I/O Error

Oh for God's sake... The "Good Guys"?! Christ, every powerful nation learns VERY early that if you're nice, you tend to get stabbed in the back and kicked while down. We are the biggest friggin' country on the block, and we have killed tens of thousands of innocent (and more not-so-innocent) people to get us to where we are. Mao Tze Tung, Karl Marx, & Vladimir Ilych Lenin: "Power comes from the barrel of a gun" They may have been dirty commie swine, ( ) but they were right about that part... Josef Stalin (I think): "Kill one person, and it's a tragedy. Kill a million, and it's a statistic." We are not interested in being the good guy to the rest of the world. We are interested (like everybody else) in keeping power and grabbing more land, resources, and prestige. And it's a lot easier to KILL for it. Look a man in the eye, gut him, steal his wife, murder his children, burn his house down, and use his land. Yup, that's what we do best. It's not exactly just the "American way", but we've kinda honed the skill down some. (You think I'm kidding, don't you...) [This message has been edited by I/O Error (edited 01-27-2001).]

"What I do is right because my country tells me it should be so." You know what? I'm not ethical or moral enough to disagree with that statement, not deep down. Scary thing is, I KNOW I'm a super-nationalist. You know, the sort of kid who would have probably ended up joining the Hitler Jugen in Hitler's Germany. And that scares me a little. There. You want honesty? You got it.

Darn, they don't have the long and even-more-uber-cool version of the preview that I saw in the movie theater during "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." They had an AMAZING shot of the fatal blow the USS Arizona took. Now THAT was an incredible work of CG. Following the bomb all the way down from drop-off to impact... *shudder* Note: I don't know why, but I swear I get chills every time I hear that speech from FDR. Call me crazy.

TRust me pal. Just watch the preview, THEN tell me what you think. If you make a gut-reaction just from one picture, you're being ignorant... http://www.adcritic.com/content/movie-pearl-harbor.html Okay. Watch that. Then tell me honestly that you won't see this movie.

Sorry friend, I don't recognize the name/reference. Cute girl? (Please feel free to smack me if I guessed wrong, I'm tired and I'm heading off to bed.) I'll be back to "pimp" my thread tomorrow however!

Israel is definitely a useful ally, but I don't think anybody could DENY that they've screwed "us" (USA) several times. 1.) Strafing run on our Intel ship during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, several Americans dead. The "Liberty", was it? (I'm probably forgetting the right name, correct me as necessary) 2.) Pollack case. If you don't know it, read up, it's pretty bad. Regardless of his cause, he IS a traitor to the United States. 3.) That recent case with the Reserve Lieutenant Colonel who "converted to Judaism, suddenly met a nice Jewish girl, and then decided to try to run to Israel with 3 duffel bags of Intelligence Operations manuals" C'mon. We all know that chick was Mossad, and they attempted a CLASSIC case of distraction-and-subversion-via-nookie. (We're pretty bad at that, but the KGB and the Mossad have historically been VERY good with using female agents.) It's annoying to see an ally do that to us, ya know? I'm just glad we managed to put pressure on him fast enough to get him back. State Department managed to "convince" the Israelis to search for the guy and return him unmolested and without "interviewing" him or siezing his belongings. 4.) Theft of US Nuclear Weapon secrets. *News Flash* Israel and South Africa are both Nuclear powers, Israel possesses several nuclear weapons right now... (South Africa had money, Israel provided stolen American intelligence and research, it was a good deal for both of them.) 5.) Theft of various tidbits over the years, from F-15E Strike Eagle Technical Manuals to Missile Guidance diagrams. I mean, the Mossad is GOOOOOOD. No question. Now, I have to admit, it's really annoying to have your friend steal stuff from you. Not to say Israel isn't valuable, but... maybe some fair play? (I'm not even mentioning the current land problems, I absolutely refuse to get sucked into that cesspool of flame-war-age by taking one side or the other. I'm just talking past history, wishing we would stop getting tooled on by our ally.) Side Note: Avi Ben Jakob. Gotta be impressed with a guy who stuck C-4 in a Hezbollah terrorist's cellphone, then called him, said, "Hello, this is Avi Ben Jakob" Then Jakob hit the * key, sending a signal via the cellular carrier wave to detonate the phone in the bastard's hand. I hear they're STILL scraping pieces of that mofo off the wall!!! LOL... ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

/me was wondering that same thing m8...

Hey, if a German panzer hit them, they were screwed anyway! Better to have as much ammo as possible, ya know? He's so much fun to talk to. ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

I'm telling ya man, some of the troops in the world. And what else CAN they do after they'd joined the Hitler Jugen at 14 and had been combat soldiers for their entire lives? I mean, they LITERALLY could not do anything else! It was all they KNEW!! ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

Okay, who else has seen the previews for this EXCELLENT looking movie? I particularly liked: 1.) The sight of Zeros zooming less than 30 feet off the ground on their way to hit Pearl Harbor... Man, they gives me the chills... 2.) The voiceover of the FDR's famous "...that shall live in INFAMY" speech. God, THAT was intense to listen to... Basically, this looks to be a great movie that I will see again and again... And when I say great, I mean SPR-type of great. Oh yeah. (Movie preview reminded me of the lessons we forget every generation: 1.) That war is horrible 2.) But that some things ARE WORTH fighting, DYING, and KILLING for...) I welcome all comments. Mods, this may be OT, but you have to admit it's not too far off-base, yes? ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

Introduce your opponent to these rules: http://www.rugged-defense.nl/cm/Fionn3.htm Insist you play by them, makes it a LOT more fun.

If nothing else, the picture should especially appeal to anybody who really hates Hitler, as it pokes fun at the little ugly troll. *shrug* I mean, how humiliating would that have been? I would have paid good money to have somebody do that for REAL! "Hey frog-boy, I mean Adolf, I'm sure you'll do well" *slaps back* *supresses chuckle* "Cough... Well, um... go out there then!" ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

"Burn him! He's a WITCH!"

*CLIK* The first man to step back into THAT cesspool offshoot gets a slug between the eyes! "Do you feel lucky punk? Well, do ya?" ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

What's really nasty is when 11 newly captured enemy Prisoners Of War are accidentally shot by an errant MG team... "Herr Sturmbannfuhrer I/O Error, would you care to explain to the panel of judges, gathered here today in Nuremberg, exactly what happened that day?" "Umm... Yo no hablo ingles? Heh... heh... oh boy..." ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

I'm not too sure about your assertion that the hit percentage would have been extraordinarily low... In the game, the gyrostablizer is modeled with most version of the Sherman, and historically that is one thing the US has been VERY good at. The gyrostabilizer is perhaps one of the ONLY true advantages besides numbers that US armored forces had against the Germans, and as far as I can tell from my readings, it was a VERY good advantage to possess. ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

Let's see... there was a thread that said the "Tigers" in Kelly's Heroes were T-34s, but I THINK the general consensus on SPR was they were real. (Good lord, you'd think Spielberg would or could have the necessary pull and budget! ) ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

KiwiJoe: Then you are indeed among the fortunate, to have opponents not clever enough to buy such super-killers... Personally, I think Jumbo and Commissar have it EXACTLY right. Fionn deserves full marks for his idea, and it is a useful link to bookmark. ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

Jason: Excellently put. Couldn't have said it better myself. Definitely listen to Jason, Commissar. ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

Well then, check out this link: http://www.rugged-defense.nl/cm/Fionn3.htm It's a REAL pity more people don't know about this, except for the (remarkably closed) society of Peng cess-poolers... This guy has the first and best workable solution I've seen to all these PBEM games with nothing but Pershings and KTs. I figure somebody else BESIDES me also likes the occasional idea of using older equipment or maybe just infantry. (after all, if I all I wanted was big tanks I could go play some foolish shooter game in an arcade... ) If you've seen this, great. Help me spread it around some more! If you haven't seen this, I suspect it will make your CM multiplayer games MUCH more enjoyable! ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

Tired of all the Pershing vs. King Tiger battles? http://www.rugged-defense.nl/cm/Fionn3.htm ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

*UPGRADING TO VERSION 1.1* The dangers: (Ah c'mon, somebody laugh. Just a chuckle. Anything. Please...?)

Right-click... Save As... That should work, enjoy! (Off to class)

*I/O Error starts to push and shove to get the patch more quickly...* (image loops three times) ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"

My last word on Battleships: It is entirely possible that my wish for Battleships is completely unneeded. I still do not believe that, deep down. Jeff had said that my battleship belief was, "an example of somone with a hammer desperately looking for a nail." Perhaps there is truth in that. However, the answer that Subvet gave is perhaps the best I have heard throughout this entire debate: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Subvet: To use the hammer analogy they are like a hammer that can only drive one type of nail, but they drive those nails twice as well. I guess I'd suggest we keep one or two in reserve in a state where they could be activated within a month if need be. If we ever had to take a defended beach these things could prove to be invaluable. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> THAT is exactly the sort of thing I believe in. I still believe that the tool still has a use in the modern battlefield, and can still perform a vital role that few in any weapon systems can match. Can at least part of what it does be matched by other weapon systems? Yes. But what the BB does, it does "twice as well." I am sorry if some of you got the (very much highly mistaken) impression that I advocated bringing back and BB and REPLACING other systems. In no way would I agree to such a move. The basic belief I operated under for this debate is that the BB is simply too valuable to throw away. P.S. About the China section of the debate: The USA is beginning to see China as a growing concern in the safety of US interests in the Pacific Rim, exactly as previously stated. I fully expect a major conflict to arise over one of two major issues: Issue One: I believe the US will soon officially recognize The Republic of China (aka Taiwan), which is technically still regarded by China as a rogue state. Recognizing it could spark the same sort of result we might have expected if France and Great Britain had recognized the American South during the Second American Revolution (aka The Civil War) That would have been bad, and I expect it to happen with China. Taiwan possesses a democratic government, while China is still a "socialist old boy's club" Issue Two: The increasing trade deficeit between China and the United States. Anyone read Tom Clancy's "The Bear and the Dragon"? Yeah, that book was a LITTLE too pat on the whole issue, but I do believe the point is a valid one. (For the record, I held these beliefs BEFORE I got hooked on Clancy, just thought you should all know that... ) For some reason, I don't see the Spratlys to be as much a major issue for the United States. We have lost interest in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and the Phillipines, the other major potential combatants in such a war. I think our reaction would be limited to sending in a carrier group or two for "observation" and an attempt at moderation. We just don't get as much oil from that area as we used to, hence less interest for us. Okay, I'm "outtie" See you all later! ------------------ Honor, Duty, Courage. Valhalla awaits you, honorable warrior... ------------------------ "If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!"