I think it's fine for private individuals to shout "Dont go to this business because they don't like gays". I DON'T think it's OK to use the force of government to force a private individual in to a business contract for any reason.

Two words:

Bus Boycott.

"[they] rationalize injustice by pretending to defend something many of us hold dear,"

Couldn't that be said by BOTH sides of this issue? Wouldn't it be injustice to force a private citizen to enter a private business contract/engagement with another private citizen against their will and against their beliefs?

I believe It's discrimination to not hire/or fire based on sexual orientation. I do not believe that it is discrimination to refuse to take the money and provide services to someone who wants to you to make a cake for their same-sex wedding. Trust me -- the small business bakery market will weed out those who want to miss great business opportunities and/or sales just because they don't want both figures on a cake wearing pants.

"Women and children, first". Do men and elderly have lives that are worth far less on the high-seas?

It's not a matter of what lives are subjectively or objectively worth. Their subjective value is varied and demonstrable -- I'm sorry, but my child's life means more to *ME* than that of some stranger. Their objective value differences are likewise demonstrable -- there's an entire industry based on it. Look up "actuary".

When someone who dies due to an accident, illness or by action and they have lived a full life, how can you not see the additional tragedy of lost potential on the exact same type of death of a child?

Humans are different. We aren't insects. That I need to point that out to you says all kinds of things about you.

That I'm wasting my breath with an AC says all kinds of things about me...

'This "think of X" makes me sick'

Be sick, then.

Attending the funeral of a lost elder: Virtually all the conversations are about OUR loss. "I'll miss him. He was always there for me. He's been in my life since I was born".

Attending the funeral of a lost child: All the conversations are about the child's loss. "He'll never go to college. He'll never have a girl friend. He'll never get married. He'll never be a father".

Think it's sick? Bully for you. You're wrong.

'The bottom line is you are justifying it by casting another person as "lower" or "less""'

Ship goes down, save the children first. Sick? Or common sense? One life isn't worth more or less than any other -- on that we agree. But when talking about loss, we are have very different conversations.

'Invoking "Think of the children" is just as bad here as anywhere else.'

If you can't see the obvious tragic death of a child (with their future robbed from them) having a heavier weight than an 80 y/o great grandmother who's had a wonderful life then I can't help you.

Yes, NOBODY deserved what happened to them -- but as someone who's experienced the death of elder loved ones and children, I can tell you the conversations about loss are quite different at their respective wakes.

Wow. This internets thing is cool.

From Menace:

"Most of the stuff written about Bats' Cave gives a wrong impression. It's the air storage tank for the city, just like all the colonies have - the place where the scavenger pumps, deep down, deliver the air until it's needed. We just happen to be lucky enough to have one big enough to fly in. But it never was built, or anything like that; it's just a big volcanic bubble, two miles across, and if it had broken through, way back when, it would have been a crater."

Same author -- The Menace from Earth (1957).

Not sure if it were "lava tubes" (it's probably been over 30 years since I read that), but the idea of giant caverns being possible due to low gravity + high atm pressure was sure there.

Plus installing LAMP is sounds cooler than installing LAPP.

Declare bot-nets a utility -- then regulate them.

(ducks and runs)

We'll have giant thumbs used for typing on itsy bitsy screens.

You beat me to the punch. It sounds like a flip response but it really is the best option for 50-100 years. It'll survive almost anything. Even if the end result is brittle, you can still reconstruct the "book" one page at a time through whatever "photocopy" technology exists in the 2060's.

Check my other post in this thread. Sat morning it's "F". The parent of this thread sees a "B" sat evening. Looks like they fixed something.

Interesting. I've got two tabs open -- both to the same URL. I see the following:

SSL Report: mail.clintonemail.com (64.94.172.146)
Assessed on: Sat Mar 07 15:10:39 PST 2015 | Clear cache
RATING: "F"

SSL Report: mail.clintonemail.com (64.94.172.146)
Assessed on: Tue Mar 10 09:18:02 PDT 2015 | Clear cache
RATING "B"

The difference is Protocol support is zero on the F and notes SSL 2.0 support (automatic "F").

Looks like somebody fixed something between Saturday and today.