It seems to me that for all the criticism the administration is taking for the seeming haphazard way this is being conducted, and perhaps rightfully so, Libya may be the one place in the world where the US military should be intervening. I think this may be one of those times, like WWII, where America gets to show whether it is just another tribe trying to protect its own patch of dirt, or whether we are actually willing to stand up for the principles we pay so much lip service to.  I would say it's a much more noble cause than Iraq, or even Afghanistan.
No one seems to want to acknowledge that the Gaddafi is potentially giving other dictators in the region the blueprint to survive their own protests. The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt were relatively peaceful, and ultimately the presidents of both those nations lost power. Gaddafi is not going down peacefully, and if he succeeds, the message to others in his situation is clear: show no weakness to the protesters, and respond with violence until they go away. If it works in Libya, it will be clear in Yemen, Bahrain, etc... what those heads of state need to do to keep their positions. If that is something we are willing to sit back and watch, then whatever is left of our moral credibility is down the drain.

So the other day, there was some shouting going on in the shoutbox, and a certain member who shall remain nameless unless they choose to reveal themselves mentioned that he is 19, male, in college... and playing pokemon. Regularly. And not only that, but even more pathetically, he excused this by saying that Pokemon is some sort of erstwhile Linus's security blanket, reminding him of all that was good and pure before the real world left a massive swirly on his chest. Anyhoo, this led me to publish a theory that I have regarding the perceived low sex drive of the average adult female in our society, which basically boils down to this:

How is a lady supposed to get her pilot lit when her available partners never learned how to be adults?

A couple of "right ons" from the ladies who happened to be present suggests there is some truth to this, at least in general.
So let's rap, brothers, and allow me to cast a few other pearls on this subject.

#1 - Ladies want security
I am talking about general security here, not just financial. Yes, you need to be able to make money to support your family. That is part of your responsibility as a man. You don't have a family yet? Doesn't matter. Ladies want to be able to have faith that if they cast their lot with you, there will one day be a family and that you will be able to support it. More importantly, they want to  have faith that if they cast their lot with you, you are returning, or at least capable of returning, the favour. Believe it or not, the average lady doesn't care if you check out other ladies... if they are secure enough in their relationship that they have no worries about you running of with one of them. When they're not, that's when they have a problem.

#2 - Ladies want their man to look like a man!
I am not talking about chest hair or haircuts, or even how old or young you look, necessarily. I'm not the most ruggedly handsome of dudes. No, no, ladies, argue all you want, I appreciate it. But I have good hygiene and I clean up OK, and that goes a long way with your average lady. Guess what else? I have some shirts, and some of them have more than 3 buttons on them. Sometimes I wear them when it's not a wedding or a funeral. Tucked in! Your cargo shorts and flip flops are well and good. From time to time, depending on the circumstance, great. But if you want a lady to ever believe that you are capable of #1, looking the part goes a long way. Shallow, you say? Maybe. Maybe. But you are a dude, and you have no grounds on which to criticize any other human being about their shallowness.

#3 - Don't be such a selfish fucking dick!
When I laid my theory out in the shoutbox, Pokemon boy retorted with "there's nothing wrong with my sex drive". Guess what, dillweed? No one is talking about *your* sex drive! It's not all about you! Think about someone else once in a while! If you can't do it in a discussion, what's it going to be like during the act? Ladies relate lots of seemingly unrelated things to how you will treat them in your relationship. How do you treat animals and children, and other things weaker than you? It's a fact of life that most women are going to be weaker than most men. I know, I know, present company excepted, of course. So when you're mean to the dog, or your snot-nosed, bratty little nephew, what conclusion should a lady draw about your character, and how you will treat her when she is vulnerable (physically, emotionally, or in any other way)? Part of being a grown up is realizing that your actions affect other people, not just yourself. Ladies know this.

To conclude, it should come as no surprise that a legal adult playing Pokemon on his DS does nothing toward any of these objectives. Lest it seem I am disproportionally picking on dudes here, it is partly the fault of the ladies. For one, you get knocked up by dudes that are not around to raise your sons. How are they supposed to learn how to be a grown men when there are none around? In addition, you still put out for these losers, only encouraging their subpar behavior. So you are not without blame yourselves. But guess what, dudes? Lack of a good example can't be an excuse forever. Part of being a man is taking responsibility for your own situation, and you blaming anyone but yourself for your lot in life just becomes more babyish whining at some point.

¡Arriba!

I'm as big of an LOTR fan as the next dork, and while I don't think the entirety of Frank Herbert's Dune novels are as good as J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth novels, I would say that I probably like the first Dune book better than any of the LOTR books on their own.

Both J.R.R. Tolkien and Frank Herbert are dead, and their sons have chosen to carry on their IP, for lack of a better word.

Brian Herbert (with another hack, Kevin J. Anderson) have written new novels in the Dune universe, carrying on the story, expanding on the background, etc.  To me they completely lack the philosophy, the overarching themes, the thoughtfulness of Frank Herbert's Dune books. So while I think it's shallow hackery, at least something new has been created, and I can appreciate that even if I'm not a fan.

Christopher Tolkien has taken all of his father's notes, which by all accounts were copious, made sense of them, edited them, made a true scholarly endeavor to understand and disseminate his father's work. He hasn't really created anything or contributed to the IP himself, just releasing reworks of notes and manuscripts, sort of how Jimi or Tupac have more posthumous releases than they did when they were alive.  What's more, he comes across to me as a bit overly litigious, considering he didn't actually create any of the things he sues over.

So who's more of a whore trying to milk their father's legacy for all it's worth? The low quality original contributor, or the high quality regurgitator?

I upgraded my wife's computer to the latest version of Ubuntu (yes my wife runs linux on her PC). It wouldn't let me upgrade for some reason so installed it on a a new partition (it did allow me to import all of her settings, which was good). But that partition is now too small and is out of space. I said to myself, "self, I'll just boot to the live CD, shrink the old partition, and grow the new one into that space". It about half worked.  I shrank the old partition, but it wouldn't let me grow the new one into that space. Anyone know how to do this? The only reason I am keeping the old is in case there is something on it that she needs. Once I'm sure there isn't, then I was going to kill it and then grow the new system parition into that space as well. But obviously I can't do that yet either.

Old config:
[-----old system partition-----][--new--][-swap-]

Now config:
[--old--][--empty--][--new--][-swap-]

Desired:
[--old--][-------new-------][-swap-]

I am looking to put up an outbuilding on my property, on the cheap. Initially I intended to build it out of cob, but I don't have the clay for it onsite. So what I came up with is to build 1' x 1' by 1' cubes of welded wire mesh (leftover fencing) and pack them with stones, which I do have in plenty, and stack those into my walls.  I intially built a 1' x 1' by 2' block, but it had too much bulge for my tastes. The 1' x 1' x 1' is perfect so far. The building will by cylindrical shaped (a spiral actually ), and the wall will be about 4' high for the most part, and support no weight other than itself.  There will also be periodic beams on the inside and the outside for lateral support, as well as to hold up the roof (~8' at the lowest point.) Also, the bottom of the wall will rest on a concrete footing. The stacked blocks will all be tied together.
So my question - does anyone see any obvious safety concerns here? Is there a reason I have never seen this done before (I have seen it in landscaping, but not used for structures. I am hoping that is because of the labor involved)? I'm not worried about insulation or anything like that.

Here's to Joe not being crushed to death by his own shoddy craftsmanship.

Not only do would you rather have a house in suburbia than be married to your wife, you would have enrolled in TripleAdvantage in order to get *your fiance's credit report* just so you could find out about all of her credit card defaults before saying "I do".  Is that even legal?  Why don't you look in the mirror, get a haircut and a grown-up job, ditch the freeloading longhairs, and take some responsibility for providing for your family instead of blaming your basement apartment on someone else?

Your record, err, music collection, that is.  Lately I feel that mine has been getting a bit out of hand.
~1500 albums and counting, and that's just what I've ripped...
How does that compare to Teh Geekery OMFGLOL~~~~! Nation?

With apologies to actual Catholics, I realize it may be folly to search for any logic in an organization of this type.  But what is the reasoning behind this eating of fish and avoidance of other meat, and on Fridays only?  Isn't fish also meat?  The meat of a fish?  I saw a commercial for Taco Cabana where they were pitching shrimp quesadilla as a fish sammich substitute.  Is shrimp cool?  It's not a fish.  So is it all seafood that's ok to eat on Friday?  Lastly, hypothetically speaking, would one be able to eat a penguin?  I'm not sure if it counts as seafood or "meat".
Discuss!

I get you to do my taxes because it's worth the $200 or so for me not to have to deal with it.  It becomes quickly less so when I make an appointment and then arrive and have to wait around.  Also, I respect the elderly, but you'll have to forgive me if I am weary about their typing skills.  I don't want to hear "oh dear, I punched in the wrong thing" even once.  Most of all, your "tax professional" should never use the word "interesting". It is not interesting.  Nothing regarding my taxes should ever be interesting to you whatsoever.  It should all be drudgery that you have seen a million times.  If it is interesting, please have the decency to keep it to yourself.
Sincerely,
Joe

System is running XP64, and cannot access SMB shares.  I can ping the server, but cannot connect and browse, and I can even VNC into the server.  Whether Windows Firewall is up or down changes nothing.  I am posting from the system now, so internet works fine.  All the other systems on the network can connect fine.  It's just the actual accessing of the shares that I can't do, from this one machine.

What makes it even weirder... if I fire up a virtual machine on the failing system, that XP system can browse the network just fine.  So it has to be some software configuration thing that got changed somehow.
What the hell?

One day, just after dark, you may hear the dogs in your backyard going crazy.  When you look outside you may see them gathered in an area where your 5 year old daughter was playing less than an hour earlier.  As you go to investigate, your ears may be filled with staccato thunder, and you may find yourself face to face with Man's most ancient enemy - THE SERPENT.  Your heart rate and breathing will increase as adrenaline floods your veins.  You will do a quick inventory of your assets and liabilities, and realize that you will have to destroy The Diamondback with nothing but a six foot shovel, a cinder block, and your grapefruit-sized gonads.  You will survey the terrain in search of tactical advantage, and you will do all of this in the span of a few seconds, an ability you may have not only not known you possessed, but you may have never even wondered, and you will then realize that evolution did right by you.
Later, once you have severed it's head from it's body, and you pose with it's carcass in triumph, you may realize that it's 5ft long and as thick as your arm, without exaggeration.  You have to take an unscheduled shower in order to remove the scent of Terror Sweat, and you decide right then that you never want to do any of this again, and a firearm is on your afternoon shopping list.

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/08/is-this-a-coen.html

Personally, I think we could all do with living such full lives...