finknottle

Wasn't there something about Nero debating whether the fire was arson or natural in cause while Rome burned?

And the fact that we were already arming their opponents and playing legalistic games ("lend lease") to pretend it wasn't so. Face it: Roosevelt = Cheney.

I disagree. Nothing I have seen tells me that he is anything but another George Bush in fancy new packaging. Time will tell.

I'm struck by how easily achieved his official top ten promises are, and how meaningless with the exception of one: 1. Health care for children. Don't veto the reauthorization of SCHIP and declare victory. 2. Reduce health care costs of typical family by up to $2,500. The operative words are 'by up to.' Any reduction and you can claim 'mission accomplished.' 3. Double the production of alternative energy. You can mandate this - it doesn't matter how expensive of efficient it is. 4. Enact a spending program to strengthen the nations infrastructure. This is a freebie. Every pork-laden bill coming out of congress can be legitimately relabeled an infrastructure spending bill as long as it includes a bridge to nowhere, somewhere, or anywhere inbetween. 5. Cut federal income taxes for 95% of working families. If you are willing to play games with the definitions of '95%' and 'working families,' which are already occuring, this is easy. In fact Bush already did it. 6. Withdraw most troops from Iraq in 16 months. We are up to 'most' and '16 months,' a far cry from the early primaries. We are already on course for that. 7. Increase troops in Aphganistan by two brigades. Ok. 8. Lift restrictions on federal funding for stem-cell research. Yawn. 9. Close Guantanamo. A PR move. And finally, 10. Make it easier for labor unions to organize. IMO passing the card-check legislation is the only meaningfull promise.

Yes - but a bit more than diddly is still diddly.

Shouldn't we be more concerned about Obama's brother being under the influence of China? http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...icle4406813.ece

They do - it's called getting let go when the company can't afford you any more. Just ask nearly everybody who was working in financial services a year ago. Or people who used to work for the developers. And, for the record, the big 3 white-collar workers *do* get let go. Even before this all started it was reported that GM was planning on letting 25k of their 100k salaried workers go over the next 5 years.

Good to see PDS knows no parties.

I was reading our many expert talent evaluators talk about the players available in the draft and have gotten a bit confused about our priorities. Is it better to draft a stud or a beast? What about a freak-of-nature? And where does a road-grader fit in?

On a semi-serious note, Willis has largely shut up since he's been in Baltimore. My theory is that Lewis and the boys put him in his place in the locker room week one. (And on another note, Lewis' run in with the law appears to have ended his off-field antics, though you can never be sure. But he's definitely no Pacman. It's nice to think that some bad-asses actually grow up.)

I found it funnier that a liberatarian is upset because all the different government agencies don't routinely pass around private records to catch the error before it happens. To think he has me defending the SSA - yikes!

There are two phases in having an opinion. The first is the knee-jerk opinion, and those are all reasonable contributors for being skeptical. But phase two kicks in when an issue has been before you for a few years and you've had time to review the arguments. Maybe you agree, maybe you disagree. If you are still basing your judgement only the fact that you hadn't heard of climate change until a politician you don't like started preaching about it, and the only solutions people are talking about suck, then you have mispent the last 8 years. Suppose a politician came into office whom you didn't like, and interrupted your warm fuzzy bubble with dire warnings about a dictator somewhere with WMD, and said the only solution was a costly war to remove him. Your instincts may be to distrust the politician - fine. But does that mean the warnings are neccessarily false? Would you defend the dictator against these claims indefinately regardless of what evidence was presented, until such time as you agreed with the solution, or maybe when someone you liked made the same claims? Or would you decide based on the evidence that emerges?

So - you'll only recognize a problem as long as you like the solution on the table.

Poignent story, but as a practical matter innocent until proven guilty doesn't apply to commerce. When you get a bill, whether from the government or a private company, you generally have to pay it up front and sort it out later, or else risk whatever fines would occur normally. SSA seems to have it wrong, but I don't fault them for that nor for requiring a waiver. How are they supposed to know in advance who lived with whom when?

Paying for all those salaries.

Who need card-check legislation when you can be legitimate and entice members with federal money?

The 'P' in PDS can double for plumber. I too don't spare a moment of my time thinking about wutzelwhatshisname, but can't help but marvel at how unhinged the left becomes about symbols and how much naked hatred spews forth.

It's cultural. No entrenenural spirit = no future. Everybody still there sits around pointing fingures at the politicians of the past, arguing about increasing their share of federal money, and wishing for sugar-daddy companies to move to the region and give everybody cushy union jobs instead of actually going out there and creating their own. Start a business - a real business, that exports a good or service outside the region, not another corner pizzeria.

The next thing you know, they are gonna start charging farmers for the water they use! It's outrageous!

To put it in human terms, that's $3,000 from each of us for the R&D and Chrysler Finance, and another $2,000 'loan' on top of the existing $1,000 'loan.' All just to stave off the inevitable for a few months. That assumes all 300 million of us pay taxes and contribute equally, of course. Otherwise your bill is much higher. Now let's see what you can do for Foird, GM, and the UAW.

If enough people demand sophisticated sex robots today, it will give industry the investment boost it needs to develop affordable robotic butlers and maids tomorrow. Where do I sign?

It's all relative. The weak dollar has been fantastic for those of us in the export business. Maybe if more people started thinking about making things that people around the world wanted to buy things we wouldn't be in such dire straits.

The Porn industry has always been the biggest driver behind the widespread acceptance of technological innovation: photography, cinema. VCR's, DVD, the internet, internet commerce, broadband, streaming media, ... Without supply, demand will wither, and with it our technological edge.

When the dollar is strong we get upset because we get flooded with cheap imports. When the dollar is weak we get upset because the price of imports like gas go through the roof and we can no longer afford to travel abroad. It's like howling against the rising and setting of the sun every day.

The chorus of "the US is the only advanced country not to provide healthcare" not withstanding, it is the employees who pay for their healthcare. Japan only requires that everybody purchase some health insurance. Usually it is through their employer. For unemployed, students, and the retired, the government offers a plan which they they must buy. (Personally, I think this is the right approach for the US.)