Pastor Manning: Well let's just look at the equation.

Okay, let's do that.

His father, it is documented was a Pathetic Loser.

We'll call this variable FPL.

An alcoholic who couldn't hold a job, had two iron legs when he finally killed himself in an automobile accident. That's his daddy. that's what we got from the heredity of his daddy.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 12:41 PM on September 24, 2008

I neglected to add it on preview, but another contributor to the upstream problems as they relate to LB and ML and AIG are the ratings agencies. Those agencies rated securities and businesses without fully understanding their impacts to the system, they are correcting those ratings now and is desperately needed, but those shortfalls in the accuracy of their ability to rate is certainly a large contributor in the problems with stability, and I don't think that a correction within the ratings... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by iamabot at 1:23 AM on September 17, 2008

Sarah and Todd Palin have five children: boys Track, 19, and Trig, 4 months, and daughters Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7.

Dear GOD! Vice Presidents don't get to NAME anything, do they?!
posted to MetaFilter by ColdChef at 8:09 AM on August 29, 2008

Yeh, the good folks over at The US Dept of Labour can help.

I selected All Urban Consumers (Current Series) (Consumer Price Index - CPI) , then performed the following steps ( -> means I selected) :

1) Select an area -> 'Chicago'
2) Select one of more items -> 'All items'
3) Select seasonal adjustment -> 'Not seasonally Adjusted' (only possible option for this data set)
4) Get... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mutant at 8:01 AM on August 14, 2008 marked best answer

Give up.

By this, I don't mean drop out of life or however you may interpret that statement. I mean give up the struggle. Stop and look directly at your anger, your fear, your anxiety and see them for what they are - feelings with no inherent power of their own. You do not have to give into them. By trying to push these things out of your mind, they just gain more prominence. Look directly at the feelings. Not why you're afraid or angry or anxious,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by triggerfinger at 1:06 PM on August 8, 2008

Some images speak of treatments that no longer are practiced in the treatment of the mentally ill. Other pictures, like that of the razor blades strewn across the floor and the pages of a Reader’s Digest Magazine, suggest the depths of pain or desperation these rooms once contained.

Man, does that dude ever hate Reader's Digest.
posted to MetaFilter by Shepherd at 2:15 AM on August 5, 2008

I wouldn't cop-out with any sort of 'energy' bullshit. The only energy inside you are a series of electric pulses and various chemical reactions. But, I must admit, it amuses me that you can accept the non-existence of god and yet feel afraid of dying. I find the notion of a Godless world--though I've accepted it--far more terrifying than any kind of simple non-existence.

So, well, I've had very much the opposite problem.

I've never been afraid... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by nixerman at 10:19 PM on June 5, 2005

I think that including elderly men who live alone as part of the pool of people who are at elevated risk of suicide does those of them who "complete" a substantial dis-service, as well as skewing the suicide rates. In my book, self-deliverance from the ignominy and pain of old age, in the case of someone who retains the capacity to carry out the act in the face of incurable disease or intractable pain, isn't suicide. There comes a point when even a life well lived is no longer worth... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by paulsc at 12:36 PM on July 7, 2008

fshgrl writes "The hospital gave me an all in one price up front, I paid it, they paid the surgeon and anesthesiologist, nurse etc and had I surgery the following week."

And this is key. Half of the problem in the US is lack of insurance. But the other half, and maybe worse part, is lack of assurance.

Even with insurance, no one knows if their policy will be canceled if they... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by orthogonality at 7:05 PM on July 2, 2008

I don't work in your field so I don't know what your salary range should be. But with regards to asking, I saw it's always better to ask than to wait for it.

What you should do is compile a list of everything you've done in the last two years. Be specific about your role, your work, and how your work contributed to a project/product and the company's success. Go into more detail on roles where you had significantly more responsibilities and company exposure, ie. projects... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by junesix at 8:02 PM on February 19, 2008

Lobstermitten did a good job above of laying this out, I think, but I'll add my 2¢ anyway...

It's important to remember that being active is not just a question of being controlling or aggressive; it can simply be being a contributing member of a group. I used to be more passive, and thought of my actions in terms of whether they would have negative impacts, but not in terms of whether they'd have positive impacts. I basically thought "neutral" behavior ('I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by mdn at 5:29 PM on November 11, 2006

Will the cure be worse than the disease? - The Fed needs to let a recession happen.

To Some, the Widening Crisis Seems Driven by Fear, Not Facts - "What makes this correction more dangerous, they say, is that the selling is not being driven by panicky retail investors, as it was in the collapse of the technology bubble, but by hedge funds and investment banks that find themselves saddled with illiquid securities backed by an array of valueless assets. 'What you see... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Eideteker at 8:04 AM on January 22, 2008

It took me a long, long time (yes, years) to come back around after my mother died -- and I can't tell you exactly how I came to accept it, there were people and ideas that came along to help and then there were times when I felt completely lost, but eventually, equilibrium -- and all of the ways that I know my mother remain with me, and I feel at peace with her life and death. That's what I wish for you and I believe you can have it.

I did some volunteer work with the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by nnk at 3:00 PM on January 17, 2008

My best friend of twenty years died when I was twenty-one. The one constant person in my life gone, my cheerleader, my confidant, the ying to my yang, however you want to describe it. It's approaching seven years now since his death and I'll be honest, sometimes I still find myself crying out of the blue. But... it is better now. Or rather the pain is less accessible. Because what has happened in the years since his death is that I've kept on living. At first it was real real hard. While... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ilikecookies at 3:30 PM on January 17, 2008

I have hundreds of boxes filled with things that are important to me that I need to go through. How do I decide what to throw out?

Pastabagel wrote one of the best comments ever on this subject, which I will quote here:

Coveting possessions is unhealthy. Here's how I look at it: All of the computers on Ebay are mine. In fact, everything on Ebay is already mine. All of those things are just in long term storage that I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by aeschenkarnos at 5:11 PM on January 9, 2008

People tend to overthink this, and I am speaking from real experience. Just keep the requisite number of gallons of water you'd use in the timespan for which you're planning and change them every couple of years, just for the sake of doing it. They'll last for eons in reality.

In an emergency, water's great, but in a longer-term bad situation, it falls pretty far down the list. Unless you're in an unusually arid place, a means to obtain the water necessary to live... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Dee Xtrovert at 12:25 AM on November 25, 2007

From a 10-question interview that goes on for five and a half pages with the hexadork himself.

[I had] a stint trying to start a Geodesic Dome company called WorldView LivingSpace with David Kinne, an incredibly talented Quality guru who taught me about Permaculture , Deming and the whole culture of quality. That left a deep imprint. WorldView had licensed a really superior dome technology from Wil Fidroeff and I’m still surprised that Wil’s dome tech hasn’t... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ChasFile at 2:26 AM on November 16, 2007

I created this account just to post, and it's taken me all day.

My parents are the classic NPD (father)/BPD (mother) couple.

My mother's half of the equation was always the most devastating. She never had any close relationships besides my father (distant from a large sibling group, never any "girlfriends" or confidants), and my father is similarly estranged from a large extended family and friendless as well, so there was never any... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sock it to me monkey at 10:34 PM on August 7, 2007

First, let me say that you can totally solve this problem, but repelling the cat will not work.

If the cat is willing to wander into the house, you have a stray rather than a feral cat on your hands. Feral cats are not socialized to humans and will not approach them.

turbojav is right about cats being territorial and dropping him off far away being a recipe for further suffering that will just happen to be out of your sight. The cat has a home... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jocelmeow at 8:08 PM on August 9, 2007

If you'd rather have less trouble than doing the trapping yourself, let me know where you are (email me at jocelmeow at gmail dot com) and, using the resources that have been mentioned in this thread, I'll try to find you a local person who can take on the problem.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jocelmeow at 7:47 AM on August 10, 2007

Those are great pictures. I can't wait for the LOLfish
posted to MetaFilter by MtDewd at 1:54 PM on August 8, 2007