Summer Browsing for a $5 Million Open Mind August 1, 2005January 17, 2017 SUMMER George: ‘You say, ‘Summer’s going too fast. Doesn’t it always?’ Not around here. George Berger, Phoenix, AZ.’ ☞ Good point. BROWSER MTGlass: ‘Those attracted to Firefox features but reluctant to switch from IE should try Avant Browser. It is a wrapper around IE that provides full-featured tabbed browsing, customizable ad blocking, togglable Flash blocking, password completion, cookie control/deletion, and more. It’s fully compatible with IE, because it uses the IE engine, and works with all combinations of Windows and IE versions. Oh, and it’s FREE with no adware/spyware either.’ PCRIX Mike Lynott: ‘I was considering investing in PCRIX until I noticed that the Yahoo Finance page you linked to indicates that the minimum investment is $5,000,000! (Does this fall into the category of ‘Don’t believe everything you read on the web,’ or does this mean that you have VERY wealthy readers?)’ ☞ I do have very wealthy readers, because they have open minds and big hearts (most of them), and what’s worth more than that? But as pointed out in Jack Nettleton’s July 18 note, ‘The institutional class shares are available to anyone who pays $35 – through Vanguard Discount Brokerage in my case.’ I haven’t bought PCRIX myself, but it sounds as if some of the deep discount brokers can get it for you. MARRIAGE Wendy Caster: ‘What if gay people weren’t innately gay? Would it mean that we don’t deserve rights? If my sister and her best friend were both widowed and decided to choose each other instead of new husbands, would they deserve fewer rights than I deserve, as a born-that-way lesbian? We deserve rights because we’re humans and because we’re citizens of a country that promises it is the home of the free. It’s time for the U.S. to put up or shut up.’ CHRISTIANITY Suzanne Cole: ‘Just wanted to respond to the comments from Dan [who felt that by running Notes from a Cultist I was Christian-bashing – A.T.]. I am what might be called a ‘devoutly liberal Christian’ (‘devout’ in the sense that I practice my faith daily and attend services regularly; ‘liberal’ in that I believe in an open-minded interpretation of the Bible and ‘Christian’ in that I follow Jesus). I am frequently impressed and pleased by your occasional references to Jesus’ teachings of liberal principles of peace, justice and fairness to everyone. So, from this Christian, I thank you for your respect of my faith.’ ☞ Thank you! Thomas Jefferson said, ‘It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.’ (I know this from reading an advance copy of the forthcoming How the Republicans Stole Christmas by Bill Press.) I don’t think Jesus would have had a problem with that view. Indeed, I think he would have had less of a problem with an atheist who helped the poor than a believer who helped the rich at the expense of the poor.