I'm inclined to agree with Bill at #35:
Deciding to prosecute would turn the prosecutions into the main business of the country, and there is quite a bit more business in front of us that should take priority.
We are constantly required to weigh practicality against principle, and to decide whether we think one evil is worse than another. It's hard to imagine a good health care reform package being passed anytime soon if the country is whipped into a frenzy by hearings and trials on the last administration.
Also, I think Cheney is the evil R. Daneel Olivaw - he'll still be alive and kicking even if it takes 100 years to get to prosecuting him.
Lila @ 27, that's very true, people I know have experienced such ageism personally.
One interesting thing is that UK pop culture seems to be in general less ageist than US - witness all those popular Britcoms about middle-aged and old folks, and the fact that American Idol has an age limit of 29 while the Brit version doesn't (Boyle wouldn't have been eligible for American Idol).
Some musical people are having a rather different reaction to the Susan Boyle hoopla. The assumption on the part of the judges and audience that she couldn't be talented because she wasn't good-looking was painfully offensive. Elisa expressed it well.
Welcome home! Now let's rock!
A zillion happy returns! (But not book returns... oh, you know what I mean.)
Hmm... in your analogy, why is Obama the groom? What if we were swearing in Hillary - would she be the bride? I think not.... but....
I think you're reading too much into McCain's speech. Saying we're "a world away" from where we were doesn't imply all racism has gone away. I myself feel like we're "a world away" from where we were during the Civil Rights era. That doesn't mean we're rid of evil and hate, far from it.
As for Nader, he just doesn't seem to know that "Uncle Tom" is a racial slur. He seems to think it's just an expression meaning "someone who is beholden." That's not despicable of him, it's just ignorant, and a further indication of how marginal he has become.
This thread, and the mention of the fact that Obama is African-American but not a descendant of slaves, made me think of this article, which describes research suggesting that Africa's continued underdevelopment can be at least partly attributed to lingering effects of the slave trade.
Wouldn't the "truth" lie somewhere in between?
I realize this thread is essentially about security, but it's worth noting that people use Gmail for specific reasons not related to security. I've saved countless hours because of Gmail's a) superior search feature and b) thread-based interface. The interface is so far superior to working in even a well-made client like Thunderbird that I couldn't see going back. In fact, if I found out that my Gmail account was compromised and I couldn't re-secure it, I'd probably just start fresh with a new Gmail account.
He has no principles at all. I summed up some of the evidence here.
My friends and I played D&D avidly through jr. high and high school - late 1970s. Glancing occasionally at the D&D world since then, I noticed how so much stuff had come to be laid out for you that it seemed like it would take some of the imaginative fun out of the game. We drew our dungeons on graph paper and our terrains on hex paper. Do players still do that? Anyway, probably my final experience - at age 17, I guess - was running an adventure as a DM completely from my head, with nothing prepared on paper and no books for reference. It worked. After that, I thought, been there, done that, and it was over.
While it lasted, we went to a D&D convention at Princeton (what an awesome adventure that was!) and spent many hours at the Compleat Strategist near Penn Station (NYC).
Gygax was certainly an important figure (and I don't mean a tiny lead figure painted by hand with tiny brushes - do players still do that?) - and will be missed.
#45: "It is, however, the sort of analysis which might reveal that certain texts, purporting to have been set down by the same source, originated at different times."
This kind of analysis has been settled in scholarly circles for many decades with respect to the Judeo-Christian Bible, yet said scholarship hasn't done anything to counter the strength of Christian (and Jewish fundamentalism.
I read about this this morning, and actually had to put down my figurative pen and think for a while. It's just conceivable that this is world-changing news. Will the Turks have the courage to carry it through, or will they back down in the face of criticism? And if they don't back down, will there be a schism with increased violence, or will things go relatively peacefully?
Young Bilbo Jones
Li'l Bilbo
Hannibilbo Rising
Knowing how little sleep these candidates are going on, I think it's best mostly to ignore things like Hillary's mini-breakdown and also ignore the reactions of her opponents.
Consider the grass,
Not a thing, but a mass
Made of little green pieces
Of nephews and nieces
Too little to read the sign
"Keep off the grass."
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 8 |
| 2008 | 11 |
| 2007 | 29 |
| 2006 | 21 |
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