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Re: Reparations? - 2 days ago

PS: The last time I looked (decades ago) the price of farm land was somewhere in the one to two thousand dollars per acre range. That would make the current value of 40 acres and a mule as somewhere in the 40 to 80 thousand dollar range, and the mule would be a little more. This does not mean that 40 acres and a tractor is a good goal considering the economics of modern agriculture, but the overa

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Reparations? - 2 days ago

I'm not convinced by the argument that there has to be an accurate accounting of exactly which person was in slavery until the end of the Civil War and who that person's descendants are. Probably 99.8% of living Black Americans have slave descendants, some going back to 1865 and some going back a lot further. So treating this entire population as the reparation group is logical and would probably

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: SC Supreme Court blocks electrocutions scheduled for June - 2 days ago

QuoteLemon Drop I oppose the death penalty, no exception. My reasons include that it is immoral, that it is applied in a very discriminatory fashion to poor and Black criminals, that the finality of this punishment precludes any chance for the convicted person to later prove their innocence, that it does not in any way deter crime, and finally that families of crime victims do not feel better af

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Good guys with guns do exist! They're real, - 2 days ago

It's a curious sort of vicious circle that we've got going here. It's easy for just about anybody to get a gun, whether it's a pistol or a semiautomatic rifle. Convicted felons buy guns on the street and sell them on the street. People who have no real training and lack the self control that they really ought to have buy guns, keep them in the bedside table, and nowadays are invited to carry them

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: SC Supreme Court blocks electrocutions scheduled for June - 3 days ago

I think it's possible to be agnostic on the death penalty. In 1999, I stood up at the sentencing phase of the young man who had murdered my friend and said that I was OK with him being sentenced to life in prison rather than getting the death penalty. This was my personal view, but I think I can understand how others would have a different view. I'm not talking about the guys (isn't it always men

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Who's against Juneteenth? - 3 days ago

How about a 3 week holiday to move us a little closer to European standards?

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Delta variant... convergent evolution? - 4 days ago

Well, the RNA dependent RNA polymerase that replicates the Covid-19 genome gets it right 9999 times out of 10,000 which means that in an average replication, there are 3 mutations on the average (most probably neutral) and in an average human case there will be something like billions or trillions of new copies of the virus. This presumably means that every single nucleotide in the viral genome g

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Jon Stewart knows the source of Covid-19 - 5 days ago

I saw it. There wasn't anything correct that he said, right down to the name of the virology lab in Wuhan. I think it was an attempt to be funny and serious, and it did get a few laughs. But it kind of fell flat pretty quickly. His line about the end of the world -- some scientist in a laboratory will say, "It worked!" -- is a standard science fictional trope that has become cliched and

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Judge dismisses lawsuit by Houston hospital employees over Covid-19 vaccinations - 7 days ago

The case itself was pretty much a slam dunk considering that the basic principle goes back to a 1905 decision, albeit in a case revolving around the right of the city of Cambridge, MA to require smallpox vaccination. But the overall idea that cities and hospitals have a right to protect their inhabitants from infectious disease is awfully similar. I think what's going on in our reaction here i

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: good picture for anti-vaxxers - 7 days ago

My brother-in-law got the vaccine before I did. Also my brothers and sisters. I took their advice and found a vaccination site with openings at a drugstore. (One of them did the vaccination clinic at Dodger Stadium)

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Hamas honors Al Jazeera for ‘highly professional’ coverage of Gaza conflict - 10 days ago

I can imagine that Israel had operational intelligence that they don't want to reveal or explain because it would weaken their ability to use it again. Not exactly a new idea in warfare, as those who have read about the code breakers will remember. And if Israel does give out some information, the other side will just accuse them of fabricating it. Still, I get your point about waiting for AP to

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Three Percenters militia members charged in U.S. Capitol attack - 11 days ago

It's interesting that there was enough of the DOJ and the FBI to carry on these investigations even though Trump was around until January 20th. The fact that there are serious felony charges -- conspiracy -- against the leaders of these groups means that they will be kept busy defending themselves and possibly being in jail for a good long time to come. I can't imagine less than several years pri

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Get Your Licks at Dicks - 11 days ago

This was all over television news the other night. It's true that the video does not show what led up to the beating, but maybe that's not really important and cops should be taught that they are going to be judged on whatever footage gets taken whenever it starts. Maybe there should be a policy that when the police have overwhelming numbers, they take a moment to explain this to the suspect and

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Happy Birthday MR Forum member samintx - 12 days ago

I guess I had forgotten that your name is Suzanne, but happy birthday!

by Ca Bob - Tips and Deals

Re: GOP-invited Ohio doctor Sherri Tenpenny tells Ohio lawmakers COVID-19 shots 'magnetize' people, create 5G 'interfaces' - 12 days ago

QuotePeterB Does this have anything to do with my ability to bend spoons? And if I get my cavities filled using a strange plastic-like substance that washed up on the beach in a box marked "U.S. Government Property", will I be able to tune in Russian radio stations with my mouth? Curious minds want to know. Yes and Yes This Dr Tenpenny is a real doctor and also a real crank

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Be among the first humans to see Jupiter's moon of Ganymede - 12 days ago

How big across is this picture? I assume that it is about the diameter of Ganymede, 3273 miles according to Wiki. Are we really seeing water ice on it?

by Ca Bob - Tips and Deals

Re: New info about the variants - 12 days ago

Thanks. This is useful. What's important is the vaccine effectiveness, which appears to be pretty good against all of the mutants as long as you get both shots. Another interesting point, if I understand correctly. The political authorities seem to be looking to open up society, with California aiming to open things on June 15. The logic seems to be that everyone has now had a chance to get va

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Any Kindle experts here? - 14 days ago

Anything but an expert. I got a Kindle for foreign travel because where I was going it was difficult to find English language paperbacks of any sort, and what was available was expensive. The Kindle worked very well for that purpose -- I just put in like half a dozen books before I left, and had something I could read without a night light. I've never gone through the explanatory stuff in deta

by Ca Bob - Tips and Deals

Re: 17yo girl shoves mother bear away to protect doggies - 18 days ago

They should require people who live in that area to get a wilderness permit. When you get the permit, they teach you about how to deal with bears.

by Ca Bob - Tips and Deals

Re: Shower thought... will Republicans in Jail reduce sentencing laws ? - 19 days ago

Well, there were quite a few high ranking Nixon staffers who ended up in prison. I remember a few years later, a friend of mine wryly observed -- did you notice that when these guys get out of prison, they all swear they are going to work for prison reform? It was funny at the time because they were the same guys who pushed the "law and order" line and "throw away the key"

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Hawaii 5-O, the original - 19 days ago

The Danno character in the remake (now recently cancelled) show became entirely irritating. When they got rid of Grace Park over a contract dispute that took a lot out of the show.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: National 117 staffers sue over Houston hospital’s vaccine mandate, say they don’t want to be ‘guinea pigs’ - 22 days ago

It looks like just under 26,000 employees have had the vaccine. I would guess that this group constituting maybe one-eighth of one percent are the hard core anti-vaxxers, motivated by some sort of Trumpist sentiments. There are probably an equal number (or a few more) who haven't had the vaccine but don't identify with the angry activist crowd.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Anti-virus? - 23 days ago

Sarcany: What is the safe or appropriate way to use Malwarbytes?

by Ca Bob - Tips and Deals

Re: The baby shortage. Does it worry you? - 23 days ago

No, it's not a problem. There are way too many humans on the face of the earth right now and the number has been increasing fairly rapidly. It is the underlying issue for global warming, the end of oil reserves, the destruction of much of the oceans, and so forth

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Russia refuses to allow European planes to land in Moscow - 25 days ago

Wow. Can't go to Moscow. This is like an Emily Litella joke, or maybe that old joke about two weeks in Philadelphia. On a more serious note, I see this as, among other things, an attack on NATO by Belarus, and it should be answered by NATO as such.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: How QAnon seeds were planted or... - 26 days ago

I never knew that Bob Newhart was in the KGB.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Biden moves the Overton Window on Infrastructure - 26 days ago

I think it says 1T, not 1B

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Going tankless could save you money. - 27 days ago

If you are in earthquake country, you might figure that the big earthquake will shut off water supplies because water mains will be broken and out here, the California Aqueduct will be destroyed as it passes over the San Andreas Fault. For a lot of homeowners, that tank water heater will be your only reserve of water until water becomes available in two or three weeks time. Of course if you ar

by Ca Bob - Tips and Deals

Re: Big Sur upgrdade was kind of like a train wreck - 28 days ago

Question: I recently installed a replacement SSD (Aura Pro 2) from our hosts, giving me just under 1 TB of storage. It is apparently using the APFS format. I'm wondering if there is some way to separate out a modestly small section (100 Gb maybe?) to install the newest OS just to try it out. MacbookAir 7.2 early 2015 13 inch. Is there any substantial risk or benefit from trying this? PS:

by Ca Bob - Tips and Deals

Re: What happens when Hamas stops firing hundreds of rockets - 28 days ago

I think it's a fair question as to whether those Gaza rockets are potentially damaging or even lethal, or just the equivalent of a bigger version of 4th of July fireworks. If in fact the rockets are potentially lethal, then the logic of a strong Israeli response is pretty clear. In the moment of being shot at, it's less appropriate to make careful long-term calculations on "hearts and minds,

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting