Said coyote is in every sense an "illegal immigrant" except it's sanctioned by government employees ;-\

  (Don't read any more in to that than just a joke, please, I don't play partisan asshole politics,for either side)

SB

    Funny, I had some people trying to tell me that it gets nearly everything, not very long ago.

  Since MSRT is pretty much useless, what's the point of Microsoft trying to push it? It's just more junk that really doesn't need to be on the computer.

SB

  Not following along with the radical consumerism insanity during the Big Holiday is unamerican, didn't you know?

SB

  we could also spend 50 billion fixing the Katrina disaster

  I haven't seen any recent figures, but I do know that federal funding for the cleanup has already cost at least four times that. Heck, here are some figures from 2006.

SB

  We won't see the Puppeteers, they are long gone toward galactic north already.

  On the other hand, by the time we detect the Pak fleets coming from the core, it'll already be too late... they kill technological civilizations in their path.

SB

  Just in case the P had a rotating sig, I reproduce it here (apologies Naatach):

  In some ways we are more confused than ever, but we are confused on a higher level and about more important things.

  For anyone who doesn't get it: Go live in Northern Minnesota/(or similar climate) for a few winters. One begins to wonder why people in more temperate climates bother to wear clothing. 30F? T-shirt weather. ;)

SB

  +5 Dilbert mod, including the sig ;-)

  Irony is common. Funny Irony is rare. Double Plus both...

SB

  Best. Thread. Ever.

  (Except for the one that the intelligences that watched the creation of the universe had. Oh, to to a photon on the wall....)

  (Bunch of Expansionists! What do you know!? A more orderly, stateful development would have been better...)

  SB

  Yeah, fantasies regarding supernatural mammalian-type beings seem to be very common among members of the human species. I even heard one about an invisible man in the sky who has a list of things that people shouldn't do, upon pain of punishment, but it doesn't seem that the ones who worship him get punished when they do those things. Indeed, many of them gain lots of riches and control over their fellow members of that species. Who would have thought?

  Might be a superstition, who knows? /sarcasm mixed with truth

  People are becoming more stupid since the internet took off. I don't blame the internet. I blame people.

  BTW, my spell checker insists on capitalising "internet". It's not a proper noun, nor a trademark. Stop that. (nevermind the argument about the 'z' and 's')

SB

I meant tangential to the question of whether or not free will exists.

  That you can even argue whether free will exists, implies free will.

  As to whether it exists in individuals, I think you are going to have to figure that out for Yourself.

SB

  Of course it does. I included quantum physics, as to the best of our (collective! see?) knowledge, it adequately describes (some aspects of) reality. The fact that the same initial conditions need not always lead to the same outcome is, IMHO, tangential to the question of free will.

  Do you have a better explanation for the wide variation of human behaviour? Tangential? I don't think so. As you pointed out, we are governed by the same physical processes that govern the rest of the universe.

  I think you need to question your basic assumptions a bit closer. No offence meant.

  I know that I know nothing. ;-)

  I know nothing but what I observe...

  But is territory really comparable to property? AFAIK animals only claim (and defend) the territory they need to survive, either alone or in a group. They don't (again AFAIK) have the tendency to claim ever bigger territories and use social constructs to defend them.

  If what you said was true, then animals would not expand into new territories that would force them to evolve; which is obviously false.

  BTW, humans are just animals - evolved ones, perhaps, but still just animals. There is little that differentiates us from the rest of the life on this planet other than our technology.

SB
 

Nowwhere in his post does he say anything about requirements to check a firearm for a civilian.

  His second paragraph - which I'm assuming you're referring to, rather than "second word" states:

  And, unlike standard baggage, you have to use a lock and case THEY can't open... And if they want to see the contents, by their own regulations YOU have to be present! Make sure your cell # is plastered all over the case.

  Which is only indirectly related to what I was asking. He states that it has to be locked up. Not whether or not one can check a firearm as a civilian. I've never flown, but personally, I don't travel anywhere without at least one sort of "personal weapon".

  His "second word" is: "check"

  Please review your reading comprehension as it relates to your posting.

SB

  The fictional characters certainly didn't write it.

  One has to remember that in the times these authors were living in, voicing opinions that ran against the status quo was social death to the writer.

  Kind of like now.

SB

  Might not be a bad idea.

SB