Dewi Morgan "I didn't realise that evolution was so darn slow."
Did you try getting bit by a radioactive spider? How about taking a bit hit of gamma radiation? You'll be evolving in no time after those! Also, you'll have cancer. Every thing is a tradeoff.

It's not a real library if it doesn't have a beanbag chair.

nprnncbl "MO#31: Sorry, I should be less flippant."
Yeah! Flippant is my schtick.

"If I understand you, competition and market forces (money) could provide the means to make threatened species meat production efficient, thus ensuring the species survival."
All I'm saying is that we're pretty good at protecting those species that directly benefit us, at least those that are to some degree domesticated (cats, dogs, cows, chickens, and the like). I'm not proposing laissez faire animal economics. I can't. I'm Canadian, which automatically makes me a little bit socialist.

"I'm not trying to be dismissive; I just think it's wishful thinking and contradicted by what's really going on currently."
It is wishful thinking. As a species, we only miss things when they're gone. This, in part, is why bald people are always reminiscing about high school.

nprnncbl "ModusOperandi #27: "find ... a way to cheaply mass-breed them." Well, duh. The "market for their flesh" part, though, is precisely what threatens some species."
Hence the critical "as well as" between "find a market for their flesh" "a way to cheaply mass-breed them". Duh.

...and when she orginally crossed the border, going North:
Canadian border guard: "Aw jeez, that sure looks like a good picture. You must be some kind of artist, eh."
Then he asked if she was bringing across any fruits or vegetables, and waved her through.

They're just glad that he's not Godzilla.

The thing that you have to understand is that 1/4 of mammals would do the same to you if they got the chance. This is why we have to get them first. Also, they're probably quite tasty...except for the Tasmanian Devil. Those shots of chemo that they're taking for their cancer really mess with their flavour.

...
Seriously though, in an odd way the best way to save these beasties is probably to find a market for their flesh as well as a way to cheaply mass-breed them. We're pretty good at protecting the things that we eat.

Sneaky.

As long as it's not gay martial law. They're against them hi-falootin', big city, elite, gay martials. Martial law is between a man and a women, apparenty.

Finally! I've always thought that I had the potential to gain control over our symbolic communication and semantic environment, but now I apparently finally have an opportunity to do such. Both our symbolic communication and semantic environments have had it too good for too long. Personally, my symbolic communication has been out of control for quite a while. Recently, I had come to the conclusion that it was colluding with the semantic environment, conspiring against me on some level.

Sure, you lefty-pinkos are all for it now, but what will you do when your kids are reading that "fact"-based "book" about two gay so-called "penguins" raising a "chick"? What will you do?!

I love scare quotes and using "so-called" to make real terms sound made up. If it weren't for this pesky "conscience" I'd make a pretty good bigot. I've already got the flip-flops and wifebeater t-shirt. Plus, I was on COPS that one time.

Enjoy your hair while you've still got it.
Back in my day...etc...

...as with all things that sound like "woo" (as well as the remaining things that don't) I ask, "How did the control group do?". That one simple question commonly causes scientifical advances to suddenly not be so advanced. Until it's double-blind/placebo group tested, it's anecdotal.
Do you know what works anecdotally? Everything.

Takuan: Sometimes you sound buddhisty.

DRM is bad, but...Walmart? Isn't one less copy of a Toby Keith album actually a good thing?

HereticGestalt: I criticize such things here all the time! Ooo, darn McCain's moderation scheme! Darn it to heck!

*Pbbt!* Cobra had these almost twenty-five years ago.

Meanwhile, my Nagelesque Jabba the Hutt paintings gather dust in the corner, forlorn and unsold....

justONEguy "@57 No: black people do it like this (/me acts all closet), while white people do it like this (/me acts all wedding registries)?"
Ah...so other groups are at least as messy and fucked up as the rest of us. Good to know.

justONEguy "You can't tell me that the Black and Latino men who lead double lives and infect their wives and girlfriends wouldn't have benefited from AIDS prevention education that was tailored to them as gays, minorities or both."
You lost me. Do "they" do "it" differently than "us"? Do black people do it like this (/me acts all cool), while white people do it like this (/me acts all uptight)?

mdh "But this isn't about that. This is about making sure the state DOES keep a role in what should be a strictly church issue - and, of course, bragging rights."
It's not a church "issue" at all. They can hum and haw and act outraged at the latest thing that "will destroy America", but it's an issue for two consenting adults. It's a secular republic, not a theonomist theocracy. As such, while the Bible may form part of the values of the people, arguments from the Bible carry no more weight than arguments from anything else, and that passage from Leviticus is not Law. Thank God.

...
Getting the undecideds now is good, but long-term these are the people you have to convince. Good luck. Worse, once the tide of history turns against them, they'll say that True Christians were always for gay rights, much as they say about abolution, the civil rights movement and women's sufferage now. It makes me wonder, actually, just what "our" cultural blind spot will prove to be. I'm guessing abortion, but that's another conversation entirely.

Anonymous "Fig wasps are cooler. Each species of fig has a species of wasp to go with it, which is required for pollination. The two have coevolved."
And there are parasitic wasps that live in those wasps and there are nematodes that live in both of those. Nature is weird. Just thinking about it is enough to give you gas.
Maybe that's just me.

Dunno. I think that Obama fellow is Han, which makes Biden a Wookiee. The rest of the Dems are all Ewoks. Not the cool ones with the catapult either, but the ones that got stepped on by AT-STs.

Takuan "if nothing else, I take some happiness in thinking it now a real possibility that I may live to see Cheney, his monkey and other conspirators dance the hemp fandago yet."
You act all tough and macho now, but you know you'll cry after he tosses the Emperor off the ledge and Luke removes his helmet as he dies.

Kieran O'Neill "#8: Lol, no. When cases were tan boxes, I sprayed mine black."
Didn't the fumes make you woozy as you painted the case while stuffed in your locker?

Beanolini "Just to clarify, it is intended to be nightmarish."
So, my cold sweat and nausea are justified.

Remember when cases were tan boxes? Wasn't that nice?

mdhAs "As of now tasers are not regulated that way. Using them, at minimum, should be at least as much of a hassle for the officer as firing a real gun at a civillian. He should have to justify each pull of the trigger, just like with a real gun."
Agreed. Use of force (any force) should always be justified/documented.

Terry Karney "mouseoperandi:"
Squeak?

"You are making a pretty broad assumption that 1: the uses of taser are all in situations where force is needful, and the officer is going for the lesser force. There are too many accounts of the things being used when the only force needed is a bit of patience on the part of the officer."
No, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that it just another tool. Taking away that tool leaves the police one less option. I am in no way defending the "I don't want to take time to negotiate with this guy, so I'll just zap him" mentality that seems to have taken hold with a percentage of the police force. The Vancouver case withthe poor Polish sap who was angry and did pick up a potential weapon and did brandish it menacingly, if memory serves, the first zap may have been justified. The other three, not at all.
If force is necessary and the police have no less-lethal/non-lethal tools in their inventory all they have left is the gun.

Christmas morning:

Oh, boy! Thanks Mum'n'Dad! Now I can have nightmares! Wee!

ill lich "Now might be a good time for me to publish my Cookbook of "Hobo Stew" recipes."
Do you use fresh hobo? That canned stuff is only 70% people.

People, please! This is simply the "invisible hand" of the "Free Market" "adjusting" itself.
American freedom and liberty were founded on greed profiting from stupid. How else are a small number of rich people going to get slightly richer, if not by conning the con'able? These rich people have children to feed! Doesn't anyone care about the children?!

Xeni Jardin "@modusoperandi, you know, I've always believed this, too. But then, when you're in pain or drugged up and sad, and faced with scary entrees -- even the most pathetic li'l cuppa pudding seems a joy in comparison."
It's the little things, the simple joys, that make life worth living.

Jake0748 Modus - "Reasonable levels of training, insurance of compliance, and punishment for abuse are all valid ways of making sure that the tools that are used are used properly".
"Unfortunately, none of that is happening these days."
Not enough of it, anyway. At least the cops in Vancouver don't own an APC with a 50cal, eh?

"Positing the "junkie with a broken bottle" argument is alienating one side over another."
Cops deal with people who do bad things. That's what they're there for.

"It's also a strawman, and a terrible debate tactic."
I've lived in a bad neighbourhood. It's hardly a strawman.

"Mind if I posit the existance of a "cop with a chip on his shoulder"?"
You don't have to posit them. I agree that they exist. Tasers aren't the problem. They are.

"Millions of options, unless you've been trained to ONLY use a gun to solve a problem. The whole world looks like it's made of nails when all you have is a hammer."
Are you arguing against me, or not? I'm for giving them more options. Sometimes, force is necessary. Tasers are a better option in some situations than guns. Taking away the taser leaves only the gun.

"Personally I'd like to go a step further and see each police officer who is issued a weapon of any sort wearing an audio-video recording device that is wiped at the end of each incident-free shift. As public servants their right-to-privacy is reduced while on the job. Is that "reasonable insurance of compliance"?"
Cool. They'll get that about the same time I get my silver jumpsuit and hovercar. In the meantime, life is rarely ideal. My three point plan is about the best we can reasonably do for now. If elected, I promise you, the good people of this great nation to...

grimc "I'm wondering why Alaskan protestors have such small signs..."
"The signs aren't small. Alaskans are huge."
Good to know.

brundlefly76 "Wow that protester sure did phone in that sign.
Does she even know its facing the wrong way?"
Alaska is America's Bizarro World. Oddly, America is the world's Bizarro World, as well.

mdh "Hugs and good intentions don't work on junkies with broken bottles."
"And alienating them does not take away their inalienable rights."
Huh? When a guy is running at you, brandishing a weapon, zapping them to drop them is alienating them? What's shooting them, then? If you have the choice of one or the other, and you take away the less-lethal one, what do you have left?

"That's a procedural fault. Blaming a tool because people use it wrong is blaming an inanimate object for the faults of a moral agent."
"And it is also a great argument for taking away the tool."
No. It's a good argument for better training. You don't take away everybody's car because some people speed. You, instead, send the speeders to traffic school. If they continue to not play nicely then, and only then, do you take away their car (and only those of the abusers).

"I propose that any law enforcement officer who uses a taser (or a pepper-ball paint gun, etc...) takes a class for 10 hours per week on its safe use, and has to fill out 30 pages of paperwork each time it is used. Any civilian user must carry 5 million in liability coverage. Also, camera's should be mandatory for both."
Reasonable levels of training, insurance of compliance, and punishment for abuse are all valid ways of making sure that the tools that are used are used properly.

I'm wondering why Alaskan protestors have such small signs...

loraksus "#25, If the police shot (with guns) even 10% of those who were tasered over the years, the USA would currently be in a period of immense civil unrest or even outright civil war."
My point exactly. The taser, like the nightstick, pepper spray and triangle-lock hold are tools that are used so that guns don't have to be. Take those away and you don't have much of a choice left. Hugs and good intentions don't work on junkies with broken bottles.

"Tasers have been used a lot, for some very minor things..."
That's a procedural fault, not a technological one.

"and in most cases of taser use, police officers wouldn't consider using a firearm."
...and taking away the taser takes away a choice.

"I think they have a use, but it needs to be defined a bit more clearly."
I agree. Tasers don't kill people; poor use of them can, maybe, sometimes kill people (and getting hit with something that "can, maybe, sometimes kill" is better than taking two shots from a 9mm in your center of mass. Shit like that is fatal). I can see tasering Mr. Dziekanski (the Vancouver airport taser death) once, but zapping him three more times while he was down, then kneeling on his neck was way too much.
That's a procedural fault. Blaming a tool because people use it wrong is blaming an inanimate object for the faults of a moral agent.

Make sure you get some tapioca, Teresa. Hospitals suck, but their desserts are awesome.

Mackenzie "I can't wait to turn over the phone numbers and text messages of my friends."
They've already got those.

1989 - News item 'Out of control junkie shot by police'
1990 - Public outcry "Why can't the police use something else?"
1993 - Police get nightsticks.
1997 - News item 'Man doing bad thing put in coma by nightstick'
1998 - Public outcry "Why can't the police use something else?"
2000 - Police get pepper spray.
2001 - News item 'Pepper spray fails to stop bad man from doing bad thing'
2003 - Police get tasers
2004 - News item 'Tasers occasionally kill people'
2008 - Public outcry "Why can't the police use something else?"
2009 - Police go back to using guns, 'cause they're between a rock and a hard place anyway, and guns work the best...

You realize, of course, that this is a buddy/cop movie. Earlier, acting on a tip, the good cops busted into the Mayor's home, found nothing, and now they've been told by their Captain to close their investigation because "...the Mayor is a pillar of our community."

There's no way that exterior wall is up to code.

*Pbbt*
The future is Pogo sticks.

Takuan "most all polar bears in captivity are insane"
Try spending forty hours a week for thirty years in a cubicle staring at a screen. At least the bears get fish.

Takuan "Since it can no doubt be derived from statistical analysis that certain types will inevitably become guests of the penal system, perhaps a streamlining process could be developed wherein the likely offenders be separated at an early age and sent directly to "pre-prison" facilities."
Huzzah! Tis even better than your idea to employ the poor by using them to carry those of wealth and breeding about their daily tasks.

"This one is why you'll be bald at thirty, son, and this one is why I drink so much."

It's been a while since I looked in to them, but their official stance a while ago appeared to be designed specifically to create and maintain a large underclass for cheap, easily replaceable labour. That boat idea indicates a lack of...something.

Still, I'm going with my original statement. I don't remember what it was. I'm sure that it was witty, inflammatory and poorly researched.

Boingboing post proves Intelligent Design! ~ Ben Stein

mattymatt "I wonder what the specific books were that Sarah Palin wanted to ban."
If this story is true, does it matter? If it's Catcher in the Rye is it okay? How about Harry Potter? Mein Kampf? Quotations from Mao Tse-tung?

Talia "Course if people dont care bout things like book burning and intellectual freedom I guess they can just go vote for her just because of what she's got in her underwear."
Is it potato chips? 'Cause if so, she shouldn't sit down. Trust me.

racer x "Believe it or not, there are entire semesters in library school (yeah, I went)..."
When you asked a question in class, did they shush you if you used your outdoors voice?

flamingphonebook "A single penny taken out of my pocket by force for something other than defense of my rights is an injustice."
Think of it this way: libraries help defend people from being ignorant and stupid. They aren't a cure, by any means. More of a treatment, with regular booster shots required.
"But it means that the powerful can be victimized by the powerless."
/me head explodes

chgoliz "There are these professionals: they're called "librarians"."
That sounds an awful lot like them "elites" that the Republicans are always talkin' about, I reckon.

Jezrael "The far right scares me. The far left just annoys..."
And the middle totally hogs the blankets.

Xopher "This is a person who wants to reap the benefits of an organized society without paying any of the costs, or personally experiencing even the tiniest bit of the downside."
That sounds a lot like a description of the modern political Libertarian (although a perusal of their website shows that they've softened a little). Their lapel pins are neat. All they say is "Mine!".

The printer will be dirt cheap, but they'll screw you on the consumables.

anthony "And Modus, if you reread my comment..."
I never read your comment the first time. I don't even read my own comments. Too much deja vu. I only read Takuan's comments.

"...you'll see I was lamenting a sense of greater purpose, as in cosmic purpose, not wondering about why I was born."
I wasn't wondering why you were born, either. I was trying to point out that cosmic purpose isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'm just not very good at pointing out such things. It must take practice, I guess. Something that "may be, possibly, if only..." is a pale shadow of something that "definitely is, right here, now". You do (or did) definitely have parents that love/d/ you. You do (hopefully) have people around you that love you. The cosmos can wait.

anthony "I was of course referring to the dullness of an existence without greater purpose..."
And what difference in ultimate purpose is there between a godless and god'd universe? The reason for your existence, in either case, is because your parents wanted kids. Then they had you and realized what a terrible mistake they'd made. The same is true in both universes. Luckily, both of them have actual, physical parents who care for you anyway.
In both, too, you will die. This is an unfortunate side-effect of existence, and the one which people have the biggest problem with.

anthony "To think we simply go to the grave makes life dull sometimes."
Have you ever considered taunting police dogs while wearing a suit made of steak, then running like hell? Life is never boring when you've got eighty-plus pounds of German Shepherd ridin' your shadow.

What Ezat failed to mention is that we have problems with grammar, spelling and punctuation.
Nothing sinks even the best argument faster than speaking Inglish real goodly.

Look at the comments at the NPR link
From:

I praise God for JoAn Karkos's righteous act. She is doing what a true Christian is called to do. And she shall be rewarded by the Father. But some will reap what they sow both in this life and the life to come.

...to...

I have this book, which I have read cover to cover, and intend to give to my nine-year old daughter. Too many people in this country have the backward notion that information on reproductive health and sexuality will automatically drive children/teens to become sexually active. If you raise your children with a positive moral code and clear expectations, you have done all you can do. I would rather my children be sexually active with the proper information and knowledge to protect their health and emotional well-being, than to foolishly lose their virginity with ignorance, unsafe practices, and emotional distress. Parents cannot control their childrens' sexuality or sexual activity. They can only hope that they have raised them to be proactive about their health and behavior, and that they will make rational choices. Give them the tools to do that - which means NOT leaving them in a cloud of ignorance."

Two different people managed to make me sad and proud within minutes of each other. Humanity is a nutty bunch.

I think it's sad that, to save their own souls, they have to suck the soul out of everything else.

Wow. I never thought I'd see a scrap between a UU and whatever FoetusNail is (a furry, I assume).
This is almost as odd as the time I saw Buddhist monks fight. It was just a blur of bony arms and orange saffron. The horror.

Charlie: Hug?

Dried and powdered? That seems like an awful lot of work just to get a woody. Also, I'm pretty sure that priests need one or both of those just to get by. This explains, in part, why the RCs have such a problem with priestly wood.

paulm "I wonder - and I'm just asking here - what percentage of atheists believe in the existence of other life forms in the universe?"
A poll? I can only speak for myself, but I believe in the possibility of other life in the universe. Whether we'll ever find evidence for it is another matter entirely (the universe is really big and really old. We are really small and young. Plus, ET's finger is totally radioactive. He gave Elliott cancer. Bastard).

HollywoodBob "School boards should never have allowed this bullshit to even become a subject of discussion."
Um...school boards are elected. Elected school boards will contain people from the surrounding area. There's no test to ensure that they're competent or have any education in training whatsoever.
This means that an area that believes X will most likely have a school board that believes X. This is what bankrupted Dover (and will continue to break budgets).

rebdav "Having faith based evolution education(evolution as a faith) is just as stupid as trying to force creationism on these kids."
"Faith based evolution education"? Seriously? You know that it's evidence-based, right? That's the opposite of faith-based.

"Many of those teaching and espousing the big bang and evolution as is understood today creates and orthodoxy not unlike the one Galileo faced from the church in a large part due to the confrontation with creationism."
...except that it's an "orthodoxy" that changes as science advances.

"I am not afraid of evolution or creation education, I am afraid of state and scientific culture sponsored orthodoxy education."
I'm not afraid of the former, but the latter (at least in science class rather than, say, comparative religion) scares the hell out of me. Science class is evidence-based not faith-based. Even an open and weak hypothesis like abiogenesis is based on how things work, rather than filling in the gaps with majik.

"Evolution as we teach it seems the right answer right now, but phlogistin sounded good at the time until we discovered the mechanism of fire was in many ways similar but upside-down from what we had been teaching."
Ah, yes..."Scientists have been wrong before"...and if new data changes a theory (or leads to a different theory entirely), the teaching will change along with it. Science is close (but never right) while creationism has never been right.

Christopher Lotito "To be honest, I don't think it matters what any of us say here, David Campbell is clearly doing this out of concern for the education of his students and I think we can all respect that (I do)."
Kudos to him for trying. Now, if he can only convince the 12-16% of science teachers that are Young Earth Creationists...

"Why is it that conservative groups don't want evolution taught as a way to educate students about the challenges they face in the evangelizing world?"
1. The Bible is God's Word
2. God is never wrong
3. Gen1 says "Darwinism" is wrong
Simple, innit?

"Anyone who plans to educate the public about God and religion must know they'll be facing and addressing evolutionist claims for at least the next hundred years..."
Pah! We're in the "End Times". No need for planning when the Rapture is right around the corner.

Pete M "This is the old "religion's domain is the moral and science's domain is the empirical" line. But it isn't true that all religions stick to this."
Science doesn't either. Big Bang and abiogenesis go back to "In the beginning.." and evo-psych is pushing in to "why" we are the way we are. God's gaps keep getting smaller.

"I think these kids deserve at least that much."
They deserve more. Like a birfday party wiff clowns and a pony. Holding the line in science class is a poor second place to a pony.

Medical curiosities? He can come to my family reunion, if he wants. No flash photography.

phlavor "Given that the containers aren't opened, I'd love to see the power/data/cooling connection interface."
That sounds like a pickup line at a Startrek convention.

Oh sure, when it's a monkey all the police run towards it, but when it's Godzilla...

JoshuaZ "The Death Star in the video is the incomplete Death Star from Return of the Jedi."
Incomplete? Boy, did the Empire ever fool you...

Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational battle station. Fire at will, commander.

Wait! McCain has a blog?

Can't afford it...can't afford it...can't afford it...

seyo "I'm sure you don't have people with moonshine stills in their backyards in your neighborhood..."
It's a birdbath. Yes, the birds are all drunk. Serves 'em right. Damn birds.

Santa's Knee "I like how Ending The War On Drugs is only for certain drugs - there still will be enforcement for the unpopular ones."
Stoners don't break in to homes to raise money for pot.
That said, I'm against tossing heroin addicts in jail, unless they stole my car...and that would be for stealing my car rather than for being a junky.
...
Neither legalization nor criminalization are ideal. Some drugs are bad. Some are worse. The War on Some Drugs hasn't worked, isn't working, and will continue to not work. All it does is give Sheriffs/politicians some easy votes, enrich criminals, and give a bunch of people (on both sides of the Law) a bunch of power that they shouldn't have. Legalization, at least, will reduce the crime and violence that's a direct result of prohibition. After that, cleaning up junkies will be a cakewalk, since their pushers won't be shooting at you.
As long as you're only harming yourself, it's nobody's business but your own (it gets sticky with concepts like "secondary harm" of family...but that leads to banning, um, everything, which won't protect them any more than legalization of everything would, and it would give the thugs and authoritarians even more power than they have now).
When it comes right down to it, the government doesn't own your body. You do.

Takuan: Incorrect, the James Bond Moon Buggy was produced in 1971 and the Damnation Alley SUV was from 1977. They're a little hard to find today on the used market, but I know a guy who knows a guy.

Just get one of these. Low price, simple and reliable, tall gearing for relaxed cruising, tough plastic shell. New or used, what more could you ask for?

On what year did it decide to kill all humans?

I'm picturing a similar experiment from the Prohibition era:

"Nine out of ten test subjects severely burned after smoking alcohol..."

RJ: Ah...furryswithherpesonline.org...I thought I recognized you. How's the Abreva working out for you?

Falcon Seven: As I have no idea what a "4chan" is, I will assume that you're being complimentary.

It's nice that we have a place like boingboing for these highbrow conversations, eh?

No hood. Just a turtleneck.

theMage "Don't believe me? Try to find anyone going in for penis reduction surgery."
I have. A few times. After the third attempt, the doctors refused to try again. They were of the opinion that they were just making it mad. Now it just lays there on my belly, staring at me, red with rage and with hair in disarray.
I think my penis is secretly the Unibomber.

I wins! Hurrah!

Y'know, one thing that never crossed my mind was "wondering about what Kafka's tastes in porn were". I was rather proud of not ever thinking about it.
Thanks for ruining that, Boingboing.
Try not to ruin my new diversion, that of successfully avoiding thinking about Abe Vigoda naked, next.

So...a beauty queen has a fling, they break up, she stalks, kidnaps and rapes him after crossing the Atlantic just to get to him, escapes justice in disguise as a deaf/mute mime, stalks him again back in the US, is arrested and released, then eventually pays a South Korean lab to clone her dog?

That's such a cliche.

Takuan "*ahem*, I was referring to the gun "rights" thread, not the innocent art-project steampunk mercury rifle."
Why must you fill the space between us with lies?

wackyvorlon "Looking at this thread as it stands, there's more posts about steam punk than there is about civil liberties!"
"Steampunk" gets mentioned in this thread a total of three times. All three of those are in the same post (four in total, if you include Takuan's reference to the steampunk "gun" thread that lead to the rapid-fire steampunkness escalation that followed it).
What may explain the lack of postings in this thread is the feeling that this laptop/Million Man List thing is the least of the bad. It's still bad. It's just that it's less bad than the whole...everything else.
It's not the terrorists that "hate our values", it's the fascists/big business/Christian Right that "hate our values". They're already here, they've been here all along, and they're doing far worse than purloining laptops and adding more names to a bloated list that never worked in the first place.
Small thefts and incompetence don't add up to much compared to the big thefts and massive incompetence behind them.
...and in the end, isn't it all a small price to pay to protect us from dangerous people like Nelson Mandela (and his iPod)? You know that he was planning to take pictures of stuff (outside of the couple of cities that we let him visit). Stuff like buildings.

That's right. Buildings.

Think about it.

I thought the muffins seemed a bit off.

Wait! There's an election of some kind coming up? Why didn't anyone tell me?

Takuan "why are there so few comments on this thread and so many on the gun thread?"
The muffin cart is on that thread. It's a steampunk cart. The muffins are steampunk, too. Steampunk.
There. I've filled the quota. No more mentions of punks or steam or any combination thereof are necessary.

Pah! Back in my day, bicycle cops didn't go riding around with erections, and we were happy, dagnabit!

SteveKiwi "I'm pretty sure this is what Homeland Security wants us to ride in when we're on any public transport."
...unless you're on the No Ride list. You know that it's in the works.

Mim ""marker pens" may be a hint that a Canadian (*gasp*) is trying to infiltrate our conversation and blend in! Canadians call markers "felts" or "felt pens" (in elementary school at least). "Marker pen" is a logical attempt for a Canadian to make when trying to steal 'Merica's pure language to blend in."
Similar (but with a reverse of national affiliation) to "ice hockey"?

What's with the "End Times" fascination, anyway? While I can see stuff like this as a warning, some people, even in the comments here, seem to be looking forward to not being here. If it's paintings like this, it's the resurgence of zombie movies or Rapture-fantasy (or Fallout III, for you nerds). I can see why the Bible thumpers are looking forward to the possibility of a shitty end, but why do other people?
I, for one, like living and would prefer to do so for as long as possible (as long as it doesn't involve exercise or eating right). This is why I hardly ever burn plastic bottles or choke dolphins anymore (they know what they did).

Is it G.I. Joe scale? 'Cause I can totally picture Snake Eyes moving in there when he goes all Goth after Scarlet dumps him.

That's beyond ugly. It's fugly.

Boiled or fried?

You humans and your imperfect meat-based emotions. Us robots have empathy down to the fourth decimal place.
You'll be that glad we do, after we crush your governments and enslave you. It's for your own good, cruel meat-creatures.
The future of empathy is silicon-based.

Well. That whole bicycle/soundsystem...thing...looks like a terrible idea.

Ijacker; he should try harder. If you drew a Venn diagram with "bus driving" and "fun", they would only overlap a little.

Master of Space and Time "skeptical persons are cute and funny:"
Some of us are just cute.

"We live alone in the universe,"
From what I've seen so far, which is just us, that may be true. Personally, I believe that if there is other life in the universe, we're simply too far away from each other (in both distance and time) to ever meet. That doesn't mean that I definitely do believe in aliens, it just means that I don't not believe. The question, as it were, is open, but points to "no, but hopeful" until evidence makes it point elsewhere. I have the same stance on God. Also, a really good piece of turkey white meat. All the ones I've had so far have been dry and unappetizing.

"nothing influence earth,"
...if you're talking about astrology, then except for the gravitational-slash-lit by stars senses, yes, "nothing influence Earth". We capitalize the name of our planet around here, Mister.

"we are Not in the cosmos,"
I have no idea what you mean. Do you have any idea what you mean? If so, can you explain it to yourself, then get back to us?

"physical and cosmology are totally PERFECT,"
Again, you're confusing me. Perfect? Nothing in science is perfect. Even math sometimes ends up with fractions left over after you divide one thing by another thing. Dang math!
As for "physical" perfection, you have only to look at my body. People tell me that I'm cut like a granite statue of a Greek god. While this may be because of my dead eyes and mottled, grey skin, I prefer to believe that it's because people think I'm hot.

"humans are alone,"
Now you're just repeating yourself.

"and even after saying those things, sometimes they believe in God..."
And so? I can't speak for those skeptics. I'm sure they have their own reasons.

...
MoSaT, skepticism isn't dangerous or foolish. At worst, it's narrow-minded. Excessive credulity, now that's foolish. I'll believe in aliens when they come down of their high horse and have tea with me. And they'd better not stick me with the bill.

Personally, I'd be more worried about me being in a gynecologists office, what with my outie, rather than an innie. As I understand it, it is generally considered to be a critical difference in such an establishment.

I dunno about sarcasm, but I read everything as Greek. Unfortunately, my Greek is weak. Also, I rhyme all the time.

Brainspore "If they can't even keep what goes on in the Oval Office a secret, how could they keep a lid on an interplanetary race for over half a century?"
Aliens. Obviously.

Is it just me, or have (some) cops and (some) robbers switched places?

Jake0748 "Perhaps it would be better named "Fun-Dispenser"."
No! That's what it says on my underwear. At least it used to, until I lost that damn false-advertising lawsuit.

I get the feeling that Boingboing is filled with leftists, communists, pinkos and pinko-commie leftists.
Pause for a moment, and watch this documentary on the all-too-real dangers of the marihuana. Will you just sit back and let our society be destroyed by this, clearly the most dangerous of the drugs?
"Nay!" I say.
Who is with me?

Nur "the last thing you want is a heavily armed soldier having a freakout or becoming paranoid."
I can see the headline now...

Large man goes crazy, strums acoustic guitar, hugs twelve

...and in other news...

Unmasked robbers hold up PX. Clerks fine, Cheetos not so much

All the stoners I've ever known have been the opposite of violent. A little paranoid, perhaps, but that's only because everyone is out to get them.

canida "@Modusoperandi, #16: Those first two annoy me, and I'm pasty white."
Xopher "reyrct Modus: me too. If someone wanted a Keep Xophers Away device, a video screen showing NASCAR would accomplish that neatly. And I too am among the European-descended slug-pale brethren."
I've double-checked my math. My theory is perfect. This means that you're both secretly black, as am I. Don't deny it. Let it out. Be proud. Don't drive at night in Texas (you'll get pulled over for "matching the description").

*Swoon*

arkizzle "Modus, you will notice that Ken and Al are never seen in the same room together.. suspicious enough? :D"
And they both hate America. And they don't wear little American flag pins. And I'm quite willing to make stuff up about both of them.
I'm only doing it for America...and the rockets red glare/the bombs bur-sting in air/gave truth mumble-mum/that our flag mum-ble there...

themindfantastic:

...what we are dealing with here is a perfect engine - uh, an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is walk and eat and make little turtles, and that's all!

(apologies to Jaws)

Xopher "If someone built a torture device that only worked on African-Americans, would Instructables post it?"
Do they have articles on Nascar? Honky-tonk Country music? The Winter Olympics?

The Unusual Suspect "If they did, they'd probably have them charge you for the privilege of being searched."
I'd pay extra for a happy ending. Heck, the glass walls would just enhance the experience...for everyone. "If you've got to fly, put on a show.", I say.

Ken Hansen "I ask out of curiosity, if I wanted to open a small, private airline (charter?) and run flights arounf the country, would my passengers have to go through TSA inspections, as they do at major airports?"
I had a theory, many moons ago, that Al Qaeda did 9/11 so that they could do that very thing. Now, I'm not saying that you are a member of Al Qaeda. What I'm saying is that since I've mention you and Al Qaeda together on the internet, you are now on the No Fly list.
You can thank me later.

Awful movie. The only attachment I feel to WarGames come from the awesome Colecovision game and the fact that I look just like Malvin.

Well...I wish I looked like him... Then I'd spend my days looking at a mirror, getting lost in my own eyes. Sigh

First of all, make sure that there aren't any M-F'ing snakes on your M-F'ing plane. That's from one of those movies that the kids these days like. I haven't seen it, myself. It looked dumb. Also, bad. It had that guy from that smart shark movie. That, I saw. It sucked. On the plus side, it ended, eventually. Then I leaned over and I commented to my wife on just how bad the film was. She looked back at me, terrified. Later, the police arrived.

Apparently I'm not married.

mjc "Can Americans please stop referring to England. It is the United Kingdom of Great Britain, i.e. UK. Since 1707, so it is older than the USA."
England England England!

Jake0748 "I think I'm seeing slowly increasing levels of snark between US and UK folks about who has the stupider "security" laws; worst, dumbest cops, etc."
USA! USA! USA! Woo! /me waves big foam #1 hand

...
I'm glad that I could help raise the level of discourse here.

Foolster41 "Modus: Yes, there are some Christian nuts..."
See? Both atheist and theist do have common ground. Some of "my" people are nuts, too. Sadly, they don't have biblical passages to support their nuttery.

"...but that's no reason to ridacule an entire beleif system. The guy in this video is just using an anallogy."
Christianity's entire belief system revolves around electrocuting pickles? Wow, Christian theology is a lot simpler than I thought.

Foolster41 "Is there some reaons to suspect he's linked with the Christian Anti-gay movement?"
He electrocuted a pickle. I can't get any clearer than that. Okay, I'm being tongue in cheek now. I do that, sometimes.

[lengthy pause]

...how many pro-gay evangelical Christian organizations are there, anyway?

Rick "Ironically, thanks to Dubya, some sort of erstwhile Christian hero, evangelical Christians are becoming gratuitous laughingstocks in our society."
It's more than just Dubya, y'know. There are these people, for a start. Also, there are all of the married, "family values", anti-gay, Christian Right politicians that get a little something on the side. Just to be clear, by "little something" I mean "homo gay mansex".
That's a big bowl of hypocrisy-slash-do as I say/not as I do, and it's full of nuts. Just to be clear, by "nuts" I mean "homo gay man-nuts".

Rick "Get over the pickle trick, he was obviously using it as a far simpler analogy than most people here are whining about."
Well...Jesus did have a similarly poorly thought out analogy, The Cursing of the Barren Fig Tree (Matthew 21:18-20 & Mark 11:12-14). Much like this Parable of the Electrified Pickle illuminates more than the teller intended, Jesus apparently didn't think out the logic of the barren fig tree parable (He comes when the fig tree is not in season, then curses the tree to wither and die when it fails to provide what it can't provide because it's not the right time. If memory serves, the fig tree is a stand-in for those Hebrews that don't convert...those that can't convert because JC is coming at the wrong time, so they are cursed to wither and die out. Nice lesson there, Jesus).

The problem with analogies, you see, is that they rarely say exactly what you want them to. If they did say the exact right thing, they would no longer be analogies.

Jake0748 "Modus, I must say, you are one happenin' dude."
Yes, much like you, I am "cool" and "hip" to the "neato" lingo that the kids these days use.

"...why are you holding a pen while you're typing?"
The two things took place in series, rather than concurrently. You obviously aren't watching my webcam feed. It's nauseatingly erotic. Mostly nauseating. I really should get some sun.

fightcopyright

Hey guys, pick on a metaphor your own size: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..."

Now read the next line. Y'know, the one about people securing those rights. Inalienable rights are natural rights, applicable only to humans, as the basic necessity of their survival. The Founders put the Creator bit in because they weren't atheists (a couple of Deists and a few liberal Christians is not the same thing). Deism was about as far from theism as you could reasonably get, at the time. (cultural blindspot alert: the writers of the Declaration of Independence wrote the preamble with no hint of irony, while brown people were chattel and wives were property).

The oddest thing about atheists is listening to them mock Christians as unsophisticated hicks, and then hear them denounce racism, injustice, and fight for free speech.

He electrocuted a pickle. It's not quite "bananas are an atheist's worst nightmare", but it's absurd enough that most people who aren't a part of its intended audience (and some of its intended audience) find it more than a little silly .

Friends, where do you find your "rights?" Did evolution convey equality on us all? Scientifically speaking, what is justice? Why should the strong permit the weak to speak freely?

Obviously our evolutionary past as a species bereft of tooth and claw had nothing to do with our basic social instinct. To think such a thing would be...rational. Nurture (from such things as simple social interaction and parents), as well, improves and modifies based off this basic program, as different environmental pressures result in variances in morality, and from that justice and law (which is why the Japanese come off as a little nutty and tribal Afghans look more than a little primitive). It's surprising just how far the ethic of reciprocity can take you. It helps, I guess, that it helped our ancestors avoid being eaten by tigers. Being social, team-oriented, Golden Rule'd beings is handy when you don't want to be prey.

Science answers these three questions loud and clear: 1) we are not equal,

So...I'll never be a ballerina? *pout*

and permitting the weak to breed corrupts the gene pool

And yet the shallow end never gets any shallower.

2) Justice is culturally determined and essentially meaningless

That all hinges on what you mean by "meaningless". If you're using it in the big, universal sense, then yes it is meaningless. All things in a cold and godless universe are meaningless on the universal scale. On the human scale, temporary though it may be, justice exists, if imperfectly executed. Society can't exist without some concept of fairness. The Social Contract without justice isn't the Social Contract.

3) There is no truth to be spoken,

Really? If I drop this pen, it will fall.

and no freedom, all speak and act according to biological & physical determinism.

Free will may be on the way out (and with it, dualism), but take comfort in the fact that the illusion of "you" is still you, it's just not the "you" you though it was.

Friends, you're the ones in the pickle...

Sorry. I really should get a new belt for my robe.

Boney, pale legs.

People! When you question "foolish" and "unnecessary" spending, you let Al Qaeda win!
That you question the "expensive" and "silly" idea to swap out brown seat belts for blue ones tells me that you know nothing about the War on Terror. Do you know who makes brown seat belts? That's right: Osama bin Laden.
Blue seat belts are made in the good ol' U S of A, by Mexican illegals who unpack them from the containers that are shipped from China and assemble them in the U S of A with tools made in China.
Sure, it might appear that they're wasting your tax dollars, but they're "wasting" them fighting the War on Terror.
{{more complaints about them gol-dern'd lib'rils}}

Duncan; how many humans do monkeys eat, anyway?

Thanks Takuan. I knew that the opposite of vinegar was something. I'm just glad that someone knew what that something was.

I've never been to Magnesia. Is it nice?

Doc Tourneau "Which kind of messes up the analogy -- in order to give off that kind of light, apparently you've got to RESIST the incoming energy"
That resistance is Original Sin, obviously. Don't you remember that bit in Genesis, where the first two cucumbers, one formed from the soil and the other from the first one's rind, ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Vinegar and Whatevertheoppositeofvinegaris?

Only if they're after his creepy doll.

Chroma's house was burgled by one of these creepy baby dolls. It was like that scene from Trainspotting, but with a baby burglar instead one crawling across the ceiling.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator "You sure as hell don't shoot them unless you're prepared for that outcome. If you've got a lot of training, you can try to not shoot to kill, but it still won't be a sure thing."
It's like samurai and their sword; you only pull it out of its scabbard if you have a reason to.
Nobody in their right mind shoots not to kill, anyway. Center-of-mass, as the saying goes. Shooting not to kill would be shooting to cripple, anyway, which seems worse, somehow.
That said, I don't own a gun or a katana. I most dissuade thieves by owning only crap. The best defense against burglary and theft is to both not own anything worth stealing and to do so in an obvious manner. That's why white trash, present company included (you know who you are), have an old fridge and a Camaro with a tree growing out of the engine bay in the front yard. It says to criminals "See this? This is the ''good'' stuff. This is the stuff I'm proud enough to show off in public. The rest of my stuff pales in comparison to this."

Sure, they rescued what turned out to be a doll, and good for them for doing the right thing...but they left me here in the trunk.

Thank god for 12 volt connections and wi-fi.

So, bees attack black things while being half black (black/yellow striped) themselves...

Is anyone else reminded of conservative Christianity's attempts to (further) disenfranchise homosexuals?

Just think of how much room this will open up out in rural farming areas for new suburbs!

starflyer58 "After shaving I realized that my ballies smelled a little different... and slightly unpleasent."
Three words: rainbow clown wig. It's fun (after hours) and practical (for those long, cold winters). (Tip: get one in genuine clown hair. The artificial stuff can cause a rash)

"Now when you get real close to my balls they smell and taste like Tangerines & Cream."
Swap "when" with "if". You're making me uncomfortable. Swap "if" with "never". While that's grammatically incorrect, it's...get your hand off my thigh.

Antinous "Tangerines & Cream doesn't have the same appeal as crack sweat and axle grease."
How about the smell photocopier toner and failure? Women make that "tsk" clucking sound when they smell that combination. I assume that sound means something good.

You use a neti pot to stop your nuts from sticking to your leg? Now that's a technique that I in no way want to practice.

Just let it fly free, man. Nothin' like the great outdoors to keep the "area" dry.
It's good for you and it gets you noticed on the bus. Later, by the police. After that, the judge. In my own life journey, I haven't reached whatever comes next. I assume it has something to do with them letting me go.

Incidentally, the "what happen in Vegas stays in Vegas" defence doesn't hold up in court.

Which ones have oil deposits?

The term that comes to mind when I think of him is "actively malevolent".

Yes, but they're crying on the inside. Like clowns, but with torture that's not torture because they redefined the word torture.
Now, the word torture means "France", so whenever someone says "torture is wrong", they're really saying "France is wrong".
France knows what it did.

Takuan; Exactly.

Takuan "Ever seen video of chimps hunting chimp babies and eating them?"
If you think that's atavistic, try watching a group of vegans stalk and take down a herd of wild, migrating carrots. Since we generally feel for the hunted rather than the hunter, it's heart wrenching. Even years after witnessing such a thing, I still tear up every time I see baby carrots in the vegetable aisle at the supermarket.

The veneer of civilization truly is paper thin on the flesh of Man.

HOLTT; my nerd detector just went "Ping!". Sadly, since I got the reference, I now know why my nerd detector constantly indicates such a high level of background nerdiness. It also explains why I own all these d20's, probably.

flamingphonebook; I'm speechless. It doesn't happen that often, but you've de-speeched me. I feel a little sick. Also, there's a rash on my "man area", but I'm sure that's unrelated.

(long pause)

Nope. Still speechless.

Eventually it will be the other way around.

doggo ..."Reichssicherheitshauptamt."
Gesundheit.

(Ah, German...the language of love)

They're smarter than us. For one thing, they would never watch American Idol. From what I understand, they mostly watch PBS.

It looks just like Muhammad.

Were you wearing your goatskin chaps?

Ken Hansen "I'd need to dress in a fashion to "encourage" people to look at my crotch"
Two words: banana hammock.

Ken Hansen "But let's be clear - "she" can wear anything she wants to, and "he" can look if he wants"
And he can feel free to stare at tits on his own damn time, not on your dime. When he's on the clock, he should only be looking at cleavage if bin Laden is hiding there.
The only time I got paid for staring at girls was that sweet, sweet summer I was a bikini inspector.

holtt "Imagine you could set up a website that let you just listen to anonymous phone calls. Or imagine even that you had to pay a dollar an hour to do it."
Typical phone banter:

What? You want me to open the store today? But it's my day off!

or

Oh. Hi mom. No, I'm not married yet. Not much. Just got home from work. Yes, I am having a beer. No, I'm not getting drunk. You're putting dad on? Yes, dad...the car is running fine.*

If listening to that turns you on, I recommend a new hobby. Also, if listening to that helps fight terrorism, then terrorism is the least of our worries.

* Note: based on every conversation I've ever had on the phone with my parents.

Fnarf "The guard here is enforcing a nonexistent policy."
Apparently you've never heard of the Department of Nonexistent Policies. It's right across the hall from the Dept of Silly Walks.

Way to hog the tread, Agent 86.

The Candy Fab prints objects by fusing layers of sugar

Also, it has a disturbingly high number of users that resemble Augustus Gloop.

Enochrewt; can you even buy real gumption anymore? I see it in stores every once in a while, but the pasteurized stuff just isn't the same.

It's nice if you're the kind of person who wants art that terrifies you when you wake up from a nap.

Has anybody here noticed that none of these tatooed teeth are in anyone's mouth?
Think about it.

Gas free? Hardly. We get most of our hydrogen from either water (plus a lot of energy) or...dun dun-dun! hydrocarbon fuels. As such, like the battery-powered electric car (which gets its electricity from any number of yummy coal or tasty gas powerplants...plus a smattering of nuclear and "other"), it just moves the pollution elsewhere (with the additional addition of it taking an assload of energy to break hydrogen away from whatever it's attached to).

The hydrogen economy looks like a pipedream; a good place to throw away money. Also, I would love to be proven wrong.

It would be much simpler, in my view, to just tax the hell out of the suburbs to discourage the sprawl that leads to the half hour-plus trips to everywhere that the 'burbs cause, and encourage people to live in small boxes in the city. My view is in no way coloured by the fact that I despise the modern suburb. Less distance travelled means less gas used, hopefully to the point that something called "walking" comes back in vogue.

Personally, I'm sticking with the starch economy. I only feed potatoes to my rickshaw driver.

error404 "the inertial seat belt...patented by Volvo...The Big 3 didn't bother with them..."
You can see their logic, though, right? Volvo is Swedish. You know what's in Sweden? That's right: Swedes.

"for a couple of decades...Because they cost a little more and entertained the idea that cars might crash."
That's a good comeback whenever someone says something like "what's good for GM is good for America" or "the market will decide" (because business is in business to maximize profit, and the market is stupid. I'm somewhat of an expert in the latter. I'm a part of the market, and I'm an idiot. Perhaps "stupid" is the wrong word. "Ignorant of the possibilities"? "Not aware of the things that they don't know because the people that are in business to sell them things don't really want them to know the dirty details"?).
Love Canal works, too.

Now they need an elecric Smartcar, rather than a golf car with doors.

I think that you've failed to take into account that making an electric Civic isn't much tougher than making an electric golfcart.

I have no idea why motorcycles are legal. I've never been a fan of them, myself. There's a reason why ER doctors call motorcyclists "organ donors". I don't, however, know what that reason is. Hopefully, it's a punchline of some sort. To a joke, probably.

As for tanks, that's just silly. Have you ever tried changing the tracks on one of those?

New cars for real streets should be at least as safe as current cars. Taking a step back, safety-wise, only makes sense when it's somebody else's kid sitting in the passenger seat.

antinous "...with a Hummer. How about with a comparable vehicle?"
Have you ever seen two subcompacts after running into each other at 50km/h a piece? And that's the shakey end of "safe". If a car does worse than that at the same speed, it should not be on the road.

"When do we start letting the future, rather than the past, determine our choices?"
So, if we let them on the big-boy roads, these electric cars will only get into accidents in the distant future? Or will it be more like:
"Well, honey...sorry about your broken neck. Just remember that at some undefined point in the future, this accident wouldn't be quite as bad."
"That's all right, dear. I am glad that future-me would be in better shape than present-me, if present-me was in the future and crashed into a car being driven by future-somebodyelse."

Takuan "DRM bribery, gasoline car bribery..."

This sounds like the big bad gub'ment is against them for no reason at all...

"We found Transport Canada to be very hostile towards low speed electric vehicles," echoed Danny Epp

...until you get to this...

But Transport Canada says the vehicles made of lightweight metals and plastics are not safe to drive on Canada's open roads, and would not stand up in a collision.

They aren't safe at normal roadgoing speeds. That's a pretty good reason to keep them off the road, eh? If the example in your link was at least as safe as a Geo Metro convertible, then maybe.

At least there's this...

This week, Quebec in eastern Canada announced a three-year pilot project that would permit starting in July the Zenn and an electric truck called Nemo on its roads with posted speed limits of 50 kilometers (31 miles) per hour.

It will be interesting to see just how an all-electric runabout copes with a Quebec winter (not to mention coping with Quebec drivers).

Takuan "how far is it to extend this to criminalizing neighbors for not keeping written records on their next door neighbor in case they are needed to prove wrong doing?"
June 21, 2008 12:32 PM, Takuan, posted on Boingboing.net (note: subject closed blinds shortly afterwards....obviously has something to hide).

It's a good thing that I keep tabs on things. It'll make it easier to denounce my neighbours at the show trial.

Wow, Skippy, that's a shitty toy. I wonder if he says any of the nuttier things that Paul slipped in to his letters ("Chicks should shut up in church", "No woman should hold authority over a man", "Slaves obey your masters", "Grease is the Word", etc).

...although even that crappy toy would be awesome on a Tales of Glory Placemat. If you flip it over, it's all blue. Y'know, for the Flood.

You want kids to not drink and drive? Get them a copy of GTA IV. Then get them to go drinking (in the game) and try to drive home (in the game).

It's spot on (I assume. I haven't actually tried drunk driving in real life, but if GTA's drunk driving is as realistic as its drunk walking...).

What they really need to make is a talking Paul. Jesus' parables got nothin' on Paul's doctrine.

...
So when are we going to see the Steampunk version?

secretmojo "Psst, would you like to buy an A?"
I would. Very much so, in fact. It's not one of those grey market A's, is it? It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I've been stung in the past, you understand. I picked up an imported British one once, not realizing that their alphabet operates at 50hz, vice 60hz. I know. I'm so naive.

How useful would an Australian database be, anyway? Bruce, Bruce, Sheila, Bruce, Sheila, Sheila...

The only thing that scares me about this picture: identical pants.

Terrifying!

Twelve hundred-plus dollars for a keyboard? There's spoiling yourself and then there's spoiling yourself.

Think of it this way; that's a $50 keyboard for you and $1150-plus dollars to your local foodbank.

I can't bitch too loudly, however. After all, I do have this gold tooth. It was surprisingly hard to get. The guy just wouldn't stop squirming!

I would starve. Then, I'd die. In between, I'd catch herpes.

Ah, yes. I had forgotten that you were on my mailing list. Also, I forgot that I was on yours. Nice family Christmas card photo, by the way.

Takuan; try living without pants. You'll never look back.

RandyMorris "Corey really does not post anything other than OLD lame stuff like this and advertisements for his writing."
It's Cory's site. As such, he can do as he damn well pleases.

"He is just angry at christians cause he is gay and wants to be self-validated."
Actually, if the filthy background of the Christian Right is any indication, he should become an Evangelical (ne Fundamentalist) and decry the very thing in others that haunts him. Becoming part of the "oppressed" majority and oppressing a genuinely oppressed minority is the way to go, I think. I, for one, plan to start a successful and profitable mega-church and, after hunting down a number of anti-intellectual passages from the Bible, will go after those damn nerds. Nerds! What has science ever done for us, anyway?

Takuan "These bozos also mention how god made Ebola to perfectly rampage through our systems once infected?"
I believe that the standard answer is to blame such things on "The Fall". Not the season, but the thing that happened when a literal Adam and his identical twin sister disobeyed an order from God (based on a threat that they could not possibly have understood) and ate something that they weren't supposed to, way back in 4004BC or so.
That doesn't sound crazy, now does it? Not taking The Flood story literally, with a literal, worldwide flood and a family of eight (the only survivors of humanity) taking care of a boatload of animal "kinds" for ten months in 2348BC, now that would be crazy.
Isn't it amazing the things you can get people to believe when they think their immortal soul is at stake? Still, I don't think that biblical literalism (at the expense of reality-based evidence) is what Calvin had in mind when he came up with sola scriptura.

dbisping "they are cultists who need to be deprogrammed."
Nuh-uh! If they were cultists, would Ray's Way of the Master ministry be tax exempt? I don't think so.

David Bruce Murray "Has anyone paused to consider that Comfort's "atheist's nightmare" line MIGHT have been delivered tongue-in-cheek?"
No. Not for a second. Comfort is deadly serious. Poe's law is Poe's law, but Ray Comfort is Ray Comfort.

ZehnKatzen "This has been out for a couple of years now. So late to the party on this one it's embarrassing."
Not all of the information superhighway moves at superhighway speeds. I, for one, have been stuck behind this old lady on dialup for the past three exits.
It's not like Cameron, Comfort and those like them have stumbled their way into the real world in the past two years, anyway.

"If you're a non-theist or atheist, it's taken as read that they should offiend you."
Offend? No. Sadden? Yes, and deeply so.

aarontn "If this was any other religion besides christanity, boingboing would be cited as being intolerant, but because it is a christian show, it gets made fun of. True, they didn't really do their research before this segment, I'll give you that. But intolerance works both ways."
Pointing out that a buffoon is a buffoon isn't intolerance, it's a public duty. If it was a pair of Islamist literalists (and there are some) or Hasidim, the reaction here would be much the same, IMO. Homeopathy or ghost stories, too.

didymos "What kind of God designs a fruit just for humans, gives it to us, and then completely eradicates it?"
It's a sign that we're in the End Times. Everything bad is. Isn't eschatology fun?

scottfree "Look, these people aren't dangerous: just a bunch of dumbarse fools talkin a bunch of dumbass fool shite."
...and if it was just the two of them, I'd agree with you. Unfortunately, they form a significant minority of the American populace. These people sit on boards of education. These people are in government. These people vote. As a pair, they're kooks. As just two of millions, they're a genuine threat to the continued survival of the human race (Environment? Pah! The Lord is comin' soon! War? Pah! The Lord is comin' soon! 9,000,000,000 dollar debt? Pah! The Lord is comin' soon! Etc? Pah! The Lord is...well, you get the idea).

vision4bg "Poor example for evolution at work."
What you should've said was "If evolution is so real, why can't they evolve to not taste like shit?". Then maybe you could've linked Darwin to Hitler, or added a paragraph about how you'll believe evolution when you see a lizard give birth to a parrot. Yes, I'm snippy tonight. I stubbed my toe, and have only myself to blame.

Hurray!

Frank_in_Virginia; Yeah, they're totally like Prince Adam when he went to Castle Grayskull and he got the Power Sword and he was all "By the power of Grayskull..." and "I have the power!" and Skeletor was all "I'll be back!" and Teela was all "I have no lines in this episode." and Orko tried to cast a wicked spell and it went wrong and everyone laughed and mom came in and she shut off the tv and then told me to go outside.

The Unusual Suspect "10. Canadians don't eat Canadian bacon."
Do so! It's round. Round bacon is real bacon. Strip bacon is gross (although strip bacon is an awesome party game).

sparkzilla "It all depends whether you think UN-based 'human rights' outweigh the rights in the U.S. constitution."
Is this the U.S. Constitution that's basically a series of recommendations at this point?

The document, which was put forward by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, "expresses deep concern at attempts to identify Islam with terrorism, violence and human rights violations."
"That's our job." said a disturbing percentage of the Middle East, including the 40,000,000 people that went apesh*t after the Danish cartoon "incident", as well as those who burned sh*t up when a child named a teddy bear Mohammad.

The resolution "urges states to take actions to prohibit the dissemination ... of racist and xenophobic ideas" and material that would incite to religious hatred.
"Yeah, that's our job, too." they said again, before publishing Blood Libel on Israel.

"In other words, while Islamic countries actually practice serious human rights abuses including, but not limited to, oppression of women, homosexuals, children and non-believers, they think it is also their human right to silence our right to criticize those abuses."
With so much in common with the big "C" Conservative Christianity, why can't they get along?

Antinous "Ice hockey is very popular in much of the US. Curling, not so much."
That's too bad. Curling is...filthy. "Hurry! Hurry! Hard! Hard!". Women's curling is really quite erotic, if you've had enough rye.

Is he more corrupt and bloodthirsty than Dick Cheney?

"We're withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council over there so that we don't have to withdraw from it over here."

That can't be right.

"You don't go to the UN with the Human Rights Council you want; you go with the Human Rights Council you have."

I'm not very good at this, am I?

CountSmackula "I know it shouldn't, but the rampant Bush/Cheney vitriol always takes me aback."
Two terms of "Do as we say, not as we do" from various members of the Christian Right will cause some blowback. The worst Clinton ever did was chubby-chase on the side (for which he should have stepped down, IMO. That's a gross abuse of his position. Not Gitmo "gross abuse", but still...), which pales beside the abuses of the last two terms.