Don't want to end up red-faced?

Then don't engage in pointless wars started over lies. It's that simple.

...when will Harriet leave?

(Bha-dum-dum)

Wonderful news!

I just installed the 12-disc record changer in the trunk, which connects to the 8-track head unit!

And it's cool to wear sideburns, boot-cut jeans and long, ratty hair again! What could possibly go wrong?

I always shake my head and ruefully smile when I see these fear-mongering stories about hyped-up fears of “An Iranian Nuke in our Future!” and similar drivel. The IAEA inspects the program at ever single step of the way and of something is veering off course, everyone in the UN and the US will know. So far that hasn't happened, and my guess is that it won't.

For the record there's no simple, direct way to readily convert fuel-grade uranium into weapons-grade uranium, short of building a breeder reactor, and that's not exactly something you can do in your backyard or garage. Fuel-grade uranium doesn't go into a nuke, and you don't put weapons-grade uranium into your reactor, unless you want a really big “boom”.

As it stands, the only nation in the Mideast that illegally built a nuclear weapons program outside of international purview was Israel, and they got some of the initial materials to do so by smuggling the uranium from a refinement facility in Apollo, Pennsylvania in the late 1960's (c.f.: The Samson Option by Seymour Hersh). Yet you never hear two peeps about the “destabilizing influence in the Mideast” of that nuclear bandit state in the press, do you?

Also, let's not forget that the entire [crooked] line of thought is brought to you by the same perpetual prevaricators who threw up a lot of hot air about “Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq!” and “Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan!” and then were trying to beat the drums for a war with Syria under the pretense of “Saddam moved all the weapons to Syria (and Iran!)” It's the same old, tired media meme rehashed once again for a petty excuse to get us involved in another war we don't need and can't afford.

For my part, I'd like to see every media editor that purports that very same lie to be strung up, just so the air can be cleared a bit.

The Teaching Company is a great resource for lifetime learners. I've used a fair number of their products over the years and they have a lot more positives than negatives. The only thing I dislike about their course offerings is there is too little to acquire with regards to MBA-style courses, but that's neither here nor there.

I think the two courses you want are:

Understanding Calculus: Problems, Solutions, and Tips by Dr. Bruce Edwards, and

Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear, 2nd Edition by Dr. Michael Starbird

I have the second course and although I haven't gone through it yet, it does not look too shabby.

You might also do well to consider a calculus book by Schaum's.

The best way to help bullied kids is to improve their skills at adequately hitting targets downrange with or without a scope. All else follows from that.

Don't laugh.

For years the only reason I subscribed to the weekend edition of the local rag was so I could acquire a fairly steady supply of paper to line the bottom of the cages of the assorted small pets around the house.

Yes, really. The printed "matter" inside this "newspaper" you speak of was just as so many other posters have pointed out: nonstop sell-outs and hucksters for big-government sweetheart deals and tireless hypesters of the military/industrial/prison complex.

No, my friend. If such "writing" is the stamp of this fallen age, then the sooner every prevaricating press implodes, the better.

There is one character in William Gibson's "Neuromancer" who wears a bodysuit that has the ability to display images, forms or pictures that reflect the mood or mind of the wearer.

This technology may very well be the first step towards that realization.

...cast a glare in my eye...

Really. The SEC investigated him 3 times over the years and they didn't seem to catch on to the poignant fact that Madoff didn't do a single trade in the past 13 years or so. I wonder what kind of genius you have to be to have those kind of rock-solid blinders on?

Scott is starting to look like he needs to trade the double cheeseburgers for something made of soy or tofu. Otherwise he'll be trading the smaller size jeans for larger pants with suspenders in short order.

A day that will live... in INFAMY!!

Seriously, expect wholesale user screeching of "Hey, my (fill in the blank) stopped working properly after I upgraded! What gives?" will start shortly thereafter.

What usually happens with these kinds of unconstitutional laws is they are rammed through with the authors knowing full well they won't stand up to a constitutional challenge. Think about certain aspects of the Patriot Act, the laws regarding civil asset forfiture, and the Lautenberg amendment to the Brady Bill (AKA the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban where you are denied 2nd amendment rights forever after having a restraining order lodged against you or being merely accused of a crime, even in absence of a conviction thereof).

What happens is the courts pile on the charges so high that defendants are forced to settle for a plea bargain, which is how 95% of all trials are resolved. Thus laws which blatantly violate the constitution are allowed to sit on the books forever with no effective challenge against them, generating eternal revenues for the state and ensuring that a long line of semi-innocents head off to the hotel-with-barred-windows for violating some petty legal technicality. The Branch Davidians were gassed and incinerated alive for nothing more serious than an unpaid tax or unfilled-out form regarding certain firearms laws.

The same nasty precedent set by the previous examples will be precisely how it plays out here. Not only will this law pass but it will be misused and abused left and right, and nobody will cut it off because that would stop the gravy train.

You know, M$ has always been behind the curve when it comes to security and structuring their OS to be secure from the ground up; security has been a real afterthought for over a decade, and that's simply not acceptable. I don't envision this changing anytime soon, either with Vista or whatever other junk they're peddling.