Messages

601

Unwashed Village / Re: It's hard being a die-hard Jets fan

« on: October 15, 2007, 01:36:06 PM »

Hmm, almost, but not quite, as densely incomprehensible as cricket talk.

I have no opinion;  just popped in to say I'm confused 

602

Unwashed Village / Re: Study Abroad

« on: October 11, 2007, 01:47:13 PM »

Aberdeen would be a great place to study, accomodation is proving a nightmare just now because of a student demographic shift though.  I work and study at Aberdeen and by next year I should be taking my teaching post-grad here too.  The only issue here would be the massive cost of living in Aberdeen, eating out tends to cost double that of a city like Glasgow so you'd probably go over that projected cost of living budget.

603

Unwashed Village / Re: What's the best movie fight / beatdown??

« on: October 09, 2007, 08:44:59 PM »

What's she doing to Doctor Cox?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUilhYhoiBY&NR=1

The first one was brilliant Dooms, the little incredible hulk-off midway through was awesome

604

Unwashed Village / Re: Who wants some Vault Boy Stickers?

« on: October 09, 2007, 07:04:42 PM »

I'm sure I'll love them too once the british postmen stop their strike.

Once I get them I'll indulge in some shameless sticker/Dooms worship

605

Unwashed Village / Re: I could use some help.

« on: October 08, 2007, 01:38:36 PM »

Not at all, they'll bot run happily together, in fact getting rid of IE would require moving to an entirely new OS since Microsoft coded it very deeply into windows.

606

Unwashed Village / Re: Look! It's Bluecross's Mountain escape!

« on: October 07, 2007, 05:12:10 PM »

If you look hard enough you can see trees...

607

Unwashed Village / Re: I could use some help.

« on: October 07, 2007, 11:02:53 AM »

I've used firefox for years, the only 'bad' thing I can think of is the fact that the occasional webpage doesn't behave itself properly, that's usually fixed by using the IE tabs plugin though.

608

Unwashed Village / Re: Challenge - Anything that screams "I'm from the 80s"

« on: October 06, 2007, 10:36:07 AM »

One of my favourites as a kid.

609

Unwashed Village / Re: So apparently that whole no guns thing in England isn't turning out so well

« on: October 04, 2007, 04:59:39 PM »

I was always told that in Scotland it's downlight polite to throw a friend through a plate glass window. I don't know if that's a fair stereotype but I think violence is just an aspect of life, and modern life has new tools for violence. Would we be better with no guns? Maybe. But making them illegal will never stop them from existing: and as I think the point of the OP was here, these laws create a black market (or extend an already existing one).

Pretty much, Scotland can be a prime example of homogination through willful adherence to sterotype. 

For the record I think that making gun ownership illegal is an insanely stupid idea, a black market will exist in any model of gun ownership but proper checks, records and training for people who would be responsible gun owners are undermined by bans.  I'd own a gun myself I wouldn't keep it near me in bed or carry it with me because I feel safe enough in my community not to.  If I lived in a place where it was culturally acceptable or necessary to own guns I can see that my opinion would be markedly different but for now I don't see that me or my neighbours have any use for a gun.

I'm all for owning a gun if you can prove you aren't a psycho and wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment that guns really only make it easier to kill people, it's the psycology of the gun owner that makes them dangerous.  My main issue with gun ownership would be in giving guns to those who might crack and use them or people using a gun when it's not nessesary.  There's a huge amount of implied trust in allowing someone to carry a gun and a vast amount of room for error when giving that gun to people so I can see why the British government took the monumentally stupid task of burying thier heads in the sand instead of trying to detangle the issue.

610

Unwashed Village / Re: So apparently that whole no guns thing in England isn't turning out so well

« on: October 04, 2007, 04:25:39 PM »

Offensive? fuck Than  I didn't actually say the bias was mine, the wording in 'a lingering bias of' was deliberately chosen to be impersonally generic.  If I'd said 'my lingering bias of' I'd get your point, I'm perfectly aware that a very small percentage of Americans go around with a gun in their wasteband hoping to shoot people.  I'm trying to figure out whether I should be offended by the bias I was talking about or whether there's any truth in the lingering conceptual bias the rest of the world is expected to have about Americans.  I know that a lot of you guys see value in owning guns so I'm trying to explore the motivations for this value, your opinion has broadened that understanding; thank you.

I'm not implying that you burts into tears and started calling me names,  I'm probably saying that I'm in a bad mood and I took your reply with less of a customary pinch of salt that I ought to have and that your attempt at splitting hairs looked a lot like you taking offense for the sake of it and just spitting the dummy out.  Since I'd already admitted the validity of using a gun as a deterent your post read like it was a thinly veiled whine. The first line was just bad sarcasm so it pissed me off, in all I gave it poor marks as a Thanatos response^tm.

If you were anybody else I'd apologise for calling you a dick and being a dick to you but since you revel in being a dick, no hard feelings?

611

Unwashed Village / Re: So apparently that whole no guns thing in England isn't turning out so well

« on: October 04, 2007, 11:54:08 AM »

Well, as an American, I certainly only want to own a gun so I can round up a posse and go hunt down some cattle rustlers. 

Out of curiosity, what culture do you come from exactly?  I only ask because I'd like to say a bunch of vaguely insulting things about it, but keep repeating "it's probably just bias and media spin" so nobody can be offended.

To answer your question, I'll just refer you back to the beginning of this very thread, where we learned that ever since guns were outlawed in Britain, more people are getting shot.

I SIMPLY CANNOT UNDERSTAND HOW GUNS COULD PROTECT ME FROM VIOLENCE

How far up you're own arse is your head Than? At the beginning of the thread it was pretty much asserted that laws on gun control mean nothing when we're talking about a criminal element gaining access to them.  What I was asking about is the prevelent attitude to guns in the US, what I was asking, badly phrased I admit, is whether a gun is strictly valid as a form of defence or whether it's a perceptive thing that dictates if you don't own a gun you're exposed and vunerable. 

Instead of trying to participate in any kind of reasoned debate to enlighten the evil man insulting you country you launch into some pissy whine which sadly falls below your usual standards.  Pull your head out Than, you might find the world is a slightly different place than your self-important angry little persona paints for you and that other people tend to have a different point of view from you, if you weren't such a dick about pushing your opinion down their throat you may stand a chance at modifying thier opinion.

I do apologise for making it seem like I think Americans are all gun toting freaks looking for an excuse to shoot their neighbours but a nation with such an ingrained heritage of gun ownership is a little alien to somebody who has only had exposure to guns in very tightly controlled environments.  It takes a little bit of questioing to understand the American attitude to guns and, unfortunately, ignorance tends to expose itself.

For the record I'm Scottish, we have a very proud tradition of playing up to outdated/utterly bollocks sterotypes.

I'm interested in how much of the spiritual essence America had growing up still exists in the US or if there's been a shift to gun ownership because of fear rather than the notion of protecting yourself.

612

Unwashed Village / Re: So apparently that whole no guns thing in England isn't turning out so well

« on: October 03, 2007, 02:15:10 PM »

I can completely understand your point about animals, if you're out in the wild where sharp things with big teeth aren't aware that you don't see yourself as part of a food chain having a gun is a necessity.  I'm also all for humane killing.

I come from a culture where we don't expect people to carry a gun so using a gun for protection is a fairly exotic concept.  My concern is that there's a kill or be killed attitude in America and that there are people who own a gun in the hope of being able to use it some day, I understand the concept of owning a gun as a deterrent. 

I suppose my question hinges on a lingering bias of the American populace being the gun happy morons people outside the country are shown in movies, statistics and special reports on gun crime.  I realise that the media is a massive spin machine but I do wonder how much of the wild west and civil war mentality still exists in the modern American.

613

Unwashed Village / Re: Could you guys have hidden your continued existance any more? :)

« on: October 03, 2007, 12:33:48 AM »

Wow, it has indeed been a long time, I remember your second screen name, welcome back. these bungee cords are amazing.

614

Unwashed Village / Re: Contest! Ruin a movie!

« on: October 03, 2007, 12:28:33 AM »

Melkor decided to play in harmony with the rest of the Ainur thus avoiding war in the heavens and on the earth.

Cheater! That references the Silmarillion of which no movie has ever been made.

I'm not cheating merely being creative, I've ruined five existing films and one in production by undermining the backstory.

How about these? 

Bastian runs right past the bookshop

Peter parker is fatally allergic to spider venom

Buttercup makes the first move on Westley and they move to Australia OR Columbo brings along a book of scripts from the show, it becomes a film about the first case of abuse through predictable storylines

Krypton implodes seconds before Jor-El launches the pod

615

Unwashed Village / Re: Contest! Ruin a movie!

« on: October 02, 2007, 02:33:49 PM »

Melkor decided to play in harmony with the rest of the Ainur thus avoiding war in the heavens and on the earth.