winsor

JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, PA 1999/5759

Each is entitled to thier own opinion, mine is that glorifying guns is ignorant, idiotic, pathetic and a sign of ones lack of respect! Would you rather characters like me were filtered out so you can have gun orgies with your loser mates in peace? If I could, I'd killfile your ass in a heartbeat.

Gosh, I have a solution. What do you say that Israel resolves to immediately grant every Muslim precisely the same level of rights and protection as is afforded to Jews in Muslim lands. Boy, would that straighten things out! BSBD, Winsor

While I condemn the actions of the terrorists on that fateful day, I think it's unfair to condemn the entire faith for it. I couldn't agree with you more. I condemn the entire faith for myriad other reasons. BSBD, Winsor

The Earth doesn't care at all if it warms or cools. People may find it kind of inconvenient if their 100 year floods become 5 year floods. Well, you know that and I know that, but it does not have much to do with the idea that, having achieved climactic perfection, it is incumbent upon us to maintain it ad infinitum. Having people who flunked watered down Science for Liberal Arts Types courses lecture me on Mechanisms of Global Radiation Heat Transfer and other such subjects is a bit tough to swallow. I do not dispute that humanity is a factor in the heat balance of our planet. I do have an issue with the Problem vs. Solution mechanism that is now afoot. While I do not condone the treatment Galileo received from the Vatican, it turns out that neither the Vatican nor Galileo had a valid model of the issue that brought their conflict to a head (the effect of the moon on tides, IIRC). Thus, just because one side is out to lunch does not mean the other side is any less faulty. Anytime an argument takes on religious fervor ("deniers" "heretics"), I am likely to hold both sides suspect. Blue skies, Winsor

Terrified as we may be of the environmental apocalypse that is now unfolding, there are people working feverishly on solutions. This may give us hope. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2511875/nathan_myhrvolds_anti_global_warming.html

"In the beginning God created Man. Man, being a gentleman, returned the favor." Clarence Darrow

Since it is a fact that only a heretic would dare deny that CO2 is going to turn this fair planet into just one more sterile orb, no amount of hysteria is sufficient to address the issue. I say we should put our money where our mouth is. The US of A should IMMEDIATELY ban the importation of ANY materials subject to combustion and subsequent release of CO2. Since we use something like 21 million, and produce only 4.7 million, barrels of oil a day, this should do more to reduce our carbon footprint than any recommendation I have yet heard. Hybrid cars? There won't be enough surplus petroleum to fire up a moped! I think it's a great idea, and one whose time has come. We won't even have to pass any legislation to accomplish this anyway - the moment one of our T-bill auctions fails to find enough buyers and the dollar reverts to its inherent value (zero), we will go on just such an energy diet. Sure, some of us are going to have to make some minor sacrifices, but such luxuries as having food to eat are greatly overrated. Now, if only we can get Algore to sign on, this will be a slam dunk.! Enjoy yourself - it's later than you think. BSBD, Winsor

The guy is a Mormon convert, which discredits him thoroughly as far as I am concerned. LDS and Scientology pin the meter when it comes to verifiably nonsensical claims. Blue skies, Winsor

Which one of these is false? a) CO2 is a greenhouse gas Using the term "greenhouse gas" denotes a political, rather than technical, standpoint. It may or not be "false," but it certainly is junk science. b) The concentration of atmospheric aCO2 is increasing As you surely have no idea, this is a self-correcting problem. c) Thermodynamics works The fact that you chose the discipline of Thermodynamics (better described as "ThermoStatics"), rather than Radiation Heat Transfer, shows a complete lack of understanding of the subject. The Holy Grail of Systems Theory is SISO - Single Input/Single Output. When followers of Algore present their scenario of SISO disaster, it may be dismissed out of hand. There are problems, sure, but addressing this nonsense is a waste of time. Al Gore is a moron, and anything he says is likely wrong. BSBD, Winsor

News flash: the death rate for uninsured is the same as for insured - one to a customer. Life is fatal. Get over it.

reinforce my position truth be damned Just thought I'd inject a little accuracy Oh, and to answer your user name, I think it was koolaid. If you refer to Jonestown, it was actually Flavor Aid.

You should ask the police to install a video camera in your bedroom, so that if a burglar ever breaks into your house, they can have clues to capture the miscreant. What, you don't have a video camera in your bedroom?

I, for one, benefited by the presence of CCTV when someone scarfed my ticket in Mayfair. The video was reviewed, which showed me paying for the ticket, so I was given a pass through the turnstile. The Crime was not Solved, in the sense that the culprit was not apprehended, but I was not left holding the bag, for which I am grateful. There have been more instances where I wished that I had video to demonstrate what really happened than cases where I was relieved that events were not filmed. Blue skies, Winsor

When I was a youngster, it seemed unlikely that the average Stanford-Binet score was actually 100. I could not concieve of people on the low end of the two-digit range being able to get through life. A few years in the Army disabused me of that notion. It occurred to me that, say, Labrador Retrievers do not do well on standardized tests, yet they go through life generation after generation with their own peculiar version of cognitive and correlative skills - and that their human analogue is closer to the norm than one might guess. Every time I catch myself falling prey to the illusion that progress might take place by dint of enlightenment of the masses, however slight, I am forcefully remided of the extent to which the obvious is to remain forever elusive to the bulk of humanity. Intelligence is vastly overrated. I contend that stupidity is a force with unlimited potential, and that anyone who comes across the means to harness ignorance is set for life. Witness Scientology. Taylor Caldwell put it ever so succinctly that five percent of the population think, five percent think they think and ninety percent would sooner die than think. I have the sneaking suspicion that she, like George Orwell, was an optimist. Thermite? That does not rise to the level of a good joke. Blue skies, Winsor

but i'm sure you're a strong believer that the US had to free the iraqi folks from dictatorship... Bad guess, Sparky. Frankly, I figured that Saddam Hussein was a political godsend. The idea that he was the benefactor of his political rivals to our detriment is ludicrous. When his Secret Police came across anyone on our list of bad people, they typically disappeared for being a greater threat to him than to us. Suspicion of Weapons of Mass Destruction as a Casus Belli? If that had the slightest hint of legitimacy, we would be attacking North Korea, North Dakota, South Africa, South Carolina, Israel, France, Great Britain, Russia, China, India and Pakistan. These are places we KNOW have WMDs. Also, given our Holy Quest to overthrow the Bad Man, A) Quite who is supposed to pay for it? and B) Who is supposed to replace him in that charming locale that is not an order of magnitude worse? I learned to quit asking "who could be worse than this turkey?," since we tend to answer that question by electing them. Just because I think that one politician is an idiot, or that a political party is a bastion of morons does not mean that I am any greater a fan of the politician or party in opposition. As a rule, they are equally contemptible; stupidity knows no political persuasion. Politics largely consists of various people trying do outdo each other - successfully - in the extent to which they are imbiciles. Blue skies, Winsor

Since Islam and Communism are two of my very least favorite religions, I can see no reason to champion either side. Hopefully, if they are at each other's throats they will be more likely to leave us alone - though it never seems to work out that way. Sticking our nose into it is probably the worst thing we can do. Blue skies, Winsor

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/141736/the_ugly_racism_of_the_right_will_be_their_undoing/ Racism is racism. Jesse Jackson, David Duke and Al Sharpton are cut from the same cloth - with the exception that Jesse and Al make their living solely from racism. People of all persuasions get locked up for losing their tempers at police. It's nothing personal, it's just the way it works. It does not matter whether the person is screaming "this is all about the color of my skin!" or "I paid way too much for this muffler!;" if they do not pipe down when so instructed, they may get the opportunity to calm down in the Cooler. It happens across the racial and political spectrum all the time, but it is more newsworthy in some cases than others. The health care system may have problems, but the "progressive reform" suggested by various attorneys holding elective office is hardly the solution. It is about as bright as addressing the problem of people driving into trees by requiring all trees to be capable of impact by cars without injury to the occupants. Just because the Religious Right may be consummate assholes does not mean that the Glassy Eyed Left is not comprised of assholes of equal stupidity. The enemy of my enemy, far from being my friend, is more often than not every bit as bad, if not worse (z.B., Moscow was hardly an improvement over Berlin ca. 1939). I do not so much object to "the Left" or "the Right" as I do to quintessentially ignorant people making binding decisions. Unfortunately, anyone with a clue is culled from the electoral process by the Primaries. It is said that a people get the government they deserve. If so, we must be overwhelmingly mediocre. Blue skies, Winsor

My first reaction to this post is that it is of the "Nippleboy" flamebait ilk. Then I think of the people I have helped put on a backboard prior to the helicopter ride, and it seems that it may be serious. Having survived a near-death experience under a spinning elliptical, I will state categorically that you are living on luck if you are jumping a Stiletto and asking these questions in earnest. The adage about the Lord looking after drunks, fools and small children is all well and good, but works something less than 100% of the time. Don't bank on it. As a first-generation elliptical, the Stiletto is singularly unforgiving of inappropriate control input. An avoidance turn on short final will result in the canopy hitting the ground before the jumper. Badly executed emergency procedures are likely to be fatal as well. I have a bunch of hot canopies around, as well as some very low performance stuff. There are times when a canopy loaded over 2:1 is the hot tip, and other times where much over 1:1 is a very bad idea. The people I know who fly tiny crossbraced canopies brilliantly can also hit the disk every time with a huge accuracy canopy - and know when to pick one over the other. Like some people who know zip about photography but have to have the most impressive camera out there, or the person who can't parallel park but has to have the car that Road and Track was drooling over, you have people who pick their parachute gear on the basis of how cool it sounds or looks. The problem is that the learning curve on the parachute system is not always surviveable. There is a lot to be said for having a canopy whose limits you can explore without dying. Doing a snap turn with a Stiletto at 200 feet might occur in your last couple of minutes of life; this is not quite as likely under a Pilot (though spinning it up is still possible). The only way to know where the line is is to cross it, and you need to be able to survive long enough to get back. All things being considered, you should get some input from someone who has survived the sport for a while, and has a broad range of experience. A thousand jumps is not the same as a hundred jumps ten times. Best of luck - you'll need it. Blue skies, Winsor

+1 +1 Of course, had we not wasted so much on war, we'd have more money. But still nowhere enough. Bush may have some saving graces, but thinking is not one of them. Unfortunately, Obama's genius lies not in Finance, but in getting elected. Neither of them have the faintest idea of how to get us out of this financial catastrophe or, failing that, to limit the damage. You see people pointing fingers back and forth, trying to identify the "culprit." Obama will ruin us! Bush started a war that is both unwinnable and unaffordable! Clinton gave away the ranch to the Chinese! Reagan was numerically illiterate! Johnson took us off the gold standard and Nixon sealed the deal to give us fiat currency! In this case, blamestorming does no good. This economic disaster has been four decades in the making (ten if you go back to the formation of the Federal Reserve), and no one individual or agency alone could have screwed things up this badly. You don't like Obama? Fine, be glad he was elected and will preside over the worst economic collapse the world has ever seen. Not to worry, there is precisely zero chance that McCain (or anyone else that was running) could have done much about it, either. What is a trillion, you ask? Here's an easy way to get a handle on it - figure 100 million people who actually pay real taxes, and a trillion amounts to $10,000 for each and every one of us. Thus, the 11 trillion the government has spend on our behalf amounts to $110,000 that each and every one of us owe (with nothing to show for it) above and beyond mortgages, car loans, credit cards and what have you. IIRC, the foreign debt is something like 14 trillion. Since this is not tax based, you can figure $40,000 of debt for every infant, geezer, wino, welfare queen, CEO and mechanic in this fair land. Throw one more thing into the equation and things get interesting. We burn something like 20 million barrels of oil a day in this country. We produce around 5 million barrels a day. When (not if) the people who are supplying the 15 million barrels a day we need to achieve stasis ask for something other than the government-printed IOUs we call money to pay for it, we're screwed. Not just a little screwed, we're royally screwed. The US of A is now a net importer of food. The food we do produce is heavily dependent on oil for its generation, transportation and processing. If overnight we can only operate 1/4 of our fishing fleet, tractors and combines, have 1/4 as much petroleum based pesticides and fertilizers and have 1/4 of the capacity to truck it to your store, we are going to go on a nationwide diet. Think Somalia with 300,000,000 people. In any event, if you think any one person can provide "change we can believe in" that will avert the consequences of 40 years of dedicated economic mismanagement on an unprecedented scale, I have news for you - that is not physically possible. Arguing about whether Republicans are better than Democrats or vice versa is like trying to say arsenic is better than cyanide. There may be superficial differences between the two, but at the end of the day the results are the same. We are in the death throes of the way of life we had grown to enjoy. Have fun while it lasts - such as it does. Blue skies, Winsor

I suggest you add "metaphor" to "hypocrisy" and "straw-man" as words to look up when you get a dictionary. I suggest you add "proof" to yours....you know, that stuff you can never provide? The request for "proof" is valid for liquor or in math class, period. What constitutes "proof" in a court of law is typically dependent on a wide range of fallacies, and is thus logically meaningless. If one of my students wanted proof of something, I might well assign it to them as an exercise. Badgering Dr. Kallend on an issue on which he does not report to you is annoying. I am sure he and I do not agree on everything line and verse, but I like him and respect his opinion. I find your disrespect irritating, and do not see how it supports your position. Blue skies, Winsor

Source: http://cbs2chicago.com/local/police.deadly.force.2.1105766.html Is the risk to the innocent public from police gunfire, and the risk of mistakes, worth the effort to stop fleeing felons? One of the problems here is that there are a pretty broad range of felonies that do not pose much of an immediate threat to the public. In some States (the Commonwealths of Massachusetts and Virginia come to mind) activities between a man and wife that meet the full approval of Dr. Ruth are major felonies. Oral sex was still on the books as a hanging offense when I lived in Virginia. Another problem is that the level of marksmanship exhibited by the average law enforcement type is execrable. There are numerous cases of LEOs using up two or three high-capacity magazines in an engagement without achieving a single hit. Having people blasting the landscape in the attempt to stop someone who put their controlled-substance prescription medication into daily dose containers (a Federal felony) does not strike me as one of the three best ideas anyone has authored of late. Since my secretary was killed by an individual who was evading high-speed pursuit (he was doing ~100 mph when he rear-ended her stopped car), I have been impressed by how the cure can be worse than the disease. The guy was being sought for consensual activity with a partner who was not quite of age; though I may not approve of his choice of partners, I don't think that nabbing him was worth the life of a nice lady and making a couple of good kids motherless. Since I might be on the road when someone reported to have torn the label off a mattress is nearby, I am concerned both by unaimed high-speed lead flying around and by the high speed automobile that is now out of control if the driver does manage to get hit. In any event, a police policy does not change laws regarding liability, and anyone hit by someone who did not take care to ensure the bullet's destination has a pretty good case for negligence. The fact that it is policy makes the whole department liable, not just Barney Fife. Blue skies, Winsor

Those who oppose Obama had best pick their battles carefully. Chasing will o' the wisps like the birthplace of our chief executive is more likely to do damage to the Republican party than it is to uncover anything tangible that is a threat to the president. When Dan Rather got suckered into publishing a faked letter that complained about GWB going AWOL from the Guard, it worked brilliantly. People lost sight of the fact that the letter, though fake, was factually accurate. By persevorating about whether BHO was born on US of A territory or not, an awful lot of energy is spent over something that is sure to come to naught. While the whacko right is tilting at windmills, the whacko left has free reign. Some people just love conspiracies, and see them everywhere. I subscribe to the principle that one should not attribute to conspiracy that which can be easily explained by incompetence. Again, if someone is actually opposed to BHO, blowing a lot of time and effort making a lot of fuss about his birthplace is to his benefit and to the detriment of his opposition. Blue skies, Winsor

"You fucked up. You trusted us." Otter, in Animal House

Fixed Do you have experience or knowledge on a treatment facility/program without a spiritual component? Yeah. It's called jail.