Iceni

Thank you very much! I was pleased to have an opportunity to exercise the knowledge I've acquired over my continued study.

I'm not well up on Venezuela at all, actually. I tend to avoid Latin American politics in general, maybe because I got tired of it at UNM. The reason I know much of anything about Ukraine is because I like European history and because I've been studying US foreign policy and military power, so the USSR looms large as a general object of scrutiny. It's also been in the news recently.

Partially because the Russian government are paranoid assholes. I'm surprised at how well Finland and the Baltics have got on, what with being stable, transparent democracies having a substantial border with Russia. (Then again, Finland gave Russia such a thrashing during the Winter and Continuation wars that they're loth to bugger with the Finns again) It seems like glasnost is still having aftershocks in the former USSR. The thing is, Ukraine is fairly important to Russia - being a central hub for oil piplines and the location of its Mediterranean fleet, as well as its attached historical significance as one of the first civilizations of the Rus. Russia has also benefited from a large Russian-sympathetic population in the east of the country, the constituency that voted for Yanukovich, the current president. 'Losing' such an important ally in the region to the fairly formidable power bloc of the EU would show its lack of influence on the country. If it 'lost' Ukraine, the Russian government would look weakened, which is the absolute last thing it wants. Putin's relative popularity is fueled by nationalistic pride, and demonstrating Russia's ability is a 'regional steward' - i.e. the role that the EU plays - as he did in 2008 by the invasion of Georgia has been paramount. Ukraine is also in a sense one of the more important Slavic countries, which means that Russia's lack of influence over the country could well put the final nail in the coffin on its self-appointed title as 'defender of the Slavs'. Not that the Slavs themselves didn't know that that was nonsense from the get-go. For the record I do think the hostage-taking is immoral and unwise. The country could run into serious geopolitical difficulties if the opposition continues this way. I wouldn't rule out a Russian intervention if it escalates. The Russian government isn't known for taking kindly to hostage-takers, especially ones within what it considers its sphere of influence.

Cool. I've avoided the album for the longest time for one reason or another so maybe this weekend is the time to give it a shot.

I'm serious, I did actually like it. I'll never play it in front of my mom, (SYL and Blut Aus Nord don't get much airtime in my home either, for similar reasons) but I'm surprised how much was genuinely enjoyable.

Well, you're in middle school. You're expected to hate everything except, I don't know, the Hunger Games series...

Ooh, I did like that riff at 0:55 that lasted for about three seconds. That was all pretty enjoyably frenetic. It reminded me a little bit of a less crazy but still interesting group called Dol Ammad. I don't know whether it's a particularly South African idiom (I've only ever heard my dad use it), but 'not on' means not acceptable, yes.

Well then I await the forthcoming post. I think I might put the first full Nami album up on here for you to go over, I thought it was an odd animal. That's part of the problem with talking about racism, the analysis of the subject is directly tied to economics and politics. I sure don't fit the right demographic profile to be considered a person who's even allowed to speak on the subject. What annoys me is that the views on racism I've seen rarely seem to take the tack that racism of any kind is not on.

Sure, I may just check out a little bit more. As I said I've never liked punk but that was good. Do you think it'd be worth starting a thread on racial issues/racism? It could go unproductive and sour very quickly but I'd be interested in pursuing this line of inquiry.

Cool, I think you're the only person I've met on this forum who knows Suspyre.

Ghouly brought up an interesting argument; that life is made more worth living when there is no afterlife. I thought this struck at the issue of where meaning originates and why, and what renders it important.

It caused more discussion than the actual topic of this thread, I don't think anyone's going to begrudge you that.

I've seen you say that you've got a stepdad and an unpleasant one at that. That's got to suck. Rating - finished up my first midterm, which I think went all right. Also making another burgeoning friendship, which is nice. Slating - this group presentation is going to be tough, one of our members had to go get kidney surgery in Boston.

I hire Killua Zoldyck. Your body is later found with most of its important innards laid intact next to it. My hill. You can make vegetables through immolation?

'Drama Of The Ages' by Jacob's Dream.

Yeah, a personality that doesn't hate most of my music...

I draw you away with a massive magnet. HUEHUEHUEHUEHUEH My hill.

That's really strange, I went out of my way to choose a song that I thought had a decent amount of variety. The interesting thing is that that album was by far their most boring. Doesn't matter, I still enjoy it and I think it's plenty interesting. Maybe I should have gone with 'Phenomenon' instead, that was the song that got me into Threshold in the first place. I also didn't realize - just found out now - that it was the live version, which is a lot less energetic. Darn. Didn't care for Lost Society but then thrash generally bores me so that's not much of a surprise. Red Fang was fairly monotonous and played a style I didn't care for from the outset anyway. Cancer Bats was by far the most engaging, high energy but kind of repetitive vocally. Anyhow, here goes with something hopefully less boring. Psychotic Waltz are another prog group, this time from San Diego. Their music is fairly old school, based in heavy and thrash metal, but they blend the influences in such a way as to defy my general dislike for both genres. ROhf7t0-W_s

If his father was a Nazi as your statement implies why in the bloody hell would he be working for Iraqi terrorists? The simple fact of the matter is that Nazism presents a racial theory positing the supremacy of Germanic Caucasians - which is what delineates it from regular fascism. So too Nazism is particularly anti-religious and thus his decision to work with avowed Sunni or Shiite Muslims would be entirely disingenuous.

I spent an inordinate amount of time studying the Falklands war for my military power class, an interesting conflict to follow.

Good to see you back.