Quin

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Everything posted by Quin

  1. For me... Clean kill (or the attempt to do so) = showing all the respect & love for my neighbor as myself AND protecting the innocent. (If I have a child at knife point, please, bullseye = spinal column. Take the shot. Period.) However... The murder via anger would apply - if I shot through the child (on purpose) because I cared more about killing the man than saving the child - if instead of a clean kill, when in have the power to do so, I spend the next few months torturing them for kicks. They're still dead, all 3 ways, but in 2:3 I destroy my own soul in the process. Even when 2&3 are accidents (innocent gets hurt, or we screw it up and someone takes a long time to die, hours not months, but still instead of quick and clean) people get TORN UP, ya know? Especially with hurting an innocent, but even if it's an evil SOB, most people can't take joy or shrug off their suffering. Guilt eats them. It doesn't mean you can't be angry when you kill them. It means your anger is in check. You park your truck and give chase through the crowd, instead of plowing through the crowd in your truck. You ground your kid instead of beating them. You kill cleanly, in justifiable circumstance. Q
  2. Quin

    WWJD?

    The same way we disobey anyone/anything else, and for the same reasons. (Necessity, desire, willful ignorance, ignorance, disagreement). I disagree with FPs military example, though. Because, to me, that's an abdication of personal responsibility. To me, the Church is a gift. An "easy button". But no matter what, at the end of the day, I am the one who will have to face HF with both my actions and my Inactions. Who knows? Perhaps "I was just following orders" / the abdication of personal responsibility will be a get out of jail free card. I'm not being sarcastic. It may well be. I choose to live as if it isn't. Which means I CHOOSE to follow the rules. Individually. On a case by case basis. Whether they're handed down from my religion, my country, my job... I do not obey blindly. I believe very few people do obey blindly. Most seek to understand, and choose for themselves. Because even the best of people, those whom we hold in the highest regard, are not God. They can make mistakes, they're not perfect. And I can misunderstand them, even if they're completely in the right, because I'm not perfect, either. (Ever have an argument with someone where you're both arguing the same side, because each of you is misunderstanding the other? That.). So I feel it is incumbent on each of us to choose -very carefully- how we live our lives. Which rules we follow, which we bend, and which we break. I choose to obey, and I choose to disobey. Just as most do. Q
  3. On the US side of things, it's just penduluming a bit now / "examples being made", in my opinion. Substitute gay marriage / non-discrimination laws for ANY other new law or social more, and there's a spate of charges (or other activity) laid in the beginning, and then people simmer down. It's a human thing. Whether it's being allowed to ride in the front of the bus, so even if you like the back you rush the front... Or being allowed to vote... Or topless bathing... Or __________ whatever... And you have groups of people who respond based on their personality type: - those who do, who will go back to doing not - those who party in the streets - those who seek out opponents to thumb their noses at them - those who try to set legal precedent - those who set up boycotts - those who set up studies - those who move onto the next cause - etc. Whether it's gay marriage, or breast feeding, or city chickens, or emancipation. Big or small, there's a set series of human reactions the victors (and defeated) all follow. Some of it's really necessary, though, from a legal perspective. Because untried laws are straw men. There has to be precedent set to show a law is actually solid/will be honored by people in general, & enforceable. _________ I'm not super familiar with Canadian Law, but even in the States, certain professions are held to higher standards than the public. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find a "predictable is preventable" kind of law in CA, that would be illegal here. Like in the US prior bad acts are usually not allowed in court, but in the UK prior bad acts aren't just allowed they get a spotlight on them to show patterns of behavior. Or our Miranda Rights vs UK equivalent: US is "You have the right to remain silent" (and speaking without an attorney is stupid), but in the UK if you remain silent, but later depend on something in court you didn't say until later it hurts your defense. So in the US members of the Nazi Party can get teaching certificates,,pass the bar, get their MD, etc. But it sounds like in CA, belonging to the same hate group would preclude position in certain public positions. So it's not really a stretch that if you signed a document stating that you would never marry outside your race there would be the same consequences as if you signed a document saying that you will never marry inside your gender. Q
  4. Hail larger than a marble = the tears of car insurance companies (We all know their hearts are made of ice, so come to find, are their other body fluids) Q
  5. Quin

    Abu Hamza

    You're such an optimistic fella! I think you may be forgetting that not only do we have the death penalty here in the states (although New York doesn't at present, it changes periodically, and there are loopholes... Like if he's brought up on more charges in Pennsylvania or Texas), but our prison system has a rather high death rate. I'm sure there's a pretty large betting pool on the number of days he survives, how soon he's in the infirmary with a non-lethal stab wound, & other -seriously repugnant- medical issues. Our prisons are not safe places. Q
  6. I HATE this law. Hate, hate, hate, despise, loathe, abhor. Kids films mom being beaten up by dad. Consent state? Dad walks free, kid gets in legal trouble. Ditto for recording your rapist, mugger, murderer, etc. It's a STUPID, reactionary law that only protects evil. Because laws are already on the books (expectation of privacy, libel, etc.) that protect us from being recorded without our permission & those recordings being disseminated. Q
  7. When I've worked in the 3rd world, I do often use the phrase evil/unclean spirits... Soap kills them. Wash your hands before eating, wash wounds before dressing them. Anti seizure meds are armor against them, strengthening your daughters spirit so that she can fight off the spirits before they make her fall down. They only work for your daughter, and a few like her. For others, they will invite evil spirits in. THIS dose, too much and it will overwhelm her own spirit. Like wearing armor that is too heavy. It needs to be just right. Light enough for her to carry, strong enough to ward off the seizures. People are SMART. But we're also products of our environments. Describe microbes, and you've just used the same description your patient uses for spirits (can't see them, powerful, can make you sick, do this strange thing to kill them &/or fight them off. Strange being relative. A lot of indigenous religious practices are anti microbial. Course, a few have been clearly mistranslated. Boiled cows urine is a wicked strong antiseptic. It's been used for thousands of years on most continents. But there's this ONE region of Africa that uses cow poop. With wicked high mortality rates, because cow poop is full of microbes... Instead of antimicrobial). So when I'm in regions that science might penetrate in 50 years... I use terminology that means the same durn thing, but that makes sense to the people I'm working with. Q
  8. There's more than one (several) Baals... So I'm not sure which one you mean? As far a parallels to Christ... There are many many many deities, demigods, & heros that have both Jesus's pedigree as well as acts in life. Horus immediately springs to mind (virgin birth, missing adolescence/young adulthood, same &/or similar miracles, crucified, rose from the dead), but there are quite a few others. I have a more difficult time parsing Judaism, Christianity, & Islam, though, than any of the religions of Abraham compared to any other. Q
  9. Is there a trend? We lose a huge chunk of people with the 9am slot, because we have so many night workers, for example. But they come back in a year, when they can. Ditto, we lose people very couple years as they take their boards and move (we're near a few grad schools). Or is it simply bad luck & timing that the old core seems to be leaving en masse (that if they left 1 or 2 a year it wouldn't be noticed, but they happened to leave within a short period). As far as Mom5, though, I doubt it's 1 person said something 1 time. It may have been the straw that broke the camels back, but it's almost need in a vacuum. In a vacuum only tends to happen when it's a terrible situation, and backed up by many people. Like someone goes off on someone else, and everyone else stands around and says/does nothing to stop them at the time, or to fix it later. Q
  10. Okay... I bumped the home button with my nose (arm in a sling means I contort a bit, here)... And came across this article. I'm a little disturbed: 1) Mocha = Chocolate + COFFEE 2) Frappuccino Syrup = COFFEE + other stuff (The "creme" ones don't have frappuccino mix in them, and are fine. Strawberry & Creme, Vanilla, etc. But the article recommends a couple of the coffee based ones, which surprised me). There are a lot of drinks at Starbucks that don't have coffee in them... But many of the ones in the article do, in fact, have coffee in them. Including the hot chocolate ordered with MOCHA (noooooooooooo!) syrup. It's fairly easy to ask for chocolate syrup, or he yucky powder based cocoa. Not that I'd recommend yucky powder, but at least it doesn't break the WoW. Q
  11. Just for definitions (because my personal belief is that in order to follow a rule, one needs to understand the rule: both why, which you've clearly demonstrated you understand, and what... Aka definitions). Necking & Petting are old slang for the same actions current slang uses for - Making Out - Snogging - 1st base & 2nd base (still old slang, but still specific enough that they get used). I had a giggle listening to my son & his friends arguing about them a few months back. Q
  12. Sometimes the best prayer we can make is to be willing to be willing. To want to want. Because we sure as blazes DONT want, right now! HF knows your heart & your mind. He knows when you want to believe, but don't... When you want to be a good mom (dad, boss, sister, employee, friend) today, but aren't... When you want to have patience, but have run out... When you want to listen, but can't even hear... When you want to be brave, but run... In many ways, wanting to believe is more powerful than belief itself. It shows a changing heart, and a desire. Yes. The "acting as if" or "fake it till you make it" CAN be interpreted as lying. It can also be interpreted as Repentance! As trying. Because repentance is a process. It's actively trying to do something new, different, until eventually... One has actually repented : found joy in doing the opposite of what they did before. But the process of repenting, of changing ourselves instead of just asking for forgiveness, making no need for forgiveness? That takes time. It's present tense. So... 2 things: 1) If you look at desire + repentance = broken heart & contrite spirit. Then you've got the requirements for baptism. 2) Do you really want to ERASE the journey? So what that it's not cookie cutter, or perfect out of the box? It's your journey. It's gotten you to where you are today and will take you Ito your tomorrow. It's special, and unique, and yours. Cherish that. Don't be ashamed of it. Q
  13. I was just scanning through this thread and got knocked off my chair by this statement. 1) No. No it isn't. Tourette's and other neurological disorders are NOT caused by unclean spirits or any other kind of possession, demon or otherwise. They're physiological disorders. Just like any other physiological disorder. 2) To continue to pick on Tourette's for a moment... There is NOTHING inherently wrong, evil, or unclean with Tourette's! Ya wanna start talking badly about psychopathy, then I might be tempted to get on board for even a moment, but Tourette's??? It's just a series of tics, that while distracting and frustrating at times for sure, but in no way predicts anything about the person themselves who has it. No more than a sprained ankle predicts a limp. People with Tourette's can be phenomenally holy, totally normal like most of us, or complete jerks. Their disorder has nothing to do with their personality, who they are, or how they think or choose to act. Q
  14. My arm is in a sling, here, guys. To get to the new button I have to use my nose. What's wrong with roulette? LOL. 2 more weeks to freedom! Q
  15. You know... Whenever Pam's age gets brought up... I have this mental image - Wendy Darling sitting with her laptop rolling her eyes. That, REALLY, Pam is just a genius 12yo. Who hires an actress to keep,her cover at social events B) ((I am posting this against my better judgement, as I accidentally hit the home button, instead of 'post' and what flashed onto my screen was a picture of MitRomney glaring at me. Yikes! ))
  16. I think I mentioned before that in my area most families can't afford for both parents to work because the cost of childcare is too high. A side effect of this (and other things, like mediocre schools) is that our area has a HUGE homeschooling community. There are half a dozen school districts in the city, and homeschoolers outnumber all but the biggest 2. Over 25,000 registered homeschool kids in my county. So if ya wanna get into Princeton... No need to go all Breaking Bad 'Cause Ivy leagues are recruiting HARD from the HS community. 'Cause HS'ers have the time to do all the snazzy well rounded stuff (to the point that a lot of parents are complaining that homeschool,kids have unfair advantage in academic competitions... From spelling bees to internships), and since most states are dual enrollment* (38 last I looked) Most HS'd college "freshmen" already have 2 years of community college under their belts at 17. So the Ivies are getting YOUNG, advanced, highly motivated kids they can either use their CC credits as a highschool transcript, or just funnel them through 2 years, diploma, and off to grad school (depends on the school whether they want more grads or less out in the world. Different schools, different policies). * Dual Enrollment has different names in different states -RunningStart, BrightFutures, etc.- but it boils down to a Federal option that allows highschool students to take community college courses for free (tuition waved, still need to buy or rent textbooks & materials) until they graduate from highschool or age 18/19. Away-school kids do these courses on top of their other coursework, although some kids get 1-2 periods a day off / use them as elective credits. Most come school kids doing dual enrollment attend full time. I'm sure, sooner or later, more parents are going to catch on that they can pull their kid from highschool & send them to college for free instead, but until then... It's a meth-free alternative that can help getcha into a competitive program. Q
  17. My cousin is a Physical Therapist. He's also ex-military, and like me, is a huge fan of Cross-fit. And he curses them regularly. For the same reason I said earlier... Not all sports or activities are for everyone. As a PT he sees the results of people doing CrossFit who shouldn't be, And as it's blowing up all over the nation the past few years, a lot of people are doing it who shouldn't be. So he has to deal with the results. It's just like doctors who have to deal with preventable illnesses that people don't prevent Cops dealing with drunks Teachers dealing with parents Specialists have to deal with the results of the choices people make. It doesn't matter if most people can ride motor cycles and be fine... In the medical world they're still OrganDonors ... Because soooo many people end up dying on them. Roughly 20% of my cousins patient base right now are in 6-18mo recoveries from injuries sustained at CrossFit. So he's there every morning loving them, and cursing them every afternoon (well, dinner is when I hear the vents). 30 years ago it was Yoga all the PTs hated. By now, most of us who get injured doing Yoga...don't do yoga. We do stuff like CrossFit. Before that it was Football, before that, heaven only knows. But it takes awhile for people as a whole & individually to learn that they aren't in the (75%, 50%, 99%, whatever "most" works out to) that can. And PTs have do deal with the results of torn muscles, ligaments, dislocations, surgeries, etc. NO sport is for everyone. But right now everyone is trying crossfit. When the swell backs down, PTs won't hate it anymore. Q
  18. In our area (and more and more others, I'm finding on oarenting forums over the last 10 years)... Most families with a stay at home parent are NOT staying home as a luxury. They're staying home because they have to. Because childcare costs more than what they would make. It's $1600 per month per child for McChildcare in our area. "Better" childcare costs $2,000+ per month per child. Even 1 kid means blue collar workers can't afford to work. But 2 or 3? The only people who can afford that are the 6 figure professionals. Q
  19. There are now, no lie, Bluetooth rotary phones & phone handsets! (I'd link the picture from ThinkGeek, but I haven't sort out how to, quite yet. :: ) Q
  20. Bwaaahahahaha! My ex used to make an 8,000 calorie shake for weightlifting. It made my stomach lurch... But here's some/most of the ingredients: Ice cream Peanut butter Whey Black strap molasses Ensure Avocado Macadamia nuts Chocolate or Strawberry Syrup Frozen fruit He'd drink it while eating tuna out of the can. I dared him once to just add the tuna to the blender. Bad choice. He bought it was a brilliant idea, and I spent the next 5 years scrubbing out a fishy blender. Gag. Q
  21. Mine hunts me down & corners me. LOL... Actually, that's the first time I felt like a "real" member, and not a newbie... The first time I ducked the Bishop! Don't use me as a yardstick. I could carry a sign around "My life serves as a warning to others" My Bishop's awesome, but I have a habit of volunteering a lot, and then my work pulls me away... So I get a lot of "Where's Quinn?" Also, I think my name is next to his wife's or daughter's in his phone book. So he sees my name a lot (I know this from accidental calls). I would suggest meeting with him & discussing JUST THIS VERY topic, however. Bishops are all different, so it's both a good way to judge what he wants you to come to him with, and a platform to discuss the things that are troubling or challenging you, at present. Q
  22. When I was homeless I lived on 99cent whoppers. (Dates me. When was the last time they had that special on?) It was the healthiest thing I could get: High calorie, long burning fat, protein, glucose for my brain (bun = uber processed awesomeness), and even vegetables. Plus salt. I may have been on a losing streak, but I wasn't a fool. When suddenly homeless... I moved to Florida. Weather that won't kill you to sleep out in, bathing & laundry in the Gulf, and the ERs were free for medical treatment. I'm in Chicago, Montreal, Boston... Looking at the homeless population and shudder. Head SOUTH darnit. South! But it does mean needing to keep your salt levels up. Whenever I'm seriously broke (or trying to save money) I go back to that. Sadly, while $1 a day could feed me back when (admit, I usually only ate every couple days)... I have to spend $14 a week on food these days. McDonalds hamburgers just don't stack up to the Whopper ... But they're still a buck. Q
  23. I've known some really stupid (or willfully ignorant) vegetarians & vegans, too. One only ate French fries & grilled cheese sandwiches. Yeah. Another couldn't figure out why their pets (kept on a vegan diet) kept dying. Um. CARNIVORE. We're omnivores... We can choose our diet to a certain degree. Pick a living thing, and eat it. Plant based, animal based, whatever. As long as they've got the same nutrients in them, we're good. Carnivores & Herbivores cannot. They can only digest nutrients found in one source or another. Or, to a degree, SOME carnivores can digest plant materials that have already been denatured in acid (why they go for the guts of herbivores). But not all. And they can't live on acid cooked veg alone. Much les on a diet a bear can (which is an omnivore, nor a carnivore!) THATS why your dogs and cats keep dying! But most of the vegetarians and vegans I know have been so most of their lives (20-80+ years, Buddhist & Hindu predominantly) and make sure to eat complete proteins (legume+grain, embryonic anything - eggs, nuts, etc.). Although they DO tend to get grumpy when I ask for the almond flavored tree fetus or baby bush. Can't imagine why. For myself... I eat vegetarian, vegan, Midwest artery clogging, pescatarian, kosher. Halal, the whole shebang. I do get odd looks when I order the vegetarian omelette with bacon, though. Except in Israel. Blew my mind to find bacon in Israel. WTH? Just wrong. Twitch. Q
  24. Every once in awhile, Mirkwood just comes along and makes my day. "...take out the pos that has your child." & done. Q
  25. ROFL.... I think it's a flatline curve: 55 out of a possible 150 Unbelievably privileged; check it hourly. Hmmm... That or I'm more privileged than you. Nyah Nyah boo boo. Q ETA... I do love though, as the resident white-chick in a lot of situations when people tell me that I don't know what it's like to be a minority. While I spent a few years in the States as a child, most of my life has been spent overseas. Asia, Middle East, Near East. Hunny. Not only do I know "what it's like", I grew up in places where I wasn't even allowed to ride on public transportation, shop in many stores/cafés/etc... And of many of those that did allow me/my race into... There was a seperate entrance, limited selection, etc. BUT WAIT... In many places pipe bombs, beatings, lynchings, etc. still happened regularly and THAT is why you don't go out on your own / learn to run fast. So your Granny and I might have a nosh & chat, but you and I are from different planets as far as "have dealt with racism in my life".