I still find it hilarious that even though every other word the president of the Enclave speaks in FO2 is a lie, everyone takes his commentary about the origins of the Enclave and the Vault project seriously. I mean really, this dude flat out lies to your face several times in a game that intentionally paints politcos as being lying scum, and no-one questions the truthfulness of his statements on these points? And actually, I see no indication that the Brotherhood, an organization that preserves technology and KNOWLEDGE has forgotten it's primary motivations in any of the Black Isle/Obsidian games. In fact I see a great deal of indication that they have taken steps to actively prevent the loss of those guiding principles by turning them into dogma. To be clear I don't completely agree with their actions either, but in any situation where I must choose between the BoS and another force, the BoS will always have my support. Also, saying that the BoS is not any army is fundamentally incorrect, they maintain military discipline, a rank structure, have codified regulations regarding all aspects of conduct, and a pretty much every other consideration necessary to be defined as an army. Serving a nation or other patron is not part of the definition of an armed force.
On the primary topic of Skyrim, I am having a hellishly hard time raising my destruction skill. My char is level 49, and my main combat skill is destruction, 90% of my kills are via spell, but my skill has been sitting at 75~ since level 30 or so. This makes no sense to me as my secondary combat skill, 2H weapons is at 127, and I have numerous other skills above 80.