The US Constitution guarantees freedom from government-involvement in religious affairs--clear separation of Church and State. The Texas law certainly...
Luscious to look at. Tomatoes are an interesting plant in an interesting family that includes tobacco, potatoes, eggplant, deadly nightshade (belladon...
You should complain to the Persnickety Persimmon Promotion Board. They would be aghast that your first bite was your last. Soft, however, means pretty...
Two types show up in stores; less often a flattened round persimmon--called fuyu. (It's Japanese, not an abbreviation like bufu. The other kind are Ha...
For those of a certain age who have fond memories (or fond fantasies) of the 1960s, here's a painting by Joseph Sherly Sheppard, American, born 1930: ...
ditto, per @"James Riley". Put it on the back side of the moon so we won't have to look at the mess they will surely make. I do not want to look up at...
Could well be. However, the prohibition will apply to young people, most of whom have either not smoked at all, or have not become addicted. Their rea...
This seems to be true. First, there is the purchase of the technology itself. One bought the desk computer and put the typewriter in the basement. One...
Sorry, I didn't explain it well. 70% of GDP is private consumption. 30% is public consumption -- everything that the city, county, state, and federal ...
Consumption drives 70% of American GDP. It's Americans as fat, lazy consumers that produces our colossal economy, not slim, hard-working, industrious ...
According to informed sources, spanish "lelo" translates to: birdbrained, dopey, slow on the uptake, goofy, dimwit, dummy, fool. In other words, not a...
American workers work more hours and receive far shorter holidays than European workers, along with fewer benefits. So, the "existential situation" va...
From an anti-natalist position, the problem is utterly intractable. From the pro-natalist POV, 'The Problem' isn't exactly a piece of cake to solve, e...
I can't quite tell whether you are caricaturing the ruling class, or giving them your obeisance on bended knees. If you are on your knees, get the fuc...
The bourgeoisie have all sorts of justifications to cover their operations. They will keep repeating their self-justifications until the world is an u...
We'd all say 'crap' for sure, if we ran up against one of these. Not a good house dog, perhaps -- unless it is for a house you'd like to get rid of. A...
I wasn't thinking of Christianity; I suppose "our light of the world" might have suggested it to you. I was ironically references us as "our light of ...
A well done apocalypse (as opposed to a half-assed piece of rubbish) raises this unpleasant question: If our light of the world could be so easily ext...
"The End of the World" will, as a fact not as a fiction, be the end of all our long striving. There will be no one left to add so much as a sigh. The ...
Thank you. I have finished several nice cups of coffee, and should get on with the day. How did you know it was overcast in Minneapolis? Have you been...
The short answer to a very good question is: No. Take Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak deserve credit for bringing together several already-existing compo...
It might be helpful to make a distinction between "democracy" (broadly understood) as a system of government, and "democracy" as ordinary, daily inter...
The Internet is a many splendored thing. If Facebook and 4Chan or 8Chan are not good for it, other parts are. It isn't the Internet, per se, that is a...
There are trees that old (probably not in Europe where trees tended to get cut down for lumber and were replaced by new trees). Actually you don't nee...
Hendrick Avercamp 1585–1634 painted this. It is charming and romantic, but it was pretty cold and the growing season was shortened, which wasn't quite...
Tree rings tell the tale, as do lake sediment cores (looking at pollen grain). I don't know how many records from back then commented on the weather. ...
Yes, I'm a certified idiot-savant. American. Given a culture / economic collapse from global warming, it might. But there were some factors: The withd...
Since we did interbreed and produce fertile offspring (which is why Europeans, for instance, are about 1%-3% Neanderthal. Same for Asians and Denisova...
You must be thinking of Søren Kierkegaard's learned aunts and uncles. But no. A little finger bone found somewhere in eastern Russia supplied the DNA ...
As a generalization, there have been periods of real growth. For instance, the post WWII boom brought real growth (increases in real income) for about...
No, it wasn't fine, but we were farther away from a tipping point. By 1900, a huge hunk of coal had already been dug up and burned. Oil was getting se...
Which countries would that be? @"ChatteringMonkey": I hope you haven't been waiting 3 years for this factoid; I just came across it again. After the d...
That what English dictionaries are. The percentage of "foreign words" not of Anglo-Saxon origin comprises about 99% of the dictionary (rough guess). E...
33 years ago I went through the 7th Collegiate Dictionary 3 times and made a list of the words derived from Anglo Saxon (AS). (This wasn't obsessive c...
You have my deepest sympathy. English spelling and pronunciation are fairly inconsistent. Take the letter combination of 'ough': rough - ruff bough - ...
To the extent that think of your BMW as your teutonic steed, then yes, it has circular hooves. Cleft? No. The Rock of Ages is cleft, as are pigs' feet...
it is amazing; I find it hard to believe, but... there we are. BTW, that would be one hoof, two hooves. Hove is something else altogether. I thought i...
Marx gave us some valuable insights into the workings of the capitalist economy. Leftists, on the other hand, not so much -- especially in the last 40...
I would have to go back and re-read a lot of old discussions, but it seems like you have presented the "tension" argument before. You seem to suppose ...
Books, music, drama, discussions sociability -- those are the things that we want to have more time for, not to simplify out of existence. How about e...
None whatsoever. Please note: my socialist alternative does not exchange working for a capitalist pig with working for a state pig. The third possibil...
Yes. It's unwelcome because "we like our plumbing, heat, cars, roads, electrical grid.. etc. etc. endless blather. just think STEM fields. We like our...
A minimum of effort was required of hunter-gatherers before they could spend their remaining time. Some anthropologists think they had about 18 hours ...
The upper class of the US, the richest 10%, has class consciousness. The 90% who have scarcely a pot to piss in think they are middle class. "Middle c...
Work is required to maintain existence. Food has to be grown, clothing has to be made, shelter has to be built. A lot of work has to be done before we...
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