-ROUND out of children's BONES.

Whereas the Social state (a separate entity, let me remind you) pays unemployment benefit, provides free healthcare (here at least), pays for police and fire services so we don't get made dead or burn down. Oh, it also pays for Granny's condensed milk and rich-tea biscuits.

Another interesting phenomenon is the role of the military in the GOVERNMENT and the state. The GOVERNMENT uses the army to stamp or orphans, burn Jews and fire bibles into the moon. However, the state is protected by the army. I can only surmise that there are two armies, and one is staffed entirely by daemons.

 

Can I just point out that it was the bloody conservatives who set them up in the first place? :-o Go blame Maggie Thatcher for that one. she was also the one who sold off most of our national industries to make a quick profit and reduced the national transport system to abominations like Railtrack.

Sure, most conservatives preach things that make sense, but it's been a few hundred years since any conservative gonvernment actually did what they said they would. Perhaps they should start to listen to their members/supporters and actually do what they stand for instead of screwing us around and crapping up the system. :-x

Sorry, I HATE conservative governments. Mind you, labour aren't too great either. Sure, they started out OK recently but they've become as bad as the conservatives in recent years...

Why don't people actually give the Liberal Democrats a go for a change? It can't be any worse. Seriously, it CAN'T be any worse and so far, their policies are the only ones that actually seem to do anything except line the pockets of government officials. Hell, even the Monster Raving Looney party would do a better job! :-o

 

F*cking right mate.

I can't stand the anti-war mob we get over here. People like that, the lefties and do-gooding Liberals ALWAYS take up causes that have absolutely NOTHING to do with them. What about domestic issues? The NHS? Racism? Thought not.
Anyway, they see, to have buggered off now that the war's over. Just shows how "committed" they really were... :???:

People like this are a waste of time. These are the people who trash shops on Mayday and deface the Cenotaph. Personally, I have no time for them at all.

Octillicus, I noticed the way you spelt "Daemon", Warhammer player, are we?

Regards,
Morden

 

Actually, Daemon is a proper word. Demons are the spawn of satan. Hell fiends. That sort of thing. Daemons however are mythical creatures, usually embodded of an elemental disposition. ie. Fire Daemon, air daemon etc.

They're two totally different things, although they are spelled similarly, often portrayed to look similar and they are both purely imaginary¹.







¹ To my knowledge. Please don't prove me wrong. It'll break my fragile little mind. :-o

 

My point was that the particular spelling you mentioned is most popular in the Warhammer universe, where it is probably most well-known amongst our age group.

You're probably right on the actually mythology side though.

Regards,
Morden

 

To correct both of you, Daemon is the original Latin spelling of the word "Demon", much like Aetheist has become "Atheist", Paedophile "pedophile" and Aether "Ether". People are inherently lazy and like to miss out the letters that don't matter too much. 'cept me, who just likes archaic English.

Ferret, the extensive bureaucracies of which I speak were actually established in the Tory/Labour consensus of 1945-'79. Mrs. Thatcher actually cleared a lot of it away as she centralised a large amount of power to Whitehall.

I'm sorry, Ferret, British Rail was better than Railtrack? It was infamously inefficient and had all but collapsed by '92. A common misconception is that conservatives believe the private sector can revitalise any ailing industry. This is not true; we believe that the private sector can offer the same, and usually better, service without dipping into the treasury. Mrs. Thatcher sold our national industries for a quick profit? No, she simply refused to subsidise failing ones. Key to the conservative philosophy is the belief that the market dictates whether a company stands or fails, it's not the government's job to prop-up a company if they're manufacturing a product that the public do not want. Plus, quite simply, the country was bankrupt. Keynesian economic policy had failed spectacularly, practically everyone was employed but Britain was now producing inferior quality goods that no-one wanted to buy and the taxpayer was footing the bill. Economically, we'd gone into self-destruct, socially, we were a bit of a joke, an ex-imperial race holding onto a glorious past *bitter laugh*. Mrs. Thatcher did what needed to be done; she opened Britain up to the world market, dismantled failing national industries (Iron, coal), slim-lined public services and brought real money and enterprise into the country. The conservatives were in power too long, though. Major was an embarrassment and some of the later government policies verged on the suicidal...

ANYWAY, political rant over. I just feel that the conservatives are often unfairly criticized, but they did a lot for the country. I just hope we can hold onto the opposition long enough for when the country next needs us...

 

Actually, according to Fowler....

And Ferret is quite correct about the Daemones being spirits of the air, earth, sea, and underworld.

 

Well, according to my Collins Gem Latin Dictionary, daemon's just the latin form of demon.

http://www.fireandwater.com/Books/default.asp?id=-1063

^That's the dictionary I'm using, and, unless a lot's changed in the world of Latin since 1996, it's still accurate.

I guess we're both right.

 

Yes, I know it's the Latin spelling (fine, transliteration if you want to be picky) of the Greek word, but if we were talking about the meanings of Daemon and Demon in modern English usage (heh), we should probably listen to Fowler over a simple translation dictionary.

 

You really can't just let something rest, can ya Billy?

 

The "ae" in Latin is pronounced as an "i", so unless you pronounce those words somewhere along the lines of "Dimon", "Itheist", "Pidophile" etc, then there's no point in having the ae. However, one of the few "ae"s in the english language is "archaeology" but that is pronounced as an "e" more than an "i". So I guess that you could pronounce them "Demon" "Etheist" "Pedophile" etc, but for some you still wouldn't end up with the correct sound of the word.