As you all know, I'm a Libertarian.  As such, the primaries are really only interesting to me from a spectator sport point of view.  Here's what I'm finding interesting.  Let's say that Obama wins enough pledged delegates to get the majority.  What happens if Clinton's superdelegates (who answer to NO ONE by the way) then put her at a higher total than Obama?  Do you foresee something like changing the nature of primaries or the use of superdelegates?

I think he's lost his mind!

He's claiming that modern day atheism "has led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice".  Are you f-ing kidding me??!!!!?? 

Has he forgotten the staggering number of "infractions" that have been committed in the name of God?

Here's topic #1, of my promised three topics.


The political rhetoric is increasing.  I see many opinion pieces, and hear many conversations about how we need to "re-defeat" communism (mostly in relation to Clinton).  I understand the somewhat socialist aspects of some of the ideas out there.  But here's my question.  Communism is viewed as this big, oppressive governmental machine.  That's never been my understanding of communism.  In fact, the most infamous communist governments (China and the USSR), weren't really communist at all; they were/are totalitarian and/or oligarchies. 

So, is it just that most people don't reallu understand communist theory, or are they intentionally ignorant, or are they right?

For lack of a better place to put this thread, I'm putting it in the politics section.

I'm finding that there's something in the news that I'm having very mixed feelings about.  There's a couple in Minnesota who recently gave birth to sextuplets.  She gave birth at approx. 22 weeks, this a little more than half of the human gestational period.  Since birth, the babies have died, one-by-one.  As of this moment, four of them are dead and the remaining two are in critical condition.  Here's the high-level sequence of events (and then I'll tell you my mixed feelings).

1. Couple tries to have a baby only to find that they are infertile, or can't maintain the pregnancy (I don't remember which).
2. Couple decided to take fertility drugs.
3. Couple gets pregnant with sextuplets.
4. Doctors strongly advise couple to selectively reduce to two fetuses.
4a. Doctors clearly explain the likelihood that woman will not be able to carry sextuplets long enough to birth healthy babies.  Doctors clearly explain the math that reducing to two greatly increases the odds of a successful pregnancy for the ones that remain.
5. Couple decline to selectively reduce, claiming that it's God's will that they have six babies all at once.
6. Woman gives birth at 22 weeks.  The largest baby is a little over 1 pound, the smallest is around 11 ounces.  The babies start dying.  No one really knows whether the remaining two babies are going to make it.

I have a two-part conflict.  Here it is. 
A. First, let me make it clear that I feel horrible for these people.  I can't imagine the agony they must be in.  However, there is a part of me that thinks they brought it on themselves.  They knew that attempting to carry all six fetuses carried a HUGE risk, but they declared God's will and plowed ahead.  So, while I feel bad for them, I also feel like they only really have themselves to blame.
B. My second beef is with the God's will argument.  Bear in mind, I say this as someone who doesn't believe in God, so maybe there's a mindset here that I fundamentally don't understand.  If you're going to claim God's will: when you were found to be infertile, why wasn't that a message from God telling you to adopt?  If you're going to claim God's will: when you turned to science, wasn't that an attempt to controvert God's will?  Isn't it hypocritical to claim God's will when it intersects with your own will, and to circumvent it when it doesn't match up with what you want?

Do mods have the ability to enter into a user's profile and modify the settings?

And while I'm at it, pb, what the hell are you doing man?

...thoughts? comments?

So, for those of you who don't know, I'm a database developer.  This means that I can write (some kinds of) code like nobody's business, but I am basically ignorant about hardware.  I have a 1.5TB database that sits on a massive SAN.  Simple question...on a SAN this big, can I run a Scandisk (or something else) to view my disk fragmentation without having to bring my system down?  Thanks in advance.

Ok, I'm sure we've had a topic about this before, but I just don't feel like digging for it.  Also, I'm just WAY too lazy to do my own research.  I'm thinking about getting an iPod.  I know there are multiple models, storage sizes and price points.  Recommendations?

...or have we had a huge influx of the worst kind of stupidity in recent days/weeks?

Okay, I've been staring at these numbers too long, and they are all blurring together now.  1000 billion = 1 trillion, this I know is correct.  10000 billion = 1 quadrillion, yes?

So I'm thinking of writing an article that expands on my can of worms thread.  Some of the things I'm thinking of addressing are:
If abortion is banned...
...increased rates of child abuse (because of pissed off and resentful women (and men))
...increased number of people on welfare
...increased suicide rates
...increased mortality (and serious injury) rates due to back-alley and do-it-yourself abortions
...increased high school dropout rates
...increased false reports of rape
...potential increases in rates of retardation

First question, is it worth the time to even write this article?  Second question, if it is worth the time, is there anything else you guys can think of?