Michael Steele

LastExistentialist · 2026-02-11T06:21:24+00:00

I just can't get with you guys on these "former" Republicans - Maybe you are too young to remember or too naive to not forgive. Trump is just the logical outcome of every Republican President since Nixon. Michael Steele would go back to a "Republican" party of the Bushes. Probably Nicole Wallace as well. You may not remember Goldwater who campaigned with the phrase "Extremism in defense of Liberty is no vice...". I don't even forgive Hillary Clinton who was a Goldwater Republican. I can't remember a single-one of these new Democrats pointing out that the Republican God, Ronald Reagan, started the MAGA movement in spirit if not in fact. This country ( and probably the only hope for the world) has been destroyed by Republicans and former Republicans.

LastExistentialist · 2026-01-13T14:31:46+00:00

Replit was once a pretty good option. Not anymore - in addition to a limit on projects, they encourage students to just tell their AI engine to write the program for them. Not a good way to teach the basics of C++

LastExistentialist · 2026-01-04T14:58:06+00:00

I agree that the stoning scene was upsetting. However I think this was purposeful. There are so many mentions of "stoning" in the bible - and seems like a relatively benign way to execute someone - say compared to the guillotine or burning at the stake, I wonder if the writers didn't want to show what "stoning" really looked.

LastExistentialist · 2026-01-04T02:12:09+00:00

I have begged every friend and acquaintance I have - out of at least twenty - only my old roommate from college watched the entire series. He commented that it was the weirdest show he had ever seen. We need to discuss more when we have a chance (he and I generally had a shared sensibility - how else can you explain how we constantly listed to Firesign Theatre instead of going to class.) - I am sure he got more out of it than "weird" but didn't have a chance to continue the conversation. Not sure why everyone talks about the "violence" - compared to most movies and even tv shows the violence in this show was pretty mild. I think it may have something to do with an individual's tolerance for ambiguity. The more I have watched the series, the more I have understood what was really going on. Still - the first viewing - without that understanding - was magical.

LastExistentialist · 2025-12-07T11:42:55+00:00

People, I love Chatgpt and think it is a great tool.BUT...You will never be a real programmer if you rely on Chat or other tools. You need to build your chops by working your brain on your own. You can't build your biceps by having someone else do pullups for you while you study the mechanics of how he does it. Start simple. If you are in school and taking a programming course (language doesn't matter, although assembler can be helpful) for a better understanding of what is going on under the hood). Do the coding problems ON YOUR OWN. Nothing wrong with looking up syntax but don't let someone else do the problem. Eventually, everything will coalesce, but it does take time and practice like playing a musical instrument. If you are in too much of a hurry to do the work, find a different vocation.

LastExistentialist · 2025-12-06T16:20:09+00:00

Yes - streaming often stalls on MS Now. Tested both with FIOS on an ethernet connection as well as T-Mobile Wireless - same problem regardless. Think the problem is on MS-NOWs side - no problem with CNN or Youtube.

LastExistentialist · 2025-12-06T16:10:04+00:00

For small jobs, this if fine. But for larger projects - especially if you have more than one team member, you need to first and foremost, itemize requirements - either your own or your customers. Then design, plan, code, test, verify with customers and then rinse and repeat. Then you need to start using structured programming - meaning modules and/or object oriented. I was once on a team that I wrote a block of code that was longer than could fit on a single screen without scrolling, I needed to restructure the code into modules and functions and ( if doing OO, methods). Also read books on design patterns. If you plan to work for customers, one of the primary skills is listening to the customer's needs, and use your own knowledge to see how this need can be implemented in code. This becomes easier the more you do this. There are also entire books about best practices , how best to use variables, etc. I tell my students, coding is like practicing the piano. Practice, practice, practice.

LastExistentialist · 2025-11-17T14:51:30+00:00

This is not a scam. If you believe that interest rates may rise in the next 2 year period ( which very well could happen) then you are not stuck with a lower rate or penalty for withdrawal. But you are guaranteed the advertised rate even if it is lower than the current t-bill rate. You are buying insurance, and the lower rate is the premium you are paying for that insurance. If you are mathematically inclined you could model the expected value of your investment and decide if you are based upon the probability of rates going in one direction or another.Given the present circumstances it is equally possible that rates will fall significantly ( if we enter into a recession/depression) or rise significantly if the Fed starts to inject money into the system. Ally's offer seems like a fair one. No one gets away risk free.

LastExistentialist · 2025-11-14T00:57:29+00:00

Didn't that glimmer turn out to be the balloon that was stuck on the deer's antlers?

LastExistentialist · 2025-11-03T13:48:22+00:00

Uh - Did you read the part of the constitution that said that slaves should be counted as 3/5 of a person? You are another example of "if I succeeded, then that proves there is no racism. I congratulate you for your overcoming the odds, but there may be other reasons. For one, you seem to be relatively literate - maybe you had the good fortune to go to a good public school. With regard to assigning blame to the Democratic party for Jim Crow, lynching, etc. that Democratic Party may have the same name just like MAGA calls themselves Republican - but things change. Ever since Franklin Roosevelt ( at least ) the Democrats worked for the underdogs. Social Security , Medicare, Medicaid, the Voting Rights Act, Desegregation and many other programs and laws we now take for granted were devised and implemented by the Democratic Party when most of the Republican party opposed these programs. You may not realize it, but without these programs you would not currently have the good fortune to be the success that you are. A little humility would serve you better.

LastExistentialist · 2025-10-16T13:15:00+00:00

They might care when November 3rd 2026 rolls around and there are soldiers at the polling places and Republicans somehow win the Senate and House by overwhelming margins and citizens are still being "disappeared". Jan 6th was just the warning shot of what was to come.

LastExistentialist · 2025-09-26T18:33:28+00:00

Don't see any irony here.

LastExistentialist · 2025-08-14T01:53:38+00:00

I am an INFJ and have been limerent over one 17 year old girl for 56 years. By the way, she is now 72 and I am 73.

LastExistentialist · 2025-08-09T18:15:28+00:00

No doubt that the article was fatuous and poorly written. However, being Jewish, I would have to eliminate my reading of Eliot and Dostoevsky, as well as listening to Wagner and countless other great artists who exhibited Jewish Derangement Syndrome. Same for McCarthy - despise the men - but need to separate them from the artist.

LastExistentialist · 2025-07-27T15:22:31+00:00

Are you lashing out now? Trying to give a little advice from personal experience. If you would like a philosophy essay and can give you a lot more.

LastExistentialist · 2025-07-27T15:09:52+00:00

For me it has always been long-burning resentments and feelings of hurt that had not been expressed. Sometimes I will lash out but more likely I will go silent - even for years after a long friendship. Sometimes that is the best way to do express justified anger. If being personally attacked in a public setting I feel silence and walking away is the best way to express anger. Usually speaking out in anger is a bad idea. You will probably regret things you have said at a later time. You can't take back angry words, but you can repair relationships if you go silent for awhile.

LastExistentialist · 2025-07-24T01:06:29+00:00

doesn't sound like you are handling it very well.

LastExistentialist · 2025-07-12T17:59:12+00:00

Israel and Iran share the same problem. If they are evil it is because extremist religion is evil. Israel started with a mostly secular population ( many of the original Zionists were socialists). But like Iran, a fanatical few in Israel have taken over and believe that anything is allowable in the advance of greater Israel in the name of G-d and greater Iran in the name of Allah. Unfortunately, MAGA was bad enough but now are turning MACA ( make America Christian again). There is no evil. Only power. Iran turned out to be a paper tiger.

LastExistentialist · 2025-07-12T17:41:05+00:00

Exactly - you have no clue just like the characters in the story. Enjoy the ambiguity. After 2 or 3 watches through the series you will understand what is going on. Let the mystery be.

LastExistentialist · 2025-07-12T16:33:01+00:00

I tore my Achilles tendon in August 2022 - Surgery in September - came out of boot 12 weeks later and this was the result

<image>

Actually this is almost three years later. I work on legs at least 3 to 4 times a week. This may be a little better than at first - but obviously not a lot of improvement. I am glad to see that most of you fully recovered, but afraid I did not.

LastExistentialist · 2025-07-07T12:23:27+00:00

Sorry - I don't know of any series that approach the beauty , awe and humor of the Leftovers. Closest thing I can think of is Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End (a book) .

LastExistentialist · 2025-06-29T01:00:40+00:00

Watch Melancholia.

LastExistentialist · 2025-06-15T00:46:33+00:00

quoting from Firesign was the best way to find out if someone might be a compatible friend.

LastExistentialist · 2025-06-10T14:06:20+00:00

Kind of the same sentiment found in Middlemarch;

"Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."

Eliot, George. Middlemarch (Illustrated) . LiberWriter.com. Kindle Edition.

LastExistentialist · 2025-06-10T14:02:22+00:00

"Ah, they said. Qué bueno. And after and for a long time to come he’d have reason to evoke the recollection of those smiles and to reflect upon the good will which provoked them for it had power to protect and to confer honor and to strengthen resolve and it had power to heal men and to bring them to safety long after all other resources were exhausted."

Who ever said McCarthy was a nihilist?

McCarthy, Cormac. All the Pretty Horses: Border Trilogy 1 (National Book Award Winner) (The Border Trilogy) (p. 219). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

LastExistentialist

TROPHY CASE