JDBoston

A prime example of the rampant failure of natural selection to operate in the modern world. I think humans are actually evolving backwards as a species because of people like this. Well, that's probably for a whole 'nother thread.... Joe

Damn, I was gonna post that one too. That's a funny funny site. The funniest thing, though, is that some of the dumbasses out there surfing the Web don't realize it's a spoof, and send the site all this heartfelt hate-mail. Joe

4 years doesn't mean much unless you're 12 and she's 16. Even then, well, stranger things have happened... Go for it! Joe

Those are the exact same 2 exceptions I would make. The first one is a lot worse in my opinion. Color has never been an issue for me. Joe

But beautiful all the same. Joe

Damn. That's the most horrible thing I've ever seen. I'll leave it at that. Joe

This is starting to remind me of that scene in Animal House when they're all smoking weed with Donald Sutherland. "This means that our whole universe could just be one tiny speck on the finger of a giant, and each tiny speck on MY finger could be.... a whole universe! Wow!" Well, it's a fun debate, anyway. Just remember that your mind is like a parachute - opening it will only slow you down. Joe

Who even said there had to be a beginning? Just because our frail human minds can't handle the concept of infinity... Joe

Please name a few of these historians and archaeologists who rely on the Bible as a factual history. It certainly contains SOME facts, but that does not make it completely literal and factual. Joe

I'm willing to accept that the argument you're making CAN be made logically on a philosophical plane, although I am also convinced that it would be unwise to actually implement it in the real world. Communism works in theory too. Then you implement it and everything goes to shit. But trying to infer that the writers of the Bible understood the first and second laws of thermodynamics (which are pretty broad and intuitive, by the way), based on a few lines in Genesis, is more than a stretch. It reads like the conspiracy-theory stuff people put on the Web, where coincidence becomes causation wherever possible. Nothing personal, that's just my opinion. Joe

Ahhhhhh, Godel's Incompleteness Theorem rears its ugly head... The Bible is not, and never will be, a scientific textbook. Neither is the Koran, or any other such document. They are allegorical guides to personal morality. Scientific theories are theories that can be proven wrong. Everything else is, well, not science. In the Bible, people live for hundreds of years. Actual people live for 120 years or so at most. Sharia (Islamic religious law) says that pregancies last seven years. Actual human pregnancies last 9 months. There are plenty more examples like that. The day we start confusing religion with science, we're getting on the express train back to the Dark Ages. Relativism is a fun thing to think about and a very dangerous thing to practice. Maybe next time I jump I'll try to convince myself that the ground is soft, so I won't have to pull. Joe

Yes, but they still had parents, adoptive or birth, who wanted them. When I say unwanted I mean: Mom doesn't want the kid, and hasn't found anyone who does by the time the kid is born. Joe

Dave, not to sound combative about this stuff, I realize my post might have come off that way a bit. Your heart is clearly in the right place, but like Phree says too, there are a lot of kids out there already that need parents. If a woman (like Lisa) decides while she's pregnant that she wants someone else to adopt the kid, and takes steps to make it happen, well, either way it turns out, someone's gonna be taking care of the kid from day one, and that's all the kid needs. Unfortunately, it isn't usually like that and the mothers aren't usually that responsible. Usually the woman keeps the kid that she doesn't want or can't care for, and at some point social services comes in and takes the kid and puts it in foster care, when Mom beats the kid or gets arrested for drugs or something. Anyway, if you know a bit about what goes on even in a lot of foster homes, you wouldn't wish that path on anyone, trust me. There are some angels out there, but there are also people who like the $500 a month subsidy they get for taking in foster kids. Joe

Maybe. After a few months, or years, or whatever, after the child's intellectual and emotional growth have already been severely stunted by not having a consistent parent or parents around. Call me a cynic maybe. There is actually a VAST oversupply of kids needing families. People are usually on the waiting list because they're so picky about the kind of kid they want, like a cute little newborn baby from Russia or India or something, and they perceive older kids (often correctly) as "damaged goods." There are a ton of kids of all ages in the system right here in the US waiting for someone to take an interest in them. Most of them were taken away from their parents at a young age, as opposed to being put up for adoption when they were born. Only 30% of kids waiting for adoption were

That's a very important point. I think life technically begins at conception, yet I'm 100% pro-choice, because I think bringing an unwanted child into the world is horrendously irresponsible. There are way too many unwanted kids around as it is, and unwanted kids that have very difficult childhoods often end up creating lots of problems in society as adults. Does that make me worse than other pro-choice people, because I think it's killing and I still support it? Or better, because I'm more honest with myself and I don't have to do any mental gymnastics to justify it? Who knows. And frankly, I don't know enough about human development to know when brain waves begin, when physical pain can be felt, etc. Those things might influence my beliefs on when "life" begins. I feel much the same way about the death penalty, in theory at least. Sure, it's killing, but there are a lot of people who need to be killed. To me, it's mostly about saving taxpayer money (not having to pay for 60-year prison stays) and about making sure certain people never ever walk the streets again, not about deterrence or any bullshit like that. But the problem there is that it's still improperly & disproportionately applied in a lot of cases.... like to black people guilty of crimes against whites. Death is all over the place. I think that as humans, we're inclined to be really squeamish about it, like little kids who won't step on ants. But sometimes it can be a good thing for most everyone concerned (except, of course, the one who dies...). C'mon, if you really believe in Heaven, the sooner people get there the better, right??? Anyway. Done being provocative for now. Joe

Personally, I think the joke's on the American people for believing this. I admit Bush has handled the events of the last 6 months fairly well, but most of what he's done on the domestic policy front is gush out platitudes about saving children and education and the environment etc., and then turn around and kill or stall policy initiatives that really DO those things, in favor of policy initiatives that big companies have spent $ lobbying for. I think he's one of the most shameless liars we've got. Joe

Apart from the skydiving part of this thread, I think we're talking generalities, and it's kind of hard to have an intelligent argument about generalities. Business practices (expected and actual) vary depending on what industry you're in. Some people here seem to be talking about consumer-focused businesses, some about businesses that sell to other businesses. Some appear to have business experience, some not. How much should a business charge for their product or service? Should they charge just enough to pay everyone's salary? What's a fair salary? Is it "ethical" to convince the customer to pay extra for stuff that didn't cost you extra to make? Also bear in mind that more profitable companies are generally more CAPABLE than less profitable companies of providing reliable, long-lasting customer support. It's a little more complicated than "businesses that only care about profit vs. businesses that only care about customers." So ChromeBoy, what specific kind of business are you in? Joe

I'm sure the gators say the same thing about us. Joe

I may be over-analyzing it, but "for the biker in all of us," IMHO, means that it's not really for bikers. Think of the other places you hear that expression ("for the [x] in all of us") used. I agree that it's pretty odd marketing. Joe

Let's hear it for Black Sambuca! That's some good shit. I like it on the rocks. As far as tequila goes, when I was bartending I would usually wash my hands after I poured tequila. Didn't want to scratch my nose and get a sniff of it by accident. Joe

I've had lots of bush. But I think you mean Busch. Anyway, I prefer Guinness myself. To Busch, that is. Sam Smith is also good, there are a few varieties of that. The new Sam Adams Lite is actually pretty damn good too, not that I ever really drink Lite beer though. Nope. Joe

Not thinking at all about the past or the future, just being at peace for a few minutes where I am, usually outdoors somewhere. Joe

I used to prefer bug spray myself. I figure my kids'll do it too, I'll just make sure to tell them to always let up on the spray before the flame gets all the way back to the nozzle. Then there was the time we put a shotgun shell on a railroad tie and lay down about 20 feet away trying to shoot the firing pin with a BB gun. Luckily our ambition outstripped our accuracy. Joe

I have coffee in my Bailey's sometimes. Joe

Toblerone Cadbury Eggs Home-made fudge Cadbury Eggs Rollo's Cadbury eggs Marzipan - oh wait, that's not chocolate... Joe