Jenksismyhero

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 5, 2013 -> 01:26 PM) I'm not following where you're going with this That it's easier being a pacifist when your running a campaign against a guy/party that started the Iraq war. It's much more difficult to be that way when you actually have to confront countries like NK in the "real" world.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 5, 2013 -> 12:29 PM) Time for CIA Agent Rodman to save the day. Rodman already provided the solution - Obama just needs to make a phone call and start talking basketball. By the way, I'm a HUGE fan of guys like Kerry, and Obama to a lesser extent, now openly talking about doing "anything" to secure our relationship with South Korea and protecting our interests there. Remember when these guys said they would just pick up the phone and schedule a face to face meeting? A little more difficult to say those things when you're a candidate as opposed to the President/Sec of State.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-23...ns-warning.html NK tells foreign embassies to get their people out of the country. At this point, I think NK has gone beyond the typical threats right? I mean it usually seems like a threat followed by 4-5 months of silence. This has been a new threat a day for over a week right?

what a shot

We haven't really spoiled anything.

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Apr 4, 2013 -> 12:26 PM) Completely agree. Too many throw away chapters. Too many of the main characters not doing anything. I liked the book, don't get me wrong, but not a whole lot happened relative to the books' length. Some of that will actually play well on TV though, I think. Robb was a bigger focus in Season 2 of GOT than he was in the books (talked about offscreen more than anything in the book 2). The HBO guys are not tied to the POV character storytelling so they can beef up or reduce some of the stories that, in the books, seem to be "hey, don't forget character X is still alive. Not doing anything interesting. But still alive!" Yeah, a lot of it can be shortened. 400 pages of Dany talking to people/dreaming about that dude she likes screwing takes about 30 seconds of screen time. I wonder if they're going to have to add something to the story to give her character something to do.

They promised Tubby they would do that and never did. Why would they do it for a no-name coach without anything career-wise to hang his hat on?

QUOTE (CrimsonWeltall @ Apr 4, 2013 -> 11:17 AM) WAT He wrote FFC and DWD at the same time. On the last page of FFC, which came out in 2005, Martin says he hopes DWD will be out "hopefully next year". It took 6 more years! Dude is slow and he's only getting slower. And within the last few months he signed another separate deal with HBO to write new "showS".... I think he's getting tired of the GoT universe. http://www.uproxx.com/tv/2013/02/george-rr...ame-of-thrones/

I'm sure others enjoy the newer characters more, but that's my main "problem" with his story structure - when you really don't care about certain characters, it can be a grind to get through. And for books 4 and 5 the main characters I liked were not doing much and/or were not in interesting places.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 4, 2013 -> 10:37 AM) Completely disagree. Books 4 and 5 had tons of stuff going on if you paid attention. A dance with dragons was stellar. Meh, moving pieces. It wasn't a bore, and there were a few interesting moments, but still nothing game changing. The last 200 pages with Aegon, Dany and John were good, but that just set up the next book.

My problem is I skip 75% of that old lore crap in the books to get to the good stuff. I guess that might have been a mistake.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 4, 2013 -> 09:34 AM) Yeah, that's true. But would Robert actually do that to Ned? Maybe it makes more sense than I originally thought.

Looks like they are/were planning on either a strike or another test, according to intercepted communication: http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/04/world/asia/k....html?hpt=hp_t1

I agree. Book 3 was the peak. Since then it's been downhill. I think that's mainly due to the fact that nothing has happened the last 2000 pages (4 and 5). Did anyone else watch the grantland video with Andy Greenwald interviewing the two writers of the show? They were telling the story of how they sold Martin on doing the show at HBO as opposed to a movie, and apparently they spent hours and hours talking about the books and the various storylines. Martin at one point asked them who they thought was Jon Snow's mother, something that's never been brought up in the books. Apparently they answered correctly although Martin didn't really tell them they were right, he just sort of seemed happy with their answer. Anyway, I got to looking online and the fan speculation about that is pretty off the wall. I have no idea where/how people came up with the common answer. Nor does it really make any sense to me: http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Jon_Snow

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 05:02 PM) Yeah im not sure how much damage NK can really do. You have to expect that every other country has NK sites lined up to start. Right, I'm sure SK and Japan have missile batteries ready to go as well. I mean, it's obviously a closed country so no one really knows for sure, and there's a risk some batteries would be able to continue firing. But I don't think it's a case of total destruction within 5 minutes.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 04:52 PM) As soon as the first strike is detected, the missiles are going to be launched. You need to wipe out a hell of a lot more than 75% within maybe a minute if you want Seoul to be left standing. Balta's link says they have 17 guns within striking distance of Seoul. It would certainly take more than a minute. It would take 2 hours (Arguably) and in that two hours how many missiles would the US be able to drop from all sorts of different angles in the sky? 1000's to reach 17 targets.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 04:50 PM) Honestly, I have to believe that the rest of the world believes Un is full of s***. Otherwise they would have done a little more to respond by now. Yeah. I just find it odd that we don't negotiate with terrorists, but we do negotiate and pay off state-sponsored terrorist leaders.

Yeah I wasn't assuming nuclear. I was assuming thousands of tomahawk missiles exploding wherever the batteries are located, with the hope you knock out 75% of them in the first hour or whatever and then make another strike after that. Again, no idea if that's feasible or not.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 04:45 PM) Because a preemptive strike will directly lead to Seoul getting obliterated? That's exactly why they have that s*** aimed at Seoul in the first place. How cool would you be with this first-strike policy if it was Chicago (and thus, you) that was facing obliteration if a move was made? True, though if we can knock out the majority of those sites quickly and lessen the damage. I mean, I don't know near enough about it to know if that's a legitimate possibility. But they better be prepared to do SOMETHING to those missile/artillery batteries if someone in NK gives the green light.

So, how long does the world tolerate this nonsense? Should SK (and Japan to a lesser extent) sit idly by why generations of these nutbags threaten them with annihilation? If what Balta says is true, and at the flip of a switch Seoul gets obliterated, why aren't we OK'ing a preemptive UN strike? Yes, lost lives now, but potentially millions saved later. And those poor NK people might actually have a future.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 11:46 AM) Since the entire planet b****ed about that, they added it with an update. That said, Madden f***ing blows now. You sure this is right? It was my understanding that the feature was always there, it was just hidden behind the "coach career" mode. In essence, EA called "franchise mode" something different and people freaked out for no reason. It never actually went away, you just had to play the role of a coach to get there.

QUOTE (Brian @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 03:55 PM) Just seems like a downgrade with the recruits Tubby had coming in. If you're firing him, I figured they would get someone more interesting. Saw one of the Chicago recruits has been granted his release from his commitment already. Wonder if that asshole Bo Ryan restricted his release...

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 09:57 AM) More importantly, why is the only AMC show you watch the mediocre Walking Dead and not the one-of-the-best-shows-ever Breaking Bad? edit: at least through xbox, they've been offering "season pass" options for TV shows. I know Archer was one, and WD might have been another. $25/season, which is a little steep imo, but the model's out there. The model is there because FX is getting paid X per subscriber from the cable companies to let them create a show like Archer. All that other stuff - xbox, prime, netflix, hulu - is just icing on the cake for them.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 10:19 AM) you guys are both fools s***, we're going to agree twice in the same day.