I feel for instance, you can have the -exact- same makeup of the Cosmic Egg (or whatever you want to call the Big Bang) and have the Big Bang go off in identical ways, and yet have completely different results after billions of years. I don't believe reality is that ordered.

We all know the dopplegangerverse should be about ten feet off from the original.

Here's the thing about the Adam Eve myth: according to the scripture itself; in both the new testament and the old Hebrew writings, God is an all knowing being, past, future present, his hand is in it all, right?

So, he up and creates the universe one day, gets bored and makes humanity's prototypes. Regardless of what he commands of them, he already knows they're going to fail, because he knows every possible variation in the endless series of contingencies he set into motion. In other words, they've already failed the instant they were created; unless God himself chose to be willfully ignorant of the foreseeable.

One could therefore argue that in fact, he would have created Adam and Eve with not only the potential to disobey, but they were designed with this in mind, and it was never a question of free will.

Or, you know, the whole thing is bullshit anyway.

You really think that an organized military and police force can be stopped by citizens (including grandma) with their .38 S&W?

Back during WWII, the US OSS (Office of Strategic Services) had this really cool idea, which was held as classified until the end of the war: they were going to drop hundreds of thousands of these little, very cheaply made .45 caliber single shot pistols (with a handful of shells and an instruction manual), from airplanes into occupied France. The idea is, in part, that partisans would use them to stick up / kill German troops and borrow better weapons.

Problem is, by the time this idea was about to be implemented, the French Resistance already had accomplished this, using revolvers and other small arms which were hidden from confiscation, and they had worked up to stealing heavy machine guns, Panzerfausts and other types of heavy duty stuff. There were a number of drive-by style machine gun assassinations against German officers, and they were becoming such a thorn to the Germans, that French hostages (women and children of course) were rounded up and executed to dissuade the resistance--several times during the war.

Airdropping these pistols wouldn't accomplish much at that time they were completed, so they didn't fly. The point is this: you shouldn't underestimate the difference a simple, low power weapon can make, at the right place and time.

Here we have Republicans supporting consumers over business and small business over big business, which is the exact opposite of what you said.

It's a Strategic withdrawal. A feigned retreat. Losing the battle but winning the war is just fine by them.

The 5mw+ IR lasers the military likes to use (we US citizens are limited to something like .07mw in the IR spectrum) almost always create a pretty distinct, easy to observe line straight from your rifle all the way to your target, due to humidity, dust, smoke bugs, etc.

You can see an example in this youtube video, unfortunately, he also had his illuminator on, so most of the laser is blown out, but you can get the idea.

You'd need an obscenely powerful laser during to even begin using this thing during the day, and unless you used something in the ultraviolet frequencies, it would be pretty easy for all but poorly equipped enemies to defeat at night--but only because they have no need for goggles with ultraviolet warnings--yet.

a) new AK and ammo (pisses off hippies and tree huggers)
b) survival stuff (i.e. camping)
c) killing techniques (i.e. hunting)
d) anti-interrogation techniques (no, honey, this is the same AK-47 I've always had)

To me, all of that sounds more like a pretty good weekend than pretense for terrorism.

The public, however, would not be amused by an obstructionist president.

The fuck they wouldn't. A president who would dig his heels in on bullshit laws, and communicate in plain English to the public why he's doing it could very well be regarded as a hero/saint and embarrass the hell out of the congress trying to push BS laws through.

I think a lot of folk recognize by now that when congress is going forward, just about everyone else is going backwards. People may have had it with obstruction for the sake of obstructionism, but frankly that's widely practiced already--is it not? A president actually acting in his constituents' best interest, however? It'd be a breakthrough!

And to some people *any* firearm is an AK-47, and the thing that goes in it is a "clip". AFAIK, the condition you described has been called a "hang fire" in the English world ever since the days of flintlocks, and later percussion cap, when that happened with much more often.

A squib round (at least in US firearm jargon) is one that doesn't even have enough juice to leave the barrel. They only do damage if the operator elects to ignore the obvious warning signs, then chamber the next cartridge and fire. Colliding a bullet with the better part of a kJ into a nigh-immovable piece of lead, inside a pipe.... Not going to make for a good day.

Perhaps you mean an overcharge/double load? Yeah some hand loaders like to use faster powders, which reduces the amount of powder they need to load, usually to make loading a teensy bit cheaper. The consequence is: with some cartridges and powders you can get twice or more of the appropriate powder and things get harry. If you make a mistake in your loading process, you can make a very bad mistake. When the bullet engages the rifling, the pressure spikes and things tend to come apart, still through deflagration.

If you ignited the same cartridge in an unsupported state, it would still most probably push the bullet out, make a loud pop, and spray propellent all about. You can get smokeless powder to detonate, but usually only with a primary explosive, or much higher pressure than normal--e.g a real blasting cap.

Except smokeless powder isn't explosive. It's not even close, otherwise they wouldn't permit ammunition fly in the cargo hold under any circumstance. Yet guns and ammo fly all the time.

People with considerable firearms experience greatly overestimate the physical phenomena involved with these devices; so, it's not surprising that someone completely ignorant of the topic has grandiose visions of hand grenades going off when they imagine terrorists using cartridges to take over a jetliner--but that couldn't be much further from the case.

The worst it could do, even with something as large as a .50 BMG round is this: it'll pop the bullet out at some small velocity, make a loud noise and spray a bunch of unburnt powder all around.

Even if you brought something like a nail and a hammer onto the plane (in order to set off the round), both the hammer and the nail would be considerably more dangerous. I'd be more worried about zip guns to fire a cartridge, but even those are pretty useless in a terrorist scenario.