Opening Theory and Vegetarianism are both OVERRATED.

i bet he did on his daily walks.

Jees! thriller what was that a party political braodcast

DISCLAIMER:  I recently bought this book, initially NOT to study it, but to make sure I had virtually everything "in print" on the Modern Defense.

Turns out both Lakdawala, and Tiger's Modern (2005), by GM Tiger Persson, heartily recommend eschewing the Averbakh variation of the Modern Defense (with an early Nc6 by black), and instead they suggest you offer up a Queen exchange via 4)...e5.

So, after many headaches with the Averbakh from the black side, and considering my penchant for steering towards the endgame, I look forward to learning cold, Lakdawala's 60+ pages on just this variation.  Tiger also devotes the last chapter of his book (about 20 pages) to the same variation. Sweet.  

Edmar Mednis wrote a nice book about 20 years ago, From the Opening into the Endgame, that dealt with how to "force" queen exchanges early on, in many different mainline openings.

P.S., Arguably, the only "good opening" (under USCF 2000) is the one you know well, and your opponent doesn't.

According to GM Hellsten -- "Middlegame and endgame knowledge is generic, shared by all players...In contast, the opening phase holds much more room for personal style and tastes...originated by the preferences of each player.  For this reason, you probably won't find two players with exactly the same repetoire unless they are under strong influence of the same trainer, and haven't yet started to work independently."  (Hellsten, Mastering Opening Strategy, 2012, page 347).

Personally, I prefer an opening where the existing theory is not GIGANTIC.  So the Ruy Lopez, Sicilian, KID, and KIA are all non-starters for me.

But openings remain largely a matter of personal taste.

In any case, like former WCC Spassky (in his later years), you can always play the Hippopotamus Opening, and essentially by-pass opening theory altogether.  Just aim to take your opponent to task (only) in the latter two phases of the game.  Compare, The Hippopotamus Rises (2005), by Andrew Martin.

Whatever works for you. 

He has a point, but I'm not sure that two-hundred year sentences are quite long enough.

I was thinking the same. Double that!

Wow.  Massive quotations, and strong opinions!  This must be The InterWeb.  

Whoever mentioned the NRA needs shooting,maybe they meant the NFA and missed the key..(National farmers association)

200 years for driving drunk? 200 for assault?  Oh, hell!  Do those run concurrently?

Only if your the Highlander

If everybody turned vegetarian tomorrow, we will have to slaughter billions of sheep, cattle, chicken, pigs etc before the end of the week. It just wont be economically viable to let them live. In that case, it REALLY would be them or us.

He probably ate one too many Big Macs during his "salad years."

And the Special Sauce on that last burger sealed his decision, decisively.  

E=MC^2 silly.  I thought everyone knew that.

So, let me get this straight...

Einstein thrived on meat, and came u with all his brilliant theories.

The he turned vegetarian and died?

This argument is particularly valid when considering veganism.  If everybody quit drinking milk, the price of beef would plummet!

I would be scared by this thread. But luckily people would poison themselves if they ate me.

Perhaps if we all went Vegan, maybe the Doha Development Round of the WTO would finally get signed?

But DON'T count on it.  The French and the Japanese still like their farmers way too much.

Mass.

Realistically, it won't happen tomorrow. When vegetarianism grows, the mass production of farm animals for food can slow down to keep the balance.