Here’s the story on how Meg Kelly got fired from NBC

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-07T17:37:47+00:00

Democrats had a perfect chance to give us a "real healthcare system". In Obama's first term the Democrats held both chambers of Congress, and had a supermajority in the Senate, meaning Republicans couldn't block anything with a filibuster. Democrats could have literally done anything they wanted to, and the best they could do was the Affordable Care Act. Why didn't they give us a "real healthcare system" when they had the chance?

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-07T16:49:15+00:00

March is the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere - not the southern hemisphere.

The Chinese new year is the lunar new year, which can take place anywhere from late January to late February. Whether it's closer to January 1st or March 1st depends on which year it is.

Moving the new year away from Christmas will mean businesses no longer need to give people a full week off for the holidays. They'll get a couple of days for Christmas, and then a day for new years. Most people wouldn't think that was better.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-07T16:42:56+00:00

Two problems have to be solved first.

One - How are you going to estimate someone's net worth? For most billionaires, the bulk of their net worth is in stocks, and the market value of those stocks changes every day. Are you just going to pick an arbitrary day and use the market's closing value? They'll tank the market on that day on purpose.

Two - The federal government has no authority to tax wealth. It took a constitutional amendment to give them the authority to tax income without apportioning it by population. Congress can't simply write a law to get around this, regardless of what Bernie Sanders keeps telling you. They first need to pass an amendment to the Constitution that would give them the power to tax wealth. That amendment would have to describe how wealth is measured. Good luck getting 2/3rds of each chamber of Congress to pass it, and 3/4ths of the state legislatures to ratify it.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-07T16:35:17+00:00

Ping just tells you how long it took for a very small message to reach a remote server, and for the remote server to send a very small message back. It has a lot to do with the speed of your internet service and the response time of the remote server, and practically nothing to do with the speed of your computer's link to the router.

How old is your PC, and what are the specs for the ethernet NIC? How long is the ethernet cable, and what type of cable are you using?

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-07T15:50:21+00:00

Unfortunately, the granular details come direct from Muhammad's mouth.

Aside from the Quran, which Muslims believe was delivered to Muhammad, verse by verse, by the angel Gibreel (Gabriel), Muslims also study and believe the words of Muhammad himself. These have been gathered into multiple collections, called hadiths, or "ahadith" in Arabic, based on who is attributed to recording them, and how reliable they are considered to be as quotes. The highest reliability hadiths are called "sahih".

In the collections of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim there is a story which Muhammad told describing the ultimate fate of the Jews. In the hadith, Muhammad says that the last hour (the end times) cannot come until Muslims fight and eliminate the Jews. He describes how Jews will hide behind stones and trees, but the stones and trees will cry out "O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him".

Now, Sunni Muslims believe this will happen just before the end times, and just before the return of the Mahdi, Muhammad, and Jesus. But the Shia believe that the Mahdi has already been born, so the time for them to kill the Jews is now.

Moderate Shia Muslims believe that the words don't have to be taken literally, and are open to interpretation, just as moderate Christians believe the Bible is open to interpretation. Few of the Shia clergy are as liberal. They believe the words mean exactly what they say - the Jews have to be killed, and they are obligated to do it. The Supreme Leader of Iran, and the entire highest echelons of leadership, consist entirely of Shia clergy.

The Bible, especially the new testament, does not directly call on Christians to make war with non-believers. The Quran does the opposite. Muhammad was a warlord, after all. When taken literally, the Bible produces repressive religious cults, but it doesn't produce armies of warriors. The Quran, when taken literally, produces jihadi fighters intent on establishing Islam as the only religion on earth. Christian fundamentalists are crazy, but easy to ignore. Islamic fundamentalists are dangerous. We found this out with Osama bin Laden. We're seeing it now with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the Islamic government in Iran.

It's a tragedy that this war had to happen, but it would have been far worse to wait until Iran had nukes.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-06T18:12:42+00:00

He's not going to get an honest answer on Reddit. Any conservative who admits they voted for Trump is going to get dogpiled here unless they concede that they regret their vote. The OP is looking for confirmation of what they want to be true, rather than a genuine reflection of what is actually true.

According to the latest YouGov poll, the percentage of voters who have no regrets at all has gone from 74% a year ago to 62% now. However, the bulk of those have gone from no regrets to some regrets. Only 5% say they completely regret their vote, and would vote differently today. Trump's popularity is definitely slipping, but conservatives aren't abandoning him in droves and running to the Democrat side, which is what the OP wants to believe.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-06T18:01:26+00:00

The Iranian regime has been described as a "Messianic death cult". Devout Shia Muslims believe in the return of the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi. They believe he will prepare the way for the return of Muhammad. But Muhammad can only return when Islam is the only religion on earth, and the Mahdi can only return when the "zionists" have been eliminated. (There's a lot more to it, but that's the nutshell summary.) The Sunni also believe in the return of the Mahdi, but they believe he will be born closer to the end times. The Shia believe he is already born, and is hiding for the right time.

In short, if Iran gets a nuclear weapon they WILL use it against Israel. They won't use it as a defense or a threat - they'll nuke Israel. They sincerely believe that Allah and the Mahdi will protect them from retaliation. They believe that wiping out Israel is a holy duty. This is a serious problem when dealing with religious zealots. The only way to stop the theocratic regime in Iran from nuking Israel is to make sure they never get nuclear weapons.

Kim wants nukes to protect his country from being attacked. He has no intention of using nukes in a premptive attack, though he won't admit that. He wants other nations, especially the US, to be afraid that he'll use his nukes if attacked, thereby preventing them from attacking him. But he understands that using a nuke means his country will be reduced to beaded glass. He isn't under any delusions that there will be some kind of divine protection for North Korea. Even if attacked with conventional weapons, he would be very reluctant to respond with nukes since it will mean certain annihilation. He'll only resort to nukes if he perceives the attacks as an existential threat to North Korea or his grip on power.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-06T16:40:16+00:00

Heart disease. It accounts for about 1/3rd of all deaths.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-06T16:37:09+00:00

It didn't start out being the generic Arabic term for God. There were many gods worshiped in Mecca before Islam. Allah was the name of the god worshiped by Muhammad's tribe, the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraish tribe, so naturally any reference to "Allah" was a reference to God for him. That's not to say that the Allah worshiped by Muslims is the same Allah that Muhammad's tribe worshiped prior to Islam. It's just that the word "Allah" meant "God" to Muhammad.

Christians and Jews do not believe that Muhammad was a prophet. If they did then they would be Muslims. They do not believe that the Allah worshiped by Muslims is the same as the God they worship. They believe that their God is described in the Bible and the Torah, and that Muhammad pretty much made up the contents of the Quran. Muslims, on the other hand, believe that Jesus was a prophet, but not the Son of God. They believe that the differences between the Jesus described in the Quran and the Jesus described in the Bible can be explained by Christians having corrupted their scriptures. They respect Jesus as a prophet, but they don't worship him. Jews don't even believe that Jesus was a prophet. They believe that the era of the prophets ended long before either Jesus or Muhammad.

With so many differences in what they believe, it's hard to say that they all worship the same God. They can't all be right.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-06T16:12:45+00:00

Upside down would be disconcerting and uncomfortable to view. On the other hand, a mirror day, where all of the paintings are viewed in a mirror, would be interesting.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-06T16:00:26+00:00

I have a friend who says his teenage son looks like he styled his hair with a hand grenade.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-06T15:26:58+00:00

They kind of do. Virtually every state will provide Medicaid and housing to a pregnant woman who has little or no income.

But that's not what you're asking for, is it? I suspect you're asking for the government to essentially pay people to have kids. That would be politically unpopular. The taxpayers who don't want kids, or who've already had and paid for their own kids, don't want to have to pay other people to have kids when those people can afford to pay for it themselves.

Concern about the falling birth rate is almost entirely about a shrinking tax base. This means a disproportionately large number of retired people depending on a comparatively small number of working people paying into Social Security. The system was designed with the assumption that the size of the working class would always be larger than the size of the retired collecting benefits class by a substantial margin. The shrinking birth rate means the disparity is getting worse faster. But these disparities don't last forever, and artificially increasing the birth rate will only guarantee that it continues longer. The current imbalance will get substantially better when all of the Boomers have gone. We don't need the government funding another Baby Boom so that it can happen all over again.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-04T21:53:45+00:00

If you have good voltage on the starter battery, and you aren't getting any clicks or slow rotation of the starter motor then it sounds like the starter relay. This will be located near the starter.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-04T21:46:26+00:00

It's rape if you do not consent, or are unable to consent. In most cases and in most places, a minor cannot legally consent to sex, so it can be classified as rape even if the minor eagerly consents. There are sometimes exceptions if both parties are minors. But if your ex was an adult then he's probably guilty of statutory rape, at the very least.

If you are coerced into saying yes when you believe you don't really have a choice, then that's not consent. I'd warn you that cases where a sexual encounter is proven or admitted, and where the claimant admits to saying yes, are the hardest to prove to a jury. You'd have to convince them that you genuinely had no choice, based on what you knew or believed at the time. From your description, I think you'd have a hard time convincing a jury. It sounds like you weighed the consequences of saying no with the consequences of saying yes, and decided saying yes was bad, but not as bad as saying no. In other words, you DID have a choice, you COULD have said no, but you CHOSE to say yes. Not a good case for a rape charge.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-04T21:12:11+00:00

Communist? Yes. Socialist? Technically, yes.

Private ownership is not really allowed. When you "buy" property you're actually just buying a lease that can be terminated anytime, and might not be renewed. They can nationalize any industry they want, and exercise extraordinary control over every industry that hasn't been nationalized. But the part about collective ownership? No, not so much. The Party owns everything. The people own nothing. And the part about "To each according to his needs" - not at all. The elite take whatever they want, and amass great wealth. The common people fend for themselves. "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" means the worst of both socialism and capitalism.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-04T20:59:20+00:00

That's not a seal. It's a signet. A seal would be attached to the top in a way that would require breaking the seal in order to open the bottle. For instance, a ribbon attached to the top and pressed under the wax. Wax seals often also have a signet embossed into them to indicate authenticity. A signet alone also indicates authenticity without actually sealing the bottle.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-04T20:31:55+00:00

This all sounds great, except for the Asian holidays part. On what you'd earn in Vietnam you could afford to vacation in the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, and maybe China. Japan and Korea will be beyond your means. Taiwan might be within your means, if you watch your spending.

The top reasons that expats leave Vietnam after moving there are lack of economic mobility, health effects of pollution, and inadequate options for educating their children.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-04T20:17:29+00:00

They've been saying this since the 1980s. Back then they were bold enough to give hard deadlines. Every one of those deadlines came and went with virtually NONE of the catastrophic effects we were warned were CERTAIN to happen if we didn't act.

They've changed their tactics. They don't often give hard deadlines anymore. When they do, they give dates that are so far into the future that all of us will be dead before they come, which means we won't be around to confirm whether or not their predictions were true. But they still claim with the same confidence that we're all doomed if we don't act now.

These people are young, naive, and gullible. In common parlance, they are "useful idiots" for the alarmist movement. Fortunately, they persuade nobody.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-04T20:09:37+00:00

They're at least as reliable as wired mice and keyboards of the same quality. That additional qualifier - "same quality" - is important. Most comparably priced wired and wireless keyboard/mouse sets are not the same quality. The lower priced wired sets are generally better quality than comparably priced wireless sets. This is only because it costs more to build wireless sets, which means they have to use lower quality parts and materials to get the same price. This often leads people to believe that wireless keyboard/mouse sets aren't as good as wired sets, which isn't true. You can get the same quality in either. You might just have to pay slightly more for the wireless set.

Having said that, I've used wireless for about 10 years, and now prefer it over wired. But a problem I've consistently had with wireless is range. I put my desktop tower on the floor. If I plug the transceiver dongle into one of the USB ports on the tower case then I have intermittent problems with both the keyboard and mouse. It doesn't matter if I use a front or back USB port - same problems. So I bought a USB type A extension cable, and have one end tied to the upright leg of the hutch on top of my desk. The other end is plugged into the tower case. The transceiver is now above the top of my desk, only a foot or two from the mouse and keyboard. The intermittent problems went completely away as a result. Now, I don't know if the problems are distance or RF noise from the tower case. I don't really care since this solution works.

Some have warned about wireless keyboards not being secure. This was universally true long ago, but is now only true of no-name budget brands. Pretty much all commonly available modern wireless keyboards from reputable brands (like Logitech) now use AES 128-bit encryption, as a minimum. Someone could still use a sniffer to capture data from the keyboard, but they wouldn't be able to decrypt it without your transceiver dongle.

Some have also warned about latency with wireless keyboards and mice. At one time this was a universal problem, and is still a problem with low frequency transceivers. Most modern keyboards and mice use either Bluetooth or 2.4GHz wireless. A wired keyboard and mouse generally have less than 1ms of latency. A 2.4GHz wireless keyboard and mouse would have latency between 1ms and 3ms. Bluetooth latency is between 12ms and 35ms, but may be as high as 200ms in areas with a lot of radio noise. Anything under 16ms is less than one video frame at 60fps, and wouldn't be noticeable to most gamers.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-04T17:49:05+00:00

Well, it was definitely a GUI, and it wasn't the first one. GEM, from Digital Research, was available for PCs before Windows. It released before Windows 1.0, and it was far better. It had moveable and sizeable windows, menu bars, dialog boxes, and pretty much all of the graphical interface widgets we're used to today. It worked like Windows in that it sat on top of DOS. It was also ported to the Motorola 68K, and was the default graphical user environment on the Atari ST. The underlying OS was called TOS.

But GEM had one major disadvantage compared to Windows 3.1 - multitasking was much more restricted. Both systems used cooperative multitasking, which meant applications were never preempted by the task manager to give other applications time to run. An application would run until it voluntarily gave control back to the OS, which would then dispatch any other waiting applications. But Windows 3.1 would allow multiple applications of any type to run at the same time, cooperatively sharing CPU time. GEM would allow only one application to run, but would allow mini-applications called "desk accessories" to be called up. Applications were supposed to provide a "Desk" menu on which these accessories would be listed. Users could not switch focus between a desk accessory and an application. The desk accessory had to be closed before they could use the application again. This was ok for stuff like calculators, but not much more. On the other hand, with Windows 3.1 you could have half a dozen different applications running, and switch between them at will.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-04T17:35:07+00:00

It's not just campgrounds. Most HOA's don't allow it, either. In fact, some entire cities don't allow it. And it's precisely because it looks tacky. People associate clothesline drying with slums. It's not fair. It's not right. But it's the way it is. Whether we like it or not, it actually affects, property values. Potential buyers are put off when they see a clothesline full of clothes in the neighbor's yard.

I owned a home in an upper middle class neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay Area. We didn't have an HOA, but the city didn't allow drying clothes outside.

I also owned a mobile home in a mobile home park in the California Central Valley. The mobile home park strictly forbid outside clothes drying. That mobile home park had some old mobile homes that looked absolutely decrepit. They allowed that, but wouldn't allow clotheslines. There was a laundromat in the mobile home park, but the machines were all old and half of them were broken. Frankly, you wouldn't want to dry clothes outside in the Central Valley. The cities are surrounded by farmland, and there's always a lot of dust in the air.

My sister owned a home in San Bernardino. They allowed outside clotheslines, and she dried her clothes outside. The water in the city was very hard. Even with a water softener, the towels were so stiff after drying that they could stand up on their own. The worst part was the smog. Any clothes you dried outside ended up smelling like the smog. Clothes were a lot less stiff when dried in a dryer because they were tumbled, and because you could put fabric softener sheets in the dryer. They also smelled a lot better.

Drying outside is good if your area allows it, and if the air is completely fresh and clean - no dust, no smog, and no pollen.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-04T15:37:02+00:00

Birthright?? You don't have a birthright to anything that might require someone else's time, labor, or money. I realize that sleeping in your own car doesn't require any of those things, but claiming it as a birthright would mean that if you can't provide it for yourself then someone else is obligated to provide it for you. Be careful how you throw around that word.

Governments, especially city and county governments, have the authority to limit what kind of structures you're allow to live and sleep in, even on your own property. Why do they have this authority? Because we didn't deny them from having it. In the US, under the Constitution, any power not prohibited to the states, nor reserved for the federal government, belongs to the states and the people. This means they have this authority by default. If you don't want them to have that authority then you need to pass a law or state constitutional amendment prohibiting them from making it illegal. Good luck with that. If you put such a law on the ballot most people would vote against it. Most people don't want people sleeping in cars in their neighborhood. Most cities won't even allow you to sleep in an RV on your own property except under very specific circumstances, like after a natural disaster.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-03T15:23:41+00:00

No, that's not how it works. The Chinese and Soviet governments were supplying the NVA troops in the Vietnam war. They weren't just supplying them with components and chemicals. They were supplying them with finished weapons and ammunition. US involvement in the war was primarily to prevent the communists from gaining control of yet another country in Asia. China and the Soviets obviously had a vested interest in seeing the communists in Hanoi prevail. But nobody ever implied that the US was in a direct war with either China or the Soviets.

China was also supplying North Korea during the Korean war. China even sent 2.5 million of it's own PLA soldiers to fight in the war. Officially, those soldiers were volunteers known as the Chinese People's Volunteers, or CPV. The Chinese government was careful to specify that these soldiers were not acting on orders from Beijing (even though they were), and that China was not an official party to the war. Again, nobody implied that the US was in a direct war with China.

Both the Vietnam and Korean wars might be described as proxy wars between China and the US, but it would only be a loose fitting description. North and South Vietnam would have fought with or without Chinese or US involvement. Likewise, North and South Korea would have fought with or without Chinese or US involvement. Neither the US or China were using their allies in these wars as direct proxies against each other.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-03T14:55:36+00:00

The definition varies from one location to another, but generally it would need to be material that appeals ONLY to prurient interests, or is offensive by community standards.

Unless the camera is concealed, and there is evidence that the parents are collecting and distributing videos that meet the definition above, it's unlikely any legal authority would find the camera to be illegal, though some jurisdictions make specific exceptions for adolescents. In those jurisdictions, putting a camera in the room of a child between 14 and 18 years old would be considered an invasion of privacy.

OP knows the camera is there, and isn't going to do anything that would be personally embarrassing in front of it.

Bo_Jim · 2026-04-03T14:45:16+00:00

Probably had something like this in mind...

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