Ben Coleman

@SandyofCthulhu I would like to be counted among Christian warriors, suspicious of all sorts of things, and I'm not real warm and fuzzy with Mormons, but if they showed up to the fight like Sandy Peterson, I wouldn't unwelcome them. let's decide doctrinal differences after the battle, brother.

Vikings didn't have Christianity forced on them. They chose it because Odin betrayed them. The Icelandic sagas are mostly concerned with bloody feuds (they're great by the way - read some). In one of them, the Icelanders noticed that some of the murders were not starting to be about whether people were Christian or Pagan. So they got together at a Thing (look it up) and decided they had to get rid of this cause of dissension. Either they ALL had to go back to Pagan or they ALL had to become Christian. They went to the wisest man in Iceland, who was a Pagan, and said he had to decide for the whole island. He went off on his own to ponder the question for three days. When he returned, he said everyone had to be Christian, and he was baptized too. From then on, the Icelandic sagas only recorded murders for more important reasons than religion. (Illo from Njall's saga which is amazeballs.)

@SandyofCthulhu Ask the Romans whether the used "rope". They weren't exactly the warm and fuzzy types when it came to "punishing criminals". And they were pretty thorough in their efforts. Folks didn't just "occasionally survive" crucifixion. LOL. Methinks their arguments are grasping at straws.

We have literally found ankle bones of crucifixion victims with nails through them. Also Thomas, who knew of the crucifixion, said, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." Also, while I'm sure the Bible scholar below may not care, Zechariah 13:6, prophesying of Christ's second coming, has "And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends." SandyofCthulhu, the bible scholar.

If God doesn't find this funny, we cooked 😂

@SandyofCthulhu BF-109 E 7 Trop. And my ace. Hans Joachim Marseilles

Every man worth his salt has a favorite WW2 warplane. What's yours?

El ejército de Estados Unidos 🇺🇸 y sus perros son realmente asombrosos.

This is the way.

You don’t adopt a Belgian Malinois; you enlist it without signing papers.

@SandyofCthulhu Bloviate, sounds nasty, like something Sandy's Cthulhu creatures do. Shug Niggurath, the Black Goat of a Thousand Bloviates. 🤣

Is Starship Troopers fascist? Well, they aren't actually highly nationalistic. They are pro-Human, not pro-some single nation. Being in favor of humans vs. giant bugs isn't "nationalistic". And I adore giant bugs. Are they militaristic? Yes. They're IN A WAR. Do they have private industry ownership with centralized government control? We aren't shown. Do they have government-controlled national unions? We aren't shown. Do they have a single political party with suppression of dissent? It seems not, because they can vote, and voting is considered important enough that the non-citizens complain about it. So it can't just be a rubber stamp, as it was in Russia, China, and Nazi Germany. There is in fact no evidence FROM THE MOVIE OR THE BOOK that the Starship Trooper society is fascist. Most likely, Paul Verhoeven doesn't know anything about fascism, like most people today who bloviate on the topic.

@elonmusk We're gonna Grok around the clock tonight. We're gonna Grok Grok Grok till broad daylight, we're gonna Grok Grok Grok around the clock tonight! 🤣

Grok Groks Grok x.com/i/grok/share/i…

@elonmusk Oh, Oh, Oh, Ozempic! Ya knooooww, to the future it does not gooo, because Elon just said soooo...🤣

Turns out they banned Ozempic and LASIK in the future lol

@SandyofCthulhu I recall playing an old favorite I dearly miss (Civil War Generals II) and despite every advantage I might gain as the Confederates I could never win Chancellorsville. I could pull a few draws, but never a win. On the flip side though, I never lost Gettysburg. Fishhook my ass LOL

One of the problems with historical wargames is that many of the most famous battles and campaigns are almost impossible to model. This is because these campaigns were, in fact, amazing upsets. Austerlitz, Jackson's Valley Campaign, Lepanto, Gaugamela, and Crecy are all incredible victories, but they all ALSO feature great skill on the part of the winner (and often real stupidity on the part of the loser). If you set up a realistic battle of Austerlitz or Alesia, the "wrong" side would win. Give the Japanese player a fair chance, and they'll win the battle of Midway every time. But these oddball upsets are the battles everyone wants to play. So to simulate the "right side" winning, the designers perforce make rules that "nerf" the losing, superior, side, or that unfairly boost the actual winners. Then these constraints seem unfair. You've probably heard an old-time wargamer complain that HE would have succeeded if he'd been in charge at Cannae. He probably would have - he knows what actually happened, so has 20-20 hindsight. Plus he won't make the consuls' more egregious blunders. And his enemy won't be as smart as Hannibal. I have a copy of a Chancellorsville game, which recommends that before starting play, the Confederate player should hit the union player over the head with a 2x4. This simulates the porch collapsing on Hooker near the battle's start, which addled him. It makes the battle "fair" because if you look at the numbers and potential, Hooker should have won. I don't really have an answer to this. I guess my "solution" is to play games which are grandly strategic, so none of the actual campaigns or battles are necessarily simulated. As a result, I DO get amazing battles and upsets, where because of luck or blunders I see the equivalents to Stalingrad or Hastings. Any ideas, beyond the "let's hobble the campaign's actual losers"?

@AMWorley_Writer @SandyofCthulhu I suppose in truth it relies on one's own perception of the characters and the world. Honor always struck me as being more of a "conservative" character if you will, and of course I fashion myself that way, so that's probably why the harsh reaction, if I were being honest.

@ravensmarc @SandyofCthulhu Eh, it never struck me as out of place, since Manticore is well-established as very socially liberal, Beowulf even more so, and the series took an open-minded approach to polygamy from the start. Though Hamish was less compelling a love interest than Paul.

Yeah I’m sick of it too. Hey Hollywood guys: here are five time-honored surefire great plotlines for your new science fiction series: 1) Columbo in space. Read Asimov’s SF mysteries for ideas. 2) World War 2 in space. Two almost equal factions taking on each other in epic struggle. 3) base it on Eric Frank Russell’s W.A.S.P. Spy vs spy with both suspense and humor. 4) colonizing a new frontier world. Situations write themselves. And if you can’t think of them, try Little House or Bonanza. 5) hero races starships for a living. Think Speed Racer in space. Those took me 10 minutes to come up with. Do better, Hollywood.

@SandyofCthulhu I don't know much about tanks, but I do love Brad Pitts line from Fury "This is an American tank, we talk American. Ya wanna talk Mexican go to a Mexican tank." 🤣

Every man has a favorite tank. I’m not talking about a “best” tank. It may be objectively terrible. But it’s the favorite. Tell me yours.

@AMWorley_Writer @SandyofCthulhu That whole Hippy threesome thing with the Earl of Whitehaven just sort of ruined it all. But I loved it up until that.

@SandyofCthulhu What I wouldn’t give for a good Honor Harrington adaptation😮‍💨 Napoleonic Wars IN SPACE

@dom_lucre Every year, there are thousands of titties that go uncared for. Please, give, to the titties. Every month you will be sent a picture of the titties you have sponsored. For the cost of a cup of coffee. Give to the titties.

🔥🚨DEVELOPING: Feminists started taking off their shirts to protest SHEIN arriving in Paris.

@SandyofCthulhu My favorite fucking line of all time "Those giraffes you sold me, they aren't mating. They just walk around all day eating, and not mating.You sold me queer giraffes I want my money back. 🤣🤣🤣

I am so grateful that the two (to my way of thinking) VERY similar actors Russell Crowe and Oliver Reed got to share a movie in Gladiator. I am not surprised that they didn't like each other. I am also not surprised that this tension actually made the movie better. I AM surprised to learn that Crowe was visited by Reed's ghost asking him to speak well of him, after which Crowe stopped sneering (out loud) at Reed's alcoholism.

@SandyofCthulhu hey, it was a six pointer, so...🤣

Props to the hunters who recognized and accepted his fursona.

@kirawontmiss Well, it was a six pointer, so.

you can’t make this stuff up…

@DavidLCorbo Unless you have a smoking lounge I will give you an eastern European snooty face. And do not disrespect me with an outside picture, show me the inside of the smoking box at Philadelphia Airport in 1996 and I will be pleased.

Studio B is coming together

@DavidLCorbo @TimothyAlberino You sold me on dangerously retarded.

@ravensmarc @TimothyAlberino

If you say aliens are demons you’re retarded