We really do not want the government we deserve. Sadly, we generally get it.
Koch Industries is the second-largest private company in the US. Biggest is agri-giant Cargill. But Charles Koch is a lot more motivated by von Mises than Rand.
Rand can be interesting when your brain is on slow-time, and you feel up wading through fifty-page monologues. But Randism as a philosophy of life? LMAO. Anyone else ever noticed that Rand's heroes are so busy with their ultimate self-actualization that they don't have any children? Can't be the center of the universe when you have kids. The future argues against you.
Others have argued that this also makes Randism an evolutionary dead end.
A point of clarification:
"Partial Birth Abortion" as defined by the PBA act is a procedure that was only used by a few abortion-mill doctors, a number you could count on one hand. Those few will alter their practice slightly to conform with the law. Namely, an injection of 1-2 mg of digoxin to make sure the fetus is dead before beginning the procedure, as called for in the standard (if unspoken) protocols.
Standard IDX as normally performed everywhere BUT those very very few abortion mills is still legal under the Act--and still pretty uncommon. All the posturing is about not much. DAMN few OB/Gyns will perform an elective abortion on a healthy post-viability fetus without a compelling medical reason. Almost all post-viability abortions are performed for justifiable health reasons agreed on by both patient and physician, ones falling within the scope of the respective state's law. "Post-viability" there is a term of gestational age, NOT fetal viability.
It's a waste of time pointing any of these things out to the rabid anti-abortion crowd.
I'm still chuckling at #147, and the tag from #163. Those meddling kids....
Gophers of Grue
132: Oh wait! The Armadillo of Armageddon!
#132: And what about...aw, heck. I got nothin'.
#115: Mmmmmm, turtle....
#118: I wish! I hadn't yet heard of POB then. Onion sauce would have been a major improvement.
To be honest I don't know to this day if it was a joke on the dumb American or regular local fare, but I wasn't the only one eating and they didn't laugh at me too much. It might have been some other smallish rodent. But it looked mostly like a rat, and it was served roasted on a stick, so....
#108: You really want to go there? I'm reasonably sure it was roast rat, but there was a language barrier. The tail sure wasn't fuzzy and the size was right. Tasted somewhere between re-heated roast pork and overly gamy duck. Only tougher, and not much meat on it. (You know, like squirrel!)
I've also had "swamp rat" (nutria) which was not too bad. It didn't taste like chicken either. But it was better than squirrel.
Who was it who said that squirrels are simply rats with fluffy tails and better press?
I've been saying it for decades, and I am not alone. I am only one of many in the Secret Squirrel Suppression Service.
Do not fear. Long have we watched, and prepared for this day! Do not believe the propaganda. The enemy is not invincible.
(P.S. It doesn't taste like chicken. It tastes like rat. 'Nuff said.)
I blame dyslexic fingers. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
#77 #78
I see on second take that it was the winning freshman team, not grad students. Toss was 580 feet. (It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the guy using nips to cut the "safety wire" from around the trigger retention mechanism is now known as "Stumpy.")
#74 with grad students all thngs are possible
Engineering students demonstrate an alternate method. Still not a ballista, exactly, but then again that's not a term paper either.
I don't know, Serge. I never attempted to use a ballista for exam-tossing. Maybe someone could develop a specialized polybolos...
:-D
So, aerodynamics do make a difference. And the strength of your arm. Or do you use a catapult?
Arm strength affects catapult cycling speed....
Clifton #106: The Icelanders really do believe in ferries!
OMG. LMAO!
An interview with Kevin Fabiano.
He works for a legal publishing firm in New York*, he advises to never "write to the market," but that success lies in "marketing and tenacity."
Money quote: "Think outside the box when you think about marketing your books."
Uh huh. Though perhaps one should also think "inside the cell" when marketing in certain ways, no?
[*--anyone wanna guess?]
Matt McIrvin, unlike me, has the patience to explain why this is insane.
For one thing, we're lacking in hobbits.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
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| 2009 | 1 |
| 2008 | 1 |
| 2007 | 17 |
| 2006 | 19 |
| 2005 | 3 |
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