Jim

I think I'll step out of the Chuck E. Cheese pop-up theater of the abusrd now. Thank you for your illustrative comments.

..or more recetly: Now if either of you can quote me citing Occamn's Razor I'm ready. If you cut and paste anything I wrote then you don't undersand the nuances of the concept.

Do I really need to explain this? OK then. You stated this ...which more than insuates that there is some complex problem to be solved that skeptical reivew will unveil. No - a much more simple explanation will do. The overall tone of the above, as the Chomsky quote you provided - uses vagery to try and cast doubt on what appears to be a simple act - OBL got shot in the head - the guy is dead - without laying out any reasonable evidence than the usual hand waving. Logic doesn work that way dude. Seriously. Also - I did not mention Ocman's Razor, which, if you are familar with the concept, is often misapplied to logic sequencing. I suggest you study up.

While I often disagreed with some noted commentators on this site, I have to say, there is a creeping lack of wit and wisdom to some of these tirades lately. At least some of the arch-conservatives are bright. And Ian could always be counted on for a stick-in-the-eye. It's feeling like high school.

Actually no, logic says the simplest explanation is the likely closest to the truth unless other evidence is laid out - or if you rather - the law of parismony, or an extrapolation upon Aristotle - if you want to get esoteric about it. Freshman logic class - really.

This could be applied to - oh nevermind.

I feel like I'm in the Chuckie Cheese of pop-up non sequiturs

The point being exactly what? That there is an underlying truth - we made up the al Qaeda connection? Or the more likely supposition that not every government statement on the subject will agree with another. I'm sure I could do similar justice to quotes from Chomsky given a couple hours of research. Look - I generally like, or at least understand, most of his well-reasearched critiques. This is sophmoric, however.

proof-positive he is as much of a kook as you and buckaroo! While I appreciate Chomsky's often biting and well researched books, this off-hand commentary is hard to take seriously. Really, there isn't always a conspiracy.

The argument is that he was already dead. They have been keeping him alive since 2001 because he was their Emanuel Goldstien. I guess Obama thought he needed a bump since for the first time in his presidency his disapproval rating passed his approval. He did get about a 10 point bump, but it will be temporary because unemployment is still at 20%. Holy shit! And I thought J_B was a kook! Holy shite, Holy shite. Glad the internet is now providing the unvarnished truth. Hell in a hand basket.

Thank you.

No comment

The CIA infiltration is complete - you are way too naive!

Jesus, Mary, and Harry.

Very nice - thanks for the report. Been up there in summer for climbs but not yet in winter. Looks like a Spring trip may be in order!

Nice! Very, very lucky. As an ecologist I spend quite a bit of time out and about in the PNW on top of climbing/skiing. I've see 3 cougars in 30 yrs of work. Once was following a cat on telemetry and it still took us an hour of looking when the dang thing was up a tree 20 yds from us. Sounds like a chill-up-the-spine moment. Excellent.

Well if you are an experienced builder then you know what goes with the territory. And you know the costs of hookups, review and processing of plans and permits, etc. is a bit more involved than jsut when the inspector shows up. Could it be done more effiently? - likely. But that's life in general. Want water, sewer, electric hook up and up to safe standards - well then, user pays. End of story.

??? .....and that should be were, eh?

The "my hair is on fire" thing does get old

I'm with you on that - good link. Thanks. How this is going to churn out will be interesting - but agreed, need to work both ends of the forumula.

JayB spews outrageous horseshit about "hauser's law" and claims we only talked about raising marginal tax rates, and your response is that JayB has a point? wtf is wrong with you? Nobody claimed that simply raising taxes on the wealthy would solve the budget deficit as has already been said several times in this thread, as well as many times before. I'm more apt to resond to posts that have some reason behind them, even if I disagree with a stated opinion. If you could show some stats to back up your hysterics I might also agree with you.

If you spend some time looking at the data, JayB has a point. Raising marginal rates on the upper incomes is not going to solve the deficit problem. The upper income bracket, say above above $250k a person, have been getting off easy lately and letting the Bushie tax breaks expire would be a good thing, help revenue, and would be more fair. But - it isn't going to solve the problem. The unfunded Medicare drug program (should repeal that dog) and two wars - plus the down economy has us digging a deeper hole. Let the Bushie era tax breaks expire, remove the limit on Social Security Tax ( I think it stops at about $102k), and yes, let all Bush tax cuts - including the middle class ones, expire. Cutting the Pentagon budget by about 25% would give us a needed boost as well.

and cutting programs. both. Here's a few places to consider starting - click on the graphic. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/opinion/13arquilla.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Bingo. If Obama had been using the fireworks from the speech last night to define the Administration's narrative from the get-go, the terms of the debate would look far different than they do now. A radical Ryan-plan would never pass the trial balloon stage. This is more of the same: allow the Right to frame the debate for a couple months, meet them "half-way", give an amazing speech, and then negotiate everything away. We should, as Greenwald does, be asking if this is by design. If it is, the liberal punditry that's eating out of Obama's hand today are getting played. Have to agree with that. While the Repubs always fail at governing they are crafty at politics. Something the Dems appear to be cluess about.

Humor is perhaps a sense of intellectual perspective: an awareness that some things are really important, others not; and that the two kinds are most oddly jumbled in everyday affairs. ~Christopher Morley