It’s very easy to kill people, but it’s not very easy to kill ideas. We’re seeing this play out in the Middle East even as we speak: the U.S., against all expert advice, dismantled the Iraqi Army as the perfect act of revenge, but all it did was destabilize the region even more, as a lot of these now unemployed…

I believe the risk of Apophis hitting us at all has become vanishingly insignificant, thanks to calculations in 2006. Leave it to Putin, though, to invent problems that aren’t even there.

“O.J. fatigue” is merely the tip of the iceberg for me. I’m sick of all “true crime” television coverage.

Not going to disagree; I think, in many respects, even “pure” libertarianism is unfeasible. The problem with the Pauls is that they were for “small government,” but with lots of asterisks—and, surprise, surprise, it generally reflected paleoconservative ideology, which favors the interests of white male Christian…

I think Scarlet Johannsson is too much of a stretch. “Monster”-era Charlize Theron would be better.

I always thought the biggest fraud about Ron & Rand Paul was how they were able to successfully pretend that their paleoconservatism was actually “libertarian.” And all they did was basically discredit American libertarianism the way these same old fossils once discredited American conservatism.

I’m reminded of the activism of the late 1960s and early 1970s. There was plenty of fanaticism in those days, and, eventually, people saw that fanaticism for what it is; but the greater, genuine idealism of those days is still with us today. I don’t doubt that the same will happen now. That college-aged kid is stupid,…

Continuing that analogy, I think a lot of people are going for candidates like Sanders and Trump, because even if we’re told “vegetables are good for you,” these same “pragmatic” candidates have basically given “endless dessert” to wealthy corporations/campaign contributors, spending hundreds of billions, if not…

I was purposely ambiguous. What I want is for people to be engaged. If you feel that the best way forward is Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton or (eek) Ted Cruz/Donald Trump, then make your voice heard.

Political change generally only happens when youthful idealism overpowers old cynicism—generally through numbers, as “the old” have a habit of dying.

Unfortunately, that describes so much of America, not just New Jersey. It’s a pity that the country neglected so many of its cities in the 20th century.

I wish Elizabeth Warren could have been a choice in this election. Having our first female president would be an exciting thing, but I know a lot of people don’t want to vote for a “Margaret Thatcher” to do it, metaphorically-speaking.

They still do sell those, at least at the locations I visit. Of course, you have to go through all the other stuff to find it...heh.

They can try and Creedbomb me all they want. I hate Creed so much that I don’t even think I remember any of their songs—it would just be inane gibberish to me.

That’s sort of the funny thing, though. You’re “right” in that narcissists are generally a lost cause, exactly because of their inability to actually see that their behavior is problematic—and I know someone like this; he is very much a complete write-off, as nothing is ever his fault, and he chews through people the…

No, that’s not true. There is treatment for personality disorders, but many of them are difficult to treat, because they don’t generally respond to drugs, require long courses of psychotherapy, and, of course, require long-term patient compliance.

Uber is a private company, not some non-profit or government entity. No one forced you to download the app or get in the car. Wait for a taxi if the surge charge is too high.

The Great Firewall of America strikes again.

I seem to have missed the announcement for this earlier, because this is the first I’ve ever seen of this game, but I have to admit that it looks like a lot of fun! A FF game that doesn’t take itself all that seriously is exactly what they need right now.

Sure, you can sue the driver, and you’ll have to fork over money for a lawyer too. You can probably even get a judge to rule in your favor, paying for legal and court costs—but if he has no means to pay, he’ll just declare bankruptcy and that’s that.