tvashtarkatena

I'm not touching Blake's package. Keep your $20. We'll haul it for ya.

Yep. Flowers smell and appear more attractive to get pollinators. They give the bees nectar. The bees adapt to see flowers better, e.g., in uv, carry pollen better, become social, etc Gary, I don't really have any problem with what you're saying but aren't you making an 'a priori' assumption. I mean, you do have a Ph.d., right? Isn't this the point that Stephen Jay Gould had tried to express, not by casting doubt upon evolution, but rather to clarify it? For instance, take this example: The Jesus Christ hypothesis for the evolution of flight There's a fine rhetorical line here, but I'm going to have to go with what I think STP (and Gould) say. Flowers don't smell good for the purpose of attracting bees. Flowers that smell good attract bees, so they survive better than those that don't. Mutations and recombinations either help or hurt chances of survival inadvertantly. They have no pre-determined 'purpose'.

Wrong as teletubbies kiddo. There will always be bad people in this world which want to do bad things. Sometimes the only way to prevent those things from happening is from fighting fire with fire. I am sure that Albert's war time activities suggest that he understood this more than this isolated quote would suggest. A minor omission: Einstein spent the rest of his life publicly regretting his contribution to the creation of the atomic bomb.

Billcoe seems like a big boy who can make up his own mind. Regarding your description, I'll pass it on to the Seattle staff: they get a kick out of shit like that. Yours probably won't qualify for lack of originality and cleverness, but the really good one's get posted on a special bulletin board. Of course, again, you're an ill-informed, blathering, nincompoop poseur: your hallmark. There is nothing on the Seattle ACLU office's bulletin board that includes the term "malodorous". nor will there likely be. As I said, your unoriginal comment probably won't make the cut. Sorry man, you're just not that good with words.

A military commission (kangaroo court), although administered by the military, is very different from a court martial (UCMJ). The ACLU is asking Obama to either release the Guantanamo detainees or try them, either in civilian court or by court martial...just not through a military commission.

I've heard you guys are real ass-sweepers in curling, too.

What's a 'hockey'?

The good news is that there are more alive people than dead people now: we outnumber them. Unless alive people start becoming undead people, in which case we're probably fucked.

An oversimplification and not a very accurate one. You've focused on non-sentient examples only, avoiding the obvious sticking points of animals that can and do make their own decisions. Even at the microbial level, it's not all antagonistic. Organelles such as mitochondria probably began as autonomous organisms that parasitized larger single cell organisms in a way that eventually became beneficial to both. Various microorganisms symbiotically congregated to form larger, more complex, and more survivable organic structures. Cooperation is more readily apparent at higher levels (monkeys, etc), but it's just as prevalent and necessary at microscopic levels. Regarding the war thing, that's a load of oft parroted shite. War is only one driver out of many for technical innovation at the applied engineering level. War has produced relatively few of our most important, everyday gadgets. Transistor? No. Laser? No. Microchip? No. Computer? No. Internal combustion or steam engine? No. Velcro? No. Airplane? No. Beer? Well, maybe. The Auto Ejack ? Definitely not. War, with few exceptions, has hardly been a driver for basic science at all. Transportation, medicine, agriculture, commerce, religion, entertainment, and other drivers have played a much larger role in technological advancement than war.

Regarding species with higher brain function (birds, monkeys etc), if you're not aware by now that they have consciousness, emotions, and intents, well, you don't get out much, do you? Little advice here: try sticking to subjects you know at least a little about. You're a smart guy, but you don't know jack shit about animal behavior. Right. You're on the cutting edge of atheism. Yes, morality is derived from nature not God. But that doesn't quite explain why you're such an asshole. Dood, I'm not sure I could GET stoned enough to cuisine art together the gibberish you just did for us. You're a regular verbal kaleidoscope. I'm just relaying what I've read and seen presented on various animal behavior documentaries with regards to long observed cooperation and competition in nature, nothing more. I think it's very interesting stuff, particularly with two cats and two dogs at home, each with their own complex personalities and interelationships. Morality, God, and whatever other off topic verbal chaffe you want to throw our way is all about you, brah. You apparently haven't bothered to expose yourself to updated information on the subject, which may explain your inability to focus on it, as well as your 19th century view of the animal kingdom. I'm sorry I'm an asshole, but I can't resist pissing off the pompous...the target area is damn near unavoidable, and with you, its so damn easy to stick a safety pin in that big fat balloon of yours.

The 'sleeper cell' has been proven itself to be mythical in nature. I'm not sure who first came up with the term, but the press and Hollywood loved it, so it's now a permanent addition to our national lexicon of complete bullshit. Deportion remains an option. The government did just that with the former U.S. citizen and enemy combatant Yaser Hamdi, who agreed to give up his citizenship and move to Saudi Arabia (his birthplace) in exchange for freedom. ` Another option would be to move Al Marri to a civilian court and try him for identity theft and whateve else the government can swing, as was done (eventually) with Jose Padilla. What amazes me is how many Americans hold one of the world's best criminal justice systems in so much contempt that they would support duct tape and bailing wire kangaroo courts like the military commission as an alternative. Lots of rhetoric about 'freedom', but we don't even respect what we should be most proud of.

Regarding species with higher brain function (birds, monkeys etc), if you're not aware by now that they have consciousness, emotions, and intents, well, you don't get out much, do you? Little advice here: try sticking to subjects you know at least a little about. You're a smart guy, but you don't know jack shit about animal behavior.

So let me get this correct, what you're saying is that altruism is an essential part of evolutionary biology. I do believe you're talking out your ass. Well, you didn't get that correct, even though I was pretty clear about it, but hey, you gotta be you. It's a reading comprehension thing. Cooperation (mixed with competition) between species and within species is common in nature. Altruism; now that's a human construct. You may manufacture whatever 'reason' for the cooperative behavior makes you feel better, but I'd guess that, whatever goes on in the minds of said cooperating birds and monkeys, such behaviour results in a greater chance of survival for the participants. It doesn't take a very big brain to imagine why.

The funniest thing about this case is that the only substantial evidence the government has against Al-Marri is for identity theft and credit card fraud. They can't, um, exactly charge him with just that, given his now highly publicized enemy combatant status. I.e., the Feds have fucked themselves here by classifying him as an ememy combatant without so much as a shred of credible evidence that he's actually involved in terrorist activities. They need a kangaroo court (military tribunal, which allows hearsay and evidence gained through torture), because they wouldn't get to square one in an actual court of law as far as a terrorism conviction is concerned. What will actually happen is what has happened in similar, bullshit cases: the Feds will push for a plea bargain, using continued Enemy Combatant status (essentially, a never ending prison term) as a threat if the defendent doesn't play ball. As for the hair, well, that should justify at least some torture.

The U.S. would be better off giving both Egypt and Israel's foriegn aid to me. Sure, I'd blow it on crack whores, dollar slots, and ninja weapons, but that doesn't make my statement any less true.

liberals are always soft on the zombie-issue - never fails that it's the dipshit ACLU guy in a zombie flick who can't bring himself to off a zombie, jsut b/c it used to be his ma/wife/kid/whatever - conservatives have wet-dreams for the kill-em-all zombie fuck-fest and usually end up killing humans in their zeal too Now, on to an issue raised by a less repetitious poster: It's unclear whether zombies would be defined as 'persons' under the Constitution. One test the Supreme Court used to determine 'personhood' in Roe v Wade involved the likelihood of surviving on one's own; hence the third trimester rule. Zombies seem to be able to survive on their own if there are enough healthy brains available, but they're technically dead. Sticky. Even if zombies were granted personhood, the state might still have the right to the occasional headshot in the same way police have the right to shoot in self defense. There might be some probable cause complications regarding shooting zombies en masse, however. How can the state be sure that every zombie in the mob intends to eat living brains? Some could just be along for the ride. Private citizens wielding shaolin swords and sharpened CDs would not be a constitutional issue; the regulation of that interaction would fall to the States. The biggest issue for the living would probably be civil suits from relatives of the undead granny they just decapitated. I'm not even going to speculate about zombie rights if the undead can somehow be cured through the heroism of one man who eventually sacrifices his own life so that humanity may live. The Founding Fathers just couldn't have invisioned the dead being resurrected as anything more than a one shot deal.

Wow. That is amazing, and disturbing. I knew we were underwriting the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but I didn't realize it was our number one foreign aid priority. We deserve our fair share of the blame for the continued violence, that's for sure. Thanks for the post.

Billcoe seems like a big boy who can make up his own mind. Regarding your description, I'll pass it on to the Seattle staff: they get a kick out of shit like that. Yours probably won't qualify for lack of originality and cleverness, but the really good one's get posted on a special bulletin board.

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Can one of you let me know when these guys die so I can celebrate?

I resolve to live simply so that others may simply live, strive for higher Ishaness, and teach that bitch a lesson.

No one stated (well, OK, I didn't read the entire thread) that Israel is out to exterminate the Palestinians. Let's stick with what people actually posted, mkay? I stated that Israel is using the Nazi tactic of creating a ghetto, and that is indisputable, given facts we seem to all agree on. JoshK, do you not agree that Israel has created a cordoned off ghetto where access to supplies is either very restricted or cut off entirely, and that this has been the case for quite some years now? How is this different than what the Nazis did, in any way other than severity, a difference I've already acknowledged? This is not a case of "both share equal blame". There is blame on both sides, but Israel is overwhelmingly more powerful than the Palestinians. They have largely framed the situation that exists today.

The fact that Walmart is surviving better than other businesses (I don't know about your Whole Foods assertion, nor do I know how 'green' Whole Foods really is), but yours is but a single example, against which there are many, many counter examples. There will always be a low culture segment in America with no vision of the future that acts without social conscience. Fortunately, they don't speak for the country as a whole. Yes, I think this country is a better one than you do, despite all of the idiotic things we've done in recent years, that is true. Perhaps it's because my parents lived through and fought in WWII, or that I've lived to see us orbit Saturn and drive on Mars, or...I don't know. I may well be wrong, and part of me thinks I am. We'll see. Well spoken Pat. However, I've noticed that as gas prices have dropped to under $1.70 a gallon, all kinds of assholes are climbing back into their Suburbans and huge SUVs that they'd parked when gasoline was approaching $4.00. They don't give a f* that WE all have to breath the fumes, or that they are burning gas 3 times faster than necessary so as to reduce the next generations reserves, and that we have our military go running over to all kinds of shitassed sandboxes with the net result of lots of dead people just to ensure that we have gas for strategic reasons. It's true that there will always be assholes who don't give a shit, but what's heartening is all the folks who've changed their driving (and other habits) for good, even though gas prices have gone down. JayB likes to speak for the lower class and the third world factory worker; two constituencies he does not belong to and has little personal experience with, while labeling his opponents as 'elitists'. I never fail to get a kick out of it. It's not about Xing being able to afford a stereo (most of the factory dorms where the lions share of new Chinese factory workers live are not air conditioned, nor is it an option, BTW) or Joe Sixpack being able to afford that big screen plasma TV; it's about taking responsibility for the consequenses of one's actions, and about being a good, long term steward of the rare, habitable little piece of astroturf we find ourselves on. Sustainability has to happen sometime, either gradually and voluntarily and or by force through catastrophe. JayB argues for the latter under the 'consume now, fuck the future' guise. I prefer the former under the 'let's all consider the impact of our actions' philosophy. He represents clinging to the past, hence the vote for McCain et al, I represent trying to make a better future. He sees human beings as units of production and consumption; I see them as somewhat more complicated creatures. Pretty simple, really.

The guy doesn't win any fashion awards in the shirt department either. Billcoe, if you're concerned about this issue, you might consider joining and becoming active in the ACLU (ACLU.org), or at least joining their legislative action network, if you haven't already. This issue is at the very top of their national agenda, and they've won many victories to regain the right of habeaus corpus, probable cause, and due process of everyone, including these individuals. You might also consider the more than 250 Guantanamo detainees who've also been tortured and imprisoned for up to 7 years now without being charged with any crime. Yes, this is America, but you can do more about than just hoping it will change. I'm not sure what the ACLU's position is on the coming zombie apocalypse, however.

Planning another trip up there. Thanks for the invaluable observations.