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Welcome! 03/05/2016
Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change. If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away. I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!
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CritterKeeper
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Posts posted by CritterKeeper
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I love how "my cat" seems to be a part of her name! Every reference is to "Explorer, my cat," or "My cat, Explorer," pretty much without fail. Kind of like how my Patrick was never Pat. After the fifth or sixth time one of our receptionists tried to call him "Saint Patrick" and ended up saying "Sir Patrick" instead, that became part of his name, too, his full title being "Sir Patrick the Fuzzy-Mouse Slayer" for his fondness for the little fake-fur cat-toy mice we carried then.
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One of my favorite podcasts, SpeakBeastie, had a thoughtful essay and later a discussion about JKR's tweets, which included multiple LGBTQ+ perspectives as well as a straight white cis woman like me. The general consensus was that the situation sucks, but that the Harry Potter universe and all that's great about it has grown beyond its author, and it's done far too much good, including helping people come out or come to accept themselves, for us to discard it all now. They also figured that it's pretty hard to find any work that isn't problematic for at least a group or two.
Personally, I tend to be willing to continue loving a work if the work itself merits it, but at the same time I don't want my money to go to bigots. I didn't go see Ender's Game in the theater, nor will I be buying new copies of any of the books Card publishes, at least not until he's passed away. I will, however, read a copy from the library or a used book store, where none of my money will be going to support such attitudes and actions. I suspect I'll do the same for Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts. I've been known to buy a ticket for one movie, and then go watch another, for example. I'm kind of glad I got copies of the series, including the "grown-up" editions of the HP series (with Philosopher's Stone!), before any of this came to light....
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On 1/24/2020 at 1:17 PM, mlooney said:The rental agent was just by to record what the house looked like after he was evicted. I heard her in the house and knowing that no one should be in that part of the house I went over to see what was up. Derick, my ex-neighbour left all or almost all of his stuff behind, and in a major mess. This isn't going to end well I suspect. Of course first they have to find him as he just sorta vanished. He's not getting his deposit back, that much I'm sure of.
If any of it is in good enough shape, perhaps you can convince them to let you have it. Technically, they'd have to throw it away, and then you could take it from the trash, but perhaps they'd be willing to help you haul it into your place once it's officially discarded....
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On 12/15/2019 at 3:27 AM, Darth Fluffy said:I made the mistake of clicking the link, then reading some of the comics.
So you'd get the joke here?
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On 12/13/2019 at 3:17 AM, Darth Fluffy said:I read a short story version of this episode, and one of the derelict ships is described as "made of wood". This was painful to read, at the time. Sorry, author, my apologies, it appears wooden spacecraft are a distinct possibility.
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4 hours ago, Don Edwards said:Or a general household-supply store, if you don't mind a slightly thicker dowel that probably has a plastic handle on one end and a mop-head or broom-bristles on the other. (It occurs to me that possessing a magic wand looks suspicious, but your average peasant hovel needs a broom.)
The Dresden Files has had more than one occasion when Harry stuck the end of his staff into a mop bucket because he couldn't just carry it around. A cane, a baseball bat, a conductor's baton, knitting needles, a "Sirius Black's Wand" from the Franklin Mint or wherever, a jai alai or lacrosse stick....in the upcoming winter season, you could use a wooden-handled windshield scraper/brush combo or snow shovel.
As for other, ah, toys being used for such purposes, wood is indeed a questionable choice. But, we don't know the magic-retention properties of other materials, such as plastic, silicone, batteries in the core, glass, steel, etc. Such a choice would rather defeat the goal of being inconspicuous and easy to carry around.
On the glasses front, I was always told that we get less nearsighted as we age, generally becoming farsighted instead. Hence the cliche of someone who's aging, but in denial about needing glasses, holding what they're reading out at arm's length. I always hoped that somewhere along that transition, there would be a sweet spot where I'd have 20/20 vision....
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19 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:Is there any consensus as to what rank or title Maid Marian actually held?
As for Alice? It can be difficult to assert your claim to be a Princess while the Queen is actively attempting to take your head
I thought that trying to kill each other was a family tradition in most royal lines!
18 hours ago, ijuin said:Also, this unfortunately leaves out girls who, while fulfilling every other requirement for Princessdom, live in a Republic.
That's where the "act of heroism" comes in.
11 hours ago, hkmaly said:... Leia Organa ...
Wait, what disqualifies Vanellope?
... oh, ninja'd. Wait, no ... who YOU speak about? Because Leia was ruled out by not being born royal (adopted) and not animated. And, depending how you count it, possibly the sequel bit.
How could I forget Princess Leia? And she *is* born daughter to Queen Emeritus Amidala, as well as being an adopted Princess (or did she get elected to that position?) so it's only being live-action that keeps her out. I don't think Disney would *dare* claim adoption doesn't count.
I must confess I haven't seen the movie Vanellope is in yet, so I can't comment on her.
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On 10/29/2019 at 1:10 AM, hkmaly said:Also, only way someone can be made a Princess is to marry Prince ... or her mother marrying King. Or father Queen. Nanase is more likely to discover she always has been Princess.
According to Disney, to qualify as an official Princess, one must be born royal, marry royal, or perform an act of heroism. (That last is generally acknowledged to have been added for Mulan.) They also have to be human or human-like, be a protagonist in a feature (which must be completely animated, no live-action segments allowed), and not introduced in a sequel. Many of these rules seem to exist to explain why other potential Disney princesses don't qualify (Giselle, Alice, Wendy Darling, Maid Marian, Jane Porter, Jessie, Vanellope, etc.)
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13 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:The pirates are unstoppable,
Provided, of course, that you don't ask them to bear arms against an orphan
And of course the 100th ninja will be an orphan. (Or claim to be...) Tragic backstory is a prerequisite for ridiculously overpowered characters, isn't it?
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10 hours ago, The Old Hack said:The question is, if one hundred ninja Dianes fight one pirate Diane, who wins?
Well duh. Diane, of course.
The pirate would take out 99 of the ninja, but the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu tells us that the 100th ninja would be badass enough to take on a whole ship full of pirates. (Unknown if pirates get to get better the fewer of them there are left or not, though....)
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I've been getting into Ingress more, but still playing Wizards Unite, too. I guess I like the fact that Ingress involves interacting with other players, while WU is mostly a solitary pursuit. Even if "interacting" sometimes means cursing as you see them take out a portal within minutes of your claiming it. These days, I just figure that means more chances to take out enemy portals and build experience points, getting me that much closer to reaching level 10 and being able to recommend new portal/gym/inn sites!
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On 10/29/2019 at 7:49 PM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:For years, I have heard people say that the President of the United States needs actual business experience
Well, now we have a president with business experience,
Wait, did we need to specify *successful* business experience? Did we really need to spell out a "no bankruptcy" clause?
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On 11/4/2019 at 1:45 AM, Illjwamh said:On November 3 in History:1978 - Dominica gains independence from the U.K. No, not that one; it's a commonwealth, not a republic, and it's pronounced differently!I actually knew about this one, because I had a summer camp counselor from Dominica years ago. Charming accent, very musical!
18 hours ago, Illjwamh said:1860 - Abraham Lincoln is elected president of the United States. Upset at not getting their way, many southerners form plans to rage quit.Yeah, that does seem a rather appropriate description, doesn't it?
18 hours ago, Illjwamh said:1917 - Canadian forces finally take the village of Passchendaele in Flanders after three months of brutal fighting. At last, this strategically insignificant town and its irrelevant surroundings are firmly in allied hands.Be fair, it was on the way to a German supply route. And we got such a great poem out of the Second Battle of Ypres, maybe they were hoping for another iconic one from the Third.
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On 10/26/2019 at 6:30 PM, Illjwamh said:On October 26 in History:899 - Death of Alfred, the only English king ever to be styled "the Great". You know what that means; it's all downhill for England from here, lads.Now, now, Prince Charles hasn't even ascended to the throne yet, and already you're discounting the possibility of a Charles the Great?
On 10/26/2019 at 6:30 PM, Illjwamh said:1520 - Charles I of Spain becomes Charles V, HRE. He considers renaming Europe "Habsburgland."And between that and his American holdings, he was said to rule "the empire over which the sun will never set." Gosh, what a memorable phrase! Surely it will be associated with the Holy Roman Empire forever!
Sure, he tried to get people to call him Charles the Great, but it never really took for him....he did get several beers and a popular Mexican chocolate bar named after him, though!
On 10/26/2019 at 6:30 PM, Illjwamh said:1977 - Somali hospital cook Ali Maow Maalin contracts smallpox, which is notable not in that it doesn't kill him, but in that he is the last person ever to do so. Vaccinate your kids.We eliminated rinderpeste a few years ago, too! That one was in cattle, but it's believed to be what measles evolved from around 1000-1100 CE, so what we learned about it may help get that scourge next. If we can bring down the percent of idiots, anyway....
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On 9/17/2019 at 3:05 PM, Illjwamh said:The worst part was, it wasn't even the first time that had happened. Said village was already an attempt to reestablish society in a post-apocalyptic hellscape. There would have been people living there who were the first or second generation descendants of the survivors of the last plague that wiped out 90% of the population.
The article 1491 has a great discussion of the new thoughts on North American populations pre-Colombus. De Soto arrived in 1539 and saw thousands of warriors lining the shore of the Mississippi as they passed, finding large towns and cities everywhere. The next Europeans in that area, in 1682, didn't see a village for 200 miles.
"The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán dazzled Hernán Cortés in 1519; it was bigger than Paris, Europe's greatest metropolis. The Spaniards gawped like hayseeds at the wide streets, ornately carved buildings, and markets bright with goods from hundreds of miles away. They had never before seen a city with botanical gardens, for the excellent reason that none existed in Europe. The same novelty attended the force of a thousand men that kept the crowded streets immaculate. (Streets that weren't ankle-deep in sewage! The conquistadors had never heard of such a thing.)"
(Of course, Europe had Gothic cathedrals, but they were relatively rare and the day to day city streets were a far cry from them. ;-)
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22 hours ago, Illjwamh said:On October 28 in History:1948 - Paul Müller wins the Nobel Prize for Medicine for discovering that DDT can be used as an insecticide. Ooh. Ooh, this is awkward.Even more awkward than Barak Obama's Nobel, which even/especially he saw as rather a bizarre and premature choice at the time.
22 hours ago, Illjwamh said:2007 - First Lady Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina is the first woman elected president of Argentina. "This is bullshit!" ~Hillary Clinton, dressed as Eva Perón for Halloween2019 - (Actually yesterday, but whatever). Former president and first lady Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is elected Vice President of Argentina. Is she trying to fill out a bingo card or something?In America, the Twenty-Second Amendment says you can only be elected to be President twice, or once if you've already served more than half a term after succeeding from the VP spot. However, it doesn't say anything about being elected VP and then becoming President again that way. So, in theory, we could have Bernie Sanders head the ticket, and Obama as his VP.
However, the Twelfth Amendment, which modified the procedure set forth for electing the President and Vice President, has a line that states "But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States." So, Constitutional scholars (like, say, President Obama) debate about whether that would include having served two terms already or not. There not being any term limits yet, that line in the 12th was only intended to mean rules like minimum age and being born in the United States should also apply to the VP, so which side y end up on probably depends a good deal on whether you believe the intent when written is a factor, or just the exact wording.
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On 10/1/2019 at 11:41 AM, Don Edwards said:Republicans begin impeachment investigation of next Democratic President
It's satire... but dang it sure sounds like what's going on now, with the parties flipped.
Except that Trump has, at the very least, violated the Emoluments clause of the Constitution, from day one.
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"There's a black hole in the center of the galaxy
It'll suck down you, it'll suck down me
Don't believe me, just wait and see
We're goin' down the Cosmic Drain!"
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"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) -
On 9/12/2019 at 11:31 AM, Illjwamh said:On September 12 in History:490 BCE - The Athenian army and their allies defeat the invading Persian army at the plains of Marathon. One guy runs himself to death back to the city to deliver the news - a feat millions of people will one day regularly recreate for fun.They leave out most of the story, and the run, in that version. The traditional story is that a professional message-runner named Pheidippides ran from Athens to Sparta, about 150 miles (240 km) in two days, to ask for aid against Persian invaders, and ran back again with their answer, presumably in another two days. He then ran another 25 miles (40 km) from Athens to the Battle of Marathon, found out Athens had won, and ran back to Athens with the news. So, it wasn't a run of 26.2 miles that made him drop from exhaustion, it was running 350 miles (560 km) in about five days that killed him.
Of course, that story doesn't show up until about 500 years after the Battle of Marathon. The historian Herodotus worked from first-hand interviews with eyewitnesses, and he never mentioned what would have been quite a compelling story....
On 9/12/2019 at 11:31 AM, Illjwamh said:On September 12 in History:1962 - America's crazy president publicly talks about going to the moon, and "other things".If only we could go back to that sort of crazy President!
On 9/13/2019 at 0:59 PM, Illjwamh said:On September 13 in History:379 - Yax Nuun Ahiin I ascends to the throne of Tikal. His name means "Curl Nose". Well that's kind of mean.Hey, for all we know, a curled nose was considered the height of beauty in that culture. He may have been the equivalent of Sir Strongjaw or Empress Spathic.
On 9/13/2019 at 0:59 PM, Illjwamh said:533 - Belisarius gives the Vandals a taste of their own medicine at the Battle of Ad Decimum, which will allow him to take the city of Carthage the following day. Several Byzantine/Roman soldiers have the weird feeling they've done this before.Some of them reported hearing Belisarius mutter "Oh, boy...." just before the battle commenced.
On 9/13/2019 at 0:59 PM, Illjwamh said:1814 - The British fail to capture the city of Baltimore or its defending outpost, Fort McHenry. Francis Scott Key writes a poem about it. You probably haven't read it.And then some weirdo realizes it's a perfect match to the tune Stafford Smith created for a drinking song about an obscure Greek poet who promised from heaven to teach the singers the fine art of drinking and wenching at the same time.
On 9/14/2019 at 3:45 PM, Illjwamh said:On September 14 in History:1180 - Future shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo's force of 300 is outnumbered ten to one and overwhelmed at the Battle of Ishibashiyama, the first in which Yoritomo takes command. Fortunately for him, he escapes by the expedient method of hiding in a tree until somebody comes to rescue him. Japan's future leader!Hey, you could do worse than someone smart enough to realize the battle is lost, and tough and sneaky enough to survive to fight another day. As long as he didn't do something dickish like order all his troops to fight to the death even when it became clear they'd lost....
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Challenger I was in high school, in class in the South Attic, with our desks in a circle. I think it was an English class, but it could have been something related. The launch had gotten a lot of publicity because of Christa McAuliffe, first teacher in space, and a lot of schools all over the country were tuned in. They'd been watching the launch in the library on the second floor, and our music teacher came up and told us what had happened. I said "Oh my god!" about half a second ahead of our teacher saying the same words.
9/11 Our boss was out on the east coast for a veterinary conference and to visit family, and she was due to fly back later that day, so I was solo vet at work that day. I almost always had NPR playing on the radio in the morning, and then in my car on the way in to the hospital. Based on the timeline I'm reading, the first plane hit at 7:46am my time, and since I start work at 8:30am, I was probably at home getting ready for work when they announced it. I don't think anyone realized at that point that it was anything more than a horrible accident. The second plane hit 8:03am, not sure if I was in the car yet or not when they announced it. Word of the plane that hit the Pentagon would have been within ten minutes after my usual start time at work.
We didn't have a very good TV at work, just a little TV/VCR combo we kept for kids to watch videos on while their parents and pets were in an exam room. There was no cable, only antenna, so the picture was lousy, but we had it tuned in as best we could by the time the first tower collapsed. I had a few appointments but watched in between them. A lot of people were worried that Chicago would be a target, especially the Sears Tower, so even businesses without any New York connections were shutting down; we're out in the suburbs, but some clients commute and others worked at branches whose main office was downtown. As the morning went on, a lot of people who'd been sent home from work or were supposed to be flying that day wound up calling to make last-minute appointments, and they made up for the ones who cancelled.
They shut down all air traffic all over the country, and my boss had the good sense and foresight to get to the car rental counter before the rush, so she was able to drive back instead of flying; her return would only be delayed one day. We're near Pauwaukee Airport and see a lot of planes headed towards or out of O'Hare, so it was really noticeable to not see any contrails or hear any engines going by overhead.
I have an aunt who lives in Manhattan, but I looked online, must have been MapQuest back then, and could see that she was pretty far from the Towers, and she didn't work near there either, so I wasn't really worried about her being directly affected. It was still good to hear from my mom once she finally got through that she was indeed okay. She was worried about some of the people she knew who were closer, though.
I haven't seen the actual site of the Towers, but when I went to a vet conference in Las Vegas, the hotel casino New York-New York had a fence around one part that had been hung with T-shirts from all the police and fire companies who lost people in the collapses. It was quite touching. Sort of like seeing the Vietnam Memorial wall, sad but not from direct personal impact.
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On 9/1/2019 at 2:51 PM, Illjwamh said:On September 1 in History:1715 - Louis XIV dies after 72 years. That's the longest (verifiable) reign of anyone, ever.So, Liz just has to hang in another five years? C'mon, Bess, you can do it!!
On 9/2/2019 at 6:07 PM, Illjwamh said:On September 2 in History:1666 - London baker Thomas Farriner of Pudding Lane accidentally leaves the oven on.I've read that not only was the bakery not actually on Pudding Lane, but on a side-street off of it, the site is currently in the middle of Monument Street, Pudding Lane having been moved to make room for the street named for the monument to the fire.
On 9/7/2019 at 1:56 AM, Illjwamh said:On September 6 in History:1901 - U.S. president William McKinley is shot at the Pan-American Expo in Buffalo, NY by an anarchist he was trying to shake hands with who felt it was his duty. The specific event where it happened had been removed from the president's schedule twice by his secretary (who feared an assassination attempt might take place there), but the president insisted on attending. Incidentally, McKinley is the third president assassinated in 36 years, and the last not to have Secret Service protection. Fascinating.I love reading entries like this, because looking further into them is so fascinating!
According to the Wikipedia article, McKinley was accompanied by not only "his usual Secret Service agent, George Foster," but also two other Secret Service agents added at the request of McKinley's personal secretary, who had tried three times to remove the event from the President's schedule for fear of assassination attempts.
The man directly ahead of the assassin in line to meet the President was described as "swarthy" and was looked on with a great deal of suspicion by the Secret Service and police present. He shook the President's hand and move on without incident. The man in line after the assassin was a mix of African and Spanish ancestry (so probably also "swarthy"), and he tackled the assassin faster than any of the police or Secret Service agents, before he could get off a third shot.
One of the new bits of technology being presented at the Expo was a primitive x-ray machine. Instead of using it, doctors trying to find and remove the bullet stuck their hands into the wound and fished around. Later Thomas Edison sent another x-ray machine, but it apparently arrived with a crucial part missing. Tesla would've gotten it working if he'd sent it!
This one deserves to be quoted in full. "The best surgeon in the city, and the Exposition's medical director, Dr. Roswell Park, was in Niagara Falls, performing a delicate neck operation. When interrupted during the procedure on September 6 to be told he was needed in Buffalo, he responded that he could not leave, even for the President of the United States. He was then told who had been shot. Park, two weeks later, would save the life of a woman who suffered injuries almost identical to McKinley's."
John Hay was McKinley's Secretary of State. He had also been Abraham Lincoln's private secretary and a good friend of James Garfield. If he hadn't died in 1905 he probably would have been connected with JFK somehow, too. I wonder how many people have searched for some encounter between him and old Joe Kennedy?
On 9/8/2019 at 4:44 PM, Illjwamh said:On September 8 in History:1331 - Stefan Dušan declares himself to be the King of Serbia. Nobody has the guts to tell him otherwise, so I guess he's the King of Serbia now.Hey, it worked for Emperor Norton I!
On 9/8/2019 at 4:44 PM, Illjwamh said:On September 8 in History:1504 - Michelangelo unveils his statue of a ripped naked guy with a tiny dick in Florence.He was imitating the ancient Greeks and Romans, who thought that big, floppy, unwieldy dicks were hilarious and made fun of them.
On 9/8/2019 at 4:44 PM, Illjwamh said:On September 8 in History:1522 - Magellan's ship Victoria arrives in Seville today, meaning the circumnavigation was not completed two days ago, but just now. This fact brought to you by this month's issue of "Well, Actually" magazine.Note that Magellan had died in the Philippines, and the Victoria arrived under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano.
On 9/8/2019 at 4:44 PM, Illjwamh said:On September 8 in History:1966 - Gene Roddenberry boldly goes where no TV show has gone before.No joke or info, I just think this is really cool!
On 9/10/2019 at 4:09 PM, Illjwamh said:On September 9 in History:
1000 - King Olaf Tryggvasson
Huh, I had no idea Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer was named after a real person!
On 9/10/2019 at 4:09 PM, Illjwamh said:1947 - The world's first computer bug is found. Literally. There was moth in the Mark II computer at Harvard.
And Admiral Grace Hopper, one of the most important figures in the early days of computing, carefully preserved it in the logs for the day. Note that this use of the word "bug" did already exist, hence it being funny enough to find a real bug messing things up for her to make the joke in the first place. :-)
On 9/10/2019 at 4:09 PM, Illjwamh said:On September 9 in History:
2015 - "Eat it, Victoria." ~ Elizabeth II, longest reigning British Monarch.
The goal to beat is 72 years, 110 days. George VI died 6 February 1952, so our target is May 27, 2024. Born 21 Aprl 1926, she'll be 98 years, 1 month, 6 days old. That only requires going about a year beyond the average life expectancy for someone her age.
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On 10/18/2019 at 2:23 AM, ijuin said:I know where I was when the first plane hit on 9/11--I was still asleep in bed, because I was in a time zone where it was still too early for me to be up.
Ah, but do you remember finding out about it?
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Anyone else playing Harry Potter: Wizards Unite? I'm finding that Ingress, Pokemon GO, and Wizards Unite, while using the same locations, are very different games and are all enjoyable. However, there just isn't time to keep up with all three, so I find that PoGO is the one that's falling by the wayside.
This Day In History
in Off Topic Discussion
Posted
I always wondered why they didn't give the Grammy to whoever did do the singing — if it was a Grammy-worthy performance, don't they deserve the recognition? Shouldn't they have been household names, at least for a while, as the voices of peoples' favorite songs?
This after 17 years of campaigning by the editor of Godey's Ladies' Book, Sarah Hale, to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. It's thanks to her that we think of roast turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie as the classic Thanksgiving dinner. Hale is also the author of a poem which she titled "Mary's Lamb" but surely no one today remembers it....
*sings* Pinwheel, pinwheel spinning around / Look at my pinwheel and see what I found...
A friend was noodling on a piano and started playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as a waltz. It fit remarkably well!
My favorite musical incongruity is Off Kilter's version of "Johnny B Good" in which a bagpipe plays the guitar solo.
*checks....no, Viagra was first approved on March 27....*
And why should that stop you?
You should see if there's a Unitarian-Universalist church near you. They're the most welcoming church I know of. It's where Jewish/Catholic couples end up. Religious Education (Sunday school) learns about all sorts of religions. You should check out the Seven Principles and see if it seems your style. If not, no biggie, just thought it worth suggesting.
An excellent attitude.
Not exactly. It's more pointing out that, since we cannot know with absolute certainty whether there is a God or not, declaring that there absolutely is no God is just as much a statement of belief without proof as declaring that there *is* a God.
"Atheist" takes "theist", which denotes a belief in God, and adds the prefix "a-" which denotes a lack of, the way asexual reproduction is reproduction without sex. If you are an atheist, you are someone who is as certain that there is no God as the theists are certain that there is a God. If you are not certain, then you are an agnostic, someone who acknowledges that we have no way of knowing with absolute certainty one way or the other (or the other, or the other, or....). You can be an agnostic who leans toward the side of atheism, but you can't be a complete atheist because that denotes a certainty that agnostics by definition do not have.
Sorry, but I see far too many people confusing these two terms, and I feel it's an important distinction.
And boy does it infuriate some atheists if you point this out to them! They are certain, but they insist that their certainty is logical and that it is impossible to come to any other position without being illogical, but they still can't prove they're right, which means that being so certain is not logical.
Agnostics don't disbelieve in the existence or non-existence of God, either. Again, an important distinction.
No, it's not "hedging one's bets," it's acknowledging that we cannot be certain in either direction. If you are flipping a coin, the theist is certain it will land heads, the atheist is certain it will land tails, and the agnostic says they don't know which way it will land, including landing on edge or being snatched midair by a raven.
A lot more people are agnostic than will admit it. Usually, that's because they've been taught that they are supposed to believe, that good people do believe, and that doubting is a sin (against God or logic).
I keep meaning to listen to his stuff, but just never seem to get around to it.
Oh, for the days when politicians at least pretended to want to help the poor, instead of pitting them against each other and watching them fight for scraps. I sometimes think one of the most evil fictions in the world is the "zero sum game".
And there's the rub. There's still varying mixes of genuinely agreeing with a male candidate more than any of the female ones, and not believing a woman President is a real possibility. (Yes, I know, like the Kinsey scale, that's a great oversimplification, and no one should make assumptions about what degrees of what factors apply to anyone else individually.) That second point can be not thinking they should get the job, but I think a lot bigger factor for a lot more people is doubting that there are enough other people who would vote for a woman, and thus thinking a man is more likely to win.
12000 / 400 = 30
100000 / 6000 = 16.6667
Of course, I suspect Susenyos I had a lot more than 400 troops, that's just the number he lost.
Just ask Eleanor Roosevelt!