11711. Ms. No - 2/20/2016 5:19:27 PM I may have asked you this before, but have you read Go Set A Watchman? I haven't and may never, but I was curious what you thought of it. 11712. arkymalarky - 2/20/2016 5:54:05 PM No, and I may not either. I think some at work have. I know one friend bought it. Don't know if she's read it. 11713. robertjayb - 2/20/2016 9:37:04 PM Bought it on release and read the first chapter. Must get back to it...too much political stuff going on... 11714. arkymalarky - 2/20/2016 10:11:03 PM How was the first chapter? 11715. wabbit - 2/21/2016 12:19:49 AM RIP Umberto Eco
The Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose, has died aged 84.
His family says he passed away late on Friday at his home. No further details were given.
The Name of the Rose was made into a film in 1986 starring Scottish actor Sean Connery.
Eco, who also wrote the novel Foucault's Pendulum, continued to publish new works, with Numero Zero released last year...
11716. judithathome - 2/21/2016 11:15:37 PM One of my faves of his is Travels in Hyper-Reality. 11717. judithathome - 2/21/2016 11:16:47 PM Scratch the "-" in Hyperreality. 11718. judithathome - 2/22/2016 11:14:32 PM Here we are, America: The NRA's America: Crazed UBER driver Goes On Killing Spree 11719. Ms. No - 3/13/2016 8:07:32 PM I just found out yesterday that the only thing keeping concealed-carry weapons off our school campuses is our Superintendent's decision. Turns out, the county sheriff is the person who approves concealed carry permits. The old sheriff was responsible for approving a couple hundred, but the current sheriff has awarded more than a thousand permits.
Through the vagaries of law, the final word on who --other than police officers-- can and cannot take a loaded fire-arm onto a school campus is the District Superintendent.
That is some scary shit.
11720. wabbit - 3/13/2016 11:13:55 PM Jeez Louise. Your Superintendent has way too much power. 11721. Ms. No - 3/14/2016 5:09:38 AM In light of the rather contentious nature of the relationship between the District and the teachers in recent years, I don't imagine he's going to be approving any concealed carry permits for staff any time soon. That's all he needs --- armed teachers coming to the administrative offices to negotiate the new contract. ;-> 11722. judithathome - 4/1/2016 9:25:14 PM Well...the truth is out there, finally: Big Pharma Pays Off Generic Drug Companies; We Pay Billions More For Drugs
The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in a case worth billions of dollars to pharmaceutical companies and American consumers. The issue is whether brand-name drug manufacturers may pay generic drug manufacturers to keep generics off the market. These payments — a form of settlement in patent litigation — began to blossom about a decade ago when the courts, for the first time, appeared to bless them. 11723. iiibbb - 4/4/2016 9:18:56 PM In light of the erratic nature of the Mote
http://disqus.com/home/channel/themote/
An alternate place to meet until things are repair here? I would like to keep in touch with all of you. 11724. iiibbb - 4/4/2016 9:19:47 PM I'll make any of you a Mod 11725. Ms. No - 4/6/2016 5:11:44 PM Thanks i3b3! We should have the connectivity issues fixed in the next week or so, but this is good to know while we're still having problems. 11726. wabbit - 6/12/2016 11:30:58 PM A gunman wielding an assault-type rifle and a handgun opened fire inside a crowded gay nightclub early Sunday, killing at least 50 people before dying in a gunfight with SWAT officers, police said. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Authorities were investigating the attack on the Florida dance club as an act of terrorism. The gunman's father recalled that his son recently got angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami and said that might be related to the assault.
The shooter called 911 shortly before the attack and referenced ISIS, FBI agent Ronald Hopper said... 11727. Trillium - 6/14/2016 6:20:04 AM Conflicted guy
"Palm Beach Post ORLANDO, Fla. — A former classmate of Omar Mateen’s 2006 police academy class said he believed Mateen was gay, saying Mateen once asked him out...Officials say Mateen shot and killed 49 people and injured 53 others at an Orlando nightclub early Sunday morning...The classmate said that he, Mateen and other classmates would hang out, sometimes going to gay nightclubs, after classes at the Indian River Community College police academy. He said Mateen asked him out romantically.
“We went to a few gay bars with him, and I was not out at the time, so I declined his offer,” the former classmate said...."
Mateen also worked as a security guard at a courthouse (subcontracted work of Homeland Security) before he was transferred to work at a gated community. A coworker quit because he thought Mateen was demented/dangerous and the management wouldn't do anything to handle this
Lunatics are running the asylum 11728. Ms. No - 6/16/2016 4:13:12 PM Heard on NPR this morning from one of the cyber-sleuths who found the DNC hack, and a couple of things came to me.
First of all, there was mention of the White House, the State Department, and one other biggie getting hacked over the last year or so and it made me wonder again why it was such a bad idea for Clinton to have a private server since it never got hacked even though the claim is that everyone in the world knew about it.
Second, the cyber-guy was talking about why Russia would want all this info/dirt on Donald Trump. The feeling was that since Trump hasn't been a politician before, there isn't much known about how he would handle foreign policy and there might be something the Russians could use against him to hold him in check if he became president. I thought it was both smart and really moronic - smart if it were anyone but Trump since if the've been paying any attention at all they'd realize that you can't blackmail Trump because he's not ashamed of anything he's ever done.
Lastly, the interviewer asked if the RNC servers had been hacked -- to get information on the possible Democratic nominee -- and the cyber-guy said they were monitoring, but hadn't seen anything. All I could think was that there isn't any need to hack the RNC to find out secret evil stuff about Hillary Clinton. The woman's every shred of dirty laundry has been paraded in the media for 25 years. If there was something shady to know about her, we'd have heard about it by now. And nobody believes that Bernie is going to get the presidency, so it's a waste of time and effort to look for dirt on him. Besides, even if by some miracle he did become president, his own Congress would bring him down, so Russia wouldn't have to do anything but sit back and watch. 11729. Trillium - 6/17/2016 8:36:13 PM "ORLANDO (CBSNewYork/CBS News) — A co-owner of a Florida gun store revealed Thursday that his employees called the FBI after the Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mateen...who killed 49 people at the gay nightclub Pulse, came into his store about five weeks ago...Mateen asked for level 3 body armor, but the store doesn’t sell it....Mateen made a phone call and spoke Arabic before asking for bulk ammunition.
The employees did not sell him any ammunition and Abell stated that “we contacted FBI direct” after Mateen left the store, but they were “not as attentive as we would have hoped.”
Gun shop owner: we called FBI
This is bizarre, and ends with an FBI opinion that if a potential terrorist was denied a weapons purchase,"it might tip him off that the FBI is on his trail". Reminds me of the Minnesota FBI person Colleen Rowley who tried to stop 9/11...good luck with that... 11730. Trillium - 6/20/2016 6:37:22 AM How it happened that Omar Mateen was licensed to carry weapons (and at one point was guarding a Florida State Courthouse...through G4S, a huge, international company, subcontracted by Dept.Homeland Security...G4S also guards nuclear plants)
Dr. Carol Nudelman denies testing Orlando shooter
"Nine years ago, the state of Florida received documentation from a security firm vouching for the mental health of Omar Mateen, who launched a bloody attack this week on Orlando nightclub patrons.
But the psychologist whose name appears on the document in state records said Friday that she never evaluated a man who now ranks as the worst mass killer in American history. In fact, she wasn’t even living in Florida when the evaluation was supposedly completed.
"The revelation Friday became another source of scrutiny for the G4S security firm, which was known as Wackenhut at the time. The psychological evaluation done for the company, which is required under state law, cleared Mateen to carry a firearm as a private security guard."
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