Have any of you guys ever used a VoIP service? Our AT&T cell phones (which are our only phones) barely work at our house - they’re constantly cutting out and/or dropping calls. I’m sick of it and want to scale back our cell phone plan and get some sort of home phone. The cheapest plan with the local service (Verizon) is comparable to Vonage, but Verizon only includes very local calling. I’m trying to get the most bang for my buck, but spend the fewest bucks, so I think VoIP might be the most cost-effective option.

We have DSL, so our connection should be fast enough for any VoIP. The only services I’m familiar with are Skype and Vonage. Any reviews? Other suggestions?

Dear Me,
Thank You for your email. However I regret to inform you its not my fault. Please feel free to call tech support at the following number and I’m sure they’ll resolve the issue swiftly. 1-800-NOT-LIKELY

Thank You and Have a blessed day.

Sincerely,
Pope Gregory XIII

I’m responding to this individual via email, as well, but I liked what I had to say, so I figured I’d share it here as well.

holy schite! i’m speechless. 15 min. ago i was afraid of the random asshole showing up at any educational facility, weapon in hand, and acting out everyone’s favorite scene from any Clint Eastwood movie. now let me get this correct. ya’ll are trying to obtain the right to carry concealed weapons on campus? i’m left to assume that your logic behind this is that if more students are packin heat on campus, they can protect themselves justly. perhaps it will also make (asshole) think twice about carring out such mayhem due to the very real possibility of getting cooked by an unassuming classmate in the process. then again haven’t the majority of these fools entered said senarios with the intention of ending their own lives as well? so what to do? heavier security? psychological screening of the entire student body? Christ, sweetie! i don’t know. but something about the idea of “more guns” leaves a bad taste in my mouth. please please please don’t think i’m attacking you. quite the opposite. existentially speaking, yer my hero! i love passion. and you seem quite passionate about changing protocol to better suite the average citizen. and again i’m not arguing that, but i’d like to present to you another reality, a much different p.o.v…………let me ask you this,………..have you ever killed anyone? have you ever watched someone die from the wounds you yourself have inflicted upon them? when’s the last time you covered your front yard with hot brass protecting your family? do you have even the slightest idea what i’m talking about? i pray your answers to these questions are either “no” or “never”. ending someones life, under any circumstance, is a hell of a thing. and i can promise you the experiance is completely void of any relavent justification. i have so much more to say, but you seem like a very talented young lady, most likely well versed in countering liberal banter like this, so perhaps i should save something for my rebutle. before i end this i’d like to make one more ridiculous point. guns are for KILLING, not protecting. if your sincere objective is to protect yourself, use your brain. and for those incapable of rational problem solving logic, i suggest buying body armor. i’m sorry for the rant, you really do seem like a nice girl. clearly i just find it disturbing to hear people talk about using guns for “protection”. now, my lady, the floor is yours.

My Reply:

[NAME OMITTED],

Thanks for taking the time to write. I’ve mulled over your words, and one main question keeps coming to mind: are you willing to take a life to defend your own? And, secondarily, if you aren’t willing to do so yourself, do you believe innocent individuals have the right to preserve their lives by ending the life of an aggressor?

No, I’ve never been in the position where I’ve had to, but I’m willing to. Part of training with firearms is training mentally, knowing that I am prepared to defend myself, my family, and even random innocent strangers, if I have to. You can certainly counter that I have no idea what I’d do in an active threat scenario until I’m actually there - but again, that’s the point of training. People can only exist in one of two states… Those who have not killed, and those who have. There is no middle ground. Since countless Americans have taken the life of another human being - some members of the military, some police, some criminals, and some regular citizens just doing the right thing to defend themselves or those around them - it’s obvious that it is possible for someone who has not killed to cross that threshold.

Regarding your semantic issues with the use of guns for “protection” - you do have a valid point, that using a firearm is neither passive protection or passive defense, like body armor is. I would argue, however, that use of a firearm to prevent harm is an act of active protection or active defense, and my rationale for that is the idea of aggression or initiation. In a violent situation, one party is the aggressor, the initiator of violence and force. This makes the other party the defender, and any act they engage in after being aggressed upon is a defensive action.

To use an analogy: look at a football game. There’s an offense and a defense. The defense, however, does not simply stand in a line, unmoving, hoping the offensive runners will crash directly into them and prevent forward movement toward the goal. Rather, the defense engages in strategic movement, attempting to block the actions of the offense and minimize damaging gain.

So when I, and many with my mindset, refer to firearms as tools for self-defense or self-protection, we are using the terms in an active sense. If we (the “good guys”) were to use firearms in a non-defensive manner against the perceived “bad guys,” by, say, gunning down a convicted child molester in our neighborhood, that would mean we were the initiator, we were the aggressor, and we were not defending. I don’t advocate seeking out perceived threats just for a chance to get some trigger time… What I advocate is preparation for the potential necessity of an active defense.

Your assertion that “more guns” leave a bad taste in your mouth is because you are failing to separate the tool from the tool-user. You fear “more guns” because you associate guns with violence. But guns, sir, do not pull their own triggers. They do not aggress. They do not kill, rape, or steal. All of these motives and actions require a human perpetrator, and those human perpetrators sometimes choose to use guns to further their means.

We, being the “good guys,” have a few options, acknowledging that criminals will use tools to harm others. We can do nothing at all, and simply hope it “doesn’t happen to us.” We can engage in passive defense or protection - such as your body armor suggestion. But body armor is not fail-safe, and it will not stop rounds fired by determined criminals. And, for that matter, envision your idea on a large scale: Picture the students at Virginia Tech, seated in rows in an auditorium, clad in Kevlar helmets and Interceptor vests. Heck, let’s even throw the arm and leg protectors on there for good measure. Maybe it would serve as a deterrent to a criminal like Cho, or maybe it wouldn’t. But what good does it do if Cho pursues violence anyway (as criminals are wont to do) - should a legion of body-armored students just sit there, passively, hoping their armor holds up? Figuring they have done the best they can to protect themselves against violence? Stare dumbly at someone firing a handgun at them, hoping the rounds don’t hit a weak spot in the armor? Do they just wait for him to run out of ammunition, or the police to show up? What would you have them do?

Or, you could have just one student who has chosen to modify their behavior to protect all. Just one ROTC student, NRA member, self-defense-trained coed, or any other “average Joe.” If that student had jumped through the hoops to prove their status as a law-abiding citizen and obtained a concealed carry permit, and trained in marksmanship and mental preparedness, and accepted the responsibility as a firearm owner and carrier that they might have to take the life of a malignant individual to preserve others - well, what do you fear about that person’s gun?

And last, but not least, I - and many like me - absolutely use our brains on a daily basis to ensure our safety and the safety of those around us. Even when carrying a firearm, I don’t walk through dark alleys late at night. I don’t wear skimpy clothing and traipse around the bad parts of town. I don’t incite verbal altercations because of some false confidence I have from “packing heat.” I would never, ever advocate that a person behave in irresponsible ways while carrying a firearm. Rather, I advocate a level of utmost care, awareness and clarity. I do not drink and shoot. I do not carry while unaware of my surroundings. I do not advocate untrained individuals, those uncomfortable with firearms, or those at risk for hot-headed behavior (which might lead them to brandish a firearm when it ought not be brandished) carry firearms. I cannot ensure that every firearm will be wielded by a law-abiding, safety-practice following citizen, but I do my part as an ambassador for gun rights and gun ownership to maximize the number of living good guys with guns and minimize the number of living bad guys with guns.

Thanks again for writing, and I hope I’ve addressed some of the questions you may have.

Regards,
Laurel Zimmer

Can anybody recommend a fairly elementary (i.e. non-technical) book on quantum physics? I’m thinking something in the vein of The Dancing Wu Li Masters, but without the eastern mysticism angle. I enjoyed that book when I read it my senior year of high school, and after trying to explain Schrödinger’s Cat to Mike last night (brought on by this Cyanide & Happiness), I realized I’d like to read more on the subject. I’m definitely not a physicist, though, so I need something designed more for the layman than the scientist.

Hokay, I know people have mixed feelings about blog ads, and some of you may ignore them completely. That’s a-okay. They are on my blog now, though, so I figured I would say a couple words about what/why/how.

Actually, the why first - because I’m a dirty, rotten capitalist. I want to make money. I spend time on my blog, and while I certainly do it because I enjoy it, I would also like what I enjoy to double as a revenue source. (C’mon - wouldn’t we all?) If I can get some compensation for my time, I’ll take it!

The ads I’m currently using are through Google’s AdSense program. If you’re interested in setting up AdSense ads on your blog/website, you can click the referral link in the left sidebar to set up your account. I can’t really give an honest review of the service yet, since I’ve only just begun, but it’s obviously very popular. I also have a link for Firefox, which everyone in the world should be using whether I get a kickback for it or not.

The other ad placement around my blog is pretty obvious. Do with ‘em as you wish. :)

Oh - last but not least, leave me some feedback if you have an opinion about my ads. Love ‘em? Hate ‘em? Think they should be repositioned? Let me know!

The purpose of blogging in this manner is to do so for an audience; if I didn’t want readers, I’d write in a paper journal or keep a private blog. So - you, the reader, are kind of an important part of what I’m doing here!

The only concrete rules I have at this point are that my blog has to be in my “voice” at all times, and it also has to be about topics that are meaningful to me. (These rules are in the interest of not appearing like, or actually being, a sellout.) My interests span a broad range, though, so I would like to know what you would like to see, specifically - especially since most of my readers at this point are already acquainted with me and what I’m good at.

Reader-wise, my goals are:

• Keep my readers entertained, so you keep coming back




• Get my current readers to spread the word about my blog, so I get new readers




• Gather new readers from other sources

I’d love to hear your suggestions for how I can best achieve those goals. What will keep you coming back? What are you curious about? What would you not like to see? What would get you to link to my blog, or otherwise share it with others?

Any and all ideas are welcome… but the first one of you to say “naked pictures” is getting a permaban. (Kidding!)

EDIT: I almost forgot - I’d also like to know what your personal post frequency/length preferences are. More short ones, fewer long ones? Fewer short ones, more long ones? A mix?