winsor

The idea that he was born in Kenya is absurd. His mother was an 18 year-old who "married" (polygamous unions are null and void in this country) a Kenyan student, and neither of them were in any position to commute halfway around the world. Doing so in the late stages of pregnancy would be both pointless and a logistical nightmare. The "muslim" bit is more interesting. Obama still quotes the Koran easily, but that hardly makes him a follower of the Profit Muhammed (may he rot in hell). However, the fact that he has (likely disingenuously) claimed to be a muslim at one point or another, but now claims to be a christian (no doubt with an equal level of sincerity), makes him an apostate in accordance with sharia. The Koran is unequivocal regarding apostacy - the apostate is to be summarily put to death (for the record, I recommend no such thing). This is oddly reminiscent of Clinton trying to evade charges by claiming he was subject to the UCMJ, and thus exempt from civilian law. Had he done his homework, he would have found that his actions were strictly proscribed by the UCMJ, and that the likelihood of being summarily cashiered increases with rank (where a Seaman First Class would get an Article 15 at best, a Rear Admiral would be forced to retire). At any rate, the Race for the White House this year clearly demonstrates that you could turn over a rock and elect whatever crawls out. BSBD, Winsor

Or my extreme high performance custom built SuperBeetle. With HD's, minus some guys running really old iron, it is straight bullshit. Does my Shovelhead count?

Sure. California will be able to stand on its own as the 8th largest economy in the world and the rest of you guys can figure out how to replace the $.22 out of each tax federal tax dollar ($290B in 2005) collected from us and not returned as federal spending. You're kidding, right? I mean, the downside is that, if California is removed from the equation the Federal Government might have to worry about maybe running a deficit? What a scary concept.

During the '80s it typically cost $250,000/year to keep my sister on the green side of the sod. The Lupus has been in remission since the early '90s, and she had some good years. She married, had twins, and generally concluded that she was on to bigger and better things. Unfortunately, the battle with the disease took its toll. She has an aftermarket hip and two shoulders, fused wrists, and ankles and her heart and kidneys were compromised by chronic myocarditis and nephritis. A couple of years ago, after being given an antibiotic to which she had an adverse reaction, her kidneys gave out and she suffered a heart attack brought on - and masked - by all the treatments. On dialysis now, she is recovering from the third go-around of hip replacement (they do not last forever). The point to all this is that Lupus is truly bad juju, and any progress that can be made to keep others from going through what Andrea has is a good thing. The principle that what does not kill me only makes me stronger makes for a clever saying, but is way wrong in practice. BSBD, Winsor

Since you keep bringing up conservapedia as supposed evidence of what conservatives think, can we use dkos or dem underground in the same sense for liberals? How 'bout alternet ?

I do not know about Smitty being on Carson's show, but Johnny Carson jumped with Bob Sinclair.

Reminds me of the run on Cypreses after Tom Piras went in Panama after a freefall/canopy collision. I always say, Tommy may not have been wearing a helmet, but at least his free Airtec sponsored Cypres was turned off. While waiting for the load, he demonstrated turning it on, then said "it's only a four way" and turned it off. Looking around at the experience level of the others in the group on the way to altitude, he said "maybe I should have left it on."

Me too. Impressive unit.

your belief system states there is only one god - so by definition it has to be the same There are exactly as many gods as leprechauns.

Blonde chicks, tits, and legal pot. Seriously, you would argue with that? Now who's being delusional? Atheist countries look more like Albania... Try again - they're Muslim.

The short course is: The Christians and the Muslims have a lot more in common (Google: Similarities between Christianity, Judaism and Islam and look at any of the comparison charts), than either have with the jews. Universal Religions, such as Christianity, Islam, Mormon and Scientology are systems of belief/allegiance. If you do not believe, you are not a member of the club. For a variety of historical reasons, the Tanakh (Hebrew Scritures) is listed as a prequel of Christianity, Islam and Mormon. Arabs even claim to be bastard cousins of the Children of Israel. Judaism is a big - if dysfunctional - family, with a set of Bronze Age family traditions, and laws attributed to a dedicated deity. If you do not believe, you are still a member of the family. BSBD, Winsor

Personally I think that's an easy cop out. The ratio of violent nut jobs and extremists varies wildly between the different religions. Let's not forget the grandaddy of all mass killer groups ....the atheists. From the 20th c. Soviets to the commie Chinese, Cambodia and Pol Pot, North Korea. Can't leave out the the banana republic murderers like Che, Castro, and Chavez. Plenty of African despots could be included. Even Saddam and his spent WMDs might fit into this group. I include the African murderers and Hussein because I don't think their motivations were necessarily religious. Communism is but a religion of the most toxic variety.

With God all things are possible. But not bloody likely.

That's the conclusion I've come to and it saddens me. Basically, we as mankind have divided into three groups (which I believe to be language-based differences) that are fighting and killing each other in the name of the same God. And, finally, can we enlighten/educate to make it stop? I agree, we are like three small children fighting over which one our father loves the most. "Having a war about religion is like having a fight over who's got the best imaginary friend." Yasir Arafat

Well yeah look at how amazing I am! I mean look at me! DEAD SEXY! Well dressed! Well spoken! And I look you in the eyes when we talk just so you can admire how great I look! I mean really! (the above is sarcasm) But no what gets me about most engineers is their inability to accept risk taking and their desire to be perfectly safe. I've worked with god knows how many engineers in my life and they all have the same defect....they love power point! I'm more of a "Build the darn thing and let's see what happens!" kind of guy! You know cock and balls! Regardless of your self-evaluation, you are stuck in the D list. Not terribly impressive. BSBD, Winsor

If you think the two are even slightly interchangeable, you do not know the difference. Trust me, there is one. Again, you do not seem to run with the best and the brightest. I would be careful about complaining, since what you describe is more a reflection of you than you seem to realize. All Engineers are not created equal. BSBD, Winsor

Ron White did a bit about a drunk woman who yelled out that all the marines at a base were lousy in bed. His comment was that, after having bedded almost all of them, she might have wondered "maybe it's me?" The engineers with whom I work and have worked are rather well-rounded people as a rule. They are, of course, all Mensa caliber, and the average education is a Master's. A large number play one or more musical instruments quite well, most speak multiple languages (in addition to being fluent in C#, Lisp and whatnot), most are very well read, and the majority are actively athletic. The fact that the engineers with whom you routinely find yourself are those you find unimpressive is like someone on a short bus complaining about being surrounded by the dim witted. I would suggest that you consider how such objections are viewed by people who work amongst the truly gifted. BSBD, Winsor

You realize, of course, that this is precisely what happened. Fearing that the piecemeal picture assembled by various news organizations working within the constraints of censorship could inadvertantly cause damage, Eisenhower organized a closed gathering of all the key correspondents. He then gave a briefing on Operation Overlord in great detail, and then told all present that the lives of the parties involved were now in their hands. Very hard drinking correspondents were found to abstain until the invasion was on, and most slept badly for fear of saying something in their sleep that might get someone killed. While I agree with your point in general (if it is critical and I do not need to know about it, I do not want to hear about it), you happened to pick an instance where the approach you suggested was the one that was - successfully - taken. Ironic, eh? BSBD, Winsor

I think SOPA is a terrible idea, devoid of merit. The intention of ensuring that people get paid when someone benefits from the fruits of their labor is a valid concern. However, the usual priciple applies whereby, though the problem is real, this is anything but a solution. The law of unintended consequences is sure to rear its ugly head. BSBD, Winsor

And Noah living to the age of 950 is not as absurd? That's in "dog years."

Gingrich makes Nixon look like an honest, trustworthy, and all around decent guy by comparison. That is an impressive feat in and of itself.

Why should they? The whole world knows the Liberal Guilt over the invasion will once again require the U.S. to expend our resources without recourse. Do you liberal-bashing republicans even think before you write shit? Drunk post? Bashing is unnecessary. All the folks on either side of the aisle have to do is to accurately describe the other, and the goal is achieved.

The you would agree that Iraq should pay us back some of the money we spent? Or should we allow them to become another deadbeat nation that owes the U.S for their freedom? If, up front, someone in authority had said "please, please, please free us from our bondage - we will give you oil and gold beyond your wildest dreams if you can only help us," there might be a case for us to say that we could use some of the promised resources. For us to invade their country, overthrow their government, and drive around for years blowing things and people up (all the while bitching about how some of the people don't like it and are thus mean to us) and then expect to be rewarded for our "good deeds" is nothing short of ludicrous. If we were all that concerned about the bottom line, we would have avoided going to war in the first place. Anyone who is unaware that combat is prohibitively expensive has not done their homework. Sun Tzu made note of the benefit of using Intelligence to avoid costly conflict; the best we could do is to use Stupidity to render ourselves bankrupt. Our involvement in the Sandbox has been a national embarrassment - and an expensive one at that. I wish I could be confident that we won't do it again at the drop of a hat. BSBD, Winsor

I think this is the link.

You mean because they're an inductive load? Deductive loads are greatly superior.