winsor

There are so many things wrong with this stance that it's hard know where to begin. The logic is as impressive as "we had to destroy the village to save the village." If something is unacceptable it's unacceptable, as is defending the unacceptable.

I'd happily vote for Condi Rice as opposed to the current candidates. I'm also impressed by Tulsi Gabbard, and Kyrsten Sinema strikes me as brighter than hell. Anyone who makes race or sex a big deal one way or another is a racist or sexist, as the case may be. If you're Gloria Steinham, David Duke, Jesse Jackson or whatever it's a living, but all too often people focus on identity politics only when competence is otherwise lacking. Thomas Sowell is too old, and may have lacked the necessary cunning to be effective in his prime, but I'd vote for a younger female version of him in a heartbeat. FWIW, this post demonstrates convincingly that racism and sexism sell.

I'm sure there are better choices out there than Biden or Harris amongst the Dems. Having said that, if you turn over a rock whatever crawls out from underneath is an improvement over Trump.

I say go ahead. How many kids (or teachers) can read Hebrew anyway?

Who had an airplane 30 seconds flying time from the crowd. I'm sure you'd call for banning personal aircraft if he'd opted to hit the crowd at 200 knots loaded with avgas.

A bump stock facilitates rapid repeated pulling of the trigger if that is the goal, but it still requires one pull of the trigger per shot. It has all the disadvantages of full auto - poor controllability, wasted ammo and so forth - but does not meet the very specific criteria set forth in the NFA. For most shooters it's a novelty that isn't worth the trouble, and few ranges allows their use. The bulk of the sales were mainly to spite hoplophobes.

Women maybe, sanity for sure.

Electric Boat builds craft that are SUPPOSED to sink. They are poorly suited to operation on the surface, where they are slower and less stable.

Every once in a while they get it right, despite their best efforts. Too many people on both sides fail to differentiate between zygote rejection and 'partial birth abortion.'

Oh, I dunno, I started wearing an N-95 in public when the first cases were reported in the US. I downloaded every technical article I could find, including those from NIH, CDC and WHO sources. Some were more valid than others, but the picture that emerged undercut the orthodoxy at the time. As 'Essential Personnel' in the manufacturer of one of the few therapies granted Emergency Use Authorization, I developed a passing familiarity with what the variants of COVID-19 were and were not. My take is, of course, heretical when measured against the Fauci narrative, but I go with the odds. In any event, having spent a career working with very lethal materials of one description or another, I'm not given to pretending things are not dangerous. I find the advice on the cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is sound - "Don't Panic." BSBD, Winsor

Both candidates are truly awful people, and it speaks badly of us that only the scum rises to the top.

Fond memories of time spent in the back of the Vista Cruiser... Yeah, you'd have a pretty good handle on my motivations. Having said that, as a teenager I was a Boy Scout and took the Scout Law seriously. Still do. I'm largely fine with people who disagree with me but are sincere. I have no time for the dishonest, whether or not they appear to be on my side of an issue.

I dunno, Krysten Sinema and Tulsi Gabbard have dabbled with Democratic affiliation, and I find their political skill sets entertaining. Muslims adhere to an ideology that very specifically mandates that I be killed on the spot. I know I'm being unfair by taking exception to that, but I'm kinda thin skinned about people who feel they're doing me a favor by failing to decapitate me. During the Clinton administration I spent a lot of time around Beltway types as well as people who campaigned with the Clintons. The picture painted by both their gushing supporters and mild detractors was largely consistent, and I have yet to see any indication that she is not sleazy. What little I know about Fox is pretty much second hand. You likely know more than do I.

"Did you get the Radio Announcer job?" "N- n- n- no, they di- di- di- didn't hire me 'cause I'm Je- Je- Je- Jewish." Hillary Clinton is beneath contempt, and being female has nothing to do with it. When she 'stood by her man' in an interview in which he responded to questions regarding infidelity with references to 'rough patches' in any marriage, it told me everything I needed to know about her, that she was every bit as loathsome as him. She has since done everything to support that assessment. Trump blurts out whatever crosses his mind, without consideration for what might or might not be the 'facts.' Since truth is but an abstract concept to him, calling him a liar is giving him too much credit. HRC, OTOH, would appear to know the difference when she puts forth an endless stream of self-serving falsehoods. When I vote, I don't take race or sex into account - unless the candidate makes it an issue. If someone says 'vote for me because I'm a straight white male' or 'vote for me because I'm black and bisexual,' they've just lost my vote either way. If they say 'vote for me because I'm the most dedicated and competent candidate, and I have coherent plans to address the key issues about which you are concerned,' I couldn't care less what are their demographic particulars. It concerns me that your priority appears to be more who a candidate is than what are their agenda. Your right, I suppose.

Plenty more where they came from.

If The Donald had a debilitating stroke, or some other medical condition that rendered him unable to run and caused him to STFU as well, pretty much any of the also-rans would be an improvement on either candidate. Having Harris as POTUS is damned near as bad as H. R. Clinton. Krusty the Clown would be an improvement on either. We need someone who understands Economics, Arithmetic (they're not the same), History, and truly understands the work of Niccolo Machiavelli and Sun Tzu. I suspect having a Theater Arts Minor might help. Any way you cut it, we're doomed. BSBD, Winsor

The rise of the NSDAP was due to very real threats to the fabric of society in the '20s and early '30s. Over 600,000 Germans had died due to starvation and starvation related illnesses in the early '20s, and going through that results in a real reset of one's outlook. The Communists/Socialists had earned a level of hatred from those who were not Communist/Socialist that eclipsed the loathing of the brutes from Bavaria, the attitude being that, much as the Brown Shirts suck, they take no prisoners when it comes to commies. A classic case of, the enemy of my enemy may not be my friend - but close enough for Government work. Today anyone who qualifies as a moderate is excoriated by both the right and left. Pointing out that one candidate or another is FUBAR is taken as support of the equally flawed opposition, so it's very much a matter of 'pick your poison.' Each side is seen as accepting the excesses of their particular fringe, and is thus discredited by the other side. It all comes down to who is (ever so slightly) more odious, and one then holds their nose and votes against them (if at all). With the dreadful people from Bavaria running the show, there were unacceptable excesses but companies could stay in business. Being able to eat outweighed not having your neighbors being relocated 'East' for vague purposes (nothing bad will happen to them, we're civilized people...). Here we are being overrun by a real dog's breakfast of the overpopulation of several failed societies, and the slag in the 'melting pot' is viewed as a real problem. Voters then may think that, yeah, he may be batshit crazy but the dumb sonofabitch will put a screeching halt to the torrent of illegal immigration. I agree that this is all too similar to how the Chancellor was elected. 'Der Fuehrer' was a role that he made up later, and was thus immune from constitutional constraints. Our former president is not given to any strong philosophical bent - 'The Art of the Deal' and 'Mein Kampf' are dissimilar - so discerning quite what he will pull if reelected is tough. However, the status quo is so unappealing to enough voters that, even knowing what a ghastly person he is, the 'silent majority' may well say fuck it and vote for him. It worked for the Chancellor. BSBD, Winsor

According to the Onion T shirt, "Stereotypes are a great time saver."

I grudgingly use iPads for navigation. Despite their peculiarities, they host the best Electronic Flight Bag software so I went with the platform. As far as being screwed by security goes, it's a feature, not a bug.

I recall NAMBLA being denied a presence in a gay parade of some description. I suppose it is a case of perversion consisting of what you won't do (a feather vs.the whole chicken...).

Mine was an MG Magnette, Morris Garage's Saloon offering. It succumbed to Chicago winters, the undercarriage dissolved by salt.

"No case, abuse the plaintiff."

Mindless attack without merit. Keep up the good work! If you're paying attention, you will note that I don't indicate approval of all things Jewish. FWIW, there are practices amongst the Haredim that I'm not okay with and so forth. Also, saying that the Tanakh mandates stoning of non-hetero types does little to support ideologies that stone them or pitch them off high places right now. In any event, reflexive hostility noted. BSBD, Winsor

Where I find fault with your logic is in the oversimplification of the issues, that one either accepts orthodoxy of one sort or another or is in the "anti" camp. There is often a third 'C) Other' option, which takes into account a different perspective. "Climate Change" is a prime example, where one might take it to be a given, yet seem the presentation of Al Gore, 'The Day After Tomorrow' and so forth to be comic book pseudo science (Superman going faster than light to turn back time and what have you). In Systems Analysis a Single Input Single Output model is the Holy Grail, where the transform results in an Identity Matrix (ones along the diagonal and zeroes elsewhere, resulting in a SISO relationship). In medicine this amounts to a treatment with zero side effects or interactions. In practice one is delighted to get Jordan form, which includes the odd derivative. In medicine this is more like the disease being generally worse than the cure. The reality is that you often have more equations than you have unknowns, and some factors are thus treated as constants. If this approach works, great. When it doesn't, it's anyone's guess what's at play. This is where systems of belief come into play. Having the temerity to ask for the data becomes heretical; one does not have to claim you're wrong to note that the model and data are indeterminate. Correlation does not imply causation and all that. To suggest that someone who questions the popular analysis thereby disputes the raw data is disingenuous. BSBD, Winsor

I'm pretty sure it was Lenin who referred to knee jerk adherents of ideology as "useful idiots.". He may have been evil but he wasn't stupid.