gunnergoz

I may think about it if the GOP herds yet another administration and congress to the brink of disaster, this time from the minority.

Personally, what was interesting about anything - what love story hasn't been told a million time? The numbers of tragic themes are fairly limited too. My position is that, given a good script and good actors, decent direction and perhaps a dash of luck and timing, there is an opportunity to sell anything. Already, SPR is ancient history and an "oldies" movie to a new generation. Perhaps the young people who have lost loved ones in Iraq or Afghanistan will find meaning in the drama of sending WW2 paratroopers to certain doom across a fire-laced causeway in a foreign land? It may be old news to US and to YOU, but it may not be to OTHERS. Were this not the case, book publishers and the entire entertainment industry would have been out of business ages ago. They re-generate all the time, because there are new audiences, all the time.

Cast Brad Pitt as the TC in the turret of the DD tank, Clint Eastwood cheering him on as BG Roosevelt, bravely standing in the shingle, Angelina Jolie as the Maquis saboteur about to destroy the German pillbox at the end of the causeway and Ed Harris as the SS commander desperately running the gauntlet of Jabos to get his Tiger tank to the beach head, and you might just get some "non-enthusiast" people to pay to see it.

I've looked at the demo and as much as I like the game concept, I will not buy this game with the DRM as configured presently.

I can tell you from our experience in California that brush fires are going to be destructive, no matter what - and in firestorm conditions, no one is really safe and no property can be guaranteed to survive. But there are things you can do to lessen the risks and to give people a chance to escape or at least take shelter. That's what I think the local governments need to be doing over there right now - no matter what the developers say. But if they have the juice and the ear of the politicians, then it's tough going. People just have to put their collective foot down and say, "no more." And you also have to be willing to stand up to the tree-huggers to whom wide safety belts and fire breaks are anathema. They can't have it both ways - you want to live out in the brush, you take your chances or you prepare for the inevitable.

Moon et al- Pretty sneaky of you! But - Tigers!? Always with the damn Tigers! Damn kids and their blasted Tigers! Anyway, congrats and when's the patch coming out?

There are all flavors of them, aren't there? Why are we always having to choose between "the lesser of two weevils?" (With apologies to Russell Crowe )

They knew they'd really screwed up when they heard the collective sigh of relief from about 110 nations...

Think of it as "accidentally making the right decision." That's about the only way they might have stumbled into making a correct choice in the past 8 years.

Well, hell yes I think of the children...I want them to inherit a free country, not a paranoid fascistic police state that jumps every time a Mullah farts in the Middle East.

In either case and whatever else one can say, it took big, brass ones to carry that little trick off.

There, then, its settled.

Luddite!

One moment of clear thinking and sanity in eight years? Sort of underwhelming, if you ask me.

What's the old saying? "Man proposes, Nature disposes?"

<Gunnergoz grabs the vodka bottle before it spills onto the Risk board>

Affentitten- I mean no disrespect, certainly to the dead and injured or all the folks who have had their lives devastated by this. But I'm not so sure that it is unpredictable. Even given an "Dresden Effect" that happens once every 50 years or so, it is the responsibility of Governments to plan and prepare for such things. I propose that we send "Brownie" the director of US FEMA over there, if we can find him. Gosh knows he did a great job during Katrina. Seriously, governments need to get on the ball with this sort of thing, its why we supposedly tolerate them. If what I'm reading is indicative, the numbers of people moving into the outback greatly outstrips governmental preparations to deal with crises of this magnitude, even if it is a rare occurrence. Or are you saying that this can't ever be avoided and folks just have to learn to deal with it every 50 years or so? I can't believe you're saying that.

It sounds like our Aussie friends are going to have to spend some serious time studying the impact of all this urban spread into the outback, and determine how they are going to provide infrastructure (safe roads, fire shelters, fire fighting assets) to support a lot more people living out there than in the past. I understand that people want to live closer to nature, but sometime nature can be pretty unforgiving. Here in Southern California we see this all the time - people want to live in the boonies and then get burned down in the big rural fires...some of which are caused by the increased human traffic in the area (including arsonists and idiots, e.g. like visitors who leave campfires unattended.) The high numbers of people killed this time really leave the impression of total unpreparedness, which is a shame because much of this is preventable with enough civic infrastructure and governmental attention. Let's hope that this catastrophe finally brings about some changes.

Off topic, but I loved reading the story of the M-8 Greyhound A/C that knocked out a KT in the Bulge. Blundered upon it and just about rear-ended it on a back road, then pumped 37mm rounds into the engine compartment from a couple of feet away, until the KT caught fire and the crew bailed. I read about it in one of the major histories of the Bulge, so I'm fairly sure it's true. (And if its not true, I'd sure love it if it were!)

Or for that matter, a Soviet pilot in N. Vietnam going against the US air power. There were a few, it seems. Probably Soviets and Chinese in N. Korea in the 50's too. Off topic, but what I'm still actively trying to do is convince my film producer friend (and a banker I know there) to make a really good, epic film about the Crimean War. It has all the major movie-going nationalities involved - even Americans, if you do your homework. I'll call you guys if I need any extras.

Yep, better lock up all those insidious Aussie Muslims while there's still time...

Oh, no - can't have the wrong chin strap! I won't go see it then! I took heart from SPR that perhaps we would start to see some decent war movies. It was a disappointment on some levels, but fulfilling on others. BOB was near perfect, AFAIC and should be a model for war films, be they a series or single productions. On the issue of tank movies, I absolutely agree. Almost every one I've seen sucked to some degree. The Beast was at least dramatic and dynamic, with a very interesting twist in the location and characters. Bogart's Sahara at least showed an M-3 off nicely and was the first tank film to hook me, when I was just a kid in the '50's and saw it on TV. It would be great if someone did a really good tank movie from the American perspective. Or TD's for that matter. Years ago I read a pretty good novel called Barbara, which was about an M-10 TD crew. Pretty intense IIRC - but that was in the '60's and the author may have been a veteran. On the Brit side, Crisp's Brazen Chariots would be excellent grist for a film. Not that there are many M3 Stewart's running around these days, but heck, a mockup could be made...look at the running M3 medium mockup they made for that John Belushi movie, 1941. It was really impressive. Anyway, there are stories to be told out there and it just takes someone with belief in them to get them to the screen. I don't begrudge Dale Dye for his attempt with the film that this thread is about - it's a legitimate subject, the public already knows a bit about it and if he is riding the wave, so what? Assuming the film is well made and reasonably true to history, then the public gets educated and guys like me get entertained. Not everyone is going to plow new ground, like my Ukrainian friend may be able to do some day with his WW2 film. I just don't want the era and its stories forgotten - or totally screwed up in the retelling, either.

It's a real tragedy alright. We are used to having fires here in Southern California too, but we seldom have loss of life on the scale that the poor Aussies are experiencing. I wish them well, they are good folk.

Actually, can one be counted as having "seen it" if you stopped the DVD after 15 minutes? And concur about TRL - that was revisionist tripe.

I knew about the M4(105)'s a long time ago but didn't realize you had the confusion with M-7's. The M-7's were equipped for standard artillery tasks, while the M-4(105) crews were not even initially issued with or trained to do indirect fire. That came later, in the field. Oh, yes - there were never enough M4/76's to go around. Up until the end of the war, most tank battalions had a mix of /75's and /76's - usually they tried to get 2 /76's into each tank platoon, if there were enough to do this with. Only very, very late in the war do you see exclusively /76 platoons but from what I understood, that was not commonplace. After the war, yes. I know that the troops occupying Trieste (which included a Tank company, had all /76 armed M4's. And they tried to send only the /76 and /105 versions to Korea...a couple of /75's may have come over from depots in Japan, but that was very early on and they were doubtless upgunned if they survived.