Southern Buddhist

Do you wear them through a skull piercing? If so, yes. If not, yes.

Well, if God's will was to attract iron filings, then a magnet could effect his will. If you stuck a big-ass magnet on God's head, could you affect his will?Veeb, since we're turning this into an Ask VB thread, could you summarize a study I was thinking about today? The gist of it was that conservatives rate higher on a security/purity axis but weak on a fairness/privacy axis, and liberals are just the opposite. I daresay it correlates nicely not only with political views but also with religious views. Anyway, you probably know more about it and understand it better than anyone else.

Isn't selling downer animals a little ... ick? I dunno, not precisely illegal or unethical or unsafe, but on the border of all three? I mean, most people are a little grossed out at the idea that right before it was made into their steak, a cow was puking and having seizures and suffering something like your coffee-induced diarrhea.You can destroy me if it helps let off some pressure, and I'll know more than I did about the issue of downer slaughter. Yeah, you mean glaucoma. I've had cataracts and no pot. Glaucoma runs in my husband's family. His great-aunt got the joints, but she was a l

For you, anything.

I could watch that a thousand times. I am so in love with Chow Yun Fat. A god among men.If you guys haven't seen John Woo's work from Hong Kong, put it on Netflix immediately: Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow (Parts I, II, and III), The Killer, A Bullet in the Head, etc. A Better Tomorrow, Part II has a scene at a wedding that I think might be the single most bullet-riddled scene in cinema history.I may be preaching to the choir, but I love these movies. Woo and Chow (Fat?) collaborated so brilliantly in HK, then they both came to the US. Neither has done anything on the same level in their

These are good choices, though I like stouts myself. If you're anywhere near Pennsylvania, you should tour the Yuengling plant in Port Carbon. They give samples of fresh, unpasteurized beer, and it's miles better than pasteurized. I'm not sure if you still can, but in the past you could buy it unpasteurized from the brewery and in town.

If marked cards were really the chief impetus behind the issue, why not deal directly with that issue, instead of going after sunglasses? That seems like a smoke screen.

Some people ^^^^^ really don't understand the term "political theatre." Just another small-government freedom-loving Republican. This is just plain delightful. And awesome -- also awesome. But you're conceding that he is now?

Damn, you're right! <facepalm> I need to fix that.Thanks for looking, folks. Mainly I was wondering if it was too simple to teach 18-year-old freshmen, but I'm guessing not. I love these! A pair of my own is high on my list for a splurge.Storming here ... 3:30 in the afternoon and so black out all the street lights have come on. Cool.

Anita Hill

No, of course not, and I realized after the fact that I could have worded that post better. I wish politics didn't come into play here, but "level playing field" has more than one definition, and "equal chance of success" is exactly what some people would say the definition is. [it's a loaded example, but I'm using it without prejudice ... segregated school districts argued that if they had one black school for every white school, that met the legal requirement of "equal." The Supreme Court ruled that numerically equal was not the same as materially equal, and that the inequality was so gre

Republican handbook, page 3:Dig as far back as necessary to find dirt. If opposition does the same thing to you and finds something 20x crazier, denounce the opposition.It's all a never-ending dance and we're tangoing, baby, roses between the teeth. You're an excellent dancer.

Could someone who doesn't mind do me a favor and read my latest blog post (link in sig)? It talks about writing, which is what I'm going to be teaching in a few months. I wrote it and as soon as I posted it thought, "Am I saying something useful, or are these observations painfully obvious to everyone?" Thanks. [brv, one of the older ones still up talks a bit about CBT, if you're interested.]

I was hoping this was an epic, but misplaced, Beans story. Imagine my disappointment.

I'll bet when Bob McDonnell's undergrad thesis hit the news, BG joined with the rest of the right to say that McDonnell had changed his views since and that the thesis shouldn't be big news or held against him. McDonnell's thesis contained gems such as: contraceptives should be illegal, because non-marital sex is a crime (i.e., fornication) government policy should penalize cohabitors, homosexuals, and fornicators "once differential tax rates and benefit distributions are accepted in principle, there is but an arbitrary legislative line that inhibits the slide to socialism" refers to "the pe

Which is more likely to be fake -- a bunch of people talking about poop and booze, or some guy living in France who understands all those numbers and letters and sqiggly symbols and uses them to run invisible things into each other?

They're Indian/African, so PC and Buddhist points there, and I suspect they're way up there in terms of intelligence, so their suffering is highly akin to human suffering, and relieving it a somewhat higher priority for me than, say, treating a sick fish or some crap-tempered bird. Birds are assholes.

It seems to me that it would be difficult to argue, on the one hand, that banning sunglasses levels the playing field; and on the other hand, that poker is a game of skill (re: UIGEA) because it is not a level playing field -- more skillful players will always win over the long term.Seems to me that less-confident players wear shades specifically because they feel it levels the playing field against extremely good readers ... like, say, Daniel. I can see that argument, but I don't think TV production values ought to be the rationale behind changing the rules of the game.

I'm confused (legitimately, not sarcastically). Do you disapprove of Scalia, Roberts, or Alito as over-representing the Roman Catholic population?

I love your mom. Hope you sent her a balloon bouquet for Mother's Day. I was curious to see what you and/or Brv thought about the article posted in "Stevens SCOTUS Replacement Thread," noting that if Kagan is confirmed, the court will no longer have a single Protestant on it.

Dilemma: I want to point out that this is post #170,000 and page 8,500, but I don't feel I'm due the honor of rounding off the numbers in a thread I'm so new to. But if I don't mention it, then the post might be something like Dilemma solved, I guess. What it really should be is an epic story from either Wang or Beans, though.

That's my understanding, though I could be wrong.If I ever did want to deal with blood/poop/other animal secretions, the one place I'd want to do it is the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

This reminded me: when I got married I wore an Indian outift, a gorgeous silk dyed in ruby, emerald, and gold colors that perfectly matched the fall colors outside. Now, I'm PC. It has been years since I would ever have called a Native American an "indian." When I say Indian, I'm always referring to the subcontinent.So I go down to rural southwest Virginia to talk to the florist. I tell her I'm wearing an Indian wedding dress (I call it a "sari" even though it technically isn't, just to make it clear -- or so I think) and I want brilliant colors for the flowers -- poppies, etc. She seems c

For Speedz and Brv, just some thoughts I've had bubbling around recently:I admire you both for your courage. Speedz, I love animals, and I could deal with caring for them and seeing them sick, but I could never deal with seeing the results of neglect or, worse, deliberate abuse. You are willing to face that head-on and fix it. Brv, you want to work with drug addicts and other really difficult personalities as a therapist. That, too, is a willingness to face deep pain head-on, and it's incredibly courageous of you to take on their pain and work with it.My family history is bifurcated (to be

God, no. Haiku doesn't suck that much. My husband wrote a book of haiku (Office Haiku, published by a real publisher but now out of print and only available used). Here are some favorites:Real reason we're notChained to desks? Health plan won't payFor own limbs gnawed off. -- my husbandEven in Kyoto,Hearing the cuckoo's cry,I long for Kyoto -- BashoI'm going out, flies,So relax,Make love -- Kobayashi IssaWe walk onthe roof of hell,Gathering flowers -- IssaFor Issa: we're onThe roof of hell, but at leastwe try to patch holes. -- meA pleasure so greatTragedy will surely come:La vie