The Hall of Fire

Watcher, you need to take central air conditioning off your list of "extras". For some of us, it is an necessity. People who don't have AC can die where I live. Not all of us are lucky to live in an area where AC is not needed. Hmmm…I know people who get by OK in north Queensland without ...

Actually, the poor in Ireland have the largest families. Due to an incredibly stupid method of calculating support for lower income families many of those families are better off with more kids. We have the same problem. There gets to a point where a family has enough children where the parents alm...

Thanks for that - it does make sense when you think about the word. Still, it's something I always wondered from the first time I read it.

Touching on what Jyn argued, I think there’s a problem in education and academia nowadays that tries to pigeonhole people by things like race and gender. When you argue, for example, that half of your faculty must be female and a third must be non-white, you imply that, firstly, female or non-white ...

As it cruel as it sounds, though, in these days couples in the west can choose whether or not to have children. And they should know that raising children is expensive and time-consuming, and that it would be irresponsible to have children if they aren’t financially secure enough to support them. Th...

Quick question -

Mr. Collins always talks about how Lady Catherine shows him great 'condescension'. Being condescending is considered bad these days – what different meaning did the word have in the Regency era?

The basic idea is that young children’s brains are still developing prior to the age of three, and that how they develop is directly influenced by being given consistent and loving care, which only family (chiefly their mother) can provide. With google, I found the following - a study reported in th...

What - spending little time with their parents is good for babies and toddlers? I haven't heard that - I'll go and see what I can find.

The issue is not so much children with or without siblings, but children raised away from their parents. There are enough studies now to show that children that spend too much time in childcare from too young an age have various issues as they get older. This is a product of two-income families and ...

I believe so – the replacement rate in the west is about 2.2 children per couple I believe (the extra 0.2 or so is to make up for childless couples and people who die before reproductive age and that sort of thing). When the average couple is having less than that the population does not grow but st...

I'd love to see leadership in America that would rein in our most self centered, narcissistic "I only care about myself, and could give a hoot for the rest of the world" impulses. However, unfortunately, our leadership embodies this worst of American attitudes. The interesting question th...

Wickham is pure impudence; but is Lydia just plain stupid? One does get that impression. Wouldn't it have meant ruination for Lydia, having lived with a man as she had and then not marrying him? Probably, but there is a chance that it could have been hushed up eventually, it would have saved the un...

I’m curious. How is politics played in your State/Province/Region? What qualities are required in a leader? Do they rule by consensus or by fear? Are the colourful characters or steady managers? What does the electorate respond to? What are the issues that always crop up? Who or what is seen as a th...

Lord M! What an astonishing pleasure to find that you are a fan of P&P. And a frequenter of pemberly.com as well! 'Frequenter' is an overstatement. I visited the site once when I had to read P&P for year 12 English. Definatley the best book my high school English curriculum ever gave me. Th...

Since then I've always made an absolute rule (with which Mr. Prim heartily agrees) that parents should present a united front to the utmost extent possible, and that they should treat each other respectfully even when disagreeing. Oh, and no digs at the other parent when they aren't around, either....

Wish I'd found this thread sooner - I've enjoyed reading everyone's first-reading comments. It makes me want to go and read P & P again myself. It's one of my favourite books, which many people find a bit odd given my demographic and character, but I share Jane Austen's deadpan view of the world...

I didn’t realise that Spanish was so prevalent in the Southern US. I knew there were some Spanish communities and signs in Spanish, but I never picked up on the possibility that entire States could become effectively bilingual. I also never really figured out how Canada worked. I knew that it was of...

The fact is this – had the Emperor Constantine the Great embraced Mithraism, and not Christianity, then that would be the dominant religion in Western Europe and the USA I'm sorry, but that's not a fact, that's a speculation. It is to an extent, but very probably accurate. Whichever religion got ch...

Immigration is a very hot-button issue here as well, although the circumstances are different. The United States has a land border with Mexico, and so it can’t possibly stop illegal entry entirely. Therefore, there’s a lot of questions associated with what to do with illegal immigrants who are alrea...

I’ve been through my reasoning before, but it’s pretty simple. A higher power is a pretty way-out idea that is quite difficult for me to reconcile with what I observe and know of the universe. Therefore, I’d need some proof to accept that one exists. Without it, I have no more reason to believe in o...