Daniel W.

Private, I’m sorry you are going through this.  I wish I could stand outside your residence with a big sign and picket them, and write a letter to the editor, describing this senior abuse.  I fear that would not make your life better, so it’s a catch-22.  I hope that you can find allies there.

Reg, China isn’t exactly a human rights paradise, even now.  I think most people there, now, know better than to start a mass protest.  Recently, more came out about the protest, with reports of tanks running back and forth over students until they were puree, then washing them down the sewers.  If we are going to boycott countries, we should bo…[Read more]

@JadeBlackOlive, the other day I was at Trader Joes, looking at coffee beans.  I saw the Sumatra, which I used to love, then thought, no, in Indonesia they kill atheists and gays, round them up and put them in prison.  Then I looked at the Kenya, and thought, no, that one’s just as bad.  Finally I bought some Ethiopian coffee beans, but I di…[Read more]

@JadeBlackOlive, I don’t blame anyone for wanting to boycot US goods and services.  I have a feeling the situation will get uglier before it gets better.

@Davis, I’m an American.  I’m a product of the area people call “The Heartland” – a term which reminds me a little of “Das Vaterland”.  I was a US soldier at a time when that was reviled by…[Read more]

@davis, I agree with you on this.  Male circumcision is unnecessary, has risks, and the benefits for a Western male are not worth the negatives.

I don’t know if most adult men who were circumcised as infants actually miss their foreskins or if the trauma at that time is of any meaning or significance later, but why do it?  We could prevent v…[Read more]

I loved X Files and the 4400 but regarded them as science fiction.  I wonder if there is a social atmosphere or political environment that contributes to UFOism. Weren’t UFOs big in the McCarthism era?  Are we in a similar time in some ways now?  Maybe we are in for another era of UFO sightings and abductions.   That could be fun to watch.

@RegTheFronkeyFarmer, so what the guy was saying, was he would no longer commit acts of violence against the women he works with? Did they compliment him on his commendable change of behavior?

My personal take, which is highly personal…

When I was about 21, I was an undergrad working in a science lab.  One of the grad students asked me to proof-read her dissertation with her.  She brought it to my place to go over it.  During that reading, she literally jumped me, started pulling off my clothes.  I was not the least bit int…[Read more]