Posts made by Mugiwara_no_Ice

Sorry Op. Even my lurking isn't what it used to be. For instance I didn't even finish reading your post.
I know, I'm a terrible person, don't hate me.

@wolfwoof:

I remember my grandmother talking about how her churches priest condemned people for having the devils horn and the devils eye in their home

That is a tv antenna and a television set. Which some people had to hide in the bedrrom as to not let people know that they watched that stuff lol

Hahaha oh my, my grandfather was such a guy, TV never entered his house until very recently. Yep he caved in, old age does
that to a man. Lol.

Oh man Silvers Righley, the man, the legend.

Come on tell us what happened to you in your time out.

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Oh man Silvers Righley, the man, the legend.

Come on tell us what happened to you in your time out.

Hahahaha you two make me laugh, I kinda agree with nobodyman on this; this shouldn't be the norm for kids, my kids for instance won't be reading this; even though I didn't get gloomy vibes when I read it for the first time, maybe because I was already old, and I have the same view about death in fiction as wagumo.

Yesterday I was in a conversation with an older Belgian woman I met for the first time. She asked me: Are you a real Belgian?
And I thought it was a real great question. Normally I'm asked if I'm a Moroccan or Turk.

So to chime in the discussion, it's all a question of how you're willing to see people. If for you the human that is in front of you is black than he'll be black, but if you see a 'human' who is your equal than you won't think of calling him black.

And I have a principle in this matter: Call people by what they like to be called.

Happy birthday Dervish! I'm ashamed I didn't understand your lap around the sun thing till now; beautifully said.

Guys no quick judgment. It's just a RAW, I'm sure Togashi will fix this for the scanlation.

@Enlighten:

! I have just discovered this thread. I am a big fan of the Arab Spring. I have been following it closely on the news and social media. It just never occurred to me that there would be such a thread on AP. Oh, and what a thread it is. I read both threads. Damn they brought back a lot of memories. It was quite an experience. And frankly put things into perspective. I now see That Gaddafi and Assad killed the momentum of the revolutionary wave, using unbelievable levels of violence. You can see the participation in the thread slowly die off as things get dire. Which is a shame and very reflective of reality sadly.
! Anyway, I'd like to share my two cents with you fine people.
! I'll talk about Syria since it's the main story for now. I will try to give my impression of the big picture. Which will mean there will be factual inaccuracies by the very nature of summaries, plus this is mostly from social media and inherently inaccurate and finally my memory of things can be wrong. I might not even be able to provide sources. So with all these caveats and with a grain of salt I give you Syria present situation.
! You all know that Syria began peaceful. Only through extreme violence did people pick up arms. Of course They still do demonstrations every Friday. Last one was under the title "Assad is the only terrorist in Syria". To respond to the US designating Al nusra front a terrorist organization. A very Ill timed decision if you ask me. Speaking of Al-nusra which means help or solidarity. Their leadership are from Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia most probably. The name itself hints at this origin. They are there to help Syrians. Anyway, what's funny is that Assad's regime had heavily infiltrated this group like all jihadi groups in an effort to export violence to Iraq and to control the outcome. In the beginning of the armed struggle they did questionable things like releasing prisoners they had just apprehended. But perhaps through change of leadership the monster the regime had created had turned on them. Al-Nusra remain the most successful of the many groups of Syrian resistance. They are however not under the FSA umbrella group nor do they carry the independence flag of Syria. Which means they will cause trouble in the future. But for now they are quite useful. They are better trained and funded than many groups. And remarkably disciplined. Perhaps they have learned from Iraq not to attack civilians, where Abu Musab Zarqawi had caused horrific scenes of death. These were the basis for the backlash and awaking camps that the US created to kill the insurgency in Iraq. But that is another topic for another time. Al Nusra are everywhere however they dominate the Deir Ezzor or eastern front. It’s useful to think of Syria as Europe in WW2. Al Nusra are the commies on the eastern front. Everyone else is the Allies on the western front. This metaphor is quite useful in many ways ;)
! The FSA was started by defected soldiers and civilians picking up arms much like Libya. The difference is that top brass in Syria is mostly Alawi and thus extremely loyal to the regime. So only few top brass defected and they were so far a part that there was no leadership structure in the FSA. Hossein al Harmosh who started the FSA was caught and publicly executed. And Riad Al As'ad who defected from Deir Ezzor was it's figure head for a long time. until a couple of weeks ago. Now they have joint chiefs of staff and a head of the joint chiefs Selim Idris who is the effective leader.
! http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/12/11/254506.html
Also unlike Libya the FSA has yet to control a major city. There are many reasons. Mainly the Syrian army's sectarian make up helps preserve loyalty. Syrian pilots for example have no problem bombing civilians unlike Libyans who intentionally missed or defected. The core Alawi nucleus also decreases ability of other sects to defect. So Syria needed far less mercenaries than Libya. Though Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi and Iranian militias have been observed.(All these are Shia, the alawi’s are Shia too, arguably ) Syria is much smaller more densely populated than Libya. With more side roads and country roads interconnecting villages and cities. Unlike Libya Which is basically one long coastal road with cities at various intervals. This makes defending territory against a regular army disastrous. The FSA tried this in Homs and Idlib in the Summer of 2011 with sever consequences. So the FSA now use guerrilla tactics. And have used this war of attrition to slowly grow in size, gain weapons and eat away at regime personnel and equipment. They largely control the country side. suburbs and outskirts of cities. interconnecting roads etc. you get the picture. The only exceptions are the coastal areas. there is very little fighting there. As the three main coastal cities have sizable Alawi population Also country side and mountains in that region are filled with Alawi villages. That is their motherland. they were historically a mountain people. With that exception all other countryside is mostly in FSA control. There are regime posts everywhere but they can't usually project strength outside their walls. Each side can and does enter the other's domain but at grave cost.
! The FSA started with light arms sometimes antique guns and through looting and ambushing the regime they got better and better arms. If there is any foreign arming of the rebels the amounts are miniscule and no where near enough to sustain the rebels current advances. Their favorite and most effective weapon is the home made IED. Through these roadside bombs they have cut regime supply lines and did much damage to it’s armor. This is why they control the countryside. Only after getting RPGs and other anti tank weapons from their various exploits did the start posing a threat to tanks inside the cities. In the beginning they used to report every tank the stole or blew up, now it happens so frequently that only major tank massacres get mentioned any more.
! The current status quo stems from the spectacular bomb attack of the crisis management cell. The brains of the Assad regime on the 18th of july 2012. The confusion that followed made Assad lose the initiative. While prior he would send troops to hunt the FSA, now he can only defend his various positions against their attacks. Emboldened by this bombing. FSA who had taken Aleppo countryside advanced on to the city itself. The same was done in Damascus. I don’t if the Damascus move was to scatter Assad forces to allow Aleppo to fall or if it was for moral or if they actually believed they could take it. It did however end up dividing Assad’s attention. He did send reinforcements to Aleppo but far less than he would have had his capital not been threatened he also pulled troops from distant areas. Like kurdish areas and border areas. FSA hit a lot of the Aleppo reinforcements on the way in Idlib, Hama and Homs. They also managed to seize many border crossings to Turkey in the north, Iraq to the east and even briefly jordan to the south. This allowed better supply lines especially via Turkey. Along with vast areas falling under FSA control. Now airports in Idlib and Aleppo were surrounded. Many military installations also were surrounded in the north.
! Assads remaining trump card is his air force. Only through it is he able to resupply his distant bases in the north. Especially since The FSA took Maarat Al Numan in Idlib. This little town sits on the highways from Damascus to Aleppo and from Latakia to Aleppo. Cutting the main supply lines to Aleppo. No wonder, Assad flattened this town completely.
! Throughout this whole war Assads doesn’t follow any tactical or strategic plan. He only focuses on punishing civilians that dare to defy him. Like Hitler in the war of Britain. Focusing on bombing London instead of the royal air force bases. So does Assad focus on bombing civilians instead of facing the FSA or bombing their locations. This is getting more pronounced as the war proceeds. Whether this cowardice from a demoralized army or following actual orders in hopes of cowering the population I don’t know. As I mentioned before Assad has an infantry problem. He can’t march his forces in any decent numbers out of his bases. They either defect or get massacred by the FSA. This is why he relies on shelling cities from his surrounding bases. Or shelling neighborhoods The FSA seizes from ones he controls. This plus aerial bombardment is his only offensive tools left.
! The FSA has gained through seizure many surface to air missiles. And have been dropping helicopters and MiGs with increasing regularity. This plus storming military airports throughout the country is slowly defanging Assads last conventional trump card. The only tool of escalation remaining to him is his chemical weapons. But even the window of opportunity on that is quickly closing. this is from the Washington Post
! “Last week, fighters from a group that the Obama administration has branded a terrorist organization were among rebels who seized the Sheik Suleiman military base near Aleppo, where research on chemical weapons had been conducted. Rebels are also closing in on another base near Aleppo, known as Safirah, which has served as a major production center for such munitions, according to U.S. officials and analysts.”
! http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-plans-for-possibility-that-assad-could-lose-control-of-chemical-arms-cache/2012/12/16/f4912be2-4628-11e2-a685-c1fad0d6cd1f_story.html
! I believe this will be deterrent against Assad using them. Or maybe that is wishful thinking either way I’m optimistic. I don’t believe Assad will use CWs. And If he does I don’t think he can derive any tactical or strategic gain from it. He only makes ethnic cleansing of the Alawis more likely if he does.
! >! https://lh3.ggpht.com/-DLeI_hLFewo/UIbOtVO3cwI/AAAAAAAAA2Q/9MCR3BQVeNw/s1600/syria_uprising_2012-10-23.png
So where do things stand on the ground? Lets start on the eastern front. Starting from the Iraqi border.(Sunni tribes span the border, smuggling weapons is their favorite pastime) Fighters take the town of Al Bukamal and follow the Euphrates north. taking towns destroying bases, etc. They have reached and surrounded Deir Ezzor. Only one base plus the military airport remain in the hands of the regime. From them the city is shelled. Aerial bombardment also still a major cause of loss of life there. The rebels now surround both bases. They gained many SAMs and have hit quite a few MiGs. In fact Deir Ezzor is second only to Idlib where it all started in the number of planes downed. So go beduins!
! I think Deir Ezzor will be the first major city to be liberated. From there rebels will follow the Euphrates north to Ar Raqqah. These are the hillbillies of Syria. The only place where no demonstrations against the regime occurred. In fact in 2011 Assad went there to pray Al Eid prayer(he needs to pretend to be Muslim to rule Syria, it’s in the constitution, the threat of removing that clause is what caused the previous uprising that ended in Hama massacre 1982 but that is another topic entirely) Hell even the coastal cities had demonstrations! Not Ar Raqqah. Hillbillies think going out in unarmed demonstrations is stupid. Can’t say that I blame them. They have no problem with picking up arms though. God bless them, the blew up their governors car a few weeks back, nearly got him too. They took the major dam on the Euphrates. Along with many bases. Ar Raqqah city is also close to being liberated. Once that is done, everything east of the Euphrates will be in rebel hands. That is the rural sparsely populated part of Syria. It’s Also the part that has the Kurds in the north along the Tigris mostly and along the eastern parts of the border with Turkey. The Kurdish issue is complicated to say the least. For Now the PYD which are the branch of the PKK in Turkey are pro regime. All the other acronyms are pro revolution. The regime withdrew most of its forces from Kurdish land. Some still remain. This lead to clashes between FSA mostly Islamic units and the Kurds Mostly PYD. This has occurred even in Aleppo!?. So now the Kurds attack the regime checkpoints on their land so as not to give the FSA an excuse to invade. Thus keeping the land in Kurdish hands, at least that’s what I think, who the fuck knows?
! Aleppo: Most the bases surrounding Aleppo have been seiged for months and are falling rapidly now. The infantry school and Hanano base just fell a couple of days ago. There is still that Chemical weapons base I talked about earlier. The rebels are afraid of storming that, can you blame them! they do have it surrounded though. Only Minakh military airport remains I believe. So Aleppo is almost completely surrounded. Aleppo international airport stopped functioning, but hasn’t been stormed yet. Aleppo is the only place in Syria where rebels are holding their ground. It’s grinding street warfare. Where snipers rule. The regime units in the city are surrounded but hanging on viciously helped by Shelling and Aerial bombardment. Plus the very nature of this kind of war is slow. In no other major city are the rebels holding neighbourhoods in any sense of that word. Rather the usually tactically retreat in the face of superior fire power and live to fight again. Not in Aleppo. Street by bloody street it grinds on and on while the city literally starves. I expect Aleppo to fall after Ar Raqqah.
! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19285076
Idlib: Is where the armed rebellion started. It is to the South West of Aleppo. Cutting the lines of supply into Aleppo as I mentioned earlier. Most of the terrain is Mountainous and difficult. Idlib city is still in regime hands. Most everywhere else has fallen. The rebels just finished liberating the last stretch of border with Turkey in Idlib province about a week ago. They are pushing to the west into Latakia. There they hope to separate Turkey completely from the Syrian regime and reach the coast. This is important for supplies but more so because this area of Turkey is Alawi stronghold. Thus cutting them off from Syria is strategically important. Turkey Alawis and Alvis (Arab and Turkish respectfully) are staunchly pro regime. They have funded and volunteered to be Shabiha and harassed Syrian refugees. Isolating them from the Alawi dense Syrian coast is very very important. Finally Idlib FSA have pushed south 40 kilometers past Maarat Al Numan into Hama countryside in the last couple of days. Finally Idlib FSA have destroyed all regime military airports in their province quite a while back. 2 military airports if I remember correctly. Oh, Liwaa Al Umma is one of the major FSA groups in Idlib. It has Libyan Leadership. The same ones that stormed Tripoli.
! Hama: Perhaps scarred by the Shadow of it 1982 massacre, perhaps do it’s central position and difficulty of getting arms there Hama province, especially the city, the 4th largest in Syria, was quiet. Only Two days ago did the FSA start a major offensive in Hama. They liberated dozens of towns in its countryside and hope to reach the city in 2 days. The city has a checkpoint at every intersection according to activists there.
! The regime is yet to win a victory in 80 days in the north and east I previously discussed. Obviously Assad's military is rapidly collapsing. The question is where is the next equilibrium point, if any. Or will the regime continually degrade with accelerating speed until its demise.
! Homs: like Hama there is significant Alawi presence here. Homs has perhaps bared the worst of the Syrian civil war. Hezbollah is heavily involved here do to proximity to Lebanon. The Situation there is unclear. Though the FSA have been recently making advancements. It is basically a meat grinder there. lots of battles and death yet the lines remain almost the same for now.
! The coast with the exception of north Latakia near the Turkish border little is occurring here for now. Some Alawi infighting have been reported though.
! Daraa: Because of it’s position in the extreme south supplies are hard to get there. the desert to the east. Uncooperative Jordan to the south. Damascus to the North. And Lebanon to the west. You get the picture. Most of the Syrian Army used to be here near Israel. But since the summer they have been increasingly mobilized elsewhere. FSA here lack supplies to challenge the regime so function mainly via ambushes and IEDs still. But there is un uptake in activity as Damascus gets stressed further.
! Damascus: If you can imagine Damascus from above. Qassioun mountain is to the North West. At its foot is the presidential palace. Surrounded by Alawite neighbourhoods and slums then downtown Damascus. All of this is Surrounded by Suburbs and Palestinian refugee camps which seem to be in FSA hands. Remember this is not like Aleppo. FSA retreat and attack, slowly gaining closer to the heart of the regime. They resemble a horse shoe pitting Assad against the mountain. If this was conventional war holding the mountain would have been the key. But the FSA can’t do that. They can only do street warfare in areas where they have population support. Most deaths in the war are now in Damascus. The regime is heavily shelling FSA “controlled” neighborhoods and bombing them from his helicopters and fixed wing jets. Just a month ago dropping a jet over Damascus was unthinkable. Now it happens everyday, almost. Damascus International Airport is surrounded and closed. The battle here is for areas to maneuver in and over highways and roads for supplies. Meanwhile, FSA have destroyed many bases including helicopter bases, air defense bases and others. One of three main rader bases has been destroyed. the other 2 are Latakia and Homs. Many bases remain. 4th armored division base , mezzah military airbase and many others. However the regime for now seems unable to defend its capital against this seemingly legitimate challenge.
! This is a very good presentation about the situation in Damascus, the maps used are a bit old though, so the situation is a bit worse for the regime.
! http://www.understandingwar.org/press-media/graphsandstat/battle-damascus-current-state-play-syria
! I believe Damascus is only months away from falling. This will be followed by the fight for the coast.

Man welcome welcome. I'm always happy when there's a heavyweight poster like you that's joining our ranks.

I hope to read more of you. You're clear analysis was great. Can I ask you why you're so interested in Syria and what your main sources are?

They're a world apart. You can find image next to image comparisons on this thread if you want to look for them. The Volumes are great I had them, you won't be disappointed.

@Nami:

My problem with this thread at the moment is the fact that I don't know when these sins really become SINS.

Let's see, sin is bad. It stands for doing something wrong.

Now. Is it wrong when I'm proud of a good mark? Is it wrong, when I eat a cheeseburger? Is it wrong, when I have sex with my bf or masturbate? Is it really bad when I envy someone for, let's say, having enough money to buy nice food? Is it wrong, when instead of doing something productive like sewing I surf on the web? Is it wrong when I save money? Is it wrong to be mad when someone insults me?

So, you see, basically you have to take all these sins to an extreme to make them an actual sin. But even then they aren't always bad.
Let's say I would love having sex. What would be wrong or be a SIN if I do it more than once a day with my bf? I see nothing wrong with that.
I think we'd need to define all the extremes of these sins, then look at ourselves and see if we really are comitting a sin.
And is it really committing a sin when you are happy with yourself?

I'm just stating the obvious, am I not? :/

Well, I tried.

In my religion we don't call these sins but sicknesses of the heart. Pride, envy and greed are outright bad.
The other ones gluttony, lust, sloth and wrath are good if they're controlled and bad if these urges control you; cause they're like preservation and defense mechanisms of the body. The body needs the gluttony to go fetch food, it needs the anger to protect it from its enemies, it needs sloth to make it rest and it needs lust for its survival and for other things.

@lelandlancaster:

And this: http://www.virtualcointoss.com/

Hahahahaha I'm all for this.

@DarthAsthma:

I don't remember having such unnecessarily snarky friends… nor friends that don't give a shit about what I think telling me it's all my problem.
Sorry sir, I think I made it pretty politely clear that I don't like other people telling me about myself when they have no friggin clue...
So yes I'm calling you out on this bs, first of all telling me to chill out after lacking the respect that should go into a discussion among "friends" is pretty hypocritical.
I bet you're the kind of person who tells people to chill out after making insensible jokes, right?(see what I did here?)

As for why it isn't a problem, something being a problem insinuates it being something I have to deal with, except there isn't anything about it to deal with.
It's fiction, I can dislike parts of it, I don't think that's a problem, at least for me but I begin to think me not liking something might be a problem for someone else (hah I did it again...).

So how about we stop this bs and respect each other.

Lol, wow I really have a problem with uptight people, and I kinda liked you even. damn I know I should probably stop here but what can I say: it's my nature.

I'm not used to tiptoe and be all formal in a friendly environment. If you have problems with that, it's your problem, not mine. If you want me to really show you some value judgments, I won't dissapoint you. ;-)
See you soon Darth, lol.

Come on chill out man, we're among friends here.
Like it was said in the manga the ryodan are a group more different than the different people, but they still have an attachement with Meteor or else why would they come back for the ant queen when they're rich and powerfull they don't have to return there ever.
So if you think like you did before that's your problem, not mine. :p

Revenge is not the right word, it's more tribal solidarity. If you think that's boring that's your problem, I think it's interesting.

@chikkychappy:

The message was simply meant to warn those who plan to take revenge that the culprits (Ryodan) are not to be messed with.

If you remember this message was first introduced while the mafia was being scared away from taking revenge on the Ryodan.
It wasn't introduced while the mafia was realizing, "Oh that's why they did that rampage the other day. They were taking revenge."

What are you talking about, they don't leave the message as a deterrent but they leave it to explain why they did what they did and to claim the responsibility.
Here 2 pages further you see the message near a corpse foot.

So the message the maffia received just points out that they did something (took something) from the Meteorians (or the Ryodan in particular).

The spiders killing the Kurata for a reason was something I always suspected. Since I knew they were from Meteor city. First I thought that because they were from Meteor and seeing how the world treated them as garbage, that the rest of the world didn't have a moral foot to stand on when judging them.

A bit like in this quote of Malcolm X : "Well, for the White man to ask the Black man why he hates him is like the wolf asking the sheep, or the rapist asking the raped, "Do you hate me?""

That doesn't mean that what they did (or do) is just, I'm just saying that in their thinking they're always in the right, cause they're the initial victims.

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@Thousand:

There's no such thing as an evil human.

All right now I understand your gripes with the arc. I couldn't understand your logic and where you got all your suppositions from.
So your problem is purely ideological.

Ok let me make things clear. The supposed themes (evil and such) you thought Togashi wanted to explore in this arc are just figments of your imagination, let me explain why:

First of all like all normal human beings he believes it normal and accepted that there are in fact evil human beings and that evil does exist. So in my opinion he didn't want to pass that message down our troat like you try to suggest.

Further the passing down of evil or good character to the reincarnated ant is just manga logic and has nothing to do with pseudo philosophical theory or whatever you think he might have done.

I for one was curious to see if Togashi (and I have said this earlier in this thread) was a pure materialist or believed in the soul/spirit and such; and was patiently waiting to see if he was gonna revive Kaito to the fullest or if he was gonna declare him dead.
-reviving a dead corpse=pure materialsim
-reincarnation in another organism= existence of the soul.
And if he in fact was a pure materialist, I wouldn't have agreed with his ideology, but I would still have enjoyed the arc for the story he made up in all its details and action and drama and etc…

So imo the themes weren't those you advance, but I think Togashi just wanted to tell a story and do some commentary on the world of today, with all the north koreas out there, the way we treat animals and ect... nothing to do with the philosophical issues you bring up.

Don't look at things through your TLC-goggles, Lion chan, try taking them off some times and look at them from different perspectives, especially the author's.

@Denbob99:

That was epic but the fact Kinemon got hit by the gas makes me feel like someone will find a way to reverse the effects and no-one will die from it, which would be utter horseshit

Hahahahaha you really thought people would die in One Piece. When will people learn?

@No:

I know this is a bit daring of me to say but, could we maybe move the "dialects and ethicalit behaviour associated therewith" outside the news thread ? I don't dsagree with the topic, and it is interesting, but it's not realy related to any news story.

Don't be a spoilsport, No M. Very very interesting discussion.

@Thousand:

So eating "evil" people turns you evil.

…

This is what I mean when I say Togashi doesn't have a modicum of understanding of these philosophical issues.

It's a world he created, if the narrator tells us next chapter that the world is flat than the world is flat, no matter how unscientific and out of whack it seems to you. There are no philosophical issues (lol) in my Hunter x Hunter.

@Nobodyman:

I seem to remember the ants enjoying torturing/killing people, even when they didn't need to.

Kaito explained why they became like that:

!

@Thousand:

Somehow, I don't think I did.

Lol, oh yes you did, my friend, oh yes.

Nah I think pollsters close to the democrats are making those polls to not let their voters slack off, so they stay focused and mobilized untill d-day. It's a neat strategy.

I think Obama has this in his pocket unless something really unexpected happens, but seeing how Obama campaigned last election, I think he's a campaign-master, he never makes any mistakes; really I was awestruck of his last presidential campaign, he didn't make one mistake, turned the negative things into a positive and did that for the whole 2 years or so since his campaign started (democratic primaries 2008), in comparison Romney is small fry.

The only thing that keeps Romney floating, I think, is the ridiculous amounts of money he gets. I don't even know why these rich bankers think he got a chance.

Star Platinum didn't talk if I remember correctly, only a very few stands did talk, echo act 3 comes to my mind right now.

@Wagomu:

Neither. They are both of concern, no question, but to me great wealth is only a road to comfort and appearances are unnecessary with the right amount of charisma, easily bred from honesty and kindness. At this point, all I desire is the happiness I can derive from experiencing the full depth of life and seeing how far I can rise above the disordered structure of our world. Oh, and power. That shit's just fun.

Yeps neither for me too. In fact I'm at this point of my life in a deep thinking mode about how I can be defined without those things.
It's about what makes me what I am, I don't want my appearance (wealth is for me a part of appearances too) to define me, they seem so insignificant for me to be part of what defines me, I want to be defined by what I really am, and for that I need to know who/what I really am first, I'm almost there, like I said I'm deep in thinking mode right now.

I have to say that that's been a reason for why I'm not so present here as I used to be. But I'll have my answers in a couple of years godwilling and I'll be happy to share it with you guys.

WOw loved the vid, thanks Glib.

@CaptainKid:

I've know Obama was going to win for a while but none of the republicans I've talked until recently realized this. But in the end Robama or Obamney aren't going to change shit… I still don't get how people still believe this. Republicans: no regulation, no 4th amendment, massive military industrial complex, theocracy. Democrats: command economy, no 1st amendment, depleted military, governmental control over child welfare, nanny-state. Both of which sound like shit, so I won't vote. Obama is worse than the last one and whoever wins in 2016 will be worse than Obama.

Wait a minute … Are you really equating a massive military industrial complex with governmental control over child welfare??? Do you really think that it's "één pot nat" like we say in dutch (tar everybody with the same brush).

@RPGJay:

The movies didn't have Tom Bombadil. Which is the greatest decision ever made by Jackson and Co.

What? Why would anyone think that, I loved the portion of the story with Tom.

Yeah I can't agree more. The Lybians have taken the initiative, now let's hope it's as infectious as the revolutions. I at least wish and hope it does.

@wolfwood:

Strange thing about this all to me is that they're wrecking their own cities and killing their own people.

I mean surely someone has to realize that burning down the local Pakistani cinema isn't going to affect the movies avalibility

It's like slashing your own tires to get revenge on the guy who took your girlfriend

Yeps totally agree with this. The people who use a movie or cartoon or anything to stirr up stupid and savage vandals do not have their country's or religion's interest at heart.

That's why I first and foremost blame the groups (salafists and others) who publicized this movie in their respective countries, for all the deaths and damage.

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@Fire-Fist:

and it happened

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19678412

You know, I was asking myself what the dude you call president thought when he decided to let more people on the streets, was a good idea.

There is one thing I hate the most in leaders and that's incompetence.

Yo happy birthday Kaio.

Don quichotte and Insider too.

Well in his defence he said rioters and not people.

Those killers and fanatics do not realize they are the ones that insult and harm the prophet and the religion the most.

@FelRes:

The government doesn't need to babysit people like that.

Babies need a babysitter. It's as simple as that.

@Dumhuvud:

I'm almost done with part 7 and I have a question regarding the character Magenta Magenta…

! The JJBA wiki lists him as the SBR world's equivalent of Cars, the villain from part 2. I'm not sure if I can buy that. Aside from their eventual fates, they have pretty much nothing in common. Am I missing something?

No I don't think he's a counterpart, maybe an homage or something but nothing more.

@Kaiolino:

Man, it's election day here and it's almost as exciting as two years ago!

Didn't the polls close couple of hours ago.

It was exciting, I agree with that. I hope Samson gets his 41 seats, I wanna see what he's capable of as PM.

^ I third the motion.

Man, you handled it very well. You have nerves of steel.

I'm not one that get's this kind of attention, cause maybe I look tough or somethin, but whenever I see a group of wannabe gangstas playing tough, I can't but laugh at the childishness and 'cartoon-y' of it all. I've seen real badasses in action and they don't talk or bump or eyeball, they go straight for the throat.

No there isn't another meaning to the word (in my knowledge), I geuss they thought the word would be a little too bizarre for english readers and changed it to "overkill" or something or maybe they didn't understand it.

The Wire is a masterpiece of art. No other TV-thing comes near. I'm not the guy who can always pinpoint why I feel something is perfect and great, that's why I like reading posts like those of Zephos, cause he obviously can.

I completely agree with him.

All I can add is that after watching The Wire I couldn't make myself watch something else, I didn't continue all the series I was watching, not Breaking Bad, not Dexter,.. Only mad men, but only after a couple of months have passed, and of course the light-weighted series like Community or Parks and Rec.

Well that's the point I think. I don't think it was a good idea to let Arnold become governor, see what he has done? lol.

Jokes aside, I do think that where you're born, where you grew up and your roots/lineage/and such do matter in how you feel/are connected with a place or people. I might be wrong, but that's how I see things.

@Silverblade:

A "write better yourself" argument in a Hunter x Hunter thread. You can do better than that, Mugiwara_no_Ice!

Come on Silver :). I don't think this argument is as bad as some try to make it look. I'm not saying: if you can't write something better do not criticize.
My question is one of real honest curiosity, cause he didn't explain why he was displeased with the story. At least I don't take a sarcastic retelling of what happened as an explanation.

When I'm displeased with a story, I see a myriad of ways it could have been better, so I'm just asking if he thought about something better so we could see the flaws in what Togashi has given us. Or at least tell us why he thinks what Togashi gave us doesn't live up to his expectations.

Big cookie wands are easy to crumble. :p

@Gliblord:

Lol @ Josuke encountering an alien and then going, hey, I'm going to use him to cheat at dice

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

Why didn't Rohan just use his ability to find out how Josuke was cheating

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

Also, why wasn't Yoshikage initially able to see stands if he himself had one at that point

Hahaha yeah that was one of my favourite part of part4, that and the Italian restaurant bit and the paper scissors game and … aah too many of them.

@KageKageKing:

! That guy its actually the fox, right?

@Sâuza:

Yup he is, dude's dead.

Lol, I totally missed that one. I thought Gotou himself was a demon beast to begin with and that's how he survived. I was clearly wrong.

So Killua sent his buddy to spy on the family, or what?

Now that I read that chapter back, there was another thing I missed and that was Novu's and Morau's celebration: they were in fact talking about their bet about who would come to the NGL expedition. They were gonna pay 1 million to Netero (down the sewer, said Morau) if they lost and that's what they've done with the bottle.

@phoenix_fire:

Not even after the last arc? I never really understood, why togashi got so few criticism for that. For me, it was naruto/bleach/(insert any series you hate) bad.

Hahahaha no it wasn't.
@phoenix_fire:

So, our main character has to face a foe he cant beat under any circumstances, so lets just use the "potential of his future" as some very stupid powerup. But hey, its not THAT easy, because its just onetime usable, willl seal his Nen and cripple or even kill him afterwards. But no problem, because luckily we have this special girl, who can heal him with no aftereffects whatsoever. Though this is Hxh and we value quality storytelling so there are some very, very complicated and probably very deadly rules to obey for healing him and it can mean, that a lot of people, including gon himself, will be killed. So now focus this arc on this complex and intricate issue and…. Aw hell, just forget it, lets just say killua can use this healing power without obeying these laws, thereby not only rendering the whole arc(or sub-arc) moot, but also making the god-like powerup from the previous arc extremely cheap and without any downsides.

First of all Gon's powerup wasn't stupid, in fact it was a great powerup with a devastating consequence. Can you(or your friends naruto/bleach/… autors) come up with a better one? I don't want to see someone yelling hard and get a powerup from nowhere or someone who beats a far stronger foe by sheer will or whatever. So if you can't come up with something better you shouldn't cry over it.

2ndly, the cop out, and there had to be a cop out because Gon wasn't gonna die, (or maybe you would have ended the series in this bizarre and awfull way) was very well done, it used a lot of components of the story it didn't use before (Killua's family, Hisoka, Hunter association, etc...), it was highly entertaining and it stayed in the mainframe of the possibilities of the story (it wasn't farfetched, it wasn't a horrible deus ex machina (something totally foreign to the story that solves everything), it wasn't illogical, ...).

3dly, If you had a better scenario in mind please feel free to write it up inhere, and let's see if your dissapointment with the story, is justified (cause his imagination, originality, etc... didn't leave up to your expactations).

@phoenix_fire:

I'm 100% convinced that togashi wrote himself into a corner there and couldnt figure any way out. (you can even count the whole illumi business in there, because it was not really satisfyingly resolved and made the death of the butler guy totally pointless)

Let me dissapoint you a little more:

! The butler didn't die in the end. Lol.

@Nami:

I'll quit my school in January/February and move to Oz and I'm very happy about this solution.

Also. I want a baby. God damn.

To the wizard ?

Of course, Europe is more to the left politically when compared to America.
Even the extreme right parties wouldn't go as far as what we heard of some republicans.
Maybe about immigrants and islam and such but if they talk about women or abortus in that way they would be deleted from the political landscape.

So Obama is just in the middle for us, so alot of people can adhere to his policy.

@Monkey:

I'm not sure I agree, I dunno, maybe that's because America is by nature the sort of country that is defined by coming here rather than having roots here though. Even our roots are about coming here lol.
Dunno how I'd feel about it if I lived in Belgium, though that you say this as an immigrant is even more interesting.

Sorry to come back to this one, haven't been in a writing mood the other day. Well let me take an example: Are you ok with someone being mayor of "your" city that came fresh from let's say Los Angeles or the westcoast? I wouldn't, I don't think anyone would that's why in a democracy it actually almost never happens.
When it comes to a country I think the link should be deeper than for a city.

Of course for a vast and diverse country as the US, it wouldn't be the same as for a little country like Belgium, I understand that.

I think he's talking about the big great media lies about Syria, cause yeah litteraly 100s if not 1000s of journalists are cooperating together to get us the wrong message. Yes the real victim is Assad and his goons and alqaeda members are doing all the killing on both sides (haven't we heard this one before?).

Come on, if you come tell us this kind of garbage, at least tell us why? and proof of what you're saying.
@Monkey:

Oh! In fact it occurs to me, my high school Latin Teacher who I presume is still around town or could otherwise be reached…had at the time a fiance from Syria! I could give him a call surely!
And I even have proof!

Ohoo, you're lucky to have had a teacher like him. I might even think he's had an influence on you, you should thank him.

@Monkey:

Constantine is basically Greek, though it's hard to tell in English sources if those are actually how the names were said. All these common or somewhat common Western names with roots in the Bible that get said differently in various languages. Probably Greeks called them Georgios, Constantinos, Alexandros, and Pavlos. Otto on the other hand hell if I know.

It's the same thing as how you have the same religious name source between Arab and Turkish names. Like Mohammed becomes Mehmed and stuff like that.

Yeah, just had to laugh when I saw that list like that. In fact they did adapt, the first George's real name was Vilhelm.

@Monkey:

Check it.
These are the Greek kings.
Notice the name of the bloodlines? Sure as shit not native.

LOL, they didn't even try to hide it by adapting their first names.

As for a ruler being born in the country he's leading. I find this to be the most normal and natural thing there is. I want someone ruling who has a deep attachement with the place, the people, and all that.

@Sâuza:

Sorry for the false alarm but did people stop working on it ?
I mean the 304, 305 and 306 raw are out and it doesn't seems like there's any release.

µ
The Nippon secret police is killing off all the non-official manga translators out there. Haven't you heard in the Hajime no Ippo thread, the same thing, the 2 translators are in the hospital, it seems.

Yeah wanted to comment on the beats too, they're quite good for a beginner.

As for Maghreb rap, I used to listen a lot to a group called MBS who rapped in Darija and French.

!