MigL

So Jeffrey Epstein wasn't criminal for molesting young girls, because he certainly wasn't poor. And Donald Trump shouldn't be considered a criminal for his part in the Jan 6 insurrection, or all the people he has taken advantage of ? Not all criminals are thieves because of poverty, Dim. Very few steal simply because they are hungry, otherwise bakeries and delis would be getting robbed as often as banks. Some steal because they are greedy. You're making less sense than usual; but I did not downvote you ...

Better to appear a bigot than to appear a liar ???

I can imagine movements of the Earth's core affecting its magnetic field, with resultant variation in its ability to 'screen' cosmic rays.

Dark matter works in conjunction with existing gravitational fields and modifies them as if 'hidden' ( dark ) additional matter is present. Dark energy works where there is scarce matter, and little, if any, gravitational bonding.

I appreciate the clarification, because the pre-announcement was strictly about skin color and gender. Nothing else was mentioned. I still don't see how an interpretation, or subjective perception, can be in 'bad faith'. You don't get to judge other's perceptions in that way, even if they don't agree with yours. All of them ? Do I need to ask for evidence.or at least a citation ? That seems a rather broad generalization. It could also be that some people ( not conservative or liberal ) feel that a party and President who champions diversity and equality, without discriminating according to skin color and gender, would choose to give the impression of discriminating, according to those very factors, in the pre-announcement. While not being a big deal ( to me, anyway ) it does seem to be a poor choice.

Right above Beecee's words was the quote from JC which does just that. Advocating violence is never the solution; but you are right, it's not 'current'. Well, black Americans don't feel the need to advocate violence to obtain equal rights, and Democrats are not eating babies anymore. So some progress has been made.

It's going to be a hell of a job to relocate all the polar bears whose habitat is shrinking/disappearing in the Arctic, to Antartica.

I tested positive ( PCR ) for the original strain April 16th of last year. I got over it just about one year ago, and, you know, I don't feel quite the same yet. I feel like I've aged about a year. ( but my sense of humor has improved 😄 )

Never mind the Star Trek teleporters, which should be called disintegrators ... I was thinking more along the lines of Vincent Price ( 1958 ) and Jeff Goldblum ( 1986 ). ( ok, I watch a lot of movies )

Only in America ... A gun club to protect against those who advocate for the proliferation of guns. Didn't D Trump want to do the same, by arming teachers to combat gun violence in schools ? Seems a bit like trying to put out a fire with gasoline I don't usually consider it a 'far right' or 'far left' problem, just a problem with people, some of whom are nuts. Same as there is no such thing as extreme Communism or extreme Fascism. In the extreme, both systems use similar methods, and people suffer and die. I can be argued that as many, if not more, people suffered and died due to Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, than did during WW2 against the Fascists/Nazis and South American Juntas.

Did somebody say "What does Lui think about this" ? I think this thread should be split off ( @ yesterday 6:34 pm ) because it currently has little to do with the troll who prompted the OP. I resisted posting in this thread simply to avoid feeding him. I would certainly welcome a discussion as to why a lot of us are obstinate and hard-headed. As long as we keep it friendly while trying to point out each other's character flaws.

Lasers are fine; but there's no way I'm stepping into a teleporter. ( a fly might be in there with me )

Post something controversial. That always seems to bring everyone out to play.

Sometimes I feel your Government/President has a larger effect on my life than my own Government/Prime Minister. Most of the World breathed a sigh of relief when D Trump was defeated. ( although he doesn't seem to have realized it yet )

If time is the result of geometry, then it ceases to make sense below a certain scale. The 'quantum foam' is postulated to be composed of tiny wormholes, bubbling in and out of existence, connecting different regions and different tmes, such that distance and time don't exist as we know them anymore. The original inflationary model, proposed by A Guth, involved the drop in vacuum energy from the symmetry break of electroweak dissociation. Many other, competing models have since been proposed, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to find evidence supporting a specific model.

Current theories of gravity don't need a graviton as they are classical theories. However we know these theories are not applicable at high energies and small separations. Much like electromagnetic and chromdynamic theories, what seems to work out better at high energies and small separations are quantized field theories, which, because of quantum uncertainty, can produce excitations of those fields. These excitations can be virtual, if below a certain threshold, or real, if above that threshold. What we call 'particles' are manifestations of these vrtual or real excitations, and the graviton is essentially an excitation of the gravity field. Gravitons are simply a requirement of a quantized field theory. ( which we hope to eventually have )

@MSC I apologize for my posting behaviour also. I felt I was being unfairly attacked, with insinuations about my character, and I responded in kind. I think we both want a more inclusive society, and we both agree that KBJ was a good choice. Hopefully, you also realize that J Biden can make mistakes, and it is our duty ( the American populace ) to call him out on those mistakes. Even if the populace don't all agree they are mistakes. Hope there are no hard feelings.

Actually, I was purposefully trying to be disrespectful ( not too much so ) with the term 'gay Oriental', hoping someone would call me out on it, and I could use it to make my point. However I thought the disrespectful term was the 'gay' part. I stand corrected. But is homosexual Asian specific enough ? After all. Asia stretches East from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean, and from the Arctic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. Oriental specifies South-East Asia. Interesting, but I would appreciate further explanation. India had,still has an active 'caste' system in many areas, where opportunities, and terms of addressing, are reserved for spcific groups. Am I to assume you think specific 'caste' groups are deserving of those opportunities, and of the honorific terms, simply because of the lottery of birth ? Or do you think everyone is deserving of the same opportunities, and to be addressed, or not, with the same terms ? Maybe I'm just on the wrong side of 'contemporary' thinking, because the first case smells of discrimination to me, while the second, which you mentioned and called wrong, does not.

Again, my gripe is NOT with his selection, rather the fact that his pre-announcement could be seen as discriminatory. Things will be different when I'm President ! And J Biden most likely said the exact same as above, when he ran for President against the previous orange haired buffoon. So we all expected different. And better. Yet you say he should do the EXACT SAME THING as his predecessors ? ( people tend to focus on the actions of current Presidents, and direct criticism at them ) Sorry, it's a full time job keeping up with politically correct language. But words either hurt people, or they don't. Don't make the argument that my words hurt homosexual Asians, then excuse J Biden for saying he will "pick a black woman", and possibly hurt other groups/skin colors and gender identities.

I am of the opinion that he got more 'push back' on his choice than he would have otherwise gotten had he not made the pre-announcement of the selection criteria. You seem to think he would have gotten the same, from the usual suspects. I guess we'll never know which of us is rght, because he can't take back the pre-announcement. The biggest strawman going on here is that, although a few of us have said there is no problem with the selection of KBJ, but there could be a problem with the announcing that he would "pick a black woman', as that gives the imopression of discrimination based on skin color and gender, some others are still arguing that we think the selection is discriminatory. Some have gone as far as throwing out the 'walks like a duck' line to insinuate we might be racist. For pointing out what could be considered racism ! Then he goes on to claim that my ( and JC's ) argument is simplistic and esy to understand. Meanwhile we cannot possibly understand his argument because it is complex and nuanced ( and we are after all, just racist simpletons, who need to have prejudicial discrimination explaine with an out-of-context dictionary definition ) We now have white, blacks and a latino on the SC, but orientals are catching up fast with 7 % of US population. Based on some of the justifications presented in defence of Biden's pre-announcement, should we expect an announcement for his next pick of a 'gay oriental' ? I, myself, don't think skin color, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. should ever be a criteria for selection. But according to some people, that makes me a racist. That person, and he knows who he is, needs to give his head a shake. ( unless he can't because it is firmly wedged up his ass ) Rant completed; carry on.

Russian Intelligence ??? Bit of an Oxymoron, ain't it ? The way most all Russians have been easily duped by propaganda, and swindled by their President and his band of oligarchs. you included.

Easy, JC. You might give MSC a coronary.

I don't think their forces can actually take Mariupol conventionally. The steel mill where the Ukrainian resistance is making their stand is very large and criss-crossed with underground concrete tunnels. They are well sheltered against mortar/bombardment. The only option for the Russian forces is to starve the resistance of food/water or ammunition. This might be a good time for the Ukrainians to use those extra 22 MiG-29s that they have salvaged with Slovakian parts, to bomb open a corridor so as to resupply the resistance fighters. First wave to drop bombs and clear out Russian forces; second wave for close air support of the trucks bringing in supplies.

Unlike you I don't need to consult dictionaries to know what a word means, or who's full of shit. Any way you slice it, it means a bias, or preconceived notion, idea, or opinion about someone/thing. The active word, in this particular context, being preconceived, as in preannouncing your selection before actually making it. No I admitted to being less sensible than JC. Why don't you look up 'sensible' in the dictionary. @MigLignoring this are we? Not at all. I see no difference. Both are filling a vacancy, and preannouncing your selection is a preconceived notion about who you will rent to, or, who you will nominate to the SC. He did do the right thing. Did he 'improve things by the pre-annoucement about 'picking a black woman', or did he make things slightly worse ? That is what i have a dim view of; the pre-announcement. He eventually picked the candidate he wanted ( and we need ), but the pre-announcement of the selection criteria, involving skin color and gender, did not improve things but made things slightly worse and gave people the excuse to gripe about the selection process. I think the pre-announcement did not need to be made. If anyone can point out any benefit arising from it, I will stop getting MSC all worked up.

Except that INow has been throwing around the "butt-hurt" comment far longer than I have. To say nothing of the insinuations of racism, from you. Exactly. And "prejudice' Means to judge beforehand, since you like definitions. As in J Biden 'judging beforehand' That his pick would be a black woman. Is there anything else I need to explain to you ? Or am I just being vitriolic ? I'm sure he would have, or at least come by to tell me to settle down because it's not that big an issue ( he's a lot more sensible than I ), but he lives too far away.