He wasn't exactly a biblical hero - he just believed the angels sent to warn him of the cities pending destruction. As far as the daughters ages - the wording of it would incline one to believe they were probably of marriageble age so the fact they were still virgins would probably have been unheard of in that city. And there's really nothing that says he "got away" with having sex with his daughters. In fact even the heroes in the bible had a tendency to face consequences for sin BEFORE they died and, of course, there was expected to be a final accounting at the end.
But the issue at hand was the men outside the house were determined to gang rape Lot's guests (the angels sent to warn him). Which is more "righteous" - to sacrifice his guests or his daughters to save them? Obviously they never got a chance to gang rape anybody if you read the entire story. Nothing in that story says that God condones gang rape. You have to recall that in that time inviting someone into your home placed them under your protection and thus it would typically be considered more reasonable to sacrifice yourself and your family to protect them. Besides I'm not certain the reference to Lot's righteousness had anything to do with his offering his daughters in exchange for the angels. I suspect it was more the fact that he BELIEVED them and OBEYED their instructions. His wife, on the other hand, went along but failed to OBEY their instructions and looked back and got turned into a pillar of salt.
Your antireligious stance isn't helped at all by misrepresenting the story - or misunderstanding it.......
Well science is based almost entirely on theory which seems to change a bit now and then.
Oddly enough the most zealous religious nuts seem to be the diehard atheists who are big fans of Darwin.
Personally I have no problem with elements of evolution since it's quite obvious that it does happen although the extent of just how far the changes truly go and how long it takes is basically speculation. However the fact is that a lot of what people claim as facts on evolution are actually just theories based on similarities in species that MAY have evolved into another. What we actually KNOW of what species ACTUALLY evolved into others is pretty much non-existent.
To me the concept that some higher intelligence was involved in the process takes LESS faith than believing it all happened by chance. So I consider atheists to have a LOT MORE faith than most religious people. So basically I figure it's all a matter of WHICH fairy tale you wish to believe in:)
I've not had recent experience with Dell server support but back in the days of the PERC RAID controller nightmares my 4 hour support with them was similar to your experience. 2 or 3 days of rebuilding the array with a failed drive to convince them it was truly failed so they'd send a replacement??? Fortunately I had spare servers so I could pull a functioning drive from a non-critical box to fix a critical one (like client payroll) and then do the screwing around on the crashable box. Sad thing is the cost of the Dells was about on par with IBM or HP/Compaq and the service from either of them (even after the HP/Compaq merger) was MUCH better. With the others in 4 hours I had a drive replaced...... I still hate Dell after that.
And if things keep going the way they are we'll be even more constitution-free.
At least Florida has better gun laws that Hawaii currently but in this climate that may not last........
I seem to recall that the Tyranids originally looked too much like Aliens and got changed a bit. Overall though yeah they seem to think they can claim IP protection on stuff they've copied themselves. I have no love for them and, to be brutally honest, consider their art quality as "good" and not "great"..........
There's your hope and change...........
Personally I kind of think of Obama as part of the same family since he seems to be continuing the bad stuff Bush signed off on.
Yeah and when they own most of the stations in your area it REALLY sucks because you change stations but still get the same lame song you were trying to get away from. So I end up turning the radio off and just singing with the windows down. Interesting to see the reaction of old people at an intersection when I'm belting out "Sympathy for the Devil" at the top of my lungs....
If enough people did that then the case load would be so oeverwhelming the budget to handle that many raids would dry up pretty fast. Not to mention the overall LEO resources. Which would be a good result in the end as they'd have to stop the absurd raids and be VERY certain they had a viable case before doing so. Of course that would kill the political motivations of most prosecutors......
What was he supposed to do? Go to NY and investigate the situation personally? The way the president is equipped they can do what they need to do anywhere they are. While he's listening to the kids and their story and impressing them that anybody can be president everybody who lets him know what's going on so any executive decisions can be made is doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing. Therefore HE's doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing. In a similiar situation is Obama (or anybody else in the big seat) realistically going to do any different?
Is that still the case? When they built the SOCOM building I was absolutely amazed at how much of the materials came from China.
And I still wish I could see the battle bridge in full operation:)
Yeah but the way the banks are going after the last couple years of congress trying to fix things the debit cards often end up being a direct charge to the customer's bank (my credit union was very upfront about that) so the customer may be more inclined to want to use the card as credit since that cost is supposedly already including in the purchase prices. Since credit unions are member owned they're more likely than a bank to push the account holders away from PIN purchases.
Maybe I read it wrong but I thought the faster in this case referred to the fact that the retailer can spend that money they just got RIGHT NOW if it's cash but there's a nice little delay between the card being processed and the money hitting the bank. That float is part of how the card issuers make their money and part of what costs retailers (especially small ones).
You've obviously never read a merchant agreement. There's a good sized list of different card categories that each have their own fee structure that's higher than the "discount rate" that the retailer gets sucked into thinking they're paying. The customer may not pay higher fees (other than increased prices from the retailers to cover what it costs them) but you can guarantee those rewards cards eat into the retailer's bottom line more than the cards that actually qualify for the discount rate.
Yeah in chargebacks the deck is stacked against the merchant. Even if the merchant has followed the bank's procedure they can still get soaked on a fraudulent purchase because the banks simply can't afford to cut into their multi-billion dollar profits because they're "too big to fail" whereas mom & pop shops fail every day......
Unless a retailer (or their accountant) goes over the merchant account statements with a fine tooth comb they're unlikely to know what their true rate is. I've sold merchant accounts in the past just by going over their statements and pointing out that their "2%" rate was MUCH higher due to the varying types of cards they got that were costing them a premium instead of the discount rate. I could save them money (cutting a hair into my commission) just by juggling around the numbers that they never really understood and I made a decent amount of money on each account sold. Unfortunately it's not always an easy sell and you have to maintain a rather burdensome number of sales to keep getting your residuals on the swipe fees and I gave it up eventually. But it was kind of interesting to see that the advertised discount rates retailers thought they were getting often didn't apply. If I remember correctly not only were rewards cards quite a bit higher but a lot of things like government issued cards, gift cards (use that gift card anywhere Visa is....) and such were too.
My experience with mom & pop shops is that when you pull out cash they tend to discount things anyhow. Most of the small retailers are simply trying to make a living in a fair way and are NOT out to screw everybody.
Those contracts are something that a lot of farmers are starting to regret as it ends up costing them more than they realized and Monsanto pretty much has them locked in as there isn't much of a viable alternative due to Monsanto pretty much shutting down the market to purchase NORMAL seeds in the quantities a large farm needs.
My ex-father-in-law worked for them and he's a prime example of the evil that is Monsanto........
The difference being that if you plant those "hybrid" seeds from Monsanto by using seeds coming from the crops you harvested you get smacked with patent infringement because Monsanto requires you to NOT plant anything not purchased from them. So yes they really are evil after all. The cost "savings" of using their patented seeds when you have to buy brand new seeds every year and dump even more chemicals on them every year seems more like yet another added cost to me.
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And that may well be a win/win situation. :)
Personally, aside from chemistry, I do better in courses like philosophy than I do in "hard" sciences
He wasn't exactly a biblical hero - he just believed the angels sent to warn him of the cities pending destruction. As far as the daughters ages - the wording of it would incline one to believe they were probably of marriageble age so the fact they were still virgins would probably have been unheard of in that city. And there's really nothing that says he "got away" with having sex with his daughters. In fact even the heroes in the bible had a tendency to face consequences for sin BEFORE they died and, of course, there was expected to be a final accounting at the end.
But the issue at hand was the men outside the house were determined to gang rape Lot's guests (the angels sent to warn him). Which is more "righteous" - to sacrifice his guests or his daughters to save them? Obviously they never got a chance to gang rape anybody if you read the entire story. Nothing in that story says that God condones gang rape. You have to recall that in that time inviting someone into your home placed them under your protection and thus it would typically be considered more reasonable to sacrifice yourself and your family to protect them. Besides I'm not certain the reference to Lot's righteousness had anything to do with his offering his daughters in exchange for the angels. I suspect it was more the fact that he BELIEVED them and OBEYED their instructions. His wife, on the other hand, went along but failed to OBEY their instructions and looked back and got turned into a pillar of salt.
Your antireligious stance isn't helped at all by misrepresenting the story - or misunderstanding it.......
Well science is based almost entirely on theory which seems to change a bit now and then. :)
Oddly enough the most zealous religious nuts seem to be the diehard atheists who are big fans of Darwin.
Personally I have no problem with elements of evolution since it's quite obvious that it does happen although the extent of just how far the changes truly go and how long it takes is basically speculation. However the fact is that a lot of what people claim as facts on evolution are actually just theories based on similarities in species that MAY have evolved into another. What we actually KNOW of what species ACTUALLY evolved into others is pretty much non-existent.
To me the concept that some higher intelligence was involved in the process takes LESS faith than believing it all happened by chance. So I consider atheists to have a LOT MORE faith than most religious people. So basically I figure it's all a matter of WHICH fairy tale you wish to believe in
Emphasis on PROPER battery-backed write cache to make me feel warm and fuzzy over hardware RAID.
(Another dig at Dell back in the PERC days....)
I've not had recent experience with Dell server support but back in the days of the PERC RAID controller nightmares my 4 hour support with them was similar to your experience. 2 or 3 days of rebuilding the array with a failed drive to convince them it was truly failed so they'd send a replacement??? Fortunately I had spare servers so I could pull a functioning drive from a non-critical box to fix a critical one (like client payroll) and then do the screwing around on the crashable box. Sad thing is the cost of the Dells was about on par with IBM or HP/Compaq and the service from either of them (even after the HP/Compaq merger) was MUCH better. With the others in 4 hours I had a drive replaced...... I still hate Dell after that.
Yeah I think even the most vitriolic Harlan Ellison hater would have to admit he's correct about the "glass teat"
And if things keep going the way they are we'll be even more constitution-free.
At least Florida has better gun laws that Hawaii currently but in this climate that may not last........
Because GW has more money than the average person they send those letters to.......
I seem to recall that the Tyranids originally looked too much like Aliens and got changed a bit. Overall though yeah they seem to think they can claim IP protection on stuff they've copied themselves. I have no love for them and, to be brutally honest, consider their art quality as "good" and not "great" ..........
There's your hope and change...........
Personally I kind of think of Obama as part of the same family since he seems to be continuing the bad stuff Bush signed off on.
Yeah and when they own most of the stations in your area it REALLY sucks because you change stations but still get the same lame song you were trying to get away from. So I end up turning the radio off and just singing with the windows down. Interesting to see the reaction of old people at an intersection when I'm belting out "Sympathy for the Devil" at the top of my lungs....
If enough people did that then the case load would be so oeverwhelming the budget to handle that many raids would dry up pretty fast. Not to mention the overall LEO resources. Which would be a good result in the end as they'd have to stop the absurd raids and be VERY certain they had a viable case before doing so. Of course that would kill the political motivations of most prosecutors......
What was he supposed to do? Go to NY and investigate the situation personally? The way the president is equipped they can do what they need to do anywhere they are. While he's listening to the kids and their story and impressing them that anybody can be president everybody who lets him know what's going on so any executive decisions can be made is doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing. Therefore HE's doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing. In a similiar situation is Obama (or anybody else in the big seat) realistically going to do any different?
Is that still the case? When they built the SOCOM building I was absolutely amazed at how much of the materials came from China. :)
And I still wish I could see the battle bridge in full operation
I KNEW it!! I'm surrounded by assholes!!!!!!
Yeah but the way the banks are going after the last couple years of congress trying to fix things the debit cards often end up being a direct charge to the customer's bank (my credit union was very upfront about that) so the customer may be more inclined to want to use the card as credit since that cost is supposedly already including in the purchase prices. Since credit unions are member owned they're more likely than a bank to push the account holders away from PIN purchases.
Maybe I read it wrong but I thought the faster in this case referred to the fact that the retailer can spend that money they just got RIGHT NOW if it's cash but there's a nice little delay between the card being processed and the money hitting the bank. That float is part of how the card issuers make their money and part of what costs retailers (especially small ones).
You've obviously never read a merchant agreement. There's a good sized list of different card categories that each have their own fee structure that's higher than the "discount rate" that the retailer gets sucked into thinking they're paying. The customer may not pay higher fees (other than increased prices from the retailers to cover what it costs them) but you can guarantee those rewards cards eat into the retailer's bottom line more than the cards that actually qualify for the discount rate.
Yeah in chargebacks the deck is stacked against the merchant. Even if the merchant has followed the bank's procedure they can still get soaked on a fraudulent purchase because the banks simply can't afford to cut into their multi-billion dollar profits because they're "too big to fail" whereas mom & pop shops fail every day......
Unless a retailer (or their accountant) goes over the merchant account statements with a fine tooth comb they're unlikely to know what their true rate is. I've sold merchant accounts in the past just by going over their statements and pointing out that their "2%" rate was MUCH higher due to the varying types of cards they got that were costing them a premium instead of the discount rate. I could save them money (cutting a hair into my commission) just by juggling around the numbers that they never really understood and I made a decent amount of money on each account sold. Unfortunately it's not always an easy sell and you have to maintain a rather burdensome number of sales to keep getting your residuals on the swipe fees and I gave it up eventually. But it was kind of interesting to see that the advertised discount rates retailers thought they were getting often didn't apply. If I remember correctly not only were rewards cards quite a bit higher but a lot of things like government issued cards, gift cards (use that gift card anywhere Visa is....) and such were too.
You must not fly much - the in-flight food and drink sales ARE big ticket items........
My experience with mom & pop shops is that when you pull out cash they tend to discount things anyhow. Most of the small retailers are simply trying to make a living in a fair way and are NOT out to screw everybody.
Those contracts are something that a lot of farmers are starting to regret as it ends up costing them more than they realized and Monsanto pretty much has them locked in as there isn't much of a viable alternative due to Monsanto pretty much shutting down the market to purchase NORMAL seeds in the quantities a large farm needs.
My ex-father-in-law worked for them and he's a prime example of the evil that is Monsanto........
The difference being that if you plant those "hybrid" seeds from Monsanto by using seeds coming from the crops you harvested you get smacked with patent infringement because Monsanto requires you to NOT plant anything not purchased from them. So yes they really are evil after all. The cost "savings" of using their patented seeds when you have to buy brand new seeds every year and dump even more chemicals on them every year seems more like yet another added cost to me.