Moontanman

I'm not sure if the driving age is still 14 but at one time (I live near the state line) it's wasn't unusual to see a car loads of teenies driving around the the beach towns. South Carolina used to be a wide open place, sex at 10 or 11, drive at 14, buy a judge seat, no law experience necessary, or for sheriff as well. The last couple of decades they've cleaned it up a little bit, I think a judgeship is still pretty expensive but age of consent is higher, 12 or so No, really i think they are in line with the rest of the nation now.

Move to The Great State of South Carolina, I think it's still 14 there

The guy was outside the boundary set up by the people in charge, to get to the polling place you pretty much have to run a gauntlet of people electioneering but this guy was particularly repugnant in his attitude of outing the liberal judges in general as though his word was the gospel on the subject. That is pretty much how it is done here, churches hand out sample ballots with the people that particular church approves of filled out.

I think it should be pointed out that the space program is a drop in the bucket compared to the military and the wars we are fighting. It's always good politics to use the space program as a whipping boy to convince people you are willing to cut the fat off the budget but the space program is more representative of a hang nail than fat.

Yes, moderate alcohol consumption actually makes you smarter by getting rid of the sick and weak brain cells and leaving the healthy strong ones to live.

I think it's interesting to note that local school board republicans, who have embraced the tea party movement, are in trouble at the moment because they have managed to re-segregate local schools. It has turned into a big deal because the segregation of the local schools has resulted in the loss of badly needed federal funding. Now they are all running around saying it was accidental and that separation of black and whites in local schools was not the intent of redistricting.

I think they old boy was more pissed he had misjudged me so badly than actually threatening me. If anything that is even creepier.

So you would expect racists to admit to being racist? If I had $ for every time a racist has sworn not to be racist I would be a rich man. "I don't have anything against black people, I think everyone should own a couple..."

Around here most of the 'tea party" I've actually talked to one on one really didn't seem to understand the issues, and mostly just spout F.U.D.s and vague notions of taking "it" back. Funny you should say that, around here many if not most churches issue sample ballots with the churches choices of who should be in office filled out. This is quite common here, Churches do their best to tell their members who to vote for. This is the most disturbing thing to me. Every time I start to drift toward being a Conservative I meet one personally and I come to my senses.

I doubt you can paint such a large group with one brush.

I'm going to assume this guy was an aberration, it's difficult to imagine large numbers of people with his attitude.

Today when I went to vote I was accosted several times by people wanting me to vote for their candidate, since I was in line I listened politely as the line moved but one guy asked me if I knew who i was going to vote for in the several non partisan local appeals court judge races. I told him (truthfully) that I wasn't planning on voting for any of them since i didn't know them and there had been very little information about them available. he covertly offered me a list of the correct choices for these judgeships. I asked him, what he meant by correct. He again pressed the list in my hand and said very quietly so no one would over hear, " i have a list of the candidates the Tea party approves of. I told him no thanks, a list from him wasn't enough information to get me to vote for his people. He stepped back and quite loudly called me a "Stupid Liberal son of a Bitch" so now i know why i can't be a Conservative, I just don't take orders well

It's not that unusual for people to walk around talking to themselves but I like #4 in the last one, but #4 in the first one is probably closer to reality ...

Severian, you were run over on that one, it didn't even look like anyone was reading what you were writing.

It looks like it might be a bed warmer, when i was a kid we would heat pieces of cast iron, until it was very hot in the fire place and wrap them in newspapers and a thick cloth and put them under the covers to keep your feet warm. We didn't have any heat other than the fireplace in the house and these cast iron bed warmers really helped keep you warm. I remember several of them around the house, some were just pieces of cast iron but most were dedicated bed warmers and often had various fancy details like the little boy and the dog or goat on this piece.

How about The Mach-Effect (ME) drive http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=1324, does anyone know if this is legitimate?

You make some good points lemur, there is no doubt that technology will allow us to maintain populations no other large animal can possibly achieve, but unless some factors totally unknown intervene we will eventually exceed the carrying capacity of the Earth, technology will slow it down but it will still happen if we continue to breed like we are now... I wonder if we really want to push the envelope so far as to bring the human population to it's absolute maximum.

You're right, i have a 34 year marriage with two grown children, i must put far too much importance on sex. Why should I have to do with out sex? Why should my wife and I limit sex due to not wanting a child at that point in time? The church even frowns on masturbation, the sexual repression of the church serves no purpose other than controlling the faithful in an arbitrary fashion... So far no one has presented any reason fro the Prohibition of birth control inside of marriage that makes any sense at all.

I have been very excited by this space craft and it's mission from the beginning. I look forward to seeing the surface of Vesta but Ceres is the biggie for me. I think Ceres will turn out to be the most interesting object in the inner solar system.

On what forum in what universe do i have 537,000 rep points and why is it any business of yours!

I understand that the church is against sex outside of marriage, but why is birth control inside marriage wrong as well? I can't imagine being limited to abstinence in my marriage to avoid pregnancy, talk about a bummer, sex only a few days a month at most and still the danger of pregnancy? That would not just suck personally but it would harm the bonding and emotional comfort sex brings between couples...

I have no idea what you mean by this, but i have no political idealogy, none that I know of suits me even close. Yes, i was hurt on the Job Working for the Dupont Corporation, 25 years in i was injured and forced out on disability retirement. Now that is common knowledge but WTF would my reputation points bother you?

Ok guys! Big opportunity for anyone who has a desire for paddlefish! The guy i got mine from has some available for shipping. This is a very unusual opportunity, he has several "dinks" left over out of his usual crop of fish and is going to sell them. They have 3 to 5 inch dinks, $30 dollars each I'm not sure what shipping will be but he is willing to ship them second day. As you can see from this thread they are relatively easy to keep if you have a large aquarium. PM me for pertinent info if you want one of these fish.

My political ideology? WTF are you talking about? This is true but if the population trends continue there will no place to get new resources, i cannot understand why that is so difficult to understand. Jackson if you have really been paying attention for the last four years you would know my circumstances, I've never tried to hide them in any way. No no, the implication in the OP that over population could never occur not that it currently occurring was a myth. Obviously over population is subject to opinion but ignoring the danger of run away population growth is simply not smart. I would suggest starting now on trying to get people to stop having babies over and over and to advcate limiting families to two or three children. One good way to start this would be to advocate birth control. The fact that nobody has a fix on what technology will bring is a good reason to start planning for the worst, I'd rather be pleasantly surprised instead of devastated by disaster. Good find in the link but I have my doubts that it is the last word in the future of the human race. There seems to be a huge amount of data that contradicts that.