"Another possible objection is this. Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Is it that He is not strong enough? Well Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. I do not suppose you and I would have thought much of a Frenchman who waited till the Allies were marching into Germany and then announced he was on our side. God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and irectly in our world quite realise what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else-something it never entered your head to conceive-comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be Got without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing; it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to coose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it.
Rapier: +4 1d8 Armor:None Gear: Fine Clothing, Thieves’ Tools , Standard Adventurer’s
Kit
Gold: 10
Powers:
At Will:
Deft Strike Rogue Attack 1
A final lunge brings you into an advantageous position.
At-Will ✦Martial, Weapon Standard Action Melee or Ranged weapon Requirement: You
must be wielding a crossbow, a light blade, or
a sling. Target: One
creature Special: You
can move 2 squares before the attack. Attack: Dexterity
vs. AC Hit: 1[W]
+ Dexterity modifier damage. Increase damage
to 2[W] + Dexterity modifier at 21st level.
Sly Flourish Rogue Attack 1
A distracting flourish causes the enemy to forget the blade at his throat.
At-Will ✦Martial,Weapon Standard Action Melee or Ranged weapon Requirement: You
must be wielding a crossbow, a light blade, or
a sling. Target: One
creature Attack: Dexterity
vs. AC Hit: 1[W]
+ Dexterity modifier + Charisma modifier damage. Increase
damage to 2[W] + Dexterity modifier + Charisma modifier at 21st
level.
Encounter:
Fey Step Eladrin Racial Power
With a step, you vanish from one place and appear in another. Encounter ✦Teleportation Move Action Personal Effect: Teleport
up to 5 squares (see “Teleportation,” page 286).
Positioning Strike Rogue
Attack 1
A false stumble and a shove place the enemy exactly where you want him.
Encounter ✦Martial, Weapon Standard Action Melee weapon Requirement: You
must be wielding a light blade. Target: One
creature Attack: Dexterity
vs. Will Hit: 1[W]
+ Dexterity modifier damage, and you slide the target
1 square. Artful Dodger: You slide the target a number of squares equal to your
Charisma modifier.
Daily:
Trick Strike Rogue Attack 1
Through a series of feints and lures, you maneuver your foe right where you want him.
Daily ✦Martial,Weapon Standard Action Melee or Ranged weapon Requirement: You
must be wielding a crossbow, a light blade, or
a sling. Target: One
creature Attack: Dexterity
vs. AC Hit: 3[W]
+ Dexterity modifier damage, and you slide the target
1 square. Effect: Until
the end of the encounter, each time you hit the target you slide
it 1 square.
Fall Semester 2007 ENGL 312 004 H Honrs Persuasive Writing 3.0 A- FREN 361 002 French Civilization to 1715 3.0 B+ FREN 362 001 French Civilization 1715-Pres 3.0 A- FREN 453R 001 Studies in Genre 3.0 A- HIST 303 001 Reformation: Age of Turmoil 3.0 A- HIST 314 001 Euro Fascisms 3.0 A- SEM HR ERN 18.0 HR GRD 18.0 GPA 3.65
Winter Semester 2008 CMLIT 420R 001 18th-Century Lit 3.0 B+ FREN 457R 001 Studies in French Culture 3.0 A- FREN 490R 005 Individual Study 3.0 A FREN 640R 002 Author Studies 3.0 A- HIST 305 001 Age of Enlightnmnt 3.0 B+ PL SC 470 006 Capstone Sem: Intrnl Relations 3.0 A SEM HR ERN 18.0 HR GRD 18.0 GPA 3.70
Spring semester? Taking one 400 level French class. The difference is like night and day.
When its done, I'll be graduated with 171 credits and a 3.5something GPA. Take THAT, college! And yes...my insanely intense senior year classes have better grades than my freshman year at SMS. I blame you, Jeremiah :P Just kidding. Wouldn't trade that year for all the A's in ....A-Town.
Okay, so JT has committed some pretty serious blasphemies in the past. I guess that's an understatement. Blasphemy is kind of the theme of his web page. For the most part, I let it go. He's harmless. However, this time, he went too far. He's calling for a boycott of France. That's right, nation of swashbuckling adventure, style, wit, and fashion, simply because he couldn't wrap his barbaric lips around its melodic language. If you do not believe me, see for yourself!
So, naturally, its time to remind him and every other band wagon jumping Ricky Bobby American that its not cool to hate the French. They can eat their freedom fries somewhere else, because without France, we wouldn't have had:
1. Democracy The writings of philosophes Rousseau, Montesquieu, and others were heavily influential on the British colonists, and is reflected in Thomas Jefferson's writings.
2. Independence France bankrupted itself sending troops, supplies, and more importantly, a freaking navy (turns out you need one of those to win a war against an island empire, America), to save our trash during our little revolution. Without France, the British blockade would've starved us out faster than you can say 'we ran out of hard tack'.
3. The Statue of Liberty "Hey guys, we're already really poor and our government is falling apart because we spent so much money on your revolutionary war, but we thought we'd all chip in and buy you this enormous freaking statue to put in your harbor, so you can, you know, be taken seriously as a promised land for the downtrodden" (this was before the infamous 'build a fence across the border to Mexico' plans were being discussed)
4.LaFayette Think of him as a younger, less wooden-teethed, sexier swashbuckling version of George Washington. With a rapier. And he probably swung around on ropes and stuff.
5. French Kissing And several other erotic techniques we won't go into here, in the interest of keeping this place PG-13.
6. Removing Theocracy from the political sphere That crap started with Rousseau before Kant (a disciple of Rousseau) ran with it. So basically everything JT believes in has its roots in 18th century French philosophy.
7.Alizee Ironically, one of the most atheistic countries in the world also gives us proof that God exists:
If you've ever enjoyed the female night elf's dance social, you have France's Alizee to thank for that.
8. Kyo Another French band that's not as easy on the eyes but excellent listening.
9. Gérard Depardieu Great French actor who also portrayed the middle-aged Porthos in the Man in the Iron Mask.
10: Swashbuckling! Speaking of Porthos, France is the country where authors like Dumas produced the Three Musketeers, the Man in the Iron Mask, and a whole genre of cloak and dagger swashbuckling adventure that's only been rarely duplicated in other countries. Props to Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel for following in France's high booted, swaggering footsteps.
11: French bread! Or what passes for it in America.
12: Loreal, cosmetics and perfume in general You know that hot girl you saw in campus the other day? The one that didn't stink and her face was smooth and perfect. Say thank you the next time you see a Frenchman walking along the street. Before France we had to deal with the odors and sights nature intended us to deal with. Let's just say most people were conceived looong after dark. With noseplugs.
12: Debussy As in Claude. As in Clair de Lune. As in that song from Ocean's 11. Yeah, that Debussy.
13: The Nationstate As in..strong centralized government while Germany, Spain, and Italy were still a loose conglomerate of sometimes warring/sometimes trading city-states? As in the cradle of modern civilization after the fall of the Roman Empire?
14: The French Language Despite JT's inability to grasp its grammar, (it WAS rated a 3 out of 5 difficulty on www.howtolearnanylanguage.com ...right between Spanish and Russian), my completely scientific survey of whatever random girls were passing by at the moment ranks French as the sexiest language in existence, followed by Italian in close second, and Spanish and German coming in somewhere near the bottom, over Hmong and Pig Latin.
15: Analytic Geometry, and by extension, Calculus I'm no math fan, but I understand its pretty important for like...engineering or something. Or making cash registers work. I'm not really sure. But apparently Descartes not only was a founding father of modern philosophy, he also bridged the gap between algebra and geometry with his crazy magic spell formula like theorems, and was in turn crucial to the development of Calculus. So the next time your cash register operator gives you back correct change or you cross a bridge without it exploding or folding into a pretzel, you can thank France for that.
16: Mother Goose And you KNOW your mom would have run out of things to tell you at night if it weren't for Mother Goose's tales being public domain.
17. Victor Freaking Hugo Did you ever enjoy the musical Les Miserables? Turns out those are French words, written by a French person, about a historical event from France. For that matter, the Phantom of the Opera also takes place in France. The Scarlet Pimpernel? Largely takes place in France. Without France, Broadway musicals would take place largely in homosexual student apartments and outside with dancing anthropomorphic cats (which I understand is becoming a very common fetish)
18: High Art I'm talking Monet, Renoir, Picasso, and half a dozen other painters who were either French or did most of their work in France (looking at you, DaVinci). There's a reason the Louvre is in Paris and not...Berlin.
19: Braille If you're reading this, you probably haven't had to use Braille, but I understand its incredibly awesome for blind people who want to read.
20: Milk that doesn't make you sick when you drink it Louis Pasteur...Pasteurization... I won't spell this one out for you.
21: Marie Curie French citizen, pretty much discovered radiation and harnessed its awesome powers. Without radiation, we wouldn't have: Ninja Turtles, the Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, and a host of other super-heroes. So basically, we'd be living slaves for the Legion of Doom or whatever other supervillain team-up got its act together and took over our superhero-less world.
22: The Louisiana Purchase Say what you will about Napoleon, his drive to conquer the world needed funding and we needed an awesomely cheap deal on about a quarter of present day America. That part in dark green? Including Arkansas? Yeah we got that for about 23 million dollars. Works out to like..I don't know..3 cents an acre. Merci, la France.
23: Opposing the Iraq War (before it was cool)
Remember when the whole "Freedom Fries" thing started? 2003-2004?
Remember why the whole thing started? They thought going to war in
Iraq was unjustified, ill conceived, and over-all, probably a bad idea. Good
thing we didn't listen to them, and instead made fun of how cowardly
the French are. We sure proved them wrong. That's right, back when
all your favorite democrats (looking at you, Madame Clinton) were
voting for war, the French were like 'hey guys....probably not a good
idea to just run in there guns ablaze.."
24. The Air Car Hey remember how the oil industry is dominating Congress and rising gas prices and global warming are all cause for concern in America? Don't worry, guys, France has got us covered. Presenting the Air Car...a car that runs completely on compressed air for 100 miles, or on 8 gallons of gas and compressed air for a 1000. All for the price of a mid-end car...around 16000 dollars. Coming to your garage in 2010. For more information on how you won't have to get eviscerated at the gas pump, check out the article in Popular Mechanics.
So yeah, just some information. The list could go on indefinitely, but 24 is my favorite number so we'll stop there. If you want to boycott France, be prepared to give up all its sweet contributions to your life. Anyway, the French workweek is 35 hours so I gotta clock out to take a nap, sip some wine, and enjoy some fine cuisine.
