Free Republic

I use the same model of Corsair for work (I am a programmer) and find it more than worth the price of admission. I have come to the realization that most office-style hardware is mostly about keeping costs down (even when you’re past pure GI hardware). Gaming hardware, on the other hand, tends to sacrifice pricepoint in favor of hardware that is precise and comfortable to use for long periods.

Ironically, it seems like more office workers really ought to consider switching to gaming hardware.

There isn’t a lot of context provided in the original post, but what was pointed out by Geraldo is accurate for the vast majority of the population. Most Americans do not venerate St. Patrick or God in any fashion on St. Patrick’s day and instead wear green, think about a few artifacts of Irish culture, and get smashed—a wholly secular pursuit if ever there was one.

For St. Patrick’s day this year, however, my family and I listened to a little more Irish music than usual, ate corned beef and cabbage and read the Confessions of St. Patrick at family devotions. So, like Christmas, the subject of the celebration is in the heart of the celebrator.

Yeah, but eating fish is eating meat. It isn’t like fish are some sort of swimming, aquatic vegetables.

Amen. One of the worst offenders was Ann Coulter. After seeing her post-election article, the last shreds of respect for her died. She makes me sick.

I think I’d take Steve Urkel over Obama.

Thanks for the link. FactCheck does, in fact, confirm that their law licenses are inactive (or, in Barack's case, retired), but it goes on to say:

"But the claim that the Obamas “surrendered” their licenses to avoid ethics charges has no basis in fact. Neither of the Obamas has any public record of discipline or pending proceedings against them, according to the online public registration records of the ARDC. We also confirmed that with Grogan, who said that the Obamas were "never the subject of any public disciplinary proceedings."

Which is directly opposed to one some others have said on this thread, that the Obamas gave up their licenses to prevent some sort of charges or ethics complaints from being pursued.

I hadn't heard that...do you have a source?

Yep. There is, however, a measure on the ballot in November to make Benton county a wet county. Hopefully, it passes and puts an end to all the nonsense.

After which regulation will force the car insurance companies to mandate the black box for coverage.

As a matter of fact, the only book of her's I've read is Atlas Shrugged. Is it along the lines of Friedman's "Capitalism and Freedom"? (possibly my favorite treatment of the subject).

It depends what you mean by "conservative", I suppose. The book is an ode to capitalism and a trumpet of Rand's own "objectivism" philosophy. The degree to which you will agree with it depends on the degree to which you can agree with capitalism and objectivism.

As a free market capitalist, I love the first half of the equation. As a Christian, I find a lot to take issue with in the second.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. There was enough common ground to relish it (and enough creepy truth to be disturbed by it). The plot was good, the characters well written. There were a few points at which the book sort of plodded, but a fine read in the end.

No passion, but plenty of lust.

Works flow from faith and salvation is of faith alone.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:8-9.

Note that works are not disregarded, but that salvation comes only by faith.

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God." Romans 5:1-2.

Note that we are justified by faith, not by faith and works. For more detail, see Romans 4 and the discussion of how Abraham was saved by faith, not works.

"This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:22-24.

And what did Paul say to the jailer, when asked about salvation? "They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house." Acts 16:31. Not a mention of works--just faith.

"Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”" John 6:28-29.

It is this very teaching Roman Catholic Church that has put so very many souls in danger of damnation. It convinces the hearer that faith is not enough to save (for that is what it preaches), and that one's works must make up the difference. But the sensitive soul will reach the right conclusion, that their works are far too puny to contribute and it undermines their faith and salvation.If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

It will not go well for him that teaches salvation, even in part, by works. As Jesus said: "If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." Matthew 18:6.

Let me get this straight: you actually believe that those five tenants will damn someone?

Or just use Cygwin.

You missed the last stage: once their attempts to pass ever more intrusive copyright protection laws fails to keep them afloat, they will have the federal government subsidize big media.

Interesting--and disturbing. This is the first I've heard of it. It is almost certainly what Obama and his allies would try to claim if, hypothetically, he were ruled ineligible.

Also of note in that link: "The de facto doctrine springs from the fear of the chaos that would result from multiple and repetitious suits challenging every action taken by every official whose claim to office could be open to question, and seeks to protect the public by insuring the orderly functioning of the government despite technical defects in title to office."

A counter-argument that comes to mind based on this explanation is that the de facto doctrine protects officials whose Is may not all have been dotted and whose Ts may not have been crossed and who otherwise acted in good faith--but not a fraud, which Obama would be, if he were found ineligible. After working so hard to bury his past, he cannot be said to have been ignorant of his lack of qualification.

It would get ugly, that's for sure.

I went ahead and copied them over.

This article is a real mixed bag. On the one hand, he makes some good points against the culture of the day, but he then turns around and lauds the Catholic church for the very things they have been wrong about for centuries.

For example, the author writes: “ Many evangelicals consider sex for married people to be like food – it’s inappropriate, unhealthy, and even wrong to expect or encourage married couples to abstain from sex for any period of time.”

His characterization of the evangelical position is wrong—quite wrong. Here is what the scriptures say:

“The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.” 1 Corinthians 7:4-7.

You will note that married celibacy is all but forbidden to the married. That it is only allowed for a limited time, “for prayer” (i.e. not for “family planning”).

Celibacy for the kingdom is encouraged, but only to those have it as a special gift of God. It is NOT a requirement to dedicate one’s life to the church:

“This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. Don’t we have the right to food and drink? Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?” 1 Corinthians 9:3-6.

Of note here is the fact that Paul had, not only permission, but a right to take a wife with him in his work—a direct contradiction of the Roman Catholic’s position regarding clerical celibacy, when the passage above is also taken into account.

Indeed, I find such authors has this to be troubling to the sensitive consciences in the church because of his error. From the article again:

“So it is now more than ever that our world needs the celibate witness. Celibate priests, monks, and nuns, even lay people who are living the single life – we need you to stand as witnesses to the world and to our separated brethren, and as a constant reminder to married couples within the Church, that we do not need sex, that sex does not lead to happiness.”

Of interest is that, here, celibacy is praised in and of itself, running down the value of sex. Biblical sex is not merely permitted, but beautiful and natural, ordained by God and as natural an aspect of the human condition (fallen or unfallen, in this case) as food.

“”For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” Ephesians 5:31

As with food and the other pleasurable gifts of God, it has been warped and perverted by a warped and perverted world—it is this that we ought to stand tall and firm against (Ephesians 5:3-7), not sex itself. Celibacy is valued in scripture only to the extent that for the given individual it further advances the kingdom of Christ.

“I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband.” 1 Corinthians 7:32-34.

I agree with the basics of what you are saying (Unix is not really user friendly, but is really programmer-friendly), but the example of tar is not demonstrative because Aunt Tillie won’t be using tar.

She’ll be using whatever the GUI version is that comes packaged in Gnome/Java Desktop (gnome)/KDE/etc. Even in the UI impoverished world of Unix, there are plenty of UI apps to handle compressed files of many kinds.