I see your imagined quote and raise you this real one: "Do not swallow anything Satan is trying to ram down your throat. Jesus comes first." -Joel Osteen, megachurch preacher.

Let's put them on an island and find out. I vote Greenland. "That sounds nice…the greenest. I wouldn't worry about it."

Star Trek was very uneven, but one of the best by most reckonings was the 6th film; another fan favorite was the 4th.

"The Last Voyage of the Lusitania," by A. and M. Hoehling is okay, but not singularly impressive. An older book that I particularly liked was Colin Simpson's "Lusitania," copyright 1972; its cover is the "Lucy" as viewed through a periscope. Beyond that….

Well, time makes all the difference. Consider the "Britannic." They got almost everyone off alive, except one boat that was lowered without authorization whilst the ship was still under power. The confusion on the "Lusitania" also decentralized decision-making. When the "Titanic" sank, there was plenty of time to run…

Charles Joughin, ship's baker. See more details up-thread.

I think that's an iffy assumption. First of all, a number of the crew were abandoned by the ship. Turner didn't particularly try to escape, for one. Secondly, the circumstances were completely different, as our citrus-monger noted. The suddenness of the "Lusitania" sinking produced panic far sooner than it set in on…

I recommend that you next turn to the "Empress of Ireland," which foundered in the St. Lawrence River in 1914. Find yourself a copy of "Fourteen Minutes," by James Croall. It's old and out of print, but it's a fantastic read. The prose is evocative and wrenching, but also with masterful analysis of the issues.

Oh, it was definitely somewhat routine, which is why I mentioned "Mauretania" and her Christmas round-trip. Captain Smith was not alone in undervaluing the implications of wireless telegraphy, and he certainly wasn't alone in his routing that night. That said, it's also true that others displayed more caution.…

I'm skeptical of that. I know that some studies of some rivets have suggested such a thing. However, "Olympic" and "Titanic" were built in the same yard, in the same time frame. Olympic was struck by the cruiser "Hawke," ran over a German submarine, and collided with the Nantucket lightship. In none of these cases did…

One great example of Margaret Brown's bluntness is what she told J. Bruce Ismay, director of the White Star Line, after the sinking. She said that in her hometown, he "would be strung up from the nearest pine tree," for his role in the disaster.

I wouldn't call the disaster "unlikely," exactly. It's true that a confluence of events made the collision and sinking happen (the design of the bulkheads, the angle of impact, etc.).

J.P. Morgan was supposed to be on it, but decided to stay longer in France. Lord Pirrie, who ran Harland and Wolff and conceived her design, also stayed behind due to reasons of ill health. Alfred Vanderbilt was supposed to sail as well and didn't, but then sailed on the "Lusitania" and died on her final voyage three…

Well, we do know that you like to go down.

Except that one time in Latin America when Cristoforo Colombo claimed the New World for God and Spain, then casually discussed the way his men were selling 9-year-old girls into sexual slavery, while the rest of his soldiers casually murdered indigenous boys to steal their parrots.

Well, the flying lessons were suspicious in and of themselves. I'd recommend reading Richard Clarke's book, "Against All Enemies." He was President Clinton's counter-terrorism chief. What one gets from his book is that the Clinton Administration was aggressively pursuing al-Qaeda, and having regular meetings to…

Sean Hannity "deserves" to be hit by a meteor, but there's not enough justice in the world.

I'm late to this discussion, but I have to say, I doubt it. I mean, my mom would be terribly upset, but I know that my being depressed saddens and stresses her, too, and that's been an (on and off) battle for almost 20 years. I have to think that, just like when a loved one is struggling with terminal cancer and the…

I think he was saying that Trump cares more about pleasing Russia, and thus Putin, than anything else. Right before this infamous line, Colbert says that Trump is inarticulate, and then says "the only thing his mouth is good for" is pleasuring Putin in the most extreme way, implying that it's the only talent Trump…

Seven-deuce, you said, "Funny though, if it were a Right wing entertainer who made this joke
Left wingers would be losing their collective minds over it." Absolutely true, if I knew that a particular right-winger had already proven by word or deed that he/she is a homophobe. Then I would suspect that the joke has all…