I also had a handful of interactions with her as a student reporter back in the early 90s. She was always very gracious and engaging, but in my experience that's kind of true of all politicians by definition.

The one thing that always stood out to me is the way she handled the dual assassination of mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk. I was just a little kid at the time, and the way she stepped up and took control of the situation filled me with admiration and confidence.

Maybe that was the high-point of her political career, I don't know.

That said, you couldn't be a Northern Californian at that time and not appreciate her leadership, no matter what else you may have disagreed with her about.

I say all of the above while not touching the obvious fact that she stayed in office far too long.

Oh good, a pompous, nonsensical, deeply condescending, deliberately inflammatory, provincial and unhelpful comment! That's just what we need, said no one, ever.

It was a warning. Frum is and always has been a staunch never-Trumper. He's still a conservative, but he was never on board with Trump and to his credit has been pretty vocal in his opposition.

The guy is surrounded by a team composed of some of the most elite, highly-trained and experienced security experts on the planet. I don't think he has much to worry about. His security detail will be composed of tier 1 operators; the elite of the elite.

Meaning no disrespect, but it's pretty obvious that you don't know much about the US military. The senior officer corps uniformly despises Trump for all of the obvious reasons that we already know about, and no doubt for other reasons that aren't public knowledge.

Trump is only popular among the enlisted ranks, and even that's not universally true.

In any case, while the enlisted ranks know how to keep things rolling and coordinated at the lower levels of organization, there is no world in which any of them knows how to coordinate whole divisions, carrier groups, fighter squadrons, signals intelligence, bomber groups, the nuclear arsenal, and so on and so forth.

The US military is a vast and incredibly complex organization and the only people who really know how to operate it are all in the senior officer corps which again, uniformly despises Trump.

All that said, I would almost kind of like some crazy MAGA fucker to try to assassinate Miley. You know he's protected by some of the most highly competent and experienced security experts on the planet.

But that's a Federal violation, so not the same thing at all.

None. My wife doesn't know about tact, or the polite white lie or anything like that. She doesn't have time for that bullshit. It's one of her endearing qualities.

Fair play.

There's ample evidence that living in small-scale tribal societies really is the best for our emotional and psychological health. There are entire books on the subject. The problem is that we can't go back to that, nor would we want to. I would argue that we are still figuring out how to adapt to agriculture, it having been such a recent development in human history.

I don't necessarily know what the best path forward looks like, but I do know that what we've built here in the US isn't sustainable because it's not working for too many people.

It depends on how you measure it. People living in small-scale tribal societies tend to be universally happier than people living in big industrialized societies, but they also face a lot of problems and challenges that we've eradicated through technology.

We've spent the vast majority of our existence as a species living in small pre-agricultural bands in which it was virtually impossible to accumulate real personal property or wealth. Consequently, a person's status was determined not by how much they owned, but rather by their merit and relationships with others.

Wheat is a relatively recent development in human history, as is agriculture in general. It changed everything but for better or worse, agriculture is a trap, and once you start transitioning to it, you can never go back.

"There's nothing here but war, where the murderin' cannons roar, And I am sick and tired of this hard fighting."

So is yours, ambiguous I mean.

In other words, I think you're being ridiculously over-generous in your interpretation of ancient knowledge.

If it were in fact the case that the ancients had any real notion of Darwinian theory, I think they would have stated it in unequivocal terms, as they did with so many other Platonic and/or Aristotlean concepts.

Vaguely suggestive biblical lines interpreted as somehow suggesting an understanding of Darwinian theory strikes me as wishful thinking.

Agree. I also think that it's inevitable that when he dies, leaving aside the fact of his old age and poor health, it will necessarily result in a cataract of deeply stupid conspiracy theories.

This is the world we live in, unfortunately.

It's partially but not entirely true. Having correct technique in your upper body matters too, as does accuracy, timing and the ability to create collisions.

All else being equal in terms of technical skill and leg strength, the guy with the bigger arms, fists as shoulders will have a stronger punch.

I had a ton of muscular atrophy in my right upper body due to a bulging disk in my neck --since corrected by surgery-- and I definitely noticed a huge diminution in my striking power, as did my regular sparring partners at the gym. So it definitely does matter.

I'm doing better now, but still not back to 100 percent and probably never will be. But that's OK since I'm pretty old anyway.

That's a very generous interpretation. I don't think anyone can be blamed for not taking it seriously.

Most of what society tells us will make us feel happy and fulfilled in life is bullshit. Living a good life is primarily about your personal relationships. Things like social status and personal wealth are far less important.

Desantis doesn't have the charisma to replace Trump.

This is one of the few upsides of cults of personality; almost by definition they are not replicable.

Do we have a real choice?

I don't think we do.

If the choice is between a precariously old octogenarian and a completely unhinged authoritarian octogenarian who doesn't believe in democracy, I guess I know which way I'll vote every time.

you can always just call them by their first name or something else

Well I didn't know you were called Dennis.