Crap Throwing Monkey

He's a senator...but does Fred Thompson count? He left office to go back to acting because "I long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood."

IT'S STILL AN ENTRENCHING TOOL TO ME, DAMMIT!

As much as I agree...hearing the Vatican say it is giving me one of those "That's it, I quit, someone pick me up and take me back to my home planet" moments.

Maybe you'd prefer it back in you cell...

Actually, 99.999999% of the population, when you say "Corps", probably think "apple".

I'm surprised artillery's not too complex for you. You're better suited for the Corps...

Except for two things: 1) Despite all the advances, treatment for a viral infection still comes down to little more than effective nursing care, and 2) The per-capita availability of nursing care has decreased in the past century. Plus, there's more to it than individual health care. In 1918, Philadelphia's system of mortuaries broke down. Not enough coffins. Not enough space to prepare corpses. Not enough healthy bodies to collect and bury the dead. At the height of the pandemic, they had problems finding the dead. Imagine that happening today. Then throw in overstretched emergency services and basic services that a city relies on - municipal and commercial. Supermarkets, for example. A modern city is a fragile organism. And then, if you want, imagine some permutations, just for kicks. A line of thunderstorms blows through Chicago at the peak of the pandemic. How much longer does it take utility crews to restore downed power lines when they're undermanned by about 40%? (And you can't call in extra crews from Milwalkee or St. Louis - the pandemic's nationwide, mind you, so they're undermanned too). What's a lack of electricity for three days going to do for a health care system highly dependent on refrigeration? It doesn't take much for things to go straight to hell relatively quickly.

Except that this time...well, it's the flu. A proven illness-causing virus with a history of severe pandemics. People assume it's something new and special because it's the "bird flu". All flus are bird flus. It's where they come from. The flu's natural resivoir is in birds. Occasionally, flu viruses mutate and recombine (or "are intelligently redesigned", if you're a religious simpleton), and become new flu viruses. Sometimes they jump to pigs and recombine again into even newer flu viruses that can infect humans. Then you get pandemics. Sometimes the pandemics are deadly. And the current "avian flu" virus has shown an alarming propensity for killing people...but none for transmission from person-to-person. Eventually, it'll recombine into a form that does transmit person-to-person. Then we'll have a pandemic. And given how deadly it is already, it's not unreasonable to believe the pandemic will kill lots of people worldwide, just like the last time it happened. That ain't hype, that's science. People who know the science are concerned - which is substantially different from "panicking". (The media's panicking...but panic sells. The media's full of sh--, again, but they're making money at it, so what do they care.) People who know the science won't panic until they actually see a case of airborne transmission and retransmission between humans. The rest of you, though...you can panic. It's what the media wants you idiots to do...

It also....helps....if. SOMETIMES! You...runyourwordstogether. Like THAT! Before the.....DRAMATIC! PAUSE!

Could very well also be meant to test the results of research and planning in bio-defense, as well. Or both, frankly. But you're probably right.

What most people don't understand too is that it doesn't take much to bring a modern city to its knees. In 1918, Philly suffered about a 60% illness rate and 1% mortality rate...and municipal services very nearly broke down. That was a century ago, when people were substantially more independent of public services than they are now. Nowadays, cities are more fragile. I doubt a modern American city could withstand the mortality rate of the 1918 flu without a New-Orleans-like collapse of services.

And they damned well BETTER be armored. We can't have unarmored trucks hauling beans, bullets, and gas!

As needed, typically. (Depends on the doctor's instructions, really...mine's as needed; I suppose a doctor could prescribe it daily for a given period). I need something powerful, because sleep management is an important part of controlling mania, and when I'm not sleeping I typically need to knock myself out or bad things, man... But it's apparently an addictive hallucinogen, so I make it a rule not to take it two nights in a row, no matter how much I need it. And it really does mess with your perception, literally, I don't dare walk up a flight of stairs within 20 minutes of taking it. On some occasions when my wife's taken it, I've need to sit with her until she goes to sleep to reassure her about what are and are not hallucinations. I can't begin to imagine the kind of fool that drives around on Ambien at three in the morning. That (and other sstrongly mind-altering drugs) ought to be a driving-under-the-influence charge right there. Anyone that stupid at least deserves a reckless driving charge. And for me, it creates more questions than it answers. I'd have an easier time figuring out why a junior rep was driving drunk on Capitol Hill at 3am (answer: he was bar-hopping. He had a late committee meeting, and stopped by Rep. John Doe's office to shoot the sh-- and for a nightcap afterwards.) I can't begin to fathom why anyone would be at the office at 3am, take a friggin' sleep aid, then drive a car.

JSP's awestruck by howitzers. PM might be a little complex for him.

Of course, critics said the same thing about the M1 Abrams' turbine engine. Hell they said the same thing about the gatling gun back in the US Civil War: the North didn't indroduce it because they couldn't see how to move that much ammo to the front. Logisticians always find a way. Somehow.

If it's not already, it ought to be a bumper sticker: "Don't like my driving? Get off the sidewalk!"

That's why the change was made; because the idea that Han wasn't a completely pure and good soul didn't appeal to your generation. Fact is, Han Solo wasn't a just a mercenary, he was a criminal and a rogue who, by the end of the movie, has to choose between his greed and self-interest, and acting for a higher purpose. In changing that one scene, and having Greedo shoot first instead of Han, Lucas butchered that entire line of character and plot development - with Han shooting in "self defense" in the updated release, he looks less like someone deciding against someone struggling with his nature than he does someone who's frankly slightly insane for being so inconsistent in his behavior. Yes, it's a small change...but that one small change in the scene was a drastic change in the movie. And the fact that Lucas couldn't see how changing that scene changed the whole movie just shows what a sh------- filmmaker he is.

But to TRULY! IMITATE! KIRK! You have to..............PAUSE! Occasionally. For no. Apparent. REASON!

I find your lack of capitalization disturbing.

It's not earth shattering, but I don't know that Rep. Kennedy's inability to discern the hazard of driving after taking friggin' Ambien, of all things, is "stupid and useless". Doesn't say much for his judgement, for starters. I take Ambien, it's not some over-the-counter antihistimane. It's a seriously powerful sleeping pill, and it's hallucinogenic. I don't even walk after I take it. For anyone who's been prescribed it for any length of time to think they can drive after taking it shows a ridiculous lack of judgement. So why's this man a congressman? Damn it, he's Presidential material!

Except that Zappa and Walsh actually did run every four years. And usually got about 200 or so votes. Which is either kind of worrisome, or really funny.

We understood it. It just wasn't funny.

"I WANT that MOTHER!@#$ING reciever OFF THE TEAM!" - Samuel L Jackson

It really says something about a guy when terrorists tell him "Sorry...you're too !@#$ing stupid to be a suicide bomber."

You used to vote the Frank Zappa/Joe Walsh ticket, didn't you?