unixknight

I agree with your sentiment 100%, but sadly, facts are irrelevant to those who think emotionally, or who are pushing an agenda that doesn't fit well with those facts. Confirmation Bias is a real problem.

I believe he's a good guy and clearly knows what he's about. That said, he was all too successfully cast in a bad light for various reasons during his last try, so I'm not convinced he's got a strong chance. To be honest, he does seem to come across as somewhat flipp-floppy when it comes to healthcare reform. Not saying he is or isn't, only that it's how he comes across.

I feel the same way. Seeing how many safety procedures and mechanisms are in place, as well as how intensely the NTSB investigates these things serves as a reminder of why it's so safe to fly.

Sadly, one episode of this series featured a Qantas flight. It was a while ago that I saw it, but I don't think the plane actually went down, it just had large chunks fall off of it in flight. (This happened after Rain Man was filmed, of course.)

If that were the case (in both examples) then their lights would have remained on as they drove away. To add a little more detail: In the first example, he had sat at the intersection for a moment before turning on the lights and crossing. This wasn't a guy on his way to an emergency call. This was a guy who didn't feel like waiting for the red light to change and abused his powers to skip it. In the second case, it looked like he decided he wanted to turn right but had already missed the turn lane, so he flipped on the lights, made the turn, and turned them off again. Believe me, I wanted these to be legitimate. I hate being in the bad mood I get into when I see this nonsense go on without consequences. I watched as they drove away (I was stopped at these red lights, so I was able to sit and watch them drive off) in hopes that the lights would stay on and they'd be zooming off to an emergency. But they weren't and they didn't, and this is pretty typical, at least in my area. So yes, my friend. I'm sure. And you know what the worst part is? Other cops who see this stuff generally don't respond. It's why I'm not swayed by the argument that says it's the bad apples that spoil the rest. The rest may or may not be doing it, but they aren't doing anything about it either, even though it's their sworn duty. I provided a link a few pages back that shows what happens to an officer who does the right thing. Harassment, threats, and reassignment. Guys, this stuff isn't going to change as long as people want to make excuses for this kind of behavior. A badge doesn't grant special rights. People seem to be forgetting this.

You guys should check out episodes of "Mayday" (Known as Air Crash Investigations in England.) Each episode profiles an actual commercial airline crash and then goes through the NTSB investigation and shows the causes. (It's never just one thing, but a combination of problems that create a perfect storm resulting in a plane going down.) They have full episodes on YouTube.

So this last week, I watched 3 separate occasions where a police car's roof lights came on so it could commit an illegal traffic violation. The first time, it was to run a red light. (Yes, the lights went off after he was safely through the intersection.) The second one was to turn right at a red light from the left lane. I'm wondering if this is another one of those things we're supposed to just put up with 'cause it makes life for our "heroes" easier.

Just sayin'

I had the same experience. Unity was a serious resource hog. That's because we know better than most why IE stinks

Hehe this is what happens when you get a bunch of Linux lovers together Hehe try yum sometime I don't really care about the desktop, in fact, I prefer it simpler. Not a fan of the Ubuntu quick launch bar thingy. At home, my CentOS server doesn't even use a GUI at all, I usually run it headless and only connect directly to it when there's a network problem. At work, All I need is the console and file explorer and I'm good to go. The only GUI I need at all is the Eclipse development software and it doesn't care what OS it's on.

What sin is being committed in the voting booth? I don't disagree with what you're saying here, but I don't see how it relates to legal matters. Remember, secular law has nothing whatsoever to do with sin. Plenty of sinful activities (like fornication or watching porn) are perfectly legal, and plenty of illegal activities (like speeding and double parking) have no spiritual implications apart from the simple act of breaking the law itself. Then did I misunderstand you when you said this:

You might disagree with the argument, but that doesn't invalidate it. Besides, if you're going to say a law doesn't impact free agency on the grounds that people won't necessarily obey the law, then all laws are pointless and that's often been used as an argument for anarchy.

I'm gonna agree. Not to say that no work needs to happen. We have to work on ourselves so we don't become complacent and (more) difficult to live with... but my marriage never feels like work.

I've had better experiences with CentOS than with Ubuntu, which is also a free OS and based on Red Hat. In my case it's for operating my game club server, so I'm not criticizing Ubuntu, it just wasn't meant for that.

The times I experience conflict myself is knowing how to vote. One school of thought says that you should vote with an entirely secular mind, because it's a secular Government. So check your religion at the door. I can see where some people find that to be reasonable, but usually it's a view espoused by people who are afraid of how I'd vote if I simply voted my conscience. On the other hand, you can vote your conscience, because for most of us, our understanding of right and wrong is bound to our religion and cannot be parsed separately. In the event that this produces a law that's unconstitutional, well we have a mechanism in place for resolving that. I generally go with the latter view, although sometimes I'll make exceptions. I tend to vote against nanny state laws, because to me individual liberty (which is how we manifest free agency) is more important than most other issues. I'd vote to legalize marijuana whether I use it or not because that's individual liberty over nanny state thinking, for example.

Well, we watched the movie. It was prettymuch exactly what we expected: crass, juvenile, inappropriate and stupid. It had its moments, but overall not a movie I'd recommend. That being said, I'm thrilled that they went ahead and released it. I'd rather live with a few more stupid movies than to live in a world where cowardice lets dictators have any power at all in a free nation.

The Definition of Gun Control: "The idea that a woman found raped and strangled with her pantyhose is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker wound up with a bullet hole." -Unknown

IE was basically Microsoft's attempt to do with the browser market what they did with the OS market... Dominate it by having their browser essentially become an industry standard the way Windows is for basically any non-developer environment (and half the developer environments, for that matter.) IE struggles not only with security problems but with compatibility issues with open source web technology. I am a Software Engineer working in an open source environment for web development and I can tell you that everything we do has to be tweaked to work around the shortcomings and peculiarities of IE. Most of our stuff works without modification on Chrome or Firefox, but we have to do some extra work to make it play nice with IE every time. This is especially true of JavaScript and related frameworks. The result is that we can't support all versions of IE, and so our users wind up going with Safari or Firefox because those browsers don't have the same kind of headaches. Now, this is not accidental. Microsoft was gambling that people would switch to their own proprietary web development technology, .NET. That gamble hasn't paid off and now they've paid the price for not making nice with the other technologies. .NET is popular, but not dominant as they'd hoped it would be. These issues have been slowly but surely gnawing at IE's market share. My tech blog shows me the metrics of who's visiting it and, since my blog is targeted toward developers, the vast majority is Firefox and Chrome, with IE being the smallest share of the "major" browsers.

I love it when anti-gun folks trot out the phrase "assault rifle" as a way to boost the emotional impact of their statements. Anyone who has an understanding of firearms knows how utterly arbitrary that phrase is. This is why those arguments gain no traction with gun enthusiasts... we just know better.

You trust a Government that's already demonstrated its lack of trust in the citizenry by taking away your guns. I find that interesting.

This has always been my understanding, including in my earlier life when I was Catholic.

He probably didn't really feel that way even then. It's not like he could admit it if he did know it was going on.

Waitaminnnitwaitaminnit... You deploy a joke about talking frogs and talking owls and you're busting my hump over nocturnal golf course watering? I challenge you to fisticuffs, sir. (Joking, of course.)

Human beings are designed to eat meat. Yes, you can be a vegetarian or vegan but it's very tricky to get just the right nutrients from non-meat sources. It is natural for certain species, like humans, to kill other animals for food. That said, it doesn't mean that we have the right to ignore needlessly cruel practices either in farming or hunting. We must kill an animal to eat it, but we don't have to torture it.

An optimist says the glass is half full. A pessimist says the glass is half empty. An engineer says the glass is twice as big as it needs to be. A Doctor, a Congressman and an Engineer are golfing when their progress through the course is halted by a man playing on the next hole. He's doing terribly, and making very slow progress. The doctor asks the caddy what the deal is with this guy. "Well," says the caddy, "He was a firefighter. Last year, when a fire broke out in the clubhouse, he rushed in and saved several of the staff. Unfortunately, in the process he lost his sight. Even though he's now blind, he loves to golf so in recognition for the sacrifice he made, the golf club lets him play for free whenever he likes." The doctor, overcome by inspiration, says "I will dedicate my career to finding a way to heal his blindness!" The lawyer, also inspired, says "I will work toward getting more legal protections for the blind." The engineer says "Why doesn't he just play at night?"