CP3S

Hey, it's me. said:

Bingowings said:

Why would he want to?

It's like Warb saying he doesn't like wearing shoes and you saying, "try walking on white hot razor blades without shoes mug!".

It was a hypothetical suggestion that would expose how intolerant Muslim nations are to any other religion. Think about before you stand on your liberal soapbox.

Since when did two wrongs make a right? Yeah, they are extremely intolerant, so what? That means we need to one up them? Please. I prefer to take the high ground.

Warbler said:

So you want to punish women for not wanting to abort a child conceived via rape? 

I don't see how that is punishment. In a lot of places women receive nothing from the state to help them raise children. It is great they would be getting assistance for their first two children.

If they make the choice to have the baby, that is their choice. It isn't punishment.

Warbler said:

So you want to punish women for not wanting to abort a child conceived via rape? 

CP3S said:

Hey, it's me. said:

No you misunderstand Boost (the Queen indeed! Lol)

These few would be a start.

1. Heavy penalties for Mosques that knowingly allow extreme Imams to preach at their mosques and jail time for repeat offenders. Also the banning of extremist preaching at universities, in the street and everywhere else besides mosques.

This one isn't a bad idea.

are you nuts?  (to be clear, CP3S did say we would probably see this as a violation of free speech and freedom of religion in the US)

Thank you for at least somewhat in part beginning to kind of explain the full context of my comment you quoted, even if you did go through the trouble of cutting it out of its actual original context.

CP3S said:

4. The banning of the Burka as its a security risk.

Burkas bother me. I absolutely hate what they represent. But I have a hard time getting behind this one.

do the way nuns dress, bother you?

No. But the habits nuns wear have a very different meaning and purpose than a burka. I don't hate what nun's habits represent, I do hate what burkas represent.

You could also use a shaded motorcycle helmet to commit crimes, or any number of other types of attire that are not under attack. Are a few crimes being committed by people disguised in burkas a good enough excuse to ban them? If enough crimes are committed by people disguised as Nuns, would we really ban Nuns from wearing their habits?

Hey, it's me. said:

5 .(this ones all encompassing, not just Muslims) Child Benefit only payed for 1st 2 children and then your on your own. For new immigrants no benefits and healthcare until you have paid into the system for 2 years. 

what if the third child happened via a rape?

Flush it out!

Okay, just kidding on that one. I really don't have that flippant of an attitude toward abortion. Leave it to Warb to come up with small percentage what if scenarios. But honestly, abortion would be a viable option, otherwise if the individual makes the choice to have the baby even though they already have two others, then it is their choice. Just because they feel they are doing the right thing in a crappy situation, I don't think that should mean the government should have to pay to support it.

Hey, it's me. said:

The Burka is not compulsory in Islam. There are already cases arising where it has been used as a guise to commit crimes. Plus it is a very unsocial statement (in my view) and its wearers are basically saying 'I don't want to be part of your society'. The English and History being taught in Mosques was aimed at Muslim immigrant adults who arrive in the UK. And if they don't or refuse then I'm sorry what is your purpose of moving here? You will not be able to find a job without being able to speak English and having some general knowledge of the history and culture of your adoptive country is very beneficial. If you've come for a better quality of life then its hardly a massive sacrifice to do this is it? Failure to do this will ultimately result in deportation. 3 strikes and your out if you will. Those with liberal minds amongst you will probably be choking over your coffee at this one, but I see it more as tough love. Being cruel to be kind. They will ultimately reap the benefits of it. 

Hmm, I feel like I should reiterate the importance of choosing your battles...

Hey, it's me. said:

No you misunderstand Boost (the Queen indeed! Lol)

These few would be a start.

1. Heavy penalties for Mosques that knowingly allow extreme Imams to preach at their mosques and jail time for repeat offenders. Also the banning of extremist preaching at universities, in the street and everywhere else besides mosques.

This one isn't a bad idea. In the US, we would probably see this as a violation of freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but much of what is taught by some of these guys is easily categorized as hate speech. However, this would have to be handled very delicately, it could easily be spun as repression.

This is the sort of thing where it is easy to fall into an Us vs. THEM standstill, rather than an issue of right and wrong. Peace loving Muslims ought to be just as condemning of an Imam that teaching extremism and violence (just as most American Christians will quickly condemn the Westborro Baptist), but if we hold an antagonistic relationship with them, it would be easy for them to see it as see it as more opposition to their religion rather than just opposition to violent extremist teachings. This is why I think it is wise to choose your battles. Are Burkas and street signs in Arabic really worth bitching about? These things may be silly or annoying, but also mostly harmless. Let them know we support and welcome them, while expelling the extremes and the intolerant aspects. In this way you are more likely to get them on your side in fighting against the dangerous and extreme aspects of their religion, which many of them disagree with anyway, rather than leaving them feeling like they are on the defense.

2. English language, and UK history and culture to be taught compulsory at every Mosque for Muslims who do not know how to speak the language and are oblivious to UK history.And then tested by an independant adjudicator on their fluency and knowledge.

Taught at Mosques? Are we talking Mosque that contain private schools? Or just normal houses of worship? Islamic private schools could be a dangerous thing. Education is the best cure for ignorance, but if ignorance is allowed to be taught in some schools, there is definitely an issue there.

3. NO Sharia courts in the UK. You live by our laws when it comes to family matters like every other resident of the population.

Absolutely! This should be a given. Any country that is willing to let Sharia into their court system is asking for it and just plain stupid. I'm with you 100% here. Religious freedom shouldn't extend to allowances for things that are otherwise illegal (maybe with a few small exceptions. For example, I appreciate that the use of ayahuasca, a potent hallucinogen, is legal in the US for practitioners of Santo Daime, even though I can't legally acquire ayahuasca for my own personal use. Of course, I think ayahuasca and other safe hallucinogens ought to be legal anyway).

4. The banning of the Burka as its a security risk.

Burkas bother me. I absolutely hate what they represent. But I have a hard time getting behind this one.

5 .(this ones all encompassing, not just Muslims) Child Benefit only payed for 1st 2 children and then your on your own. For new immigrants no benefits and healthcare until you have paid into the system for 2 years. 

If You come to actively integrate and contribute you will live a good life. If you don't? Then these are the rules and if you don't agree? Tough shit. 

I like this one. It would definitely slow down immigration of the parasitic class. Requiring two years before you can receive UK health benefits would ensure those coming there for it would be in it for the long haul, and not just taking advantage. The system is going to break if anyone in the damn EU can just cross the border and get in line without paying a pence. 

One of my most pleasant medical experiences was a minor procedure I had done in London. It was the second time I had the procedure done, the first time being in America, where it didn't take. Even with insurance paying the majority of the cost, my parent's part of the bill was almost $700 dollars for this ten minute minor corrective procedure. I walked everywhere when I lived abroad and my foot was in constant pain, while visiting London one time I decided to see if I could get something done about it. A mere $200 dollars later, and I haven't had any trouble with it since. Even without the healthcare benefits of citizens, medical care in the UK is relatively inexpensive. Anyone ought to be able to wait out the two years, as long as life saving medical intervention is an exception. If they can't wait it out, then staying home might be a good option for them.

Ugh, and children. In the US incentives for having children are annoying. All it does is encourage people who can't even afford to support themselves to have liters of kids. We need incentives for the more affluent and educated to reproduce, not incentives for every obese single woman to fill every corner of her trailer with grimy FAS suffering children so our tax dollars can pay for them.

And by the way. Are fundamentalist Christian and Jews causing worldwide disharmony in societies due to mass immigration and intolerance?

They are not. I completely agree that the Muslim issue is a real legitimate problem. But I feel there is a better way to go about it than outright discrimination, which is what some of your solutions sound like to me.

Again, it is hard not to draw the parallels between this and the "Mexican problem" in the US. A lot of people are scared shitless because some formerly white regions have become mostly brown, complete with signs in Spanish, and many people that don't understand more than a handful of words in English. These areas often come with high crime rates, which is a real issue. Forcing conformity to US culture in these areas would accomplish nothing, high crime rates are due to poverty and poor or ineffective education. Those are the issues that need to be addressed in these regions, not limiting the "brown" influence or making sure middle aged immigrants are required to learn English. 

For the most part the issue is ignorance. These people had the misfortune of being born into cultures that collectively believe in and value this backwards archaic bullshit. Education is the key here, not discrimination and ill attitudes which will only ramp up the distrust and discord.

TheBoost said:

But there's never been a static culture, and those that try to be (the Amish, the Japanese in the past) are completely defined by their unnatural desire to be static.

The "German" culture we know today is a moment in time, an snapshot of cultures meeting, merging, taking, losing, changing, adapting. Anything we might call the "English"/"UK" culture is a total and constantly changing hodgepodge; the "American" culture even moreso. I toured the beautiful mosques in Spain, and have seen the first Christian monasteries in Scotland; antique signs that no culture ever stays the same.

The idea of "preserving" a culture is completely artificial to what cultures are. It's even a little paternalistic when we apply it to people like un-contacted tribes. 

I agree with you that the American culture is a deep, and wonderful thing, and from sea to shining sea I love it (except South Carolina... they know why). But I can't sit listening to my Irish-inspired Appalachian banjo music, eating my tex-mex lunch, sitting in my Tudor style living room, and think outside influences somehow lessens a culture. 

Oh, I completely agree about any given culture today merely being a snapshot in time that will inevitable be different just a mere generation down the road. But the thing is, I myself am also subject to time, I can't go visit Germany in the 1920's, or see 1960's England for myself. The best I can do is visit these places within the period of time I am locked into. It is the thought of all these places becoming more and more alike that is disappointing to me. Seeing the same shops and brands and food and television, regardless of what borders I am behind.

I grant you that my complaint may be kind of pithy, and the threat isn't as dire as I am sure to make it. I want England speckled in red porn plastered phone booths, and hole in the wall pubs, not a bunch of Eastern looking Mosques. For my Eastern looking Mosques I want to have to go to places like Turkey, Albania, or further East. I love the variety the world has to offer, and the idea of cultures beginning to merge and the world continually shrinking always makes me a bit sad.

Also, I am not denying that every culture inevitable has influences from other cultures. It is part of what is cool about it. It is really fascinating picking out the foreign influence and the historical reasons for why those influences exist. It is not as fun when that influence is a bunch of massive golden "M" shaped arches around any given city with American capitalism as the reason.

Johnny Ringo said:

But I still think it's a bit early to launch the next gen systems - there's still fun to be had with the current gen.

1983 introduced us to the first SEGA and Nintendo consoles, 1988 and 1990 we got the Genesis and the Super Nintendo, 1994 brought us the Playstation and 1996 the Nintendo 64. 1998 the Dreamcast, 2000 the Playstation 2, 2001 the Gamecube and Xbox. 2005 the Xbox 360, 2006 the Playstation 3 and Wii.

The major players of the last few generations (which covers my life span) have trended on five years, give or take a year or two, and each generation was a pretty big leap. Compare Xbox, Gamecube, and Playstation 2 games with games for the 360, Wii (eh, never mind), and Playstation 3. It is a pretty incredible leap. If you count this generation as having begun in 2005, we are pushing a ten year gap between systems, graphics and capabilities have improved a lot during this period, but not in the leaps they have between other generations.

These consoles are using archaic technology, as far as the world of electronics is concerned. More and more people are switching to PC, for many reasons, but one of the main ones is the capabilities. Battlefield 3 on the PC vs. Battlefield 3 on the consoles is almost a shameful gap, you can barely even compare them. Games that are PC only tend to do things a console couldn't imagine. Fortunately for consoles users and unfortunately for everyone else, consoles are a large market and games are continually developed with porting to this old technology in mind. 

The time for the next generation of consoles has been here for a while. Sure, there are still a lot of good games on the 360 and PS3, and more still on the way, I won't be upgrading for a long time, if ever, and I still have enough unfinished games left to play to last me a few years. But the field has been held back by stagnant technology for too long now (economy seemed to be a major factor in stretching this generation out for so long). It is passed time to see what developers can do with some more modern hardware.

I feel like The Office was hyperextended way beyond what should have been its life expectancy. 

Arrested Development was still fantastic when its plug was pulled. It was nice to get the opportunity to revisit it. I really enjoyed season four, but I agree that it was missing that group dynamic from the first three seasons. Prior to season four I was always aching for more Arrested Development, now I feel content with it. If there is more, that would be fun, and it would be nice to see a conclusion to the dangling story threads of season four, but if this is the end, I'm okay with that.

Though within the storyline, all the characters are in the same area at the end of this season, if they can get scheduling worked out, it would be nice to see them all together again.

Beat State of Decay. It makes sense now that they give you so much padding between offering you storyline missions, there really is only a small handful of them.

I think I found out that going around and clearing out hoards and infestations makes the next mission popup. Perhaps having too many hoards and infestations stops the main storyline, or perhaps it is coincidental and going out and killing hoards and clearing infestations did nothing more than cause me to stop watching the proverbial pot while waiting for it to boil.

Final verdict: Very much worth every single one of those 2,000 pennies I spent on it. I was kind of disappointed that none of the achievements were any kind of a challenge to get. It seems with Xbox arcade games you either get every achievement just for beating the game, or they give you achievements that are impossible or really time consuming.

SPOILERS

I feel like the game threw all these plot threads at me, then didn't resolve them. What are the Judge and the Sheriff up to? Restoring law and order to the town. Okay, let's see where that goes... Oh, nowhere. Second courthouse mission the place gets over run and they both die off screen, end of storyline. How about the Wilkersons and their ruthless ways? Ah, I see, that ends with us realizing that they are ruthless, but can be friendly to those who help them. For some reasons I was expecting some twist where it wasn't really them that were terrorizing the other survivors. Maybe I missed a piece of their story somehow? I feel like it stopped giving me Wilkerson missions with the plot just dangling there, but I got the achievement for completing their story. 

It felt like a lot of detail and mystery was put into each of the story lines at the start, enough to get you intrigued and to want to look into them, then they all just fizzle out and go nowhere after two to four short missions

I've loved the Wrath of Khan long before I knew loving it was the hip thing to do. It is one of my favorite Sci-fi movies. I've always felt Spock's resurrection really weakened it though. In my own personal Trek canon, I like to think that this was in fact Spock's finally moments. As much as I sometimes enjoy a few of the later Trek films (even thought they are pretty horrible), the whole concept robs TWOK of so much.

Tobar said:

State of Decay is only $20 bucks. Everyone that I know who's played it has said it's amazing and would have been worth a $60 dollar purchase. Currently it's the fast selling Xbox Arcade game of all time. I'm kind of interested in it but I'm also tired of zombies. It's supposed to be coming to Steam so I'll probably wait and see.

I was saying that when I first started playing it. Now that I am really close to the end, I would have been really disappointed and annoyed had I payed $60 for it. It is definitely worth $20, and with some polish and some fleshing out, it would be a very worthy full price game.

The graphics are about on par with GTA IV, but are a little ugly for 2013. I've heard lots of complaints about glitches involving clipping, items falling through the floor, zombies passing through solid objects, that sort of thing. Personally, after spending a shameful near 30 hours on the thing since its release, I haven't run into too much of that, and when I did it wasn't really that big of a deal. 

The real thing that makes it not worth much more than $20 bucks is that it is short, the world is small and lacks variation, and the mission system is more or less broken. For example, I spent over four hours playing the game today, and I was only able to beat two short story missions. One was on the map when I first started playing, and I had to wait around hours to get another one to pop up, then waited hours more for another one before finally deciding to quite and come back later.

Some extensive searching online seems to indicate that there is no surefire way to trigger them. You just have to wait around and keep playing the same redundant zombie hunt missions, survivor rescue missions, and moral missions over and over and over again. These are all essentially the same, one of the survivors from your group goes out and gets over run by zombies and call for help, then you save them. Or someone from your group is determined to kill some special mutated zombie and calls you on the radio to help them. Or someone in your group gets depresses, discouraged, angry, or some other emotional meltdown, and you make them go for a walk with you and kill a few zombies together so that they feel better. After doing each of these over a dozen times each, they get downright annoying.

In the four hours I played today I did pretty much nothing. The two missions I did play account for less than half an hour of playtime. Earlier this week I had my base setup perfectly and well fortified, my survivors live in good conditions, and we have more than enough of everything. I've explored the area thoroughly and am ready to progress the story, but the game only seems to give you that opportunity when it damn well feels like it. I am sure this is intentional, making it a little more realistic where exciting events don't always happen back to back, making you wait several in game days between events. But I feel like if someone wants to grind through the missions one after another, they ought to be allowed to. Not everybody has endless hours of playtime to waste at a time.

It is starting to feel like the Sims + Zombies now more than GTA + Zombies like it initially did. I am getting tired of having nothing to do but worry about my teams emotional states.

Still, for all of its flaws, it is pretty awesome and totally worth the $20 tag. It is basically the demo for its eventual MMO sequel, which I am very interested in.

As for being tired of Zombie games. Yeah, me too. This still managed to suck me in. It seems with every zombie game I've played I've always thought, "This is fun, but it would be really great if you could do this or that." Playing State of Decay for the first time was like playing that zombie game I had always wished I was playing while playing every other zombie game I have ever played.

They are the same price in the UK for new games.

New games cost 40 quid in England, that is about the equivalent of $60, give or take a few bucks with exchange rate fluctuations.

Played The Last of Us at a friend's place last night, then finally dropped by Gamestop to pick up my reserved copy this morning. Absolutely gorgeous. Can't wait to play more of it.

Seriously? Nobody else here has been playing State of Decay?

Lame.

imperialscum said:

Well if you guys think that lax immigration regulation and no (or inadequate) integration policies is a good thing, I am okay with that and I respect your opinion. But attacking me because I support a more strict immigration regulation and proper integration policies is stupid and disrespectful. Just because I prefer Japan model to UK/Sweden model doesn't make me intolerant. It is you who are intolerant.

LOL. You're a trip.

Anyway, no, America and the U.K. don't seek out immigrants, but they provide a process for those interested to become part of a selection process, then they select from that pool. So yeah, in a manner of speaking, we do "swoop in and take them". Obviously TheBoost is being figurative, the word "swoop" ought to have tipped you off there. Clearly he didn't mean literally going to their country, flying around like a bird of prey, then swooping down and snatching the ones we want up like a hawk would snatch up a chipmunk. (This is addressed to Imperial and Hey, not just the above quoted text.

I am all about immigration reform in America. The way we do it now is really stupid. We get a lot of worthless people here because one person can win the lottery, immigrate via marriage, become part of the selection process, or come over on a student visa and continue further education long enough to qualify for a green card. From there they can proceed to bring over their entire extended family throughout the course of many years. One useful now well educated immigrant that would be an asset to society could potentially lead to the extra baggage of two elderly parents, a less ambitious sibling along with her two kids and a lazy bum of a husband who contributes nothing. All of them will become citizens given they stay long enough. We might get a new doctor or a culturally diverse college professor out of the deal, but hypothetically this could also lead to two more elderly people drawing social security and another family collecting food stamps and welfare.

Also, I am very aware of the problem of fundamental Islam rapidly seeping into European countries. It is an issue I watch pretty closely, and if you look several pages back in the politics thread, you'll notice I occasionally bring up the issue and post some news stories relating to the subject. In other words, it is something I am concerned enough about to keep up to date on and also to try to make others aware of.

I think a no immigration stance is legit enough as well. I love cultures. My career, when I'm working in it, is heavily related to culture. I have a good deal of cross-cultural experience. A fellow expatriate buddy of mine and I used to talk about America being a salad, when you come to America, you are expected and allowed to be whatever you are. It is like the salad bowl in the middle of the dinner table. Everyone dishes a little bit of it out onto their own plates. They have a plate full of their own main course and sides, and they also have a serving of the salad. As an American, when I travel to or live in other countries, I am expected to blend. If I don't know the language, eyes roll. When I do something culturally unkosher or somehow demonstrate my inevitable ignorance of local norms and mores in some way, big or small, people sigh, "silly American" and shake their heads.

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do; when in The United States, do as you would at home." My buddy and I would lament that while everyone else at the table has their own plates of food, we simply have an empty plate in front of us filled with the same salad in the middle of the table that everyone else is dishing up freely. We were stuck in a culturally devoid expanse, looking at all this rich culture at the table around us, but only able to smell its delicious odors and watch others enjoy it as we slowly munched on our bland salad. This is why we were both expatriates, why we both sought out and seized opportunities to immerse ourselves in these foreign worlds. Even if those other dishes could never be ours, we wanted to surround ourselves with people we could live vicariously through; so we could watch longingly with rumbling stomachs as they partook of their exotic cuisines.

I hated seeing Wal-Mart in Germany and McDonald's in France. I wanted to see these cultures untouched. When in Germany, I wanted to see Germany, not Germany with some America sprinkled on top. When in France I wanted to see France. When in England I wanted to see England and English people, not another melting pot like the States. Unfortunately to a degree (but not all bad), we live in a global world climate and the world is shrinking fast. I'd loved to see European countries hold back the night and maintain their own identities. So don't misunderstand me, we have far more in common on this topic than you think.

About five years ago while living State side for what I planned on only being a very short period of time, the same old friend of mine that I developed the salad analogy with so many years before happened to cross paths with me again and we became room mates for a time. Each evening and weekend we'd find some trouble to get into or drink ourselves silly and talk linguistics, politics, women, travel, culture, and about how badly we needed to get back outside of our own borders. I began noticing how aloof and out of touch my friend was, and then realized I was pretty much looking in a mirror. We could bring home women, but could never maintain relationships; we could make fun and interesting acquaintances and have a good time with them, but could never establish real friendships. In my own country of origin I felt like Data from TNG, looking at the things around me with puzzlement and bemused. I finally got a long awaited job offer overseas, and proceeded to unceremoniously decline it. If I was eating the same salad as everyone around me, why did I feel so out of touch and disconnected from them? I decided it was time to stop looking at the United States like an outsider, and see what I could do about seeing it from the inside.

Since then I have lived in four different states, and moved into a new living situation every several months. I have had tons of room mates since then of various social and economic statuses, ethnicities, and ideologies. Every few months I hit up Craig's List for a new interesting short term living situation. That is why I live in the part of town I do at the moment, and why I work a job way below my pedigree. I've even been homeless and jobless for periods of time. The month of January of this year was spent living in my car, and sometimes going days without food or a shower, I had several good reasons for doing this, but ultimately I did it just to see what it would be like.

Turns out, I do have a warm meal on my plate hidden underneath that salad. Surprisingly America has a lot more culture than I ever gave it credit for, and while a lot of that culture is still distasteful to me, some of it is pretty nifty. More amazing still, I don't even know a fraction of it. All the places I've lived have been extremely different in their own ways. It is really kind of crazy, actually.

Back to the no immigration stance. It is perfectly legit you hold that view. Wanting your country and culture preserved is valid. I still stand by all the other stuff I have said before, and I find some of the ways you expressed it to be a bit distasteful. The reality is you do have these human beings coming into your country, addressing the situation with the attitude you have isn't going to change anything, it makes you sound small, and historically that kind of attitude has brought with it all sorts of trouble, grief, and perpetuated ill feelings. But you make an excellent point: Who am I to judge you? Nobody. The things I have said are just my opinions, and they very well could be totally out of line or just plain wrong. For the last few years I feel like I've learned so much with each passing year; and all this has done for me is shown me, in no small way, that I know so very little.

You're still judging a group of people as a whole based on their belief system, rather than looking at the individual. 

If we aim to educate, we can make a difference for the better. If we aim to alienate, we just make things worse and lose our credibility to educate.

Race is a very arbitrary attribute. What it all really boils down to is being different. This difference can be skin tone, anatomical differences, cultural differences, generational differences, differences in sexual preferences, etc. 

All these things go by different names, often ending in "ism", but they are all part of the same thing and spawn from the same way of thinking, and there are any number of rationales to justify them (some more reasonable than others).

You're sounding ridiculous, I explained the relevant connection in detail already. Post 370.

adywan said:

And, before any one suggests that this is another Anti-American post by a Brit, it isn't. I'm curious to know what you guys over there think about all this.

This isn't the sort of thing I'd ever perceive to be anti-American. So many Americans agree with you that this sort of thing is a bunch of bullshit. 

I would love to see America pull itself out of world politics. We have no business there. Stop blowing billions of our tax dollars in foreign aid on countries that don't even like us, and stop sending our stupid kids to kill and die in countries we ought to have no business in.

TV's Frink said:

"Sounds like" is not the same as "is."

Thank you, Fink.

Yeah, I've accused absolutely nobody of being racist.

Racism is a form of intolerance toward those who are different. What you guys are demonstrating is a form of intolerance. I'm the guy here who speaks out pretty harshly against Islam and takes flak for it. I understand where you guys are coming from, and I clearly see the dangers of fundamental Islam and much of the baggage it carries. But sheer intolerance of that religion will get you nowhere, and only makes matter worse. There are a lot of fantastic people who happen to be Muslims that are very fond of and attached to their faith who only wish to work and make a living in our countries.

Complaining about street signs in Spanish/Arabic and bitching about them not knowing your language just feels petty to me. Pick your battles. A stance against the enforcement of backwards stone age fundamentalism is more than reasonable. Getting worked up over people living in your country who don't know English (GASP!), feels more intolerant than anything else. It is a minor inconvenience to you perhaps, in the likely rare event you find yourself needing to talk to one of them, but it has got to be many times worse for them. Living in London without knowing English has got to be really difficult. Is their lack of English proficiency really genuinely harming you in any way?

imperialscum said:

Oh and btw I am not English.

Phew! My mistake. Score one for the English!

With the generalizing and shit talking you've been doing, you're hardly one to complain about someone being insulting. Or would it have been better had I added the words, "No offense" to the end of my last post?

Ah! You caught my last post before I fixed my typo. I do know how to spell quack, I swear.

I'm not being hostile. That last post was mostly in jest. It is hard not to drawn a comparison between you and some southerners, most of your complaints about Muslim immigrants have been the exact same thing they say about Mexicans. Literally, the exact same things.

And my previous post was a response to both you and imperialscum and some of the generalizing and trash talking you guys are doing. You guys have demonstrated knowing and understanding very little about our country and our culture, yet you guys act like you know us better than we do. It is making you guys come off as extremely ignorant.

Hey, it's me. said:

Harumph! Hey look just because I'm not entirely pro immigration and aren't exactly enamoured with the extreme side of Muslim society here in London, doesn't make me akin to some dungaree wearing, inbred, dumb hillbilly from the southern backwoods of America. Don't label me in that way. 

*gets of soapbox* (nod to warbler) :)

Backwood hillbilly said:

Harumph! Hey look just because I'm not entirely pro immigration and aren't exactly enamored with the extreme side of Hispanic society here in Texas, doesn't make me akin to some raincoat wearing, pompous, ignorant Londoner from Southwark. Don't label me in that way.

*picks up soup box to take home and stash in his backyard*

Fair enough. But if you would both be so kind as to keep the quacking to a minimum... ;)

Bingowings said:

Lots of planets have sticks.

You should dump your dude and marry me so I can move to Scotland.

adywan said:

CP3S said:

Yes he is. That is what I mean, the two English guys continually make themselves sound like racist hillbillies from the sticks.

Hey, i'm English. i hope you're not lumping me in with that analogy. ;)

No sir, your posts have always been presented with sophistication and intelligence.