Hardly super soldiers. When the anti nationalist hun farmers where sent out of Mongolia and made there way into Europe to make a farming community the Romans tried to seize their land. It didn't go well. Mind you these where not the Mongolian elites, these where the grunts so to speak. And since they had just lost against China I guess that puts Roman Legionaries at 3rd place tops. Rome was good for the area, but you have to remember, Europe was considered an intellectual back water until Portugal adopted Middle Eastern technology and philosophy schools in the late middle ages. This would lead to Europe's rise to glory. Europe's great success though was its willingness in the middle ages to adopt the culture of others and evolve. Europe's domestic work though was still small scale compared to the rest of the world though. Especially in military.
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You have to remember where Roman warfare originated. Its a rehash of the Greek warfare they adopted through various conflicts as well as trade. And where did the Greeks get it? Bye studying the strategies of north Africa. Phalanx warfare is a very ancient form of fighting that has sprung up in most major parts of the world at some time or another. However the reason it is so characteristically European is because they took so long to out grow it. Most of the world had moved on by this point to bigger and better things, to gun powder, to naval bombardments of the coast, to in china's case, Canon warfare like what you would expect in the black powder days of Europe. The reason everyone else had left this form of warfare behind is that it negates specialist combat. Personal skill usually does not count for much.
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When this is the reason under Napoleon needed large rapidly trained armies he reintroduced phalanx tactics even though the rest of Europe had moved on to the trench and pencil line strategies. It required him to train troops less so he could raise an army faster.
Oh God. This line. You sir, are a scholar and a gentlemen. Preach on.
A lot of people say Libertarians, or the government. I think its the Bar exam. Not that its bad, but that Lawyers take it. Just Lawyers.
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Wouldn't it be great if politicians had to take an 11th grade exam. I think alot of our problems would be solved. And we can have special cameo questions.
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Q:"Can rape get you pregnant?"
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A?:"Well according to doctors..." (<-even if he had been right he still would have lost equal points for generalization and lack of argumentative charity)
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Ok that was vindictive, but for real. I do think a political bar exam to make sure they where educated enough to take their positions would really help. At least then out politicians will know where babies come from, what socialism is, and that mac and cheese is not "Some black holiday food".
I'm glad to see people making allowances like you are. Anyways The Spartans and the other tribes in the area of Sicily worked to oppose the Athenian Empire but only domestically. With one exception they in the union with Sparta against the Delium League joined forces against every major non Greek invader in their history. So your half right about them not fighting as one unit until they where concord. But they would fight as 2 separate forces to oppose non natives.
Greeks and Romans had very similar combat strategy and where both heavy users of Phalanx warfare, which is a number intensive formation. Since neither had a great command of explosives or formation breaking barricades like the Mongolians (hence how they kicked so much Roman ass) and still used this primitive means of combat I would hand this off to the Greeks.
Yes, all America needs is ANOTHER preventable black market. I mean, the war on drugs was so effective. Prohibition was sweet. The War on crime in the 20s really calmed shit down. I think we are going to have to face the fact that cracking down on distribution in the regulated white market is not the answer. A lot of people bring up countries like Sweden or England who have strict gun control, but they also have great education, mental health options, and other social systems that make it so that there is always a better option then guns.
Your still giving him a pass on knowing this was coming before the first drop of water cause the first ripple. Also damning all to a struggle between salvation and damnation doesn't seem to support the concept of free will. So either he isn't all knowing, he can't give everyone a choice, or he is unwilling. There doesn't seem to be another option for an all knowing all powerful, pro freedom of action being. Oh right, also the bible makes a pension for slavery. Also not very pro choice.
They are...sort of. Its more about a dispute into if a certain profit was a profit and if a certain book belongs in the over all frame work...though so many of the early books where taken out it's hardly the same book anymore to begin with, the original had three gods. "God" wasn't even the top dog originally. Maybe he wen't Cratos on them or something Shrugs. Anyways, way off topic. Just call Muslims the OGs of Protestantism. They where doing it before it was cool.
He knew it was there. He made it. Humans evil at heart. He made that to. Satan is evil. 3 guesses on who made that thing. The point is if he is all knowing he saw this all coming and decided it was still an awesome idea. Why in the ever loving hell would you design something to fail and then punish it. Its like me breaking my kids leg, then punishing him if he doesn't snap back into shape even thought I know that is impossible.
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The fact is the only reason people give god a pass on this simple logic is because he is who he is. He can do it so it must be right. He has some kind of Vague plan. And yeah I read how the world is supposed to end. It's also comically vague and metaphoric. I just don't put a lot of stock in Christianity.
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As for reading that book, I literally had a whole class of it in Catholic private school. Honestly I have ditched a lot of the knowledge by now, but even in a saturated environment and with study it makes no sense. The only reason I remember Revelations was it was more interesting than a profits bones bringing people back to life. One arrow to kill a quarter of humanity? ^^ Thats going on the youtube montage. Mark of J eat your heart out.
The Kamasutra clearly illustrates a man with a strap on. Then again, that is a lot of girls.
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More on topic, I think it would be useful, but despite all the good stated by Peekaboo, the paladins do not really care about welfare. The care about offence and not being offended. This idea is to offensive so for whatever reason it must be wrong.
14 year old me had hair down to my back and a very feminine body despite being an athlete. I think I would have looked good in a dress...this is gay in the weirdest way. Homosexuality, hands down.
With the doubly screening layers of the State and the NGO watch dogs (You could say the parent, but if they are letting their child do pornography I wouldn't say they are too protective) I agree with the notion that the world would be safer for children with a strict and heavily regulated market as opposed to an unregulated black market. Lets face it, being anonymous on the web is just to easy. Between virtual machines, proxies, uber-proxies like Tor, and legal security software the tech savy pedos should not have a hard time staying out of jail. It would be best if they had to do there business where everyone could watch.
Saying a child cannot consent does not justify taking away any legal protection they could have. Its also important to note there is no real evidence on the mental effects of consensual sex across generations since any experiment or study would be both HIGHLY illegal and no reputable academics would touch it with a ten foot pole to save their reputations.
It has rules. They are set by the winner. The loser often loses sovereignty, how could they possibly legislate or prosecute anyone for war crime independently. Well there is the often ignored Geneva convention, and lets not even get into PMCs and how they treat war like a business.
Anyone can throw out any fancy theories they want. The fact is that in the politically stable democratic industrialized world almost unanimously success in employment, education, economic stability, health, and many more categories measured by the Few available Index run hand in hand with strong social programs. Sweeden, Holland, Germany, the list goes on and on. Unfortunately education and militarism seems to be inverse so military first world nations might want to hold off on the books until they get off war economies.
Silly really. It seems like many of the "mortal sins" are outdated biological imperatives. What kind of God makes a being natured then tells him to counter it for his own indulgence and amusement. At least the devil is keeping it real, saying what he means and doing it to. To bad O don't think every one who isn't the chosen is going to hell. If it is true then we have an all seeing, all knowing, all powerful god who had to screw up with a few billion humans to get what he wanted. He just seems to have the Zeus problem. "If he is all knowing how did Promithius steal fire?" "If god is all knowing, how did the serpent temp behind his back?"
