winsor

Bon jour, eh?

Anyone who remembers the '60s wasn't really there.

An "undocumented system feature" is a bug by any other name. Some people are devoid of the capacity for make-believe. Historically, they are put to death as heretics.

Interesting article, whether or not you agree with its conclusions.

It wasn't a grab and dash, and some locals had time to be ready when he tried to get away. The perp was dispatched by service 7.5mm rifles, not concealed carry sidearms. Since it was in 1992, it may be inaccessible via the interwebz. At the very least, it got a lot of attention in the Kanton at the time.

Irony, Winsor. Irony. As ever, bested by your rapier wit.

Can you name two or three of these peaceful enclaves? Sure can. I assure you that none inculded such feral populations as are found in Compton, Harlem, the 'interesting' neighborhoods of Chicago, Afghanistan or Iraq. And yes, there were spots of violence, such as when a foreigner made the mistake of robbing a bank in Zürich - after the citizenry apprehended the culprit, it was difficult to tell exactly what killed him, since all the multiple hits were fatal (no misses).

Hey, we made sure that all the people who were responsible for those crimes against humanity are not just in jail, they're dead. Justice, eh? In any event, I don't see the people who bitch about being wrested from their ancestral homelands doing much about returning (Israel being an exception). If anything, there is a movement among the sub-Saharan types to adhere to the ism that sold them into slavery in the first place. Your self-righteous snark is thus noted and shelved.

People will always have silly thoughts. Like when those founding fathers figured that allowing everybody to walk around with guns would make for a peaceful society A) They made no such claim. B) Among the most peaceful places I have lived have been those where people were routinely and heavily armed.

Neither is: one terrorist all Muslims one thug all guys wearing hoodies (or all poor black guy living in a poor neighborhood) one immigrant criminal all immigrants one Trump protester all Trump protesters The expression "those people" usually precedes a statement about any group that based on prejudice, and not consideration of them as people. Wendy P. Notice the twist you have made in the conversation? But for your first one All Muslims are not terrorists but lately All the terrorists have been Muslims I hate absolutes - I'll give you the VAST majority, but not all. As you know, all generalizations are complete bullshit.

In times of plenty, it is easy to be benevolent. When pickings are slim, it comes down to 'us' vs. 'them.' Nothing personal. It's always easy to be benevolent. Even when pickings are slim. It's culture that has taught you to believe that it CAN or must be "us" vs "them". Instincts can be out thought. That is what logic and reason is for. I reiterate Taylor Caldwell's assertion that 5% of the population think, 5% think they think and 90% would sooner die than think. You give people too much credit.

That's the job I want!! Off with their heads.

If you remove a majority of anything that causes anything you will be left with less of this anything. Am i understanding this right? So basicly, lets just think like this about all problems and statistics and it will all be fine. Good. If we dont count all the extremists doing wierd shit, no wierd shit is happening, end of discussion. Dr. Kallend lives on the notorious South Side of Chicago, but is actually in a rather tony section. Where he is, there is effectively zero chance that somebody is going to respond to being dissed by spraying the area with random gunfire, nor will anyone be required to cap their homey for calling their ho a bitch. The statistics are badly skewed by malevolent subcultures, and references to the dangers of 'gun violence' all too often use these anomalies without attribution. The least violent environments in which I have lived have included those where effectively everyone was heavily armed, so I am not buying the blanket observations. Rwanda had almost no 'gun violence' when hundreds of thousands were dispatched with machetes. It's the practitioner, not the implement. BSBD, Winsor

Same deal, different vintage.

You know I really get pissed off with closed minded and biggoted people. I've got two young Muslims on my team at work both with PHDs in engineering and one is from Iraq and the other Iran. They were discussing how bad the attacks were and what makes people do something so horrific. It's ironic how similar Western fundamentalists are, it's just they celebrate predator drones hitting the 'towel heads'. Perhaps a little introspection on what your God said to old George Bush when 'he' told him to bring body count and destruction to the Muslims I don't recall much American outrage over Catholics when the IRA was regularly bombing London, Birmingham, Manchester, and other cities in the UK and producing a much higher body count. In fact, the American response was mostly to send guns and money to the terrorists. The difference is that in Ireland, the issue wasn't religion per se. What church one attended was a function of WHO one was more than what they did or did not believe. I fail to see that this has any relevance to Americans sending guns and money to one terrorist group while being outraged over another. And as someone already implied, the number of Americans shot dead by other Americans since yesterday morning is almost certainly higher than the Brussels body count. My father, who grew up in Boston, said that his impression of the Irish in the U.S. had nothing to do with what he encountered in his time in either Eire or Ulster. The people who were sending guns and money to the IRA from the U.S. were those who give the Irish a bad name. By and large, most people I knew found it appalling. As far as people being shot goes, if you remove some of the lower socioeconomic portions of the population from the equation, delete suicides and justifiable homicide, the threat of being shot is on a par with being struck by lightning or winning the lottery. Don't get me wrong, the consequences are severe, but it is not something I worry about since I stay out of neighborhoods where gang disputes are an issue (and live across from a police station...).

In times of plenty, it is easy to be benevolent. When pickings are slim, it comes down to 'us' vs. 'them.' Nothing personal.

You know I really get pissed off with closed minded and biggoted people. I've got two young Muslims on my team at work both with PHDs in engineering and one is from Iraq and the other Iran. They were discussing how bad the attacks were and what makes people do something so horrific. It's ironic how similar Western fundamentalists are, it's just they celebrate predator drones hitting the 'towel heads'. Perhaps a little introspection on what your God said to old George Bush when 'he' told him to bring body count and destruction to the Muslims I don't recall much American outrage over Catholics when the IRA was regularly bombing London, Birmingham, Manchester, and other cities in the UK and producing a much higher body count. In fact, the American response was mostly to send guns and money to the terrorists. The difference is that in Ireland, the issue wasn't religion per se. What church one attended was a function of WHO one was more than what they did or did not believe. The English Lords and Masters attended Anglican church. The Scots Foremen and Overseers attended Presbyterian church. The Subjected Bog Trotters attended Catholic church. There is nothing more or less in the liturgy of one church or another that says "yea, verily, go forth and smite those that understandeth not the Truth, and cleave to the wickedness of the false way..." The Koran, OTOH, says again and again and again that one should believe without question or be summarily put to death, very specifically. For the record, I agree that the patterns of behavior in the Hebrew Scriptures are reflective of a seriously dysfunctional society, and think anyone espousing the kind of genocide that he-who-must-not-be-named ordered is one seriously sick puppy. Most Parsha readings use one Patriarch or another as Mr. Bad Example. In any event, the IRA was/is a seriously malevolent crowd. However, Daesh makes the IRA look angelic by comparison. I would be happy to never, ever have anything whatsoever to do with any of them. If I could live long and healthy and never again hear of terrorists of any stripe, that would be fine with me. BSBD, Winsor

"Have you noticed that every society that allows citizens to drive cars and freely obtain alcohol gets repaid with carnage greater than that caused by firearms?" The Shadow BTW, 'Mein Kampf' was illegal when I lived in Germany, since it was considered unprotected hate speech, and those who sought to follow its teachings were ostracized. Since 'Mein Kampf' is a study in sweetness and light compared to the Koran, it would make sense to treat it an its adherents similarly. Since the Profit Muhammad (may he rot in hell) was an unabashedly murderous perverted psychopath, the Suras are not open to much in the way of interpretation. It's like saying Jeffrey Dahmer may have killed and eaten young men, but that wasn't what he really meant when he spoke about it. Bullshit. Muhammad was a truly evil human being, a sexual predator who was vicious as the day is long, every much as Jeffrey Dahmer was a necropheliac cannibal. If anything, Jeffrey Dahmer had more to recommend him. If anyone was to form a cult that revered Jeffrey Dahmer, the only response could be "dude, you are beyond fucked up," yet somehow we are supposed to 'respect' people who follow someone who makes Jeffrey Dahmer look like a Boy Scout. Religion of peace? Read the fucking book. Most of it is about subjugating anyone who is not totally on board with whatever Muhammad said, and by the time you get to Sura 9 the tone is screw it, kill anyone who strays at all. This is, of course, not the slightest bit metaphorical. The old story comes to mind of the person who nursed a snake back from near-death, only to be surprised to be bitten by it. "Hey, you knew I was a snake, didn't you?" I have known Socialists/Communists who had not read The Communist Manifesto or any of the other works of Marx, Lenin et al. (I have); they just cherry picked what they thought were the key points. Similarly, I have known devout Christians who had not read any translation of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures in their entirety (I have), but took all of it as The Truth (tm). Similarly, many Muslims do not speak or read Arabic, and know the Koran only by liturgical rote, and others have never taken the time to wade through it (it's a dreadful read). Thus, when they say "it's a religion of peace," as far as they know, it is. It turns out that the adherents who rape and slaughter are following the Muslim writings line and verse. Those who do not are those who have not picked up on the instruction to do so in no uncertain terms. Since the game plan to get the hot and cold running virgins (virgins are overrated) is to slaughter as many innocents as possible in the process, the idea that the only good Muslim is a dead one rings false. There is nothing good about the assholes who victimized Brussels, Paris or much of anyone else in the process of becoming dead. I do not recommend responding to Muslims in kind, since is is like wrestling with a pig. What I would like to see is to have Islam treated like the KKK. If a Grand Mufti and a Grand Dragon got equal respect, it would be an improvement. If wearing a burqua and wearing a white hood were seen as equivalent, that would be a start. You can be a Klansman or a Muslim, but please keep it to yourself. BSBD, Winsor

I can think of someone in the skydiving world who has been sucker punched repeatedly, for cause, with zero sympathy. Think of the woman who was freaking out in "Airplane!"

"Christianity" was originally a movement of Judaism that predated Christian Scripture, anf was then co-opted by the Roman Empire for a variety of reasons (subject to endless debate). Much of the writings that were assembled by the First Council of Nicea to become Christian Scripture were everything you would expect of a committee with massively vested interests. The fact that the versions codified thereby were heavily redacted and suited to a European/Roman Empire audience is hardly surprising. There is much to be learned by the study of these documents - the same can be said of the Koran - but there is little to be gained by absorbing any of it as The Truth (tm). BSBD, Winsor

POM is reasonable, and you don't have to deal with all those seeds.

Roses is red Violence is purple Sugar is sweet And so's maple surple (with apologies to Roger Miller)

That is pretty damn nerdy. I love it. Not nerdy enough, this is better: CH3-CH2-O-(Leporidae) What's the square root of 69?

Note: there is no reference to 'heaven,' 'hell' or 'satan/lucifer/beelzebub' in the Torah. Some of this shows up in later writings, but the liturgy is based entirely upon the Penatateuch. Thus, 'Assembly of the Lord' refers herein to the Temple or other earthly family gatherings. Devarim/'Deuteronomy' was 'the book' until Ezra the Scribe assembled the other four 'prequels,' sometime after the Babylonian Exile. Devarim is thus the most archaic account of the Children of Israel, and records a lot of the wrinkles of the big, dysfunctional family that got ironed out later. Anyone who takes this stuff at face value really doesn't get it. BSBD, Winsor

If you're a christian, why pray to a saint when you can pray to God directly through Christ? Saints are just dead christians - they can't hear you. Praying to the dead is just another remnant of Roman paganism. Whatever helps you feel like you are a better Christian than others, I suppose. Then there is that pesky fact that holy seasons like Chrimmas and Easter Christians now celebrate come about as pagan evolutions. Pick and choose what you like. Q: What's CH3-CH2-O-(rabbit)? A: The ether bunny.