+100. Typical guilt-tripping leftist nonsense. "YOU could secretly be a bad person! Repent now and confess to the likelihood of your having impure thoughts!" Reminds me of a "multi-cultural" workshop I attended about 15 or more years ago.  Taught by those with darker skin.  Anyo...

From the perspective of a dead person on the receiving end of any misused tool, does it really significantly matter whether he/she was shot, stabbed, speared, brass knuckled, clubbed, drowned, choked, smothered, bitten by a snake, smashed by a brick, squeezed by a giant nutcracker, or stabbed in th...

I think I have an answer to madbean's question. While it's important to remember the horror that is caused from a safe distance in the skies, it *is* different. It doesn't take a psychopath to bomb ISIS in order to stop them. There are lessons to be learned from Vietnam, but if it takes a bomb to s...

I'd imagine it is very very difficult being an armed police officer (or anyone else having to use guns). Only if you are a very poor shot.  ;)  And, from my perspective, guns are a tool that can be used or misused according to the mental/emotional/physical acumen and stability of the user/abuser.  ...

Keep in mind we are hyper-optimizing here. Any gun is better than no gun in a home invasion situation, and much of the time you won't even need to shoot it so it may not even matter what it fires. And if you do, shooting the bad guy with anything is probably going to make him strongly reconsider hi...

Another + for the SSD.  And a Macbook of some type. 

... Mountaineer

Not to throw e-coli on the party, but Wendy's is the only one of those chains where several of my friends and my son got very sick after chomping down on food prepared by minimum wage, unhygienic, unfriendly, excons - yes, I'm exagerating a little bit and generalizing a lot without hard data.  Seein...

Book Review The Age of Nothing: How We Sought to Live Since the Death of God Peter Watson Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 624pp, £30 Culture and the Death of God Terry Eagleton Yale University Press, 264pp, £18.99 There can be little doubt that Nietzsche is the most important figure in modern atheism, bu...

For what it's worth, the Navigon navigation app has traffic info, red light and camera info, and does not need either cell or internet service for the navigation with turn by turn voice guidance and the lane guidance part to work, just GPS.    I have noticed that when driving in the Seattle area, th...

Hilarious. / Mmm lasagna. Who doesn't love that. I too hope all the New Yorkers make out okay.  As for that lasagna, I certainly hope that you are not cooking it in any type of metal pan that could possibly leach toxic metals into your well supplemented systems via that acidic tomato sauce.  And, h...

It looks like cooking in ceramic or nickel-less stainless steel (which can rust due to the lack of nickel) is the only way to go if you're really concerned about metal leeching. Good grief, Pointedstick, now you have gone and endorsed yet another type of potential poisoning!  Now I can't cook in an...

I am encouraged by this article: Cat and dog lovers are a relatively new breed in China. Up until the 1980s, keeping pet dogs was illegal in Beijing, because pets were considered to be a bourgeois affectation. Restrictions were loosened in the 1990s and early 2000s. (A height limit on dogs is still...

Scott Burns has LOTS of articles on Life Insurance and Annuities both on his website assetbuilder.com . The tl;dr version is buy only term life insurance and only buy single premium immediate annuities directly from the insurance company.  All other types of insurance and annuities exist for the so...

I didn't see anything particularly humorous (or innovative) in that platform either. If you read the Republican platform, you will probably find it sounds a lot better than what we have (at least in economic terms). Unfortunately, it is also much better than what actual Republicans do when they get...

I think our happiness tends to be built on relativity.  Relative to the things we experienced yesterday, and relative to our neighbors. So the question then is, does becoming a monk promote happiness?  I've considered it.  As in formally, not self-imposed.  But the idea of taking pleasure in repeti...

Keep in mind we are hyper-optimizing here. Any gun is better than no gun in a home invasion situation, and much of the time you won't even need to shoot it so it may not even matter what it fires. And if you do, shooting the bad guy with anything is probably going to make him strongly reconsider hi...

One more iOS suggestion that I use several times per day.  I really like the seamless integration with TouchID on the iPhone: 

1Password

... Mountaineer

Make fun all you want, but we're not specifically adding strontium, thorium or grain alcohol to the water supply.  The point, ladies and gentleman, is that crony capitalism is evil. :D That, my friend, is some mighty slim pickins.  ;) I don't give a hoot in Hell how you do it, you just get me to th...

Please make me a drink of grain alcohol and rainwater, and help yourself to whatever you'd like.  :) Rainwater may be harmful. I'm sure MG can find some paper that deals with thorium or strontium 90 remaining from the nuke tests of the 50s and 60s. Perhaps the National Inquirer has some relevant ma...

Good discussion of being "called". Excerpts: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel”? (Mark 1:15, ESV). This is the urgent call of God to sinners; though unlike in the time of Jonah, we have no timetable. Whether the call is to sinners w...

MG says:  "...explain why drugs are the third leading cause of death..."

People go to doctors.
Doctors prescribe drugs.
Drugs are available OTC.
People take drugs.
People die.

Therefore, people who go to doctors and take drugs are certain to die. 

... Mountaineer

Home defense:  Remington 870 pump, 12 gauge, 00 buckshot by far first choice if you are minimally skilled; second choice if you need a handgun and are minimally skilled, a high quality 357 magnum revolver but shooting 38 special +P defense loads.  45 ACP Colt Government model or equivalent (no targe...

For iOS, main ones I use more frequently than the "play with" apps: Dark Sky and/or SeasonalityGo for weather RadarScope for weather Fantastical for calendar Evernote for multipurpose notes Day One for journaling Dropbox (primarily only if you use it on the laptop or desktop) iBooks and Ki...

Seems to me if one seasons the cast iron effectively, which is needed for the non-stick property, the food is not in contact with the iron anyway - the food is in contact with polymerized flaxseed oil (or whatever type oil/grease is used).  What am I missing?  This worry of iron toxicity from a mini...

Moutaineer, it's a grand plan that is ridiculously unattainable with our current system of government. Why upset yourself by believing in a fantasy you can't actually have? MangoMan, As I said to MG:  I take it you did not appreciate or understand the irony and sarcasm in that post?  ;) And, I am n...