Posts Made By: James C Chandler Jr

Doug Matulis said:

What do ya think? 8)

No Jimmy Carter?

Lee Spain said:

Secretly, I'd like to get a Chipmunk .22 and make a Tacti-cool version with adult sized accessories.

That's neat. Hadn't seen the Chipmunk rifles.

At Sportsman's Warehouse, saw a kid-sized Henry .22 lever gun that was about $180 IIRC. I handled it and the lever action seemed smooth, woodwork good, etc. Am not a rifle expert, but handling it at the store, seemed eminently shootable in spite of the short stock. Just a tiny little cute rifle.

William Paolini said:From a religious and biblical viewpoint I'm not seeing how there could ever be nothingness. Anyone have any other thoughts?

I don't know anything about religion, but have seen theological arguments that evil does not exist. That evil is the absence of good, and absolute evil would be the absolute absence of good. IOW, that the evil->good numeric range has a range of 0 -> infinity, rather than a range of -infinity -> +infinity.

So if you buy that "absence of good" definition of evil, then pure evil might be nothingness.

It is too deep for me. Kinda like in semiconductor theory where - substrates have an excess of electrons, + substrates have an excess of 'holes' where electrons should be, and conventional engineering "positive current" is the motion of holes thru the circuit from more-positive toward more-negative!

It is just a matter of taste, but I never cared much for the song. For one thing, the melody and chord structure was unimaginative. At the time it seemed to me that Lennon had entered into a phase of (unintentionally) parodying himself. Everybody has opinions, and I don't claim mine as exceptional.

It seemed that such as Emitt Rhodes were parodying late-era beatles styles better than the ex-beatles were.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CvzawbXLS8

I was an atheist liberal at the time, rather than atheist libertarian as today. The lyrics gave me the willies back then. At best they seemed impossibly idealistic. About as realistic as yellow submarines and octopus gardens. The lyrics brought to mind rosy propaganda leading to 1984 or Brave New World dystopias. A good sound track bed to overlay on a Blade Runner cityscape.

Paul Kammueller said:

Gold, bonds and stocks rallying, all at the same time. Not normal. Clearly the gold market believes inflation is upon us, the bond market believes deflation is upon us, the stock believes neither -- which is right?

If everything costs more dollars, wouldn't that imply that dollars are worth less than they were in the past?

I doubled my money on platinum in the last 18 months, but was too conservative to put much money in platinum so its not a big freaking deal. Assuming the platinum is worth about the same as it was 18 months ago, then one might conclude that the dollars are worth half of what they were back then?

Lee Spain said:

If you had a choice and could vote for a charismatic crook who had pro-business, GOP, orthodox policies --OR-- a really boring, but honest, accountant lady who has no charisma, who would you choose? I think the crook could bring much needed economic development to the state, but he led one of the largest corporate medicare frauds in U.S. history. On the other hand, I don't agree with any of the Democrats policies, but she is not generally regarded as a crook. This is the WORST choice I've ever had as a voter EVER anywhere! When I was in Georgia I voted Libertarian one time because the GOP governor had a little bitty minor land scandal.

Yes, this is Rick Scott vs. Alex Sink for governor in Florida...

It is a problem in some elections, though it seems more often that we have well-matched crooks on both sides.

Dunno the specifics of this race, but if the crook is basically competent and only steals a few million during his term, then it might be a bargain compared to the honest weenie peeing away billions of the state budget on truly futile ideas?

David Cotterell said:

No message. Just relax.

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/open-thread-4

Dave

Something for everybody in that one.

Doug Matulis said:

They want to take away the mortgage interest deduction. You know charitable deductions are next!

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/25/deficit-commission-weighs-dropping-mortgage-deduction/

I have been of the opinion for years that the mortgage interest deduction distorts the market in bad ways.

It also subsidizes homeowners on the backs of renters.

If you have Joe who is buying a house on a high interest loan. Then Sam is renting. Both Joe and Sam make $75,000 each. Sam will pay more tax than Joe, because Sam doesn't get the mortgage interest deduction. Joe is buying his house subsidized by Sam. Its a cushy deal for Joe but sucks for Sam.

Since this unfair transfer of wealth encourages house loans, it is the govt encouraging and subsidizing bank profits on the backs of renters.

Rod Kaufman said:

This piece of crap gets a sweet plea deal for killing an American special forces soldier in combat because of his traumatic upbringing? The guy is a terrorist and ought to be hung as one:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/26/khadr.statement/index.html?hpt=T2

Complain to BHO's attorney general. I'm sure he will listen.