Fairweather

You realize, or course, that you're simply quoting the white house's version of the story, co-mingling it with the reporter's narrative, and then claiming it as fact, right? I have to assume this is deliberate on your part--versus willfully ignorant. But I do love the way Obama's minions will swallow as fact any piece of garbage he tosses out.

Not really interested in sci-fi right now--or the meaning/relevance of your obscure, albeit botched quote to begin with. (Not to mention your poor mastery of the language after xx years swimming around in the big melting pot.) What I'm interested in, here, is Obama's growing list of lies. Here's another one from our Liar-in-Chief: “I think it’s important for us to understand that the Fast and Furious program was a field-initiated program begun under the previous administration” abc news

BTW, it's "Klaatu barada nikto," and it was never uttered in the original movie version--only the book and the remake. Obviously, you've never seen or read any of it. As for "Army of Darkness," no, I am proud to say I've never watched it, read it, played it, whatever it is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaatu_barada_nikto Also, BTW, it's than, not then. T-H-A-N, for God's sake.

Uhhhhhhh, I have absolutely no idea what this means. But I suspect, just maybe, you have been reading a little too much from the fantasy or Gothic genres.

OMG, IVAN, YOU ARE SO UNPREDICTABLE WHERE DID YOU COME UP WITH THAT!!!???

Obama grabs Politifact's "Lie of the Year" award. Congrats to our President and his minions! http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/dec/12/lie-year-if-you-like-your-health-care-plan-keep-it/

Basically, yes. Especially since the rest of you are about as original as fifty bumper stickers on an old Subaru.

Thanks Jay. The lefties here have repeated the talking points "junk policy" speech so many times, they now actually believe it. More rote from the party of the free lunch. Not sure why things quieted down here so fast. Maybe because a certain megalomaniac showed up. Maybe cause they're all awaiting new talking points from their DNC spoon-feeders. Maybe they're just too stoned to care about all the hardship their good intentions seem to sow. Maybe all of the above. Happy holidays, Jay. It's nice to know there is at least one voice of clarity here.

I agree with the "on-foot" comment. Still, in the middle of winter, it's hard to beat a fly over. As far as your airsickness goes, it probably has a lot to do with the type of aircraft you were in. I've had a modest amount of pilot training, and I can tell you that even when I'm at the controls I get nauseated flying a plane with pontoons. They tend to produce a lot more yaw than a wheeled aircraft. For a while I was practicing in a Super Cub with floats and was getting queasy every time I went up. Since I switched to a Cessna 152 (with wheels) I've been fine. Don't pass up another opportunity like this--just try a different plane. thanks again for the pictures and video. I love that place.

Very cool. Thanks. Are you the pilot?

[video:youtube]JFSLFBAJdBI

Lucky, by your logic Fred Beckey should have to pay "royalties" to every first ascensionist in his trilogy. Basically, I think you don't understand the difference between research and plagiarism. And since the latter is a serious accusation, you may want to tone it down just a bit. FWIW.

It's, like, winter. And besides, it's football season!

Today,the North Pole tomorrow, Minnesota!

If you should go skating On the thin ice of modern life Dragging behind you the silent reproach Of a million tear stained eyes Don't be surprised, when a crack in the ice Appears under your feet You slip out of your depth and out of your mind With your fear flowing out behind you As you claw the thin ice --Pink Floyd Ok, sorry, not relevant. But this topic reminds me of the song.

As usual, TTK's poor reading comprehension is matched only by his lagging academic accomplishments. Note, I said "tension," and nowhere did I use the word "accommodate," which you improperly attributed to me. (Exactly who is building a strawman here?) If your version of equality were only about economic opportunities and justice under the law, well, we'd already be standing on the same piece of ground. We all know that you're more of an "outcomes" type of fella. Freedom--particularly economic freedom--is anathema to equality for many of the very reasons you stated in the latter, barely lucid portion of your rant. Not really a shocking proposition. Since you seem to lack the ambition to acquire a proper education, I suggest you examine the Freedom-Equality Model of Political Variations in Milton Rokeach's The Nature of Human Values.

You're talking about the freedom vs equality axis here. And while having both is a nice goal, there is always going to be tension between these two ideals. On the whole gun thing, you might want to read this interesting story in today's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. If you live in Portland, it looks like Obama's ATF has been busy in your neighborhood... http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/atf-uses-rogue-tactics-in-storefront-stings-across-the-nation-b99146765z1-234916641.html

Where do you live that requires the registration and taxation of your guns? There is no gun registration here in Washington State, and I can tell you that it takes local LESA about 30 minutes to renew a concealed pistol license.

I'm having a hard time with this. As another poster pointed out, "force depends on deceleration rate at which the kinetic energy of a fall is absorbed. The faster the deceleration rate the greater the peak load or force on the system." Let's compare this to climbing a rock wall: what you are saying, Tod, is akin to claiming it is easier to hold the fall of your follower when he is, say, 5 meters from the belay than it is when he is fifty. This simply isn't so. If you're talking exclusively about opportunities for rope slack, then your point is probably valid. But if the argument is limited to dynamic ropes--kinetic force applied as a function of deceleration over time--then it seems to me more space between climbers is better as the deceleration time is longer, hence, peak load is lower. What am I missing here?

I dunno, Bezos's and SPD's little drones might provide for some good entertainment.

I've got no problem with departments having a drone or two--unarmed and used only to survey unfolding situations. But I have no desire to live my life with drones buzzing overhead. The proliferation of surveillance cameras is bad enough.

They've also done a pretty horrible job screening their cadets and purging hotheads and other undesirable officers from the ranks.

The police, generally speaking, have no political agenda--although a few metropolitan police chiefs certainly do. My belief is that police should be more than "law enforcement." They should integrate themselves with the communities and people they serve. My harping notwithstanding, I like cops on bicycles for this very reason. As for the criminal armed with an AR rifle, well, we just don't see this very often--except, of course, in recent mass shootings. And I would point out that our well-armed police forces have been largely ineffective responding to these tragedies. I would propose that the gun culture has been just as effective ginning up sales in the law enforcement business segment as they have with civilians. Do you believe our "well-equipped" police should have drones hovering routinely over our cities? To me, this sounds like a very bad idea. Again, my opinion, police departments should not look like this:

While it's impossible to deny the problems this country has meting out equal justice, I'm more worried about the militarization of law enforcement. Of course the police unions, mayors, chiefs, etc. regularly claim they are "outgunned" on the street, and this is why they need armored vehicles, drones, helicopter gunships, and military tactics to take down a convenience store robber armed with a machine-stamped .25 caliber piece of junk (or a native-American wood carver armed with a knife). And of course, they always run that video from years back of the Hollywood bank robbers who were, in fact, armed with illegal weapons to justify the notion that we the people, for all intents and purposes, need soldiers on our streets. Police shouldn't be acting like soldiers, IMO. If it walks like a duck, flanks like a duck, shoots like a duck, or hovers like a duck...

Your friend and mentor, TTK, believes that felons should remain franchised--even while serving their sentence. Should these felons keep their guns too? And at what point should someone who has been declared mentally unstable/deficient/whatever have their right to own a gun restored? Never? If I recall, the gun purchase form says something like "have you ever been declared mentally..." We may very well be talking past each other here, but all of our rights deserve a strong defense. Even the ones that are an affront to our sensibilities.