Netzilla

I've always maintained that Lucas is great at ideas but mostly mediocre with execution.  IOW, he should have written up the prequal outline for better writers and directors to flesh out (like he did with ESB).

As part of its coverage of the Trump detention policy, All Things Considered consulted immigration law experts who confirmed that the regime's claim to be just following the law as written is, well, a lie. But we all knew that.
 
One of them, in pointing out that illegal border crossing is only a misdemeanor, specifically compared it to a parking infraction. So the regime is locking people up for the equivalent of double parking.
 
Why such fear and hatred? Jeff Sessions gave it away in one of his speeches. He explained that Zero Tolerance was necessary because the USA "Is not an idea... It is a nation-state." As I argued months ago, no it isn't. The American population does not meet the definition of a "nation." Not unless you reject a large fraction of the citizenry as not really American. So it seems pretty clear that Sessions' objection to border-crossers is not that they break the law, it's that they are brown and speak Spanish. But we all knew that, too.
 
This regime has gone from deplorable to disgusting, and is well on its way to depraved.
 
Dean Shomshak

Beyond that, the executive order, like so many other plans of the administration, is probably illegal.  
 
Trump's executive order would have the children detained with their parents.  However, in 2014 a federal judge declared that children can not be detained in jail-like settings even with their parents.  This is what led the Obama administration to letting both the parents and children go free while awaiting their asylum hearing.  It is this "catch and release policy to illegal immigrants" over which folks at Fox and Friends got our president all worked up about, precipitating the whole lets take the children away so that we can lock the parents up policy.
 
In face of public outcry, Trump is just reverting to the detaining children with their parents policy that the federal judge already ruled to be illegal.  Having successfully come up with a even more inhumane way of treating the children of asylum seeker who enter the country with their parent than locking them up together, does not make the policy of locking the children up in jail suddenly legal.
 
 
 
 
 

At -1/2, you're only counting Body to see if it deteriorates.  At -1, you're counting Stun...which means, practically every regular attack will wear it away.
 
reference:  6E147.  Second paragraph discussing Ablative.

Its FLORIDA MAN!
 

This is a list of the companies currently profiting from the detention centers
 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16Z04gxhORlgmS5sDhnX_ryDfSF8T2a6AwZWV1PMY-H8/mobilebasic

So, recently on the Politics thread, I mentioned that I'm transgender. When I came out a couple of months ago, I changed my gender field on my profile to female, and put real pic of me as a profile pic. But I didn't post anything here. I'd considered doing it at the same time I was coming out on social media, but I didn't. I'm not sure why. I only brought it up in the politics thread because it was relevant to the argument I was making.
 
But this evening, when I was watching a show with a trans character, I started thinking about how important representation is to me, and to all people, really. I was thinking about the fact that, until someone says something otherwise (or their name indicates otherwise) on these boards (and on the internet in general) , I tend to imagine them as a straight white male. I think a lot of people do that. I mean, I don't think we even do it consciously, but I'm aware of the times when someone says something that reveals that they aren't a SWM, and I'm a little bit surprised. I don't like that. It bothered me when I identified as a straight white male, and it bothers me now.
 
And that's why I'm posting this. Representation is important. I want any other LGBTQ folks on the boards to know they're not alone. Also, if anyone's curious about what it's like to be trans, and to transition, I way overshare on my Tumblr, or feel free to ask me any (not too personal) questions here.
 
 
 

I'm going to go a bit meta with this one: a cliche that annoys me is movies where no one did the research, or where no one cared about accuracy, and you get little things that most people wouldn't notice, but which just jump out and ruin suspension of disbelief for anyone with knowledge of the subject matter. Action movies seem to be worse about this, or perhaps they just overlap with my areas of knowledge a little more than other types of movie do.

American eighth-graders given bulletproof backplates to prepare them for high school

He probably hasn't been given an official diagnosis. Until someone has official paperwork indicating that they have a problem, there's nothing to be done about it legally. For example, when I was in the Navy, we Nukes were strongly discouraged from seeking help for mental health issues. You see, a sailor with crippling depression and suicidal impulses but no diagnosis is clean on paper and can be assigned to stand a watch; a sailor who's seen a doctor and is getting help, including therapy and medication, is officially mentally unstable and can't be trusted to fill a slot in the watch rotation, leaving more work for his colleagues. That's how we handle mental health here in the US, and that's why people don't seek or receive the help they need.

Just heard on All Things Considered that numerous religious groups are in fact objecting. That the US Conference of Catholic Bishops speaks in favor of refugees is perhaps not surprising, but even the Southern Baptists are objecting to Jeff Sessions quoting scripture to justify his policy. A fellow who was actually one of Trump's Evangelical advisors called it "grotesque." We can only hope that in backing Trump for the sake of appointing anti-abortion judges, they sold their souls to the Devil.
 
Dean Shomshak

Iron Man looked like Iron Man
Ant-Man looked like Ant-Man
Captain America looked like Captain America
Thor looked like Thor
Loki looked like Loki
Heimdall looked like Idris Elba

The Rosa Parks Of The 21st Century

All explosions are gasoline explosions.
 
To be honest, though, this doesn't bother me much as movies are a visual medium and a lot of real explosions wouldn't look like much on camera.

I was 8 years old when Star Wars was released, and it was one of those movies that I knew was made just for me. I had a bunch of the toys, the oversize Marvel comic adaptation, Boba Fett sheets*, a bunch of the music, and a couple of the tie-in books. I went back to the theaters every year to see it when it returned to theaters, and then excitedly watched Empire, and later, Return of the Jedi. I stayed up for the Star Wars Holiday Special**, and watched the various Droids/Ewoks projects. When the RPG came out, I had to have it.
 
I went to the Special Edition showings, and bought the movies in a variety of formats over the years. When Episode I came out, I eagerly went to watch it in the theater. It was my first inkling that perhaps, the prequel trilogy wasn't meant to be "mine" in the same way, but was rather written for the kids who were seeing their own Star Wars in the theater for the first time. 
 
And that's how I approached TFA and TLJ. These aren't "my" movies, but are really for the kids now. And, taken that way, they are OK, like the Prequels.
 
 
 
*Bought some time in '79.
 
**My young brain had the special edited down to the Boba Fett cartoon, and perhaps a few of the scenes revolving around Chewbacca's friends and family. I was surprised to learn that it was much longer when I watched it again 10 years ago.

The tariffs don't bother me, they're used to protect your own businesses.  The whopping 240+% Canada places on butter, cheese, and milk imports are there to protect its dairy industry, for example.  The deliberate antagonization and negative language towards long-time allies while, at the same time, seeming admiration of dictators is the most disturbing.

Making the weapon OIF so it returns to the hand upon disarming is interesting, but 'thrown weapon returning to the thrower' is just a special effect for a blast attack. If there's a chance the thrower can't catch it the blast attack can have a limitation (requires a roll, burnout), otherwise it's just an effect.
 

And a comment reported by the Canadian Press, attributed to an anonymous diplomat at the recent G7 summit, will probably become my mantra the next time this President spews venom our way: "Aren't we all getting used to it? The dog barks, the caravan moves on."

https://www.vox.com/2018/6/7/17439268/school-shooting-lockdown-nursery-rhyme

This one HURTS me.
 
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/anthony-bourdain-dies-61-112903419--abc-news-topstories.html

Take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

I'm reminded of a time shortly after Rick Snyder was elected governor of Michigan.  I belong to a service organization which in our town is mainly composed of male retirees.  (At age 53, I'm considered one of the 'young ones.')  And most of them are very staunch Republicans, who of course voted for Snyder and were gleeful when he won the election (especially since so many were grousing about Obama being president).
 
Prior to 2011 (when Snyder was elected) pension income in Michigan was tax-exempt up to about $90,000.  However, one of the things Snyder pushed through in his first year of office was changes to the budget and state tax laws that began taxing pensions.  (Not surprisingly, this was coupled with major tax cuts to businesses.)
 
When the taxation of pensions was announced, you never heard such grousing as what came out of those guys who had just been celebrating Snyder's election.  I was immediately thinking, "Really?  You didn't see this coming a mile away?  Wow, you must not have been paying attention!"
 
As to Trump and mass arrests / deportations -- I'm shocked that anybody didn't think that would happen if he got elected.  It's not like this came out of left field.  A huge chunk of Dolt 45's election rhetoric was about those eeeeeevil immigrants.  Murderers and rapists and pickpockets, each and every one.  Build The Wall!  (sigh)  Wasn't anybody paying attention?

Emphasis mine:
 
6e1, 345
"Characters can only buy this Advantage for powers that require no conscious control from the character after the initial attack, such as Entangles and attacks bought with the Advantage Uncontrolled."
 
So I guess the answer is technically yes, but you would also have to buy Usable as Attack (+1 1/4) on it first.
 
Much easier just to by Usable By Others and Usable Simultaneously at the appropriate level.
 
- E

Americans moving to Europe for free college degrees
 
Damn immigrants moving in and taking special benefits and free stuff!