riddler

I read this report when it came out, and I was unimpressed. One need only look at the title page, with a 72-point font screaming "WORLD AT RISK" to get a sense that it's just more of the same fearmongering agenda of the political right. Even the preface references the recent attacks in India - attacks that were neither biological or nuclear, which was supposedly the intention of the report. And the report is chalk full of neo-con, PNAC-spewing rhetoric, such as "soft power", and direct references to Pakistan as the major threat to America. Not that the report is wrong - it's just that it's so incredibly broad that it must be correct! "It is more likely than not that a wmd will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013". First weapons of mass destruction - biological OR nuclear attacks. Chemical is de facto included, but the focus of the report was bio or nukes. How about machine-guns? Yes, I believe that it's likely that somewhere, on this whole planet with hundreds of unstable governments, that at least one of them will figure out, in the next five years, a way to unleash a biological weapon on their own people, or their neighbors that kills a few hundred or thousand people. It's already been done - even Saddam Hussein launched chemical weapons (one form of wmd) againt the Kurds. It's a pretty broad statement, and easily justified (because it will happen eventually). Nuclear isn't that hard to justify either - you've got "real" nukes, and "dirty nukes" (which are much easier to make). Since Iraq had yellow-cake, they could have made a dirty nuke. But none of these scenarios means that a terrorist state has the capability to launch an ICBM across the ocean to the middle of an American city and cause WW3. As Jane Harman said, "It's time to retire the fear card." Should we continue to fund anti-terrorism efforts to stop WMDs? Absolutely. If we have irrefutable proof that America is about to be attacked, should we take efforts to stop it? Yes. Is this a justification to invade Pakistan? No! This report is one more building block leading to another unjustifiable invasion for the Bush administration. From the report - "were one to map terrorism and WMDs today, all roads would intersect in Pakistan." Didn't we say something similar about North Korea, Iran and Iraq? Another example of fearmongering - "the public must be made aware of what activities are suspicious and of their responsibility to inform authorities." Second, "discouraging, to the extent possible, the use of financial incentives in the promotion of civil nuclear power." Of course, we don't want other countries to use any energy resource except oil That would be a direct conflict to the stock prices of the wealthy corporations that dictate policy in this country. More of the Bush agenda here. But it directly conflicts with the later statement "ensuring access to nuclear fuel, at market prices to the extent possible, for non-nuclear states that agree not to develop sensitive fuel-cycle capabilities and are in full compliance with international obligations". I guess that leaves out just about every poor country that has defaulted on debt from having nuclear power. Most of the nuclear agenda of this report points alludes to America selling nuclear rods to other countries, but prohibiting them from making the rods themselves. I do agree with the report's recommendations on biological controls, most of which center on securing America's own laboratories, within our own borders, and working with other countries to do the same. But much of the report praises George W Bush and criticizes Congress - a republican agenda for sure. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

6:30 PM everyone. PM me for location if you're coming. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

The physiology of drunkedness is a great subject for a final Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Let's give Remster a warm welcome, before Jack Frost gives us the cold-shoulder PM me for meeting location (downtown). Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Looks like a good book, even if mostly speculation, it might be pretty good speculation. In college, about *cough* 15 years ago, I wrote a paper for a class on armed conflict. My engineering college didn't even have English classes, but they had war classes (in the old days, it was a military school). Anyway, the paper was called "The future of war, economic war", which my professor gave me an A- on, because he thought it was "boring". I believe that are smart people that are directing political agendas via economic price control, even when we are not officially at war. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

That would be a dude (or dudess) that wears chicken-feathers on his (or her) head, like those statues of greek people. I guess when you do something good, other people think it's a neat idea to pluck a poor chicken and stick it's feathers on your head, and they call that a laurel. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

The "intelligence" for going into Iraq was nothing more than a flimsy facade. Here is the guy that supposedly gave the U.S. it's intelligence to go into Iraq. The German intelligence bureau warned the US that their source, "Curveball", was nothing more than a congenetal liar that was trying to get a greencard into Germany. Not even a really stupid President would use this source of information (one guy, with a rep as beng "crazy" and "out-of-control") to send 4,000 American troops to their deaths. Bush already wanted to go into Iraq. He was willing to use even the thinnest, unjustifiable excuse to do it. In the wake of 9/11, he got all the support he needed from Congress, and no one bothered to check the story. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Just taking a historical look at recessions and Presidents since the 50s: - Post-Korean War Recession APRIL 1953 - APRIL 1954 (12 months) - Eisenhower (Republican) - JULY 1957 - APRIL 1958 (10 months) - Eisenhower (Republican) - Recession of (1960 - 1961) Duration: 10 months - Eisenhower (Republican) - Recession of (1969 - 1970) Duration: 11 months - Nixon (Republican) - Oil Crisis: APRIL 1973 - APRIL 1975 (24 months) - Nixon (Republican) - 1979 energy crisis and 1980's Recession APRIL 1980 - OCTOBER 1982 (30 months) Carter (Democrat) - Early 1990's Recession JULY 1990 - APRIL 1991 (10 months) Bush Sr. (Republican) - Dot-Com bubble Recession APRIL 2000 - OCTOBER 2001 (18 months): Clinton (Democrat) - Late 2000's Recession DECEMBER 2007 - CURRENT Bush Jr. (Republican) Judging from recent history, I'll be glad to get a non-republican in office so that the economy can get better. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Ordinarily, I agree with that. The POTUS cannot directly control the economy, only influence it. The 2001 recession was mild, at best, a small dip, most of which recovered within a few months. However, I do blame the current economic crisis entirely on the GOPs efforts to deregulate banking. For that, the current President is responsible, IMO. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

The first recession was in 2001, lasting eight months. The current recession started one year ago, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. The good news is that he has said "I'm sorry it's happening." Edit for clicky. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Definitely worth it. With today's sat-tech, combined with the height that Santa must fly, I'll bet they can get a good pic of his Plumber's Crack. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Bible didn't say there were fish tanks. And of course, the Bible is the ultimate authority on everything, so it must be true By the way, there are no other planets, because they were not mentioned in the Bible. And America doesn't exist either, since it wasn't mentioned. I wouldn't be too worried about the salt-water fish. Although the higher waters and the resulting wave action would cause a lot of coral to die within 40 days, and the majority of ocean fish rely on the coral to survive. Still, they probably would have fared OK, since it wasn't too long. And the ocean predators would have loved all the fresh meat. Even the fresh-water fish probably did OK. Of course the salination would be completely different than today's ocean because all the new water came from rain - those clouds were working pretty hard to flood the entire earth - so it's likely that both fresh and salt water fish could survive a slight difference in the salt content. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Reaching across the isle doesn't mean going completely to the other side. It means taking people from both sides, based on their qualifications. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Obama making good on his promise to "reach across the isle" ? I expected no less. Yes, he was short on experience in Washington (as was Palin). The smart move is to surround yourself with experienced folks. Obama is a smart guy, and he's making good choices. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

"Come on, man. I had a rough night and I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man!" Well, OK, I like Hotel California, even if they ripped off Jethro Tull to make the song. The rest of the Eagles pretty much sounds like country music, though. Blech. Now, Tull, that's a good group. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I guess that's true. I have difficulty understanding the intention. Churches are in business. They want your business, they make money from your business. I can understand why a church would advertise (billboard or otherwise). What is the purpose of an atheist billboard? How does an atheist organization make money, anyway? Is it all in the merchandising? I think at least part of what they are selling is anti-religion - but how do they market it? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I saw the first anti-religion billboard here in Denver today. It said something like this: "Don't believe in God? You're not alone." I don't recall the sponser name - I'll make more of a note of it next time I pass it. Oh yeah, I saw a billboard advertising SkyVenture Colorado, too Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Thanks for the heads up. That's pretty sneaky, and seems a lot of work to add your email to a spam account I wonder what the payoff is for someone that can add your name? Anyway, I don't normally endorse stuff, but I pay for the Yahoo premium service - it's about $20 a year, and you can create up to 500 fake email addresses - they will forward your email to your normal box, and you can even set them up to send email. I usually create a new one for every item that I purchase online, or every new site that I sign up for. If spam starts coming from that site, I just delete the account. It's called "AddressGuard", and it works well. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

These are fair points. Vikram Pandit took over Citi at the end of last year, and it's typical these days for a new CEO to come in, make massive layoffs, and boost the quarterly profit to look good. However, it should be noted that previous CEO was ousted because of the subprime lending, so it is directly a result of the economy - the fact that they brought in a new chieftain with an axe, vs. giving an axe to the old CEO, is irrelevant. The fact that only a portion of the layoffs will be in the US is a good point. Obviously, US tax dollars shouldn't go anywhere near offshore ventures or employees. But that just lends more credence to the rehire argument - fewer employees, fewer dollars, easier to justify a forced rehire of US employees as a stipulation of the bailout. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

More semantics - I don't think it celebrates genocide. But we should remember that we got here today by killing a lot of people and taking their stuff. The story of Thanksgiving wasn't a rosy "we sat down with the Indians and had a nice turkey and cranberry sauce dinner" one. Which Europeans brought them in the first place Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Agree 100%. I guess it's just the semantics that get under my skin. A depression, most of us have lived through a few of them, and they haven't really been that bad. But calling it the next Great Depression conjures up mental images of families standing in food lines, going hungry, crowds of people fighting over one job, etc. Really, very few people alive today remember what it was like, and all we have to remember are the worst of the media images. But thinking about those images make people very afraid - more than just an ordinary depression. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Well, I should have said "an admitted atheist will never be President of the US" I've heard ramblings among both sides that the opposition president (be it W, Clinton, Reagan, etc) was definitely an atheist because the person making the statement didn't like them. You may very well be right about Jefferson. From his letters, he comes across as very well learned. Dean Keith Simonton did a Historiometric IQ analysis of all the Presidents, and John Quincy Adams has the highest estimated IQ at about 170, but Jefferson ranks the highest for brilliance and openness. Edit because I can't spell Historiometric. But I don't exactly use that word every day. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I doubt any one of us could take them in hand-to-hand They may look like clowns, but they have some extensive combat training. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I don't disagree with you - it is serious. But saying it could be the next Great Depression sounds familiar: - We have to go to war in Iraq because they could be making a nuclear bomb. - Terrorists could be sneaking liquid explosives onto airplanes, so we should all throw out our bottled water. - The government could take away all our guns if we don't reign in those judges. - Vote yes on Prop 8 because all our kids could all end up gay and it'll be the end of the human race. The word could is an overused indicator of fear mongering. I would hate to see the new administration use it as a tool, the way the current administration has been using it for the last eight years. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Tonight, you pukes will sleep with your rifles. You will give your rifle a girl's name because this is the only pussy you people are going to get. Your days of finger-banging ol' Mary J. Rottencrotch through her pretty pink panties are over! You're married to this piece. This weapon of iron and wood. And you will be faithful. Port, hut! This is my rifle. There are many like it but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my rifle is useless. Without my rifle I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy, who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will. Before God I swear this creed: my rifle and myself are defenders of my country, we are the masters of our enemy, we are the saviors of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace. Amen. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD