kimmy

Thanks, Bitsy, good column. -k

...which just happens to be the reason Penn State covered it up in the first place. I don't care if NCAA's motives are cynical, it's the right thing to do anyway. Penn State covered up the abuse because they were afraid of losing money and wins and Bowl game appearances. There's not a more fitting punishment than taking money and wins and Bowl game appearances from them as punishment. I just think it's too bad financial regulators won't deal with renegade banks as harshly; I think a 4 year "time out" for the banks involved in the LIBOR conspiracy would be a nice start. The kind of student athletes who are that concerned about the Bowl-game ban aren't going to be turned down by other schools or stressed about a few credits. The kind of student athletes who stressed about their credits probably aren't going to transfer because of the Bowl-game ban. -k

Canada's gun laws seem to be doing fine. Not sure why we'd be discussing making changes to them. Also, not sure why this would be in the health/science/technology forum anyway. I love it. -k

I used to be just like that. Every allegation of misconduct, I figured "there's more to the story" or "the police wouldn't do that" or "it's a lowlife making up stories to try and get money" or so on. Probably if I looked back through my posting history on this forum, I could find pro-police messages that I wrote that I would look back on and think "geez, was I ever a sucker." I was emotionally invested in the idea that the police are the wonderful people we learned about in school. And I'm sure that many of them are... but clearly some are not... and clearly the organization as a whole will do its darnedest to protect those bad apples. As a result I just can't trust them like I used to. I'm disillusioned, to say the least. -k

"We gave you IPODS! "Panem et iPedes. I think it's part ignorance, and part defensiveness. When old-people talk about tuition and student debt, you invariably hear somebody say something like "well I worked my way through college. Why don't these kids just get summer jobs?" And the idea that they're leaving behind crippling public debt to their children and grandchildren certainly doesn't fit with their self image. So you get "ok, so we ruined public finances and wrecked the environment... but we did great things too! Civil rights! Women's equality! See? You should appreciate us more!" There's a clip from the new Aaron Sorkin tv show that's been circulating around lately that kind of sums how these folks see themselves. We used to be awesome, but now everything is going to hell in a handbasket. My favorite part is how he lists all the things his generation screwed up, then tells the college girl that she's part of the Worst.Generation.Ever. -k

I also have a hard time getting on board the grief bandwagon that seems to always follow in the wake of these "big news" tragedies. Yes, it's extremely tragic that 12 people who went out to enjoy a movie Friday were senselessly murdered. But it would not be a surprise if 12 people or more were murdered in the United States yesterday as well. The statistics say that would actually be a slow day for homicide in the United States. So why are the ones killed on Friday more sympathetic than the ones killed on Saturday? As for what news stories upset me most, few have infuriated me more than the RCMP's attempted cover-up of the Robert Dziekanski incident. That a guy was accidentally killed while being detained by the police? Stuff happens. That it turns out that the guy with the tazer was treating it like an arcade game? One bad cop. That they had decided they were going to tazer him before they even got to the scene? Four bad cops. That the whole organization tried to keep all of this a secret? That they willfully misrepresented the facts? That they tried to deceive the public? That they tried to suppress the video? That they lied about all of this? That they tried to hide evidence from the Braidwood inquiry? That they lied right to Judge Braidwood's face? That they would have gotten away with all of this if a private citizen with a cell-phone hadn't filmed it? Utterly beyond belief. And they'll keep doing it, too. I don't think any news item has upset me more than discovering that our most trusted institution is completely untrustworthy. -k

A pot-hole fills up with water. A man comes along and says "wow, this hole fits the water so perfectly that this hole simply must have been designed specifically for the water!" That man's name is Ken Ham, and that's the "finely tuned earth" argument for you. "An invisible being created everything using magic!" is the simplest explanation in the same way that "it works by magic!" is the simplest explanation for how your computer works. Christians like to float around this idea that people are rejecting religion because they don't like the "rules". But the fact is, the religious people don't follow the "rules" either. The statistics tell us that the religious people get divorced just as much as the non-religious. They have premarital sex just as much. They have teenage pregnancies just as much. They commit crime just as much-- there's proportionately a lot fewer atheists in prison than religious people. So what are all these rules that Christians are supposedly following? They're working on the Sabbath, they're wearing poly-cotton blends, they're eating shellfish... I mean, as far as I can tell they're really not following any rules that the rest of us aren't. Well, some of them go to church on Sunday, I guess, but a lot of supposed Christians aren't even doing that much. Luckily for Christians, Jesus will forgive them for breaking all the rules anyway. God, leprechauns, whatever. I can't be sure that any of them don't exist, but I have no good reason to believe in any of them either. -k

Noo-kyoo-ler, Bubber. It's pronounced Noo-kyoo-ler. Who knows how much crime would happen if that wasn't written on the money! -k

Odd coincidence about that... James Holmes went to a high school where one of the math teachers had religious banners on the walls in his classroom. The teacher was forced to take them down last September. Perhaps Rep. Gohmert will point to this and say "See? See? Maybe if they'd let them keep those banners up then this tragedy could have been averted!" except of course that James Holmes was already in grad school by the time the banners were taken down. But religious people like Gohmert or Rick Warren who are trying to take advantage of this tragedy to boost a religious agenda will conveniently ignore this: Former San Diego neighbors remember James Holmes as a "normal kid" who was very shy, well-mannered and deeply involved with his family in their local Presbyterian church, the Los Angeles Times says. If he grew up in a family that was "deeply involved" in their church and that didn't prevent this from happening, why would anybody think that putting a banner on the wall that says "in god we trust" in a school would make a difference? -k

The BSA, and any other private club, should be free to accept or reject members for whatever reasons they wish. But if they are going to discriminate, then the government should not be involved with them in any capacity, including through public schools. The BSA, as I understand it, have voluntarily walked away from involvement with the government so that they could maintain their policies. That's fine, that's how it ought to be. -k

The schools in question are going to be teaching it in science class. You didn't actually read that far, did you. Where'd you pick this up? Did you attend a seminar or something? -k

If you keep telling yourself that it's just one pastor, maybe you'll start to believe it after a while. It's a hereditary monarchy. It's not really an "equal opportunity" position in the first place. You guys have a constitution that's better than ours in many respects, which makes it especially disheartening to see some of your countrymen working so hard to undermine it. Canuckistani and cybercoma already addressed this, but Canada's Catholic schools teach science in science class and religion in religion class. And that shouldn't be a surprise, because the Catholic Church itself has been onboard with science, including evolution, for a long time. -k

Boo! Boo! So the mall commando guys like guns that look like they're from Call of Duty, and I like guns that have some classy beauty. Well ok, maybe I'm helping confirm the stereotype after all... but I promise that at least I will never buy the Pink Ruger! I think he is mistaken. However, I don't think I will wear a scoop-neck top while firing a semi-automatic! -k

I wonder why the shooter chose "Batman" and not, say, "Ice Age: Continental Drift"? I don't mean that to sound flippant. I am wondering if it was just the sheer size of anticipated audiences, or if there is something about the movie in particular that attracted the shooter's interest. -k

If Obama is to be criticized for anything here, it ought to be plagiarism. What he said is more or less a cut-and-paste of something Elizabeth Warren said last September. As for the merits of the statement, it's bang on. If you got rich in North America, you owe some thanks to the terrific environment that has been provided for you to operate in-- and that includes everything from roads and infrastructure to an educated work-force to consumers who can afford to buy your products. If "the right" really had a case, they wouldn't be trying to pass off this 12-second snippet as representing Obama's views. You'd have thought people might have learned something after that Shirley Sherrod fiasco, but apparently not. -k

I just love the look of the case-hardened Uberti guns. If I buy a gun, it's going to have to be pretty, and these are about the prettiest I've seen. I was noticing that Ruger makes a convertible revolver that comes with a cylinder for .357mag and one for 9mm Luger. Sounds like a handy thing to have when the zombies come. It's interesting that so many of these bullets are so similar that they can come out of the same barrel, or fit into the same chamber, or sometimes even both. I like his videos. I have seen several of them. I posted his video of the Marlin 1895 .45-70 lever-gun earlier in the thread. He's fun. I have also watched some of the Nutnfancy videos. He seems like kind of a dork, but I think he does have some good information about the guns and what sort of use they're suited to. (EXCITED SQUEAL!) I can hardly wait until my license gets here. -k

Your generation is "Generation Me", more than any generation in the history of our species ever has been and probably ever will be. In short, the systems that have been so good to your generation were unsustainable. Sustainable has become a big buzz-word in social policy. "We are revamping the Canada Pension Plan to make it sustainable." "We are revamping the public school system to make it sustainable." "We are revamping the healthcare system to make it sustainable." "We are revamping post-secondary education to make it sustainable." What all of this translates to is "we have to gut the funding for these things because we can't afford to maintain them anymore." What all of this means is that none of this stuff will be there for me or my kids because my tax dollars are still paying for the healthcare and education and pensions that Canadian Boomers enjoyed. Yeah, kids today will graduate from highschool to find that college tuition has never been more unaffordable, rents never been higher, jobs haven't been harder to find in nearly a century, benefits haven't been scarcer in a century... but at least they have their iPods! -k

Indeed. I used the word "heist" figuratively, but there's an argument to be made that it could actually be applied quite literally. -k

What does it matter? The future of the Canada Pension Plan is completely fucked whether I'm a princess or a pauper. -k

I'm looking forward to hearing you explain how. I'm sure you'll find somewhere. Please proceed. The floor is yours, Shady. -k

Yes, accusing me of whining is one tactic that AW has used before on this topic. (and "ungrateful" as well.) The other is to talk about how content and well-off her daughters are, the implication presumably being that if you're not content then you must be bitter because you're unsuccessful. As I've said before, I'm presently quite well-off by any reasonable standard. I don't understand why some people think my present comfort should disqualify me from commenting on the elephant-shaped time-bomb in the room, and I'm not sure why AW is so pleased that her daughters are apparently oblivious to it. -k

I have to admit, the chance to have a non-restricted gun that is so portable has a lot of appeal. I've been looking at these classic revolvers that have that beautiful opalescent look. I had assumed that it was just some sort of tarnish that came from age. But then I discovered that it's actually a result of a process called "case hardening". In the good old days, gunmakers had difficulty working with hard steel, so they would use a softer steel that they could machine more easily, and then throw the parts into an oven with high-carbon materials (typically bones) and the steel would get carbonized to become harder. And the results had this gorgeous iridescent sheen. A company called Uberti makes these beautiful replicas of antique Colt revolvers, as well as various "Old West" rifles like the Winchester lever-action guns and the Colt Lightning. Needless to say, these are going on my wish-list. -k

Zach Kopplin is a Louisiana high-school student who has been campaigning to have the "Louisiana Science Education Act" (a misnomer if ever there was one) repealed. Zach has done some research and confirmed that Louisiana taxpayers are going to spend at least $11.6 million to send at least 1365 students to schools that will teach them that the earth is 6000 years old and that a 900 year old desert dumbass really did cram 2 to 7 of ever species of animal on earth onto a wooden boat to save them from a global flood. $8500 per student per year to learn bullshit. Is that really a good use of taxpayer money? Zach also points out that Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, who buffaloed this program into law, is the Romney campaign's spokesman for educational reform. If vouchers to send students to private schools to learn bullshit at a cost of $8500 a head each year is the kind of education reform that the Romney campaign is planning, I can only imagine how excited my American will be to see a Romney victory this November. (Are people really still confused as to why I'm so disgusted by the influence of religion on politics? Really?) -k

Said it before and will say it again, my only consolation when I think of the future is knowing how you old-people are going to feel when you discover that there isn't any money left to provide care for seniors either. So given the scale of the financial trainwreck that I'm going to inherit, what "solutions" seem plausible? -k

Boo hoo. If a grand wizard from some weird cult wants to run for public office, he's going to have to deal with this sort of thing. What recent presidential candidate *hasn't* faced scrutiny for his religious beliefs? And the irony is that it's your team complaining about it, when it is your team that has insisted upon this state of affairs. By pandering to the large southern conservative base that insists that only candidates imbued with Super Jesus Power are qualified to lead the nation, the Republicans have legitimized the discussion of religious belief in this campaign. Live with that, creep. -k