Completely agree. I haven’t worked up the courage, but it’s something I absolutely would like to do as a part time job. It’s a service like any other, and it should be treated as such.

A phenomenon I’ve noticed many a time, and I’m not a tinfoil hat wearing type. This is why anything smart gets removed when I want a serious talk.

Fun fact: in 1950, there were only 500 million people in China. That means that Mao killed half the population of China. That’s a little less than the raw percentage of population loss from the native population of North America in the 19th century (~600k in 1800 to 250k in 1890). Funnily enough, in 1979, the population of China had nearly doubled from the 1950 figures.

I guess we’ll never know what happened in North America, but that Mao guy sure was evil.

Not an American, but have spent a lot of time there. They have two right wing liberal parties, and a political system that actively resists any changes to that setup. As a result, they think that those are the two political extremes, and everything between them is centrist. Anyone outside of that is an extremist and not worthy of consideration. So when you criticise their party of choice, you obviously must be on the “other” side of the political spectrum, which to them is the other US political party.

They just don’t know any better, it’s outside of their realm of experience.

I’d not been following the war that closely until the Kursk invasion. I strongly believed it to be the beginning of the end. It makes absolutely zero strategic sense. Zelensky himself has waffled on what the point of it is. At this point it seems to be just a terrorist attack/PR stunt aimed at harming Russian civilians. That’s not really a good use of your best troops if you want to win a war. As we can see with the collapse of the Ukrainian fronts, which Ukraine is still not doing much about. This just isn’t sustainable.

Thank you. I’m drunk.

I know you can’t read my response, but thank you.

Lawn dart.

right here. Please repost for hexbear. They can’t see my posts in my own instance.

The problem with that question is that you get accusations of genocide. If you point out that it’s overblown and/or falsified to fit the narrative, it’s genocide denial. If you point out that the fine capitalist countries have done and are continuing to do worse than what they accuse communist countries of, it’s whattaboutism. If you continue to press, then the capitalist countries made a whoopsie, or it’s all the fault of one man, while communists are just bloodthirsty and evil. Evidenced by the genocide… And back to square one.

It matters to Canada because the US told them to care. I have absolutely no clue about the US. Presumably they spent a lot of money getting those judges appointed and don’t want to lose their investments?

For anyone else out of the loop: From what I gather, Mexico is currently trying to make it so that judges are elected, rather than appointed. Canada and the US are fussing about this and threating trade sanctions, claiming that electing judges will somehow harm Mexico’s democracy (as you might expect, the reasons I found were a bunch of FUD without much substance). Mexico wants them to mind their own fucking business.

I think you’d just have to shoot it yourself to see what I really mean.

Many of them are ambidextrous. But not all, and it’s still uncomfortably close either way. Shells ejecting out the bottom is weird in it’s own way, as that is where your feet/platform are.

It’s been a while since I’ve shot them, so I don’t recall the exact gripping problems I had. I think it might have been the placement of the trigger coupled with the extremely short barrel ahead of it. But magazine changes were awful, since the magazine was practically touching my boob.

Edit: Thinking about it further, it was the SCAR that I had troubles holding. On the SCAR, the magazine is still in front of the trigger. So the trigger is pulled back very close to the body, resulting in your arm being tucked very closely in. It was weird, but magazine changes were easier.

They are SO uncomfortable to shoot though. I’m told you get used to it, but I came away very disappointed after shooting a couple. They’re awkward to hold, the brass is usually ejected uncomfortably close to your face (or in your face if you’re a leftie), and mag changes are obnoxious.

If you only play one JRPG in your life, make it Chrono Trigger.

If you do, don’t judge the franchise based on the first game. Silent Hill 2 is a very different game.

It was decent when it was released. It had some great ideas that were only really realised in the second game. I think playing through it these days would be a bit of a slog and I’m not sure I would recommend it for a modern audience. I might suggest starting with 2, and if you need to play more, then play the first and third games (in that order). Everything after can be safely skipped.

Your tastes are a little different than mine. It’s rare for me to play a CRPG. But on your current game list, Silent Hill 2 stood out to me. There’s a reason that the game is universally loved. I’m kind of waiting for the remake to do another playthrough, but it’s honestly a pretty short game. I might also suggest giving the PC version a go. Silent Hill Enhanced Edition is reportedly extremely good, although I haven’t played it myself.

Well, they befrauded the Soviet Union to buy titanium for the SR-71 spy plane. I would imagine that they would certainly try again. But they might have a harder time this time around…