Guard Dog

King, Cornwell, James Patterson. and other writers who spit out a novel every month are like vanilla ice cream. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing great about it either. Some examples of it are better than others but they are all sort of the same.

You know I've always found that compelling. I am not a sentimental man. I love my animals with all my heart but I've never been one to anthropomorphize inanimate objects or other non-living things. But something about that strikes a chord I guess. However, since Mars has an atmosphere only 1% the density of earth I can't imagine the sound carries too far.

Now reading this: Also reading The Dark Tower by Stephen King. I know I throw a lot of shade his way when it come to the quality of his writing. But this story is so unusual I thought I might give it another try. So I checked the whole series out of the library. One thing I do have to admire though is the opening line of the first novella: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." That is brilliant. In one sentence, the FIRST sentence he introduces the antagonist, protagonist, central conflict and setting of a very complex story. And he does it in just 12 words.

failure by Gromnir to mention democracy, the people and the constitution in a reply to such a post woulda' been... stoopid. HA! Good Fun! touché

Don't leave home without them. If someone want's to "opt out" then let them. But if they want their kids to attend public schools, etc. then roll up their sleeve. Look, there is no bigger champion of liberty here than me but even I will tell you it isn't and can't be absolute as long as you're planning on living around the other humans. One of the little sacrifices you have to be expected to make is to not spread infectious diseases that can wipe out entire populations. If the thing you are doing is likely to harm only you, not wearing a seatbelt for example, then leave them to their folly. But if you want to go "off the grid" and live on a mountain somewhere and make your own whiskey and dress in goatskins then ok, we can dispense with the measles vaccine. how do you differentiate social costs o' the vaccinations from those o' failure to wear seatbelts? your fellow americans, through democratic elected representatives, has recognized just how expensive it is to allow numbnutz drivers to use motor vehicles sans safetybelts. is costs to have emergency medical people to rush out and try and scrape you off pavement or separate you from a tree. is emergency room costs, which are exorbitant. is costs for long term care and/or support for your highly likely permanent disabilities. there is costs. even if you thinks such costs don't merit Government interference, american adherence to principles o' democracy makes it perfect legal and reasonable for your neighbors to object to and sanction dumb and/or costly behavior by fellow citizens. force you to wear seatbelts is indeed The Government demanding you to suppress liberty. is a representative democracy, so the Government is your neighbors, not some kinda monolithic freedom suppressing machine. you wanna live in America? fine, then you gotta live by certain rules your fellow americans 'gree 'pon. sure, the Constitution sets aside particular freedoms which is believed too important to leave to the whim o' democracy, but the rest is fair game. similar, gd cannot drive a car which produces too much pollution. why? 'cause the costs to your fellow americans has been deemed too expensive and as long as your fellow americans got a rational basis for enacting a prohibition on excessive polluting cars, you will not be allowed to drive an excessive polluting car. is basic social contract suff, no? vaccinations, seat belts, smoking in restaurants, dog waste removal, whatever. if The People agree your behavior has too great a cost, you may be prohibited from enjoying such a behavior... with the exception o' Constitutional protections. *shrug* democracy isn't 'bout liberty and peace and enlightened western culture. democracy, the Government, the People, is a community's necessary collective will to limit your liberties. democracy is opposite o' liberty. seatbelts? safety belts? am not seeing such mentioned in the Constitution, direct or indirect. religious freedom claim? due process claim? equal protection? sure, the fed powers is limited, but state and local can, and do, have the power to limit all kinda socially costly behaviors. thank goodness. you not like a particular prohibition? go out and get the law creating the prohibition changed. is how democracy works. honestly. libertarians can be as silly as the far left and alt right folks. is kinda reassuring actually. nobody gots a monopoly on good sense. vaccinations... am not gonna go into vaccinations save for two observations: 1) there is constitutional issues regarding compulsory medical treatments, so is actual more complex than seatbelts in cars, and 2) people who claim a reasonable basis for forgoing the vaccination o' their children is dumber than a bag full o' rocks. HA! Good Fun! You know... I don't recall mentioning the constitution, or democracy, or anything like that in any post on this subject. That's probably because we discussing general philosophy of interference rather than who can specifically keep you from doing what. And one of the things you hit on: the reason we have so much stupidity is because the costs of stupidity are so seldom borne by the stupid. But anyway. For neigh on 14 years now I've been coming to this board (and others) arguing a philosophical viewpoint. I doubt I've made many converts, which was never the intention anyway, but I daresay I've conceived more than a few people to at least think about things from a different perspective. My target audience here (and elsewhere) is not legislators, it's citizens. Who go and vote. And there was the added benefit of enjoyable conversations and spirited discussions along the way. Just sayin.

Haha. Knowing that a 165 lbs body being hurled at 50 mph has about the same kinetic energy as a .50 BMG round leaving the muzzle also helps understand why you'd want the government to force the other guy to wear his seatbelt in case of a frontal collision. Also, what do you do about people who drive but don't know physics. ****, I can't believe I'm arguing in favor of laws. But seriously, of all the stupid **** the government makes you do, you guys pick seatbelts? It's NOT just seatbelts. It's lots and lots of things. That's just the one we are talking about right now. Why can't I make my own whiskey? I have corn, fresh water, and an above average intelligence. If I wanted to make moonshine for my own enjoyment whose business is that anyway? The goddamned governments that's whose. The goddamned government here will throw someone in prison for 20 years for drying out a plant, rolling it in paper, burning it and inhaling the fumes. Why? It's a goddamned plant! Who exactly is that hurting? New York is banning sodas over 16 ounces and California is banning trans-fats. What the hell happened here? Did we lose a war? A little girl get threatened by the police for selling goddamned lemonade to her neighbors because she didn't get on her knees and beg the goddamned government for permission to do that? A pastor in Georgia gets arrested for giving sandwiches to homeless people. S--t has run amok here. Enough is goddamned enough!

Don't leave home without them. If someone want's to "opt out" then let them. But if they want their kids to attend public schools, etc. then roll up their sleeve. Look, there is no bigger champion of liberty here than me but even I will tell you it isn't and can't be absolute as long as you're planning on living around the other humans. One of the little sacrifices you have to be expected to make is to not spread infectious diseases that can wipe out entire populations. If the thing you are doing is likely to harm only you, not wearing a seatbelt for example, then leave them to their folly. But if you want to go "off the grid" and live on a mountain somewhere and make your own whiskey and dress in goatskins then ok, we can dispense with the measles vaccine.

Well, I wouldn't go so far as compare it to Nazism but it does annoy me greatly when the government begins to act like you mother. I wore my seat belt before it was mandatory to do so because I have an advanced understanding of physics. Particularly that bit about bodies in motion tending to stay in motion. But it puts my back up when the goddamned government gets into the car with me and says "put it on or else". I could actually go on for hours about little petty BS things like that. Volo might be exaggerating a little but he is right on the money about one thing. There is no law so trivial that the government, any of them, will not gladly kill you, imprison you, or take everything you own to enforce.

It is annoying to have to pay the state for the privilege of driving the car you own on the roads you helped pay for. I have to pony up $25 every time my driver's license expires. I remember in Florida when the Florida Turnpike was built it was paid for by bonds that were re-paid by tolls collected. The story then was the tolls would only apply until the construction was paid for. That was in the 1950's. The road was paid for in the '70's. It's 40 years later and the whole thing is still a toll road and the tolls go up every few years.

The Cassini spacecraft has made it's final course correction burn and is now set for it's date with destiny just 43 days from now. https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grand-finale/overview/

They are really there to make the bulk of boring city/interstate driving safer and more efficient. Plus give you some of your life back. If if they had autonomous off-road vehicles I'd still go it manual because that's when driving actually gets fun. Actually we've had automated off road vehicles for quite some time now:

The horror.... the horror.... http://reason.com/archives/2017/08/02/rutgers-orders-freshmen-to-add-microagre $175 for a mandatory microaggression class is nuts. I could do it for free, in one second: "Welcome to microaggressions training. Don't be an a-----e The end" Next

Unless these electric self driving cars work on dirt roads and have 4WD I'm out of luck.

I'm with Malcador. This is the kind of thing that would lead me to swear an oath to deliver the most terrible revenge in my power to design on that neighbor.

LA that bad? Freedom is here Yet another example of why I won't cast my vote for either. There really is no differences that matter between them.

Irony. Definitely my favorite form of humor.

That is a pretty fantastic pitch. She lost me at "they are trying to take your healthcare away". You don't win points from me by repeating a political lie. Every plan the GOP voted (and failed to pass) was just Obamacare re-arranged and name changed. None of them took healthcare from anyone. If she was running in increased costs, limited plan options, that kind of thing I'd be more inclined to support... depending on her other positions of course.

Well played. Had me going there for a second. I can't answer for things I did not see first hand. So to tell the truth I really can't say much about the other services either, just the one I was in. But n that one, incompetence was a definite hindrance to promotion.As were character flaws. Unfortunately being an assohle was not counted as a character flaw so we did have quite a few of those climb the ladder.

http://deadline.com/2017/08/black-america-amazon-alt-history-drama-will-packer-aaron-mcgruder-envisions-post-reparations-america-1202139504/ I see Amazon is copying off HBO's paper here. Both series sound highly improbable. In Confederate slavery could not have survived the industrial revolution or the revulsion of the European trade partners the CSA would have had to rely on. The cause of Civil Rights however would have been set back decades... or longer. That would have made a more interesting premise IMO. This idea Amazon has would have caused the Civil War to be extended for years. The South would have literally fought to the last man rather than lose their homes altogether. That's not saying this won't be a good show. But the premise s seriously flawed and good things don't usually spring from that.

Don't have an overly rosy view of military folk.Why is that? I'm curious. Well the idea that just because Kelly is a former Marine isn't going to mean he'll get Trump into shape. Soldiers can be as venal or kiss ass as everyone else, especially at high ranks I would imagine. Then there's the sheep dog and sheep style nonsense but that stuff comes from useless meshback types so not much to be done there No, Kelly won't whip Trump into shape. Only Trump can do that and he does not strike me as the kind of man who oozes self control. And without a doubt all kinds can be found in military uniform. Even the bad kinds. In my own experience they seem to top out at Major and Staff Sergent in the Officer and NCO ranks respectively. One thing the military does better than any other organization I've ever been part of is reward competence and weed out incompetence. If you can rise to the General ranks then you can find your ass with either hand and are probably free of serious character flaws. But I took your comment as more of a general one rather than specifically applying to the current administration. That is why I was curious.

Don't have an overly rosy view of military folk. Why is that? I'm curious.

Wow, lot of action at the Trade Deadline today. Yu Darvish, Tony Watson, and Tony Cingrani all to the Dodgers. Sonny Gray to the Yankees on top of their other moves. The Rays, Indians, Orioles, and Mets all made moves. Lots of minor leaguers changing teams tomorrow. The Rays were beatn like a drum by the Astros last night but there was one bit of humor: http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2017/07/31/245624132/chris-archer-sends-orbit-declaration-of-unfriendliness

Feel better, both of you.

When we discuss the death of the two party system you are all thinking only in terms of the Presidency. There are 535 seats in Congress and almost 3k state wide elected offices where 3rd, 4th, even 5th parties can do a great deal of good in advancing agendas other than the one favored by the Democrats and Republicans. And it is one agenda despite all the noise they make. They both LOVE government power. And both LOVE being in control of that power. If any of the last eight elections had turned out differently, other than who is sitting on the Supreme Court, nothing would be much different. Of course everyone can be forgiven for thinking the Presidency in the end-all. The last three President's have just done whatever the f--k they pleased and Congress rolled over like a whipped puppy and let them. Congress needs to remember that they are the equal to the President. Sometimes they show signs of it, enough to give me some hope. But the D & R duopoly needs to be broken.

We need 435 more him: https://youtu.be/B2WolQJIiWg