10:37 – I’m still frantically building science kits, although orders have started to taper off. I’m not sure if that means people ordered earlier in the month than usual or if we’re going to get a boatload of orders over the next few days. Only one so far today. Saturday is the last day for mailing Priority Mail packages for kind-of-guaranteed delivery by the 24th, but my guess is that most mailed Monday and some mailed Tuesday will make it in time for Christmas. If they can possibly do so, USPS actually delivers on Christmas day if something looks like it may be a Christmas gift.
11:39 – Hmmm. Someone just sent me a link to this video of Nathan Fillion. He may be kidding about being a Zombie Apocalypse prepper, but somehow I don’t think so.
USPS usually leaves a pretty hefty pad in their delivery estimates. I’ve mailed stuff 3 days after their cutoff and had it delivered on the 23rd or 24th.
A quick note. Jerry Pournelle has had a “small stroke” and is said to be recovering well at a hospital in LA.
I’m sure that all of us here wish him a speedy recovery.
Well, it appears that I am in the minority. According a poll, torturing suspected terrorist is justified.
Note that the word “suspected” is most definitely present in the poll questions. So not only does the majority support torturing terrorists, the majority supports torturing suspects.
That’s pretty damned disillusioning. Alternatively, I am very naïve.
“… the majority supports torturing suspects.”
This was established long ago; see the psychology experiments conducted by Dr. Philip Zimbardo and others back then. Plus the State here has apparently been largely successful in justifying its depredations along these lines to the public via a mostly compliant, actually supine, media. If we don’t actually torture “suspects” here at home, which is an open question, we send them to odious regimes around the world who’ll do it for us. Murkan peasants figure, hey, they’re torturing bad guys who might do bad things so let it rip! Little imagining that they can become the subjects of such attention at any time, too. Just gotta say or think the wrong thing; deny climate change; complain about Diversity and Affirmative Action; or, the stone killer crime: don’t pay your taxes and/or advise others not to pay.