peacefuljeffrey

Quote"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix." - Virginia court decision, 1959 Oh my fucking god, did they REALLY use that in a COURT DECISION as LOGIC, to prove that interracial marriage was wrong? They "simplified" it all to "each race was on a separate continent on some sort of 1-to-1 basis," and that proves thatgod wanted each race to stick with itself?! Is it the position of the asshole shithead schmucks who wrote that decision that "BOATS" are "interference," and that were it not for BOATS that went across seas to other continents, all would have been hunky-dory? Oh, and what of the notion that the border between Europe and Asia exists only as a line on a fucking atlas?!! That's juris prudence!? No wonder our world is so fucked. (By the way, why would a god that loves us let us make our world so absolutely fucked?) - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

You’re misquoting the Bible verse above. Leviticus is an Old Testament text and Jesus wasn’t born yet. Oh, yes, another inconsistency problem! God gave us the Old Testament, let us live as human civilization for a while (how long was it, anyway?) until he FINALLY got around to giving us this son of his whose death would redeem us all. It seems a little irresponsible of god to leave us hanging after the first volume, because I have to presume that those who lived before the New Testament got fucked out of going to heaven, since the key to that came later in the form of Jesus. HOW IS THIS STUFF EXPLAINED AWAY?! - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I don’t really know all of the reasons why the others that you mention were not included. I believe some of them were written well over 200 years after the fact, however. Maybe that was one of the reasons relating to their reliability. The Gospels which were included were all written within a relatively short period of time of the death of Christ. Prior to that, much was transferred by word of mouth which was the custom. Anyway, I see the preponderance of the evidence leaning towards the reliability of the text. The ones that “didn’t make the cut”, however, do not take away from the truth in the ones that did. "Transferred by word of mouth which was the custom." In other words, about as reliable as a game of "Telephone." Dude, you can't even get a string of twenty people to accurately reproduce the sentence, "Go to the store holding the goldfish and tell the clerk you wanted a catfish," accurately down the line, but you want us to base an entire system of living on "word of mouth"?! That's far beyond what I will agree to. And as far as "the ones left out" not having a bearing on the truth of the rest, that could be as troublesome as this: "We stormed the building, rescued the hostages, and arrested the terrorists whom we then took out in back of the building and summarily executed without trial and now everything is fine." Would you say that what is omitted may be significant to the credibility of what is left out? - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

HAHA! Actually, that is a great idea. That's what I should do this summer when the Catholic church by my house has it's annual fair to raise money for the church (and for the priest who drives a Porsche and lives in a country club....yet preaches to others to lead simple lives) Don't you know, he's just throwing himself on a grenade! He's living an opulent life, sacrificing himself and his soul, in order to provide an example to many people of how not to be! He is the one soul that must perish in order that the rest may flourish! He's being selfless, hon. You should honor and respect his sacrifice! Bleargh! - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

To me, this is like if I were to say, "IMO, if PhillyKev tells me that the cube root of 125,433,786 is 4,429, I'm gonna go with that and put all my faith in his answer." First of all, how is it a matter of faith? In the end, either god really IS god, and Jesus really IS the son of god, and god really DID do all that the bible says and he created the universe, etc., OR NOT. But it doesn't come down to OPINION any more than the cube root of 125,433,786 does. Faith, maybe -- but to me, faith is like expecting me to believe that my brother has moved the Eiffel Tower into his back yard without having the slightest bit of proof. Why would I believe something soooo incredible with absolutely no reason at all? How can one use the "word of god" to justify faith in god when that very god is the thing you're wondering whether you should believe in?! That's circular logic, and as such it fails to be valid. You say, "God tells us to have faith and believe in him." I say, "Oh, so you have to already believe in god in order to believe the scripture that tells you to believe in god. How reasonable." Ptthhhhht! Nope -- not for me! - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I do hate money. More accurately, I guess I hate the abstract idea of wealth, and what goes on in the world because of money, and wealth. People desire it so much that they will be EVIL to one another over it, just to have more of it. They will lie, cheat, steal and kill just to have money to spend on their own pleasure. I hate the idea that money is even necessary for human civilization to sustain itself, but this seems to be the case. As a result, we have to dedicate such a huge percentage of our time alive just to accumulate the financial means to keep ourselves alive! Imagine a world in which money was not a factor, and you could spend all your time doing the things that make living enjoyable and pleasant! You could picnic in the mountains all week long, go skydiving on the weekend, sail around the world. If you do these things now, you have to have a mind for "when do I have to be back to work?" And why? Because you need that money! Money sucks. It's at best a necessary EVIL. I spend it like I might not have a tomorrow in which to do so -- because I might not. Live well while you live. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Three beers would be enough to get me drunk. I start feeling a buzz (on an empty stomach) when I'm halfway through a pint of Guinness! I'm a cheap date! - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Gee, that's a laugh riot for me. See, in 1986, the fucking piece of shit drunk who hit my brother while driving the wrong way down a divided highway was a Canadian. My brother was spared serious injury, not for lack of the Canuck's trying. He walked, by the way. The fucker was not charged. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

... to have rocks in your head. A woman I work with has an American daughter with a Canadian boyfriend. They were caravaning up to Canada (each in a vehicle) and while HE was allowed to pass into Canada, SHE was detained and forced to provide some sort of proof of economic stability or some shit (although she's always been allowed to FLY in no problem) and in the end, they confiscated some documents and shredded them, and refused her entry into Canada. On the whole, the impression I got from her mother is that Canadian customs treated her like fuckin' shit. She had to stay in a hotel, at her own expense, and the boyfriend had to FLY down to NY and meet her with documents she needed, and accompany her back to Canada on a commercial flight. All told they have incurred hundreds if not thousands of dollars in extra expenses, and are planning to hire an immigration lawyer to seek compensation for the needless hassle from the Canadian government. To think, the only cow ever found in the U.S. with Mad Cow disease came from Canada, which is also known to have harbored terrorist agents and made it easy for them to get into th country (according to what was reported shortly after 9/11/01). And the Canadian people, who hate their value-added-tax, sneak over and buy clothes from OUR stores. Do we give them shit about coming HERE? Nope. (My dad heard a report that outside malls near the border, lots of old discarded crappy clothes are found. The Canadians come here in rags, buy new spiffy clothes, and go back to their home country wearing the new clothes and don't declare them for customs duties. Cute, huh?) Don't go to Canada. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I vote for whatever the DMV gives you. I don't care much for personalized "vanity" plates, personally. I don't see that as
?fekfPBe place to express one's individuality, particularly when spellings have to be massacred to make the sentiment fit into 7 or 8 digits. I hope you have fun and safe travels with your car, though.

The average what whale? Surely a killer whale doesn't have that kind of capacity, nor other "small" whale species. Try to picture 8 or so 55-gallon drums, and that's just what's in the whale's ampula??! - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Horseshoe crabs' blood is blue, also. I saw it being drained for medical research on a t.v. show. It is copper-based too, I believe they said. If squids' blood is copper-based, how are their beaks "tinny"? (You must mean "tiny"!) - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Society hasn't turned to shit quite badly enough for me to do it, but I answered that I will do it, because I would truly love living an independent, peaceful life. One complicating factor is requiring corrective lenses to see clearly. (I didn't need them until I was 27.) As you get older, your prescription changes, and if you're just a hermit living out on your own, how do you get new contact lenses or glasses? Reality always intrudes on even the best fantasies. And that's to say nothing of those who have medical requirements for pharmaceuticals, etc. Fortunately I don't have that problem as yet in my life. (But I've learned to never say never, as I never thought I'd see my vision change to where I needed glasses, either.) - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

No, physics is too much fun. You could always experiment with how much force it takes to catapult a politician the length of three football fields... - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Yes, so have I, and it pisses me off to no end. I used to travel with a Spyderco Delica in my back pocket, but can't anymore. Now it "makes me look like a terrorist." But are you saying that's BUSH'S fault, and that it wouldn't have happened if GORE had been president during the 9/11 attacks?! That's insane. Well before 9/11, all of your telephone conversations were analyzed by the feds. Who are you kidding? These are real losses of freedom, and they affect me too, as a pilot. But what are you saying, that it's the fault of the Bush administration in particular? Do you really believe that a Democratic administration would not have done the exact same things?! - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I wonder if he spliced together unrelated scenes and quotes and speeches in this film, too (I sure as hell will not call any of his work "documentary") in order to deceive people's perceptions of how factual events played out. This technique of propaganda and mendacity is endemic in his other films, notably "Bowling for Columbine." - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I'm not very old, and still I've seen a great many confident people make mistakes they would probably have said they expected never to make. And still, I am confident enough when I say that there are certain things I do with enough of an element of care that I WILL NOT make a dangerous mistake with them. All it takes is discipline. It is the breakdown of procedural discipline that allows us to make mistakes in methodical procedures we do over and over again, thinking we'll always do them right. I think it is bordering on a personal ad hominem attack to say, "Oh, I'm sure you three believe that you don't make mistakes." That's an accusation that we believe we're infallible human beings in general, and are arrogant and pious. We're not, and this discussion should be limited to the topic at hand. I'd appreciate it if you did not cause it to degenerate. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Kallend hijacked it. I objected when he first started throwing out his Bush-bashing, to no avail. And you went right along. Gotcha! Oh, yeah, it was all just your ruse to catch Johnrich. Clever of you to use yourself as a decoy to make him be the one who was having an off-thread discussion. You ever think of going into politics? - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Technically not true. Dogs, cats, horses, etc. actually do have knees, it's just that we look at their legs and don't think of the parts that are knees as knees. The "backward knee" on the rear legs is actually the ankle, and that whole long part leading down to the paw pads is the foot. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Hey, guys, isn't this the "School Zero Weapon Tolerance" thread? Isn't there a separate "Kerry's Colleagues Think He's Unfit..." thread? Wha' happened?? - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Then he should have stopped what he was doing and bought a revolver. If she can't pull the slide, then she can't clear a jam, thus she's in a world of hurt. If she had a revolver, then all she has to do is keep pulling the trigger. I'm a BIG advocate of SAs for self defense, but there's a time when a revolver should be used. That is one of them. Careful. "SA" could be taken to mean "single actions," not "semi-autos," and usually is. (Think SA, DA, DAO...) I agree that he should give her a revolver instead of sticking her with a semi-auto she can't adequately operate. And if she's too weak to operate the slide, chances are she's also too weak to avoid "limp-wristing" the gun on firing, and that really will result in a malfunction she has to clear (probably a stovepipe). Then, as you said, she's screwed. If I were the guy, I'd send that gun back to the manufacturer and have them either make it so that the safety cannot be "worked off," or I would tell them that I expect compensation for the purchase price, either voluntarily or through force of law. A gun that can do that should not be offered for sale, period. That's what design engineers are for. I suspect that it is possible that the actual working of the trigger over and over against the safety is not what disengaged it. I suspect that during the repeated pulling of the trigger, the operator's hand nudged the safety once, twice, etc., until it worked itself into the fire position. That's just my guess. After all, when you hear hoofbeats, before you think zebras, you should think horses. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Yup. About 15 years ago a colleague of mine who is an expert on fracture analyzed some rifle barrels that had been manufactured incorrectly and had a tendency to split, causing injury to the operators. Psst. Hey kallend... You're now answering your own questions... Where were the questions? All I see is a tentative statement, followed by a confirmation. All that aside, Kallend, you said "Yup," as if to confirm your initial statement, but then you went on to say "injured" but not "killed," so how does that qualify for a "YUP" to the initial statement? Maybe you're thinking about Glocks. It has been advised that shooters not use unjacketed lead bullets in them, because buildup of lead can occur, eventually increasing pressure in the barrel and chamber, and since the chambers of Glocks are not "fully supported," they can erupt in that direction. Glocks are still extremely safe pistols, but you gotta know their limitations, like anything else. Do an internet search for "kaboom" and you'll find comments on Glocks and what can cause this to occur. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

It's a pleasure to learn that you are so wonderful. However, I suspect that human nature being what it is, most other humans can't do anything 100,000 times without making at least one mistake. Sure they can. All it takes is that you care about what you're doing, and do it patiently and attentively. Ask Kennedy or AggieDave if they feel that they could handle a gun 100,000 times and manage to not shoot themselves or something else by accident, and I'm pretty sure they'll say yes. See, when they put a gun in their hands, their minds say, "Well, better do this the right way," and so they do. It's no miracle, no secret, no arcane magic. It's just training and responsible action. And thanks for recognizing how wonderful I am. You don't know the half of it! -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Seems plenty of us here were raised with a knowledge of guns. My history is kinda weird in that respect. I was raised in a household that had exactly one firearm: my older brother's .22 bolt-action rifle. My dad had had a .410 shotgun when he was a kid, he tells me, but in his adult life he has never owned his own firearm. However, I remember him taking me to an outdoor shooting range on Long Island when I was in elementary school, and I had a great time firing at paper targets for a few hours. I even brought those targets to school to show off to my friends. My brother had the interest in guns and knives in my family. I got my interest from him (he was a big role model for me) and I took it and ran with it. I now own more guns and more knives than he ever has, and I spend more time on the issue, reading, learning and discussing. So I wouldn't say I was "brought up around guns" in the traditional sense that so many were, where guns, hunting and shooting were a family thing. My family neither eschewed nor embraced guns. But my (late) mom, my dad, my sister, my brother, and I all have no problem with guns, and support gun ownership. (I ended up being militantly pro-gun, as opposed to the more-moderate rest of my family.) I was taught to use guns safely by my brother, who gave me my first BB gun for either my 8th or 9th birthday. It was a spring-powered Marksman pistol, the one that looks like a .45 (1911) and I'm happy to say that I still have it! The thing is more than 20 years old! My brother had had an interest in small game hunting when he was 16 or so. I remember that he got a small game hunting license one year, and also joined the NRA. When I bought my first firearm in 1993 I also joined the NRA, and I used the easy-pay life member plan to become a Life Member by paying in installments. I'm proud to belong to an organization that sponsors gun safety training when so many anti-gun groups go around calling themselves "gun safety organizations." They're full of shit, and the only people speaking the truth about guns these days are the NRA, GOA, SAF, JPFO, etc. - - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

If you're referring to fully automatic weapons, you can get permits to own them. If you need a government permit to exercise a right, is it in fact a right? After all, I don't need a government permit to say "Nixon was a crook, Clinton is a scoundrel, Kerry is a creep and Bush is a liar". If you and your buddies wish to stand on a corner in the town square, or in New York City or somewhere, you sure as hell will need a permit to exercise those two precious first-amendment rights of speech and association. You've never heard of groups having to secure a permit for a particular public place and time in order to hold a demonstration?? - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"