that's a disturbing collection of links. I agree totally about the drugs thing, the prohibition attitude toward whatever it is that drooling protestants don't like is exactly what allows organized crime to thrive in the first place, as there will be an economy for anything that plenty of people are willing to pay for, whether anyone else likes that or not. If part of the economy was legalized, whoever was selling it would be forced to follow the law. If it was illegal to sell leather clothes, or chicken, or... alcohol, say - rival businesses would soon be taking their competition to a whole new level as that whole part of the economy would be outside the law. 

"I will be damned before I give up any gun that I own, or keep it in a 'safe'."

Wow, really? You figure a gun is a good defense against cops? I've heard that best described as committing "suicide by cop". How many bullets do you figure the human body can absorb at once? 

For the record, I agree that cops aren't your friend. They aren't even to be trusted, really. But to think that a gun will keep you safe is pure lunacy. 

You're beating a dead donkey there

It was not my intention :P 

That it's too easy to say THIS is the cause - that's just what the shlock media want to do.

Those are disturbing links, definately. 

OK, to refine my position: I didn't THIS is the cause, but I think it the major one... Overall it is quite complicated to provide a "rational" explanation to "irrational" behaviour ;) 

When I was a kid, my best friend's dad was a cop who got shot (iirc) 10 times at once. He survived somehow. 

Along with the rest of us. There are good cops and bad cops, just like any other sub-category of human beings.

If I had to guess, I'd guess that there are more good cops than good human beings, proportionally, just because the job sort of calls out to those who want to make a difference and help others.

Unfortunately, it also calls out to broken people seeking power. While many of them are culled out through the screening and training process, it obviously doesn't catch all of them.

To paraphrase Willem: For the record, I agree that people aren't your friends. They aren't even to be trusted, really. 

And categories of sub-human beings? (a la here) 

But to think that a gun will keep you safe is pure lunacy.

Far from being 'insane', I'm hyper rational and lack the sort of sentiments that allow the majority of my fellow citizens to turn their backs on this sort of commonly accepted but quite deviant behavior. If you are white, reasonably middle class, keep your head down, say 'yes, sir, no sir' when spoken to than you may even afford that luxury of ignorance without it ever coming back to bite you on the ass.

Cops bleed like any one else, and they are more likely to mind their manners if they can't just assume that you are a chump.

If those stories I linked to were headlined, 'Dead Cop, Suicide By Citizen' instead of 'elderly woman murdered in raid of wrong house', 'bartender beaten to an inch of her life', 'fifteen year old girl beaten in holding cell', 'mayor terrorized, dogs shot in no knock raid' than the cops would be more circumspect instead of pulling stupid shit like this.

Willem, if you think it is so insane, then how about pulling up google and search 'police beating, corruption, questionable shooting', + the metropolitan areas within an hours drive of where you live (I only know Epic is based in Cary, beyond that I'm not google mapping you or anything, so chill), say, Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Charlotte, and the obvious will become apparent - criminal behavior is the norm not the exception with these guys.

Incidentally, the person I know to be the most antagonistic towards cops is a former local judge who dealt with their shit, lying in court, systemic incompetence, botched raids, cover ups of malfasceance, assaults on citizens on a Goddamn daily basis. Naturally, he is a former judge because the local police association worked to get his opponent elected. 

I live in Kyoto, and Bal is right :) 

To paraphrase Willem: For the record, I agree that people aren't your friends. They aren't even to be trusted, really.

That. 

Not really the same thing. We're taught when we're young that the police are there to help us and are on our side, which is untrue. We aren't taught that about everyone on the planet. 

Not yet. It needs to change. Parents shouldn't tell their kids that everybody is their enemy, of course! But kids need to learn again that you can't really expect everybody to be your friend, or get along with everybody. The whole idea of world peace is romantic. The idea that "violence is simply bad" is also romantic (that's what I was taught as a kid, for example, and I was heavily mobbed in school). Again, I'm not advocating violence here, just an open mind. If you're taught how to behave in a crisis and how to possibly defend yourself (most aren't), that would be a start. It would possibly also give kids a better idea that they aren't defenseless victims. And perhaps mobbing wouldn't be so rampant then... someone who has normal self esteem and some knowledge of self defense is very hard to mob, I imagine. And probably less likely to mob others, too.

This world is a place with built-in conflicts. Conflicts aren't going to ever go away.

To a degree, I can understand the typical American sentiment of "I need my gun". But I also think that a gun is too often a bad substitute for self esteem and social skills. Not always, of course, but often. 

Ah, sorry, Willem, I got what you wrote mixed up. I mean that teaching kids to be vigilant should be standard. 

To a degree, I can understand the typical American sentiment of "I need my gun". But I also think that a gun is too often a bad substitute for self esteem and social skills. Not always, of course, but often.

I agree with every thing you said in the above post. I was speaking of the most extreme conditions and the need to be able to be flexible in your options.

I had a manager, at my first real job actually, whose family came to America from Hungary. He recalled that before the Soviets invaded in '56 that his dad buried several weapons in a nearby wooded area in anticipation of the Soviets invasion.

When it went down, he weighed his own options, fight or flight. He had a young family and decided the better part of valor was leaving with his family intact, and not once did he ever regret that decision.

In most cases, that is what I would recommend as well. Only when you have your back up against a wall, or when others would be adversely affected by your decision would I really say doing otherwise is the right course of action. 

does "mobbed" mean the same as "bullied?" 

I was assuming so, although the word does suggest purely physical bullying (rather narrowing understanding imo) 

you can bully a mob but you cant get mobbed by a single bully.

you could however get mobbed by bullies which would be worse.

far worse. 

oh heh :) 

This is an awesome fan made short movie that includes a lot of references to the Half-Life series, and has some incredible CGI to boot, what is in the box???!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU_reTt7Hj4 

that's some pretty good integration with the cgi in there. 

I just checked through all the Quoth releases (maps) up to today and noticed that (except for Ricky's first release dejavu10) they are all very well packaged. Either they can be extracted right to quoth/maps/ or just into quoth/
Random thanks for that. :) 

are there any engines that have -quoth yet? i only know of the new fitzquake that does that, but i think i recall someone else supporting it.

i was planning on releasing my next map in it's own pak file to be run with -quoth -game xxxx but i guess i'd have to have 2 seperate versions for different engines, one in a pak file and one with loose files to be dumped into /quoth. 

but i think i recall someone else supporting it.
aguirRe's engine supports '-quoth' option