new_age_bastard

Google bot is back someone tell Jeeves!

Quick man tell him to leave Wooster alone we need help!!

Ah i just saw that art/writing and man my pants are sticky.

"Kiss my shiny metal ass!!"

Bwah ha ha ha ha ha!!! I feel honoured now.

The current "Swamp thing" run is pretty good too. Check it out as well.

I love JLU it is so excellent the end of season 2 was great but i am a bit of a Flash geek. I'm going to have to get downloading as over here in blighty they are still only showing season 2 repeats. Grrr!!!!

I heard it whispered through the old lands where the trees stand as tall as mountains. That on a time when all the people are in tunewith the planet, the answer will come to one and all as if gifted from the Gods. We must be patient and wait for that time. For to mess with fate is to mess with the whole wide universe.

*points to back of cereal box* Look it says so here.

It looks good, so why am i worried. :huh:

The gloves and cape are very Batman-esque. I wonder, you remember that future story they ran in Teen Titans. Where Tim Drake became Batman.

Edited: to thank John for linky

I do my art as a persuit of something relaxing.

Cooking for me though i love it is simply to eat. Yet i adore to eat and so i love to cook.

I've forgotten.

Oh yeah Irish stew, i hate the word irish in foods but what the hell its a good winter food helps with the cold.

http://thefoody.com/meat/irishstew.html

What evil, bullying crap!  What the fuck business does an American ambassador have telling Canada or any country what they can and can't say during their election campaigns??

 

This is nothing less than interference in Canada's political process.  Very uncool.

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Yeah America totally uncool, now step off. Yeah you heard me, step off.

I love to cook.

 

If I hadn't made a dish before I will stick pretty close to the recipe, making some modifications as I go.

Then as I get more accustomed to preparing the dish I'll put my own spin on it.

Sometimes I just make shit up.

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Me too

Tonight i am making Irish Stew, Stew is the best as it allows you to eat a beautiful meal for a couple of days in a row. Plus it really heats you up after a cold day outside. It is a brilliant winter meal.

Like I said, there are heaps of valid reasons to not like Mao. But it can be good to keep things in perspective. During the civil war up until 1949, the Nationalists were routinely FAR FAR worse than the PLA. One of the main reasons the communists won was that the PLA generally treated the peasants pretty decently, with very very little pillaging, raping etc. This was something of a novelty in China, where various warlords woutinely pillaged the countryside. So even though the stories of atrocities committed by the communists might be true, bear in mind that the opposition was usually far worse. This, OF COURSE, does not excuse things the communists did. It merely puts it in perspective.

One of the things Mao did was publisjh the famous "3 rules, 8 points" directive on how the army should act:

The Three Main Rules of Discipline are as follows:

 

    (1) Obey orders in all your actions.

 

    (2) Don't take a single needle or piece of thread from the masses.

 

    (3) Turn in everything captured.

 

The Eight Points for Attention are as follows:

 

    (1) Speak politely.

 

    (2) Pay fairly for what you buy.

 

    (3) Return everything you borrow.

 

    (4) Pay for anything you damage.

 

    (5) Don't hit or swear at people.

 

    (6) Don't damage crops.

 

    (7) Don't take liberties with women.

 

    (8) Don't ill-treat captives.

The fact that these pretty simple, maybe even banal rules were considered revolutionary among the cinese soldiery and peasants should tell you something about how war was GENERALLY fought earlier in China.

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True they could be bloody savage at times. I have heard from a friend whose relatives lived through those times that communist soldiers did just as much looting. Not disputing the rules just stating that they may not have been actioned all the time. Besides up until recent times (the last century) almost all armies looted to some degree or other. I agree some of it is unabashed character destruction but some of it he deserves.

The Smurfs was practically a perfect model of how societies should be. icon_biggrin.gif

 

Apart from the dirth of womenfolk. Only one for an entire village. icon_eek.gif

Such a happy people they were until they all hit puberty and realised Papa smurf was the only one who got to be with girly smurf (i don't know her name). Quite the bloodbath it was. Blue berry sauce all over the place.

For a REAL hero-king, check out the story of Saladin. You know, the guy who whooped the crusaders' collective asses.

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Red you got a book name for that one. Just so i can buy it when i finally finish this Mao book.

Who actually wants Barry Back?

Let him die again istead of Buddy.

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Buddy as in Buddy "Animal Man" NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :icon_cry: If you don't mind me i'm gonna throw myself of a big building and fight the tarmac at the bottom. DC really mustn't like me anymore. As for barry yeah he died to save the universe but i read any of the old comics and he was a tad boring well alot. Long live the Wally. *snigger* Can't help myself.

That new Aquaman book actually looks a little interesting - Robin's new get-up is very G-Force, innit ?

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You got a link for Robins new gear John?

uh uh

Riiight, see this is where we have a problem. This thread being about books you are reading at the moment. I'm only half way through Mao: The Unknown Story. I'll keep reading it at the moment and give a review when i'm finished.

However may i add that most sources outside China never had the resources or information on Mao that are available now. As China as always had isolationist tendencies which Mao copied. I have also talked to a couple of people who lived through the uprisings. (this was by chance by the way) Who described raids on villages by communist troops that are the same as described in the book. Why, if Mao isn't so bad did the Nationalists have to move into Taiwan. However this is all moot till i finish the book. I'm not saying some of it isn't out there. Yet a lot of it seem highly plausible just previously unknown.

Yeah i can understand that this book will be biased (all biographies are really) against him. However it is interesting to hear something that isn't the party line. Especially when it written by a woman who used to be a part of China's civil service (sorry forgot the name of it). I believe a previous book she had written was Wild Swans.

Taking with a pinch of salt but it looks well researched.

This sucks ass, all my favourites die first.

If anyone wants me i'll be out in the traffic naked trying to score a drink.

Yes Skynet should save us before Yahoo turns up to report us to our soveriegn governments as dissidents. Taking sadistic joy at our pleas for mercy and understanding, it will simply spout back to us the words that haunt many a dissident. Remember the party line, informing is good for the continued economic stability of each of the regions that Yahoo oversees.

Please Skynet why have you forsaken us!!!

I can't help it, the warder nurses keep catching me at the computers.

Bah evil warders their tight bonds will not hold me forever. I shall yet see the brilliant light of Technicolour again.

No, dear god it can't be not the...(insert impossibly long Shatner-esque pause here)... War of the Servers.

Run!! Abandon all hope for (here again with the pause) their true path was always here.

Is this a person on the forum or some evil sinister AI following us around. Reporting back to their overlords in Google land about the freedoms we enjoy. Are their armies getting ready to roll over us as we speak. We must plan for all eventualities.

I may be overreacting but thats cause i still have to get breakfast. It always makes me get twitchy.

Anyway John please explain.

The Mcfarlane toss pot. Ok artist, shit poor writer nasty mean capitalist whore.

thats where the dale vote went.

Ellis can write crap some days, but i figure thats like the rest of us putting two legs into the one trouser hole. You do something enough you fuck it up every once in a while. On average he is great.

I had to vote Vertigo though most of the titles i buy are main line DC. Vertigo has the new Swamp thing stories which i adore so much. Plus hellblazer. Less quantity but a shite load more quality per comic.

No the worst idea in the world man. You should come up here though as the drink is cheaper in the North. Not rubbing it in or anything it just is. :D

Last week i bought "I am Legend" by Richard matheson adapted by Stephen Niles and Elman brown

Bloody brilliant it was gripping story ina totally realistic setting. Where the main character is the last man alive in a world over run by Vampires. Surviving simply because that is all he knows. I really enjoyed this and found myself empathising with the character at all points in the story.

Also bought "Ocean" by Warren Ellis

It was good and almost a total return to form from the glory days but still i found it a little short and Unfulfilling. Like a drunken orgasm, promises so much but then for no reason fails to deliver. Don't get me wrong spot on art, great dialogue good plotline. Just not enough for me. I still thing Ellis suffers from having done his greatest work (Transmetropolitan) too early in his career.

Thats my week anyway.

Guess that means I'm free for lunch on Thursday if anyone's around.

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The guy as a point beer anyone, shame i will be in work. Dammit and in the north of the island.