That is an interesting theory. Should the death penalty be reserved only for those who support it?

I would say that no, it should be abolished completely. While I support the concept, the risks of getting things wrong are not worth it IMO.

I guess it depends on whether the European companies consider that the same as "using the drugs to kill", and forbid exports.

Er, what? Is that "for people who break laws, and for people who participated in enforcing or making laws", or is that "for enforcers/makers of laws who also break the law"?

Then allow me to make it crystal clear. If someone else came in and started pushing to have the Pastafarian creation myth taught in schools, and they managed to convince the majority of the nation to stand behind them, I would not, even though I share their opinion on the "correct" creation myth.

I suppose, technically, that if you claimed to believe in a 100%, majority-can-inflict-whatever-it-wants-on-the-minority representative democracy, you'd be right that anyone opposing the pushing of the Pastafarian creation myth would be a hypocrite. But we aren't claiming to believe in a 100% representative democracy. At most, we are claiming to believe in a representative democracy that has certain things in place (like the Bill of Rights) to limit tyranny of the majority. And I for one tend to try and always respect those limits, even when I am among the majority.

But it is probably far more likely that we simply disbelieve in all other forms of government even more. "Democracy is the worst form of government ever, except for all other forms of government that came before it", or something like that.

I believe I have already adequately addressed that it is neither.

Yes actually. Maybe not the same set of people, but I find it entirely plausible that there exists a group of people who would find pride in that.

So if I came in and started pushing schools to teach the Pastafarian creation myth, and I managed to get enough people backing me such that we represented the majority of the nation, you would be completely ok with that? Because it seems to me that that would be a gross violation of everyone elses First Amendment rights. But that is exactly what is happening here, just with a different creation myth.

Opposing the violation of certain fundamental rights is not "I gladly accept the will of the people, as long as I'm on the winning team".

Except an encrypted hard drive is not a locked shed. It is a notebook, made out of metal, written to with magnets (adjust analogy as needed for flash memory and other alternative storage devices).

And if I'm not required to teach the cops the made-up language I used in this physical paper notebook, why should that change just because the materials that make up the notebook change?

Quick, what is your ATM PIN?

You don't have to actually tell us, but if you're like me, you have trouble remembering it unless you are in front of an ATM.

Just because the defendant was later able to give them the password, does not mean that he was lying when he said he could not remember it at the time.

Only if you are King Missile.

(I really hope that page is what I think it is. It was linked to from the King Missile page, but I'm not in a position to actually check it for myself.)

Guessing you mean this post, which yeah, totally didn't see until now.

Thanks for the clarification.

Re-reading the post again, the closest I can find to referencing time travel is that he says he experienced "reality bending", which he later explains as he literally saw a window frame and a concrete pole bend, followed by the thought of an earthquake randomly coming to him. But nothing seems to imply that he believes that thought to have been planted from the future.

I guess the whole "I felt this 9 minutes prior" could be seen as a reference to time travel, but as I said, the time frame is small enough that I just chalked it up to him feeling it as it happened.

While Taco Cowboy's post does sound mildly far-fetched, the idea of "feeling" a quake before it happens (or in this case, feeling that a quake happened but not actually feeling the tremors) isn't so far-fetched. Aren't other animals supposed to be able to sense such things?

It is just another anecdote, but a few seconds before the actual shaking from that earthquake that struck the Washington DC area a while back, my environment felt... fuzzy. It is difficult to explain the exact feeling that I felt, but something felt off. It is not something that I can explain, but that is only because I do not have the knowledge required to explain it. It in no way leads me to claim that "God" was sending me a message about the impending quake, or that I had some sort of extrasensory experience (where extrasensory basically means cannot be explained by science).

Regarding Taco Cowboy, the time frame is small enough that it sounds less like a premonition and more like they merely felt whatever I had felt. And any visible bending that they saw could be explained as their brain attempting to make sense of this unknown feeling. As for why Taco Cowboy would not have felt any tremors, maybe they were far enough away to not feel the tremors, but still within range of whatever produced the "off" feeling? I don't know.

I would be remiss if I did not admit that, yes, it could have been complete coincidence. But it also seems within the realm of possibility that it is not.

Why would they need to do that? Just have one person who has the job of watching out for shark attacks, drownings, etc. Or if they don't want to hire a life guard, put in an electronic sign that checks the appropriate twitter account.

Could you please explain why the customer should expect the store to not honor the $100 price? Because I would probably look at it and think "huh, I guess it was one of those 'add to cart to see the real price" items."