the only part of the rift anybody remembers is Olduvai Gorge in Kenya, where the Leakeys are correcting fossils with power tools to show how they REALLY used to fit together

how bulgar

I miss Megisti, last I heard he was injured fighting forest fires

is it Steve Forrest in SWAT?

I never got to see SWAT, mom thought it was too violent and with that intro she always knew what was on

> Einstein wrote:

> Dude... can Greece even afford a military? Lol<<

Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party is increasingly assuming the role of law enforcement officers on the streets of the bankrupt country, with mounting evidence that Athenians are being openly directed by police to seek help from the neo-Nazi group, analysts, activists and lawyers say.

In return, a growing number of Greek crime victims have come to see the party, whose symbol bears an uncanny resemblance to the swastika, as a "protector".

One victim of crime, an eloquent US-trained civil servant, told the Guardian of her family's shock at being referred to the party when her mother recently called the police following an incident involving Albanian immigrants in their downtown apartment block.

"They immediately said if it's an issue with immigrants go to Golden Dawn," said the 38-year-old, who fearing for her job and safety, spoke only on condition of anonymity. "We don't condone Golden Dawn but there is an acute social problem that has come with the breakdown of feeling of security among lower and middle class people in the urban centre," she said. "If the police and official mechanism can't deliver and there is no recourse to justice, then you have to turn to other maverick solutions."

Other Greeks with similar experiences said the far-rightists, catapulted into parliament on a ticket of tackling "immigrant scum" were simply doing the job of a defunct state that had left a growing number feeling overwhelmed by a "sense of powerlessness". "Nature hates vacuums and Golden Dawn is just filling a vacuum that no other party is addressing," one woman lamented. "It gives 'little people' a sense that they can survive, that they are safe in their own homes."

Far from being tamed, parliamentary legitimacy appears only to have emboldened the extremists. In recent weeks racially-motivated attacks have proliferated. Immigrants have spoken of their fear of roaming the streets at night following a spate of attacks by black-clad men on motorbikes. Street vendors from Africa and Asia have also been targeted.

"For a lot of people in poorer neighbourhoods we are liberators," crowed Yiannis Lagos, one of 18 MPs from the stridently patriot "popular nationalist movement" to enter the 300-seat house in June. "The state does nothing," he told a TV chat show, adding that Golden Dawn was the only party that was helping Greeks, hit by record levels of poverty and unemployment, on the ground. Through an expansive social outreach programme, which also includes providing services to the elderly in crime-ridden areas, the group regularly distributes food and clothes parcels to the needy.

But the hand-outs come at a price: allegiance to Golden Dawn. "A friend who was being seriously harassed by her husband and was referred to the party by the police very soon found herself giving it clothes and food in return," said a Greek teacher, who, citing the worsening environment enveloping the country, again spoke only on condition of anonymity. "She's a liberal and certainly no racist and is disgusted by what she has had to do."

The strategy, however, appears to be paying off. On the back of widespread anger over biting austerity measures that have also hit the poorest hardest, the popularity of the far-rightists has grown dramatically with polls indicating a surge in support for the party.

One survey last week showed a near doubling in the number of people voicing "positive opinions" about Golden Dawn, up from 12% in May to 22%. The popularity of Nikos Michaloliakos, the party's rabble-rousing leader had shot up by 8 points, much more than any other party leader.

Paschos Mandravelis, a prominent political analyst, attributed the rise in part to the symbiotic relationship between the police and Golden Dawn. "Greeks haven't turned extremist overnight. A lot of the party's backing comes from the police, young recruits who are a-political and know nothing about the Nazis or Hitler," he said. "For them, Golden Dawn supporters are their only allies on the frontline when there are clashes between riot police and leftists."

Riding the wave, the party has taken steps to set up branches among diaspora Greek communities abroad, opening an office in New York last week. Others are expected to open in Australia and Canada. Cadres say they are seeing particular momentum in support from women.

With Greeks becoming ever more radicalised, the conservative-led government has also clamped down on illegal immigration, detaining thousands in camps and increasing patrols along the country's land and sea frontier with Turkey.

But in an environment of ever increasing hate speech and mounting tensions, the party's heavy-handedness is also causing divisions. A threat by Golden Dawn to conduct raids against vendors attending an annual fair in the town of Arta this weekend has caused uproar.

"They say they have received complaints about immigrant vendors from shop owners here but that is simply untrue," said socialist mayor Yiannis Papalexis. "Extra police have been sent down from Athens and if they come they will be met by leftists who have said they will beat them up with clubs. I worry for the stability of my country."

Seated in her office beneath the Acropolis, Anna Diamantopoulou, a former EU commissioner, shakes her head in disbelief. Despair, she says, has brought Greece to a dangerous place.

"I never imagined that something like Golden Dawn would happen here, that Greeks could vote for such people," she sighed. "This policy they have of giving food only to the Greeks and blood only to the Greeks. The whole package is terrifying. This is a party based on hate of 'the other'. Now 'the other' is immigrants, but who will 'the other' be tomorrow?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/28/greek-police-victims-neo-nazi

they should do a Blade Runner / Riddick dystopia about aliens smuggling twinkies off Earth like heroin

Turks have cojones

in 2005 they mobilized 4 divisions onto the Syrian border because Assad was playing footsie with that OPK Kurdish-separatist terrorist movement that's been biting Turkey.
Assad was like "OH, oh THOSE Kurds, I was confused..so...no kissing Kurds huh? Haha all you had to do was say so...um...yeah"

I think Russia has been careful to play nice with them.

BTW although 60 years of Presidents have been very very careful to say NATO is not aimed at anybody and provides common "defense" it was drawn up so all NATO members are obliged to fight for a NATO member no matter who starts it-- because in 1914 Italy was committed to DEFEND Germany and Austria but skipped because they weren't technically attacked.  NATO was drafted with that in mind so that everybody is committed from Day One however the war starts

If Turkey fights it can call on the Netherlands and Norway to send troops to Syria

"I don't eat genetically modified foods! I just eat grass that was carefully set aside and cherished and nourished through its life cycle, while competing shorter grained grass was destroyed before it could sprout, for hundreds of years, until the genes for a fat seeded grain were dominant and even children could slash, burn, plow and plant the mutant grass all over the world in place of whatever naturally grew there before.  Mmmm, wheatgrass!"

i question if this is serious becuase you'd spend 2 hours rolling a character and choosing equipment

you don't see Americans stuck in trash cans after cigarettes

stabbing each other to rob them, yes

stuck in trash cans, no.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/01/man-stuck-in-trashcan-aberdeen-scotland-lodged-in-rubbish-bin_n_1930194.html

found arsy!

Einstein

THE PRESIDENT:  No, no, Dolly Parton, he's a good debater.  I'm just okay.  But what I'm most concerned about is having a serious discussion about what we need to do to growl the country growing and restore security for hardworking Americans.  That's what people are going to be listening for.  That's the debate that you deserve.  Because in the coming weeks, you're going to have a big choice to make, Nevada.  And it