1_man_army

Well since Im not American Ill swap the Medal of Honor for the Victoria Cross (the UK equivalant, which has also been awarded far fewer times). Out of the 3 I'd go with the Nobel Prize (excluding the economics and literature prizes) as it shows that you have made a permanent mark on the world by helping us understand our world or by furthering the knowledge of man. An Academy Award would be great recognition of work if I was in the movie industry but beyond that it is quite a insignificant in the grand scale of things. I wouldn't be too keen on receiving a VC as most are given posthumously for acts of selfless bravery in combat, personally I would rather to be alive. Its unusual for a VC to be given to a living person but it can happen, so that makes it extremely prestigious. Added to that, VC recipients to my knowledge are the only people who the reigning Monarch must bow to (Im sure thats right but its 2nd hand knowledge so forgive me if its false).

If either the potential husband or wife dont want to marry then I completely agree, its barbaric to force people into marriage against their will. However, some people are in faour of doing it, so if thats is their choice then who are we to judge in my opinion.

Its especially ironic since he's been pretty useless as a player for atleast 18 months. His sole purpose at Real Madrid has been to take free kicks (of which he hasnt scored one in a while) and to take corners. As a footballer he is over. If Sven had the guts to play Lennon instead of Beckham at the world cup I feel their chance of winning would have been greater. As a brand name he will make money but he has no worth on the pitch. To me this has become the biggest promotional deal in football history, it will help promote the MLS abroad as well as Beckham as a worldwide brand name.

No offense but this isnt the best place to look for advice/help with such a difficult topic. I think you'd be better to chat to your family/friends about this, people who knew your friend and who are sharing your pain will be much better to talk to about this than the posters in OT. Iam sorry for your loss though.

Its because American like sports where there can be one hero. In games like baseball, basketball or American football a great player can carry a team and be a hero (despite being team games) however, in football its nearly impossible for one great player to carry a team and to become the hero. In American mainstream sport there just seems to be a bigger emphasis on the individual in my opinion.

And that shows a great leader; someone who can admit their mistakes. No a great leader learns from his/her mistakes and does not repeat them again.

You reckon 36 chambers is the best ever? Its good but Id have to go with Illmatic, its pretty much a flawless hip hop album. I do agree that hip hop isnt dead I was exagerating a bit but theres definately been a big downturn in quality.

So its ok to go into a country & mess it up and then when the going gets tough just run away and let it fall into anarchy? To me that sounds a little like how the west became hated in the middle east to begin with. In my opinion if you make a mess you have to be prepared to clean it up yourself. Otherwise Iraqi civilians' blood will be on the hands of America if they run away and let this situation get out of control. Just remember that the last time USA decided to cut and run from Iraq it led to Saddam brutally killing many more of his people who the USA encouraged to rise against Saddam. The problem in Iraq to me has parallells with the one in Ireland. You have to rival religious groups who for so long have hated each and who are both incapable of reaching common ground. The problem is that when Saddam lost power, the USA looked to Iraqs religious leaders as the solution to all of their problems. However, these leaders who had basically no power under Saddams Iraqi Nationalistic regime were now vital to USA but had no real experience in the political world. Of course outside agitation has only helped fuel the long running tensions. So basically the USA has to stay in for the long haul untill an effective Iraqi government is in place which can somehow clamp down on the extremists and some how create atleast the illusion that there can be a single united Iraq.

Ive been the same way for a while now. Its worse when its a fairly large topic because even though I enjoy sharing my opinion, to me it just seems to be a waste of time basically reiterating what somebody has said already. To add to that in many topics (particularly religious and political ones) there seems to be little debate or rational thinking to begin with, which means people end up posting & reposting pretty much their same single opinion on the matter in order to force it onto other. This almost always results in a war. Its like some posters just pick a viewpoint and try to force it on others without considering the other side of the argument and at times even ignoring the facts. Maybe Im just getting cynical when it comes to the forums but it just seems that outside of recent news/events there is very little to post about that hasnt already been debated to death in the past. Its extremely difficult (and therefore rare) to create an interesting/unique topic for debate since tip.it has been going so long. However, this has had me thinking and maybe the forums haven't changed maybe we have. I mean Ive either read or posted on these forums in some incarnation for almost 6 years now and thats a pretty long time by any stretch. I mean in that time Ive gone from being a pretty immature 13/14 year old child to being a 19 year old grown man. My attitudes/opinions have drastically changed in those years, if I could look back Id probably cringe at most of my older posts. My point is that RS is a game geared towards younger teenagers for the most part (in terms of content/rules etc.) and therefore the forum is as well which is why it is moderated so its seemingly aimed at kids . So as the older users like myself slowly die out ,for whatever reason, new youngsters will inevitably come in. Therefore its not the boards that are becoming less mature or the post are becoming worse its maybe us that are becoming more mature and becoming proper adults. I hope you caught my drift there, its 3:30AM so Im a little tired at the moment so I may have went on a bit there.

No you're right. An MC is another name for a rapper who is somebody who raps. This MC/Rapper business just seems to be another way in my opinion to distinguish between 'black' and 'white' which seems quite sad. The way you rap(fast/slow etc.) which the poster reffered to, is your flow or how you flow. Anyway as a rap fan, I have to say in the last 4/5 years most of the new hip hop albums being released have been poor with a few exceptions such as Nas, Kanye West, Jay-Z and a few others. Its a shame because rap was so strong during the 90's maybe Nas was right Hip Hop is Dead. (just wanted to work that title in its such a good album :D )

Fife, Scotland There is nothing to do (basically its full of grimey pubs & chip shops) Neds(chavs) Surprisingly alot of crime Bad Weather Lack of Job Opportunities High Unemployment (Been that way since most of the mines closed in the 80's) The distance from anywhere remotely interesting (Edinburgh is 20 miles from me) Lack of quality/affordable housing Price of public transport Lack of decent pubs (as I said earlier most are pretty grimey & rough) The amount of old people (since the young have to move to get work) The amount of pregnant teenagers The local no go areas (due to huge groups of drunk chavs, see my post about the MP who was attacked for more) The fact that the local countryside (whats left of it) is so badly littered The influx of people who cant afford to live in the city (AKA Edinburgh refugees) that come here to live and whine about our accent. ......And most importantly the fact that I cant afford to leave the place. :wall: Glad I got that out of my system. :) ------------------------------------ Lol you're completely right I was out in Edinburgh last night, if I see another person 'air kiss' somebody else I might just lose it. Yahs are so pretentious I despise almost as much as chavs.

If you're going to ask a stupid question be prepared to receive stupid answers.

Scotland - Its pretty obvious from my avatar. I think thats going to be a running theme throughout this topic no matter which country you live in. :?

I dont hate Chelsea but I do hate their new 'fans'. Ever since Abramovich (and his Billions) came to Chelsea and started to spend big money on big names Chelsea's fanbase has rapidly grown just because they are now winning trophies. These people make me sick, so called fans who go to their flavour of the month teams and claim to be a true diehard fans of the team when they are just glory hunters. When Roman gets bored of Chelsea and the money is gone I wonder where these fair-weather fans will be. :roll: True fans support their team no matter what win lose or draw. ctp080188 - The only ever great team comprised of local players was the European Cup winning Celtic side of '67. They were the first British team to win it and every one of their players grew up within 10 miles of the stadium. A feat which has never been equaled since and probably never will be.

I havent but the street around the corner from me became a prominant news item for a day when a politician was attacked there by 'drunken underage yobs.' Ill find a link if I can. Edit http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/6111320.stm

My mate descibed it as " a [crappy] LOTR knock off"

The ironic thing was yesterday, I was watching the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where its his birthday and Ray buys him an aquarium. Anyway a fish dies and Frank is upset by it and everyone presumes its because he's afraid of dying himself until he explains why it did bother him.

Bet Cheney wishes he could've used that as an excuse..... :roll:

I was in a similar position to this myself. I had applied to go to University, choosing 2 different IT courses and a publishing degree. I already had the grades required to enter the IT courses and the Publishing one was my longshot that I needed to work hard for. However, I got to the same point as you're at now; I realised that I didnt want to work in IT so I took a risk and turned down both the IT courses that Id been accepted for. If I hadn't got into the Publishing degree I would've had to do about 2 years in a local college in order to get into Uni. Personally if I was in your position Id just cut my losses and do something else, if your in your first year it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I seem to die alot in my dreams its quite weird. Its not even in a nightmarish sort of way, I dont wake up in fear it just seems to happen in a reall matter of fact way. It probably has something to do with my morbid obsession with death (not in the sense that Im depressed, just curious). Maybe I need a good shrink lmao :D The way I see it, the subject of your dreams is completely random but often if your thinking of people alot they can be in them. Its like you choose the cast but somebody else is choosing the movie.

Now correct me if Im wrong but wasnt Yuri Gagarin the first man in space and wasnt that in 1961?

Ill discard The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

They are now hunting down the shark and are going to kill it. Do you think it deserves to die? It's the boys fault for swimming in their territory, killing it is just stupid. Its not the sharks fault, its just what sharks do - the see something big enough, it looks like food - they have a bite. The shark was purely acting out of instinct not some sort of psychotic anti-human grudge. If people start to kill sharks because they eat things then they (along with all other meat eating animals) would have to be wiped out completely. You cant judge what animals do instinctively in the same way you apply laws to humans it idiotic.

Sorry is your second question; What if the CIA were terrorists who killed people the didnt like? (Im paraphrasing just to clear up what you meant). If it is then my answer is below; As outlandish as that theory is, it isnt completely impossible. After the Cuban revolution the US Department of Defence had a similar plan for Cuba called Operation Northwoods. Northwoods was a plan to carry out/ simulate terrorist activities against civilians on either Cuban or US soil in order to gain support for a US military invasion of Cuba. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuban_Project

Well I am old enough to get a tatoo the problem is I can't think of anything specific that I want to get. Also a good thing to remember if/when you get a tatoo; dont' get a largly visable one (like on your neck, face etc.). You will need some form of employment some day and alot of employers will refuse to employ you if you have visable tatoo's, particularly if you are working with the general public.