Ask to borrow his lighter, light up a smoke, and then talk about classic cars. Now you’re friends.

It has one. It’s called evil-mode.

Don’t anthropomorphize computers.

They don’t like it.

Handbrake start is for noobs. Learn to use your clutch.

I’m struggling to think of any situation where a 2yo would come in contact with a hippopotamus that doesn’t involve criminal levels of negligence.

KDE had them back in the 90s. They had to - virtual desktops were a feature of pretty much any window manager more complicated than TWM. They’d have been laughed at if they didn’t.

A gets a pass though. All the style of the original with better looking nacelles.

I had a partner when I opened a computer shop back in the day. Closest I’ve come to having sex with him was the time I saw his wife topless through the window.

Significant Other is much more specific.

The bank teller thing is exactly what I was saying. Priests are down toward the bottom of the pyramid. Assuming every priest you meet is a pedo is pretty disturbing.

As far as the similarity to cops, the difference there is that the cops all abuse their authority from time to time. Almost every single one of them. Even if it’s just fucking with someone for the fun of it, they’ve all done it. And they’ve got support from the more authoritative-minded people like the “back the blue” folks. It’s definitely an attractive career for people who like to hold power over others - that’s not even in question.

No one supports pedophiles. The church covers them up out of embarrassment, not because they condone that sort of behavior.

That’s an off-the-cuff remark that his spokespeople refuted. Essentially the equivalent of a political gaff. Think about it: how would he know, and if he did know, why would he tell a reporter? He likely just pulled what he thought was a small number (2%) out of his hat as a way of saying “very few” before he realized how many people that would actually be. Politicians make that kind of mistake all the time, and the pope definitely falls into the category of politician.

And the “everyone in the organization is a pedo” is just plain unfair. Is a bank teller responsible because the company she works for is making shady investment deals? Is a forest ranger responsible because the president decided to sell off a bunch of national parks? There are specific people who are guilty and should be held responsible, and the organization as a whole should be viewed with suspicion, but the majority of the people there - especially at the bottom levels - are just doing their jobs. The majority of them are even more pissed off at pedophiles ruining the reputation of the church they’re dedicated to than you are.

As far as the “attractive to pedophiles” bit, I’m not sure how that computes. Attractive to gay religious men who would prefer celibacy over sin, sure - that’s an old argument. I’ve even known a couple priests that I suspect went into the priesthood because they couldn’t express their sexuality. But pedophiles? What does “no women” and “celibacy” have to do with pedophilia? Few pedophiles are exclusive to kids. Most of them are perfectly capable of having a wife and family.

It seems to me like you’re treating the church like a storybook organization of villains. Things in the real world rarely work like that.

They didn’t have those when I went through basic in '98, but then again we only had two days of FTX and basic was 6 weeks long total.

What they did have was arctic sleeping bags. You don’t need a heated tent with one of those things. Sleep more than 30 minutes (which was about how long they gave us that night) and you’re sweating, even in the cold.

Why would Satan want to discourage bad behavior?

It’s a lot more likely he’s putting on a beard and becoming Santa, rewarding good and bad kids alike. That explains why your bully got that GI Joe aircraft carrier and you got a $4 Go-Bot.

(Just to be clear, in case anyone wants to argue religion with me - I believe in Satan about as much as I do Santa.)

Sure, but did you do it in your 20s?

I drank from the garden hose in the 80s. Probably the 70s, too - I don’t remember.

Yeah, but for whatever reason toy zooplankton and algae just never sold well.

Nope, Deuteronomy clearly states that it’s only OK to murder your own kids, and that’s only if they’re being rebellious.

It’s not that weird. Like you said, agnostics are more likely to prefer an evidence based approach rather than eat all the hyperbole going around. So what do we know?

Did the church cover up pedos? Yep, that they did. And they deserve the ire they get for it and more. Do pedos make up more than a tiny percentage of the church? No, they don’t. That’s the facts.

I’m agnostic and was never Catholic (I was Pentecostal in my youth, but that’s a completely different nightmare…). I don’t like that the church covered up sex abuse. It makes me trust the church as an organization less. But I also don’t assume the local priest is banging his alter boys.

The abortion/murder thing isn’t something scientific. It’s a value judgement about whether a particular action is “right” or “wrong.” Right and wrong are a human invention - the universe just is what it is regardless of how we feel about it. So it’s up to humans to figure that out.

Personally, I tend to favor the rights of the mother, but that’s doesn’t make someone who disagrees with me wrong. It just means they don’t agree with me.

“Sorry, I left it on your mom’s bedside table this morning.”

That sounds odd to me, since that’s about when the DDT ban was really going into force worldwide. The resurgence of bedbugs in the US has been linked to our no longer using DDT.

Are we sure about that though? There are a lot of other small insects that fill the same niche without biting humans (including other mosquito species).

I remember people used to complain, “what about the bats?” until we found that mosquitos make up at most 2% of a bat’s diet.