Guard Dog

I was joking Gfted1, you're good.. I'm agreeing with Hurlshot. Asserting one impossible to prove thing is true over another impossible to prove thing sounds a lot like faith to me. But since we are talking about leaps of faith either way the only folks with the rational position are the agnostics who don't take the leap. But as for me, I'm firmly in the camp of there being a God and creator to all things (presumably the two being the same). Although I did not come to that conclusion lightly or early in life. Now, what God actually wants, or thinks of us, of the various churches who say they know, of everything else is anyone's guess. And anyone who tells you they KNOW you should probably keep away from. It's fair to guess God does feel some affection for all of his creations (all of us and everything else too) so that makes him a pretty sympathetic figure in my book. Can you imagine how it would feel if one of your children killed another and tuned to you and said "I did it for you Dad!"

Some is feeling unusually combative today. BTW any guesses on who hacked Gfted1's password?

Something to do with a naturally occurring yeast? Why does urine smell weird after eating asparagus? You have more questions than answers!

So in 2022 you might not want to hang out with Hurlshot or Gromnir. They may not smell so good on days they do laundtry, wash their cars, etc http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2018/05/31/california-water-limits/

Why does Sunny's perspiration smell like fritos?

Absolutely nothing to do today. But since i have no projects I have no excuse to leave the office. So I'm sitting here trying to looks busy all the while pondering the deep questions of life. Do people with Boanthropy really think they are cows or are they faking it? Why do Sunny's paws smell like fritos? Why are Kesai's such lousy characters in BG1? How much did the Death Star cost? Come to that why didn't they fix the obvious engineering flaws: a reactor they can't shut down, that destroys the whole thing when compromised yet is accessible from the surface? Really bad design. Can a bear have a nightmare that lasts all winter? Rice Chex are not really made out of rice are they? Who invented meatball subs? Is it lunch time yet?

Amentep is right. Asbestos is perfectly safe until is breaks, gets wet, mishandled, or in any other way compromised. Then it's not safe at all.

https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/wjbzzy/your-phone-is-listening-and-its-not-paranoia

There is nothing in the Constitution that says we have to go looking for him.

Like many of you I think CNN has zero credibility. Maybe even a little less. So when I first read this I was skeptical is was true. But then I realized we're talking about Trump here so absurdity is commonplace. https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/06/politics/war-of-1812-donald-trump-justin-trudeau-tariff/index.html

Congrats!

I read a lot. 10-15 books a month sometimes. I generally split it between fiction & non-fiction. Fantasy is just a genre I don't have a lot of patience for. Sci-fi as long as it's not too far fetched appeals to me little more. The last good novel I read was a few weeks ago, Robin Lloyd's Harbor of Spies. The last really good non fiction is posted on the first page of this thread. The book about Pluto and the New Horizons mission was really interesting

You turned me on to Cornwell's Saxon series. But man that got repetitive real quick. Every book was essentially the same thing. In fact I'm pretty shire he cut-and-pasted some of Uthred's and Harold's conversations from one book to another. As for fantasy... forget it. The only ones I didn't hate were Tolkiens, Rothfuss's first two Kingkiller books, and ASoIaF.The latter two may never even get completed. The rest is just crap!

I'll look for it. I read Bob Woodward's book "VEIL: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987" quite a few years ago. It was almost more of a biography for CIA Director Bill Casey than is was about the agency's activities. But I did learn a lot from it.

Miss America pageants are dropping the swim suit competition: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/miss-america-scrapping-swimsuit-competition-longer-judge-based/story?id=55638426 This first thing i thought when I read this was "Miss America pageants are still going on?"

I am not going to come to any kind of agreement with many of you on this and i have little interest in discussing it in any case because even ten years later I find I am still furiously pissed off about it. The tone suited the Obama administration well in any case. After all they used government agencies such as the IRS as weapons against political opponents, sent armed BLM agents to settle a simple grazing rights dispute by tasing, beating the hell out of and threatening unarmed civilians. And damn near provoked an armed insurrection in the process. They seemed to think it was perfectly OK for the President to order the execution of american citizens with weaponized drones, until people freaked out and they walked that back. Whatever. Discuss it if you wish. I'm done with it. It was an extremely s----y thing to think and even s------r thing to double down on afterwards.

@ Bart & Ben: Yes I have read it. I, and many other vets were furiously pissed about that ten years ago. And remember, it was ten years ago and must be taken in the context of everything else that was going on at that time. There is no difference between assuming that someone who served in the military, believes in the Federalist system this very country was set up on, doesn't like abortion, owns a gun, or didn't vote for Obama is a likely terrorist than there is assuming a black man in a nice car likely stole it.

But no matter what you do, the government will still have the power to appoint Supreme Court judges, and thus bend or reinterpret those constitutionally defined limits, so... how exactly is this supposed to ensure that they won't have the ability to help one group or another? There are justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a great example. who decide how they want a case to come out before ever hearing it. Rather than apply the law to the case they try to make the case fit into the law, bending it when needed. Fortunately those have proven to be less common. For the most part judges have been straight forward about applying the law (as they see it).

Here you go Ben. According to the Obama administration Veteran = Libertarian = Conservative = Gun Owner = Terrorist. It was targeting veterans for increased surveillance that really stung. No one, not even Barack Obama himself has ever done more for this country than the man or woman who volunteered to put their lives on hold and on the line to serve their country. And no one is less likely to come home and harm the country their friends and brothers and sisters in arms died or were wounded for than a veteran. That is something that small little man and his DHS could never comprehend. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/16/napolitano-stands-rightwing-extremism/ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/14/federal-agency-warns-of-radicals-on-right/ http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/16/napolitano.apology/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dhs-domestic-terror-warning-angers-gop/

Since reading a book about the New Horizons mission to Pluto I have found everything about the little guy of our solar system just fascinating. But this especially: How can a planet with so little gravity and only the most tenuous of atmospheres have enough gas density in that atmosphere to actually move the methane and nitrogen ice on it's surface enough to form dunes? I found this write up fascinating: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pluto-has-dunes-but-theyre-not-made-of-sand/

Under Bush Big Brother was only watching "terrorists" or something. Under Obama it was watching all of us but especially Veterans, Libertarians, and people who owned guns. Under Trump Big Brother has added the media to it's special attention list in addition to all the rest: http://theweek.com/articles/766230/homeland-security-wants-monitor-journalists-time-sound-alarm

Aluim a weak government is not no government. I am not an anarchist. A government that does not have eminent domain powers, and whose regulatory, taxation, and police powers curtailed to just their constitutionally defined limits can still enforce the law without having the ability to help one group or another. As long as the politicians in government have favors to sell there will be rich people there to buy them. That happens here no matter which political party is in control and it will never, ever, ever stop. The only logical choke point that people CAN effect is to take the government's power. Less power to do "good" (only as they government defines that you realize) but most importantly less power to do harm. I will trade that everyday of the week. You and I are not going to come to any kind of agreement I get that. But now we each know what the other thinks.

Examination of the 2000 year old bones of a crucified man in Italy suggest crucifixion is a bad way to go out: https://www.livescience.com/62727-jesus-roman-crucifixion-found.html

Classy. Do you think any of that is wrong? I just think it's funny in light of an article I recently read, which argues that the ultimate goal of the same special interest groups who uphold Rand as an inspirational figure are also very keen on the Virginia school of economic thought, whose endgame - according to the article's author - is to create the exact situation described in the bolded part of the quote. (Not that I trust any article from a random source - if you happen to know more about Buchanan's work and disagree with his characterization by the author, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts.) I had never heard of Buchanan prior to this article. I'll see if the library has any of his books. I'd rather read the mans own words before commenting too much on him. It's obvious the articles author Lynn Parramor is not out to inform but rather persuade so she will frame any quotes in a context that enables her to do that. I'll give Nancy Mclean's book a look as well. She was the article's primary source. Now as for the quotes in the context they were presented: I don't entirely disagree with this. The very reason I argue that a government's power MUST be limited is because it is comprised entirely of the same selfish, narcissistic, greedy, and self interested people that left ascribes to "business" people, or "capitalists" of the "rich" (imagine a sneer when you read those words). The difference is they have police powers. They can actually take things away from you. The richest man in the world could not take a single dollar from me that I didn't freely give him. The government if Tipton county right here in my home state, not 20 miles from me can take all of it. They can take my home, all my money and even kill me. So if the most powerful corporation wants my home and I won't sell they go to the government and offer the politicians donations and oh by the way, we really would like to develop this real estate. Next thing you know I lose everything and there is little I can do about it. Who is the bad guy here? The answer is always the one with a gun saying "give me what I want or else" That is what Rand was talking about. Notice how she does not actually quote Buchanan here? Just an opinion of a source who wrote a book with nothing to back it up. That of course does not mean the assertion isn't true. But this article is not about informing, it's about discrediting someone with a contrary view. Also notice how she invokes John Calhoun who was not an economist, not in any way connected to Buchanan and who died 70 years before Buchanan was even born. It would have been no less ludicrous to compare him to Hitler. At least they were from the same century. Like I said, it does not mean she is wrong about Buchanan. But it pretty much ruins her credibility. Otherwise I agree with her that having a government that does favors for the "rich" is a fast track to oligarchy. But there IS no other kind of government. They all do it because to a man and woman they are venal, selfish, and exactly the kind of people they say they want to protect us all from. Only THEY have guns. By protecting ourselves from the government we are also protecting ourselves from the "evil rich". Do you see what I'm getting at here?