GeorgiaDon

The glass isn't dark, it's just got your shit all over it. Please stop throwing it at the fan, that's a nasty nasty habit. By the way, I heard a story on NPR this morning about how Blue Ridge GA has the highest percentage of gay and lesbian couples in the state. Isn't your compound up near there? Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

I find I'm liking George Will more and more. Best line from the linked essay: "His fathomless lack of interest in America’s path to the present and his limitless gullibility leave him susceptible to being blown about by gusts of factoids that cling like lint to a disorderly mind." Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

She's welcome to a piece of lawn right beside the nutjob preachers screaming at the students that they are all going to hell. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Do you also believe that scientists secretly infect millions of people with malaria, just so we can get research grants to study how to control it? Seriously? Suppose you come home to find your house on fire, and notice a guy with a gas can and a lighter running out of the back door. Would you ignore the guy and say sometimes houses catch fire because of electrical problems, or being hit by lightning, etc. There is no reason to seriously consider arson. Globally, temperatures are increasing. CO2 levels are also increasing, in an amount that closely matches human-caused CO2 release to the atmosphere. CO2 has been experimentally shown many times to act as a greenhouse gas. Yet you claim anthropologically produced CO2 is unrelated to climate change, and invoke "natural causes". What causes, specifically? Have you actual data to prove, or even strongly implicate, any natural cause? Increases in solar output, Milankovitch cycles, and other natural causes have been proposed, investigated, and excluded. It seems to me that you are determined to deny that a known greenhouse gas, which is increasing in concentration in the atmosphere in direct proportion to human activities, has no effect on climate, and instead prefer to invoke mysterious "natural forces" you have not (and likely cannot) explain, that somehow magically produce warming closely similar to what would be expected from CO2. I think it is you that has a religious perspective, relying on mysterious forces and discarding science to explain how the world works. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

They won't take him, he has a bad ass. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

I agree completely. The problem the R's have now is that they have two significant camps that are mutually exclusive, and not enough votes to completely diss one or the other. On the one hand, you have some moderates who realize they can't go back to the old days (insurance companies cherry picking, no coverage available if you have ever had a serious illness, etc, no coverage for maternity or mental health, etc) without having drastic effects on millions of voters. On the other, you have the back-to-the-18th century folks who believe unrestricted capitalism (no government standards or regulation at all) will magically result in insurance companies selling great plans that cover every medical contingency and cost only a few dollars a month. Of course they have already forgotten that the impetus for Obamacare was that the insurance companies were doing such a great job of screwing people. Anything that is done to appease one camp alienates the other, so nothing can pass. Works for me! It is interesting (to me at least) that after 7 years of Obamacare, a majority of the US population has come to expect that medical insurance will actually cover real medical problems, and they now feel it is a bad thing if people are denied insurance because they are a cancer survivor, have a mental illness, and so on. The victory of Obamacare is that it has changed people's expectations, and I doubt Paul Ryan and his friends will be able to turn the clock back in that regard. Any "repeal and replace" that does not maintain at least the same standard of care and affordability will cost them dearly. In that sense, Obama has won and they can't repeal that. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Actually that was between 60 and 100 applications, and 100% of them were denied. In the past only a few applicants were denied each year. I am not aware of any past attendees being involved in terrorist attacks while they were in the US. It's hard to make a case that a closed-door policy is necessary to "protect the homeland". This does send a message that, going forward, it will very difficult for US companies and investors to do business with Africa, and likely other parts of the world as well. I for one do not believe that closing the door to foreign trade will be a good thing for the US economy or jobs. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

That statement is typical of climate change deniers. What do they mean by "definite proof"? What would they except as "definite proof"? What does "definite" mean anyway, 100% certainty? They know full well that science is honest enough to admit that 100% certainty is impossible. There are two routes to knowing X causes Y to happen. The strongest is to do controlled experiments where you manipulate X and see how Y responds. If you do this several times you can calculate the statistical probability that Y varies in response to changes in X. So, we could do an experiment: reduce atmospheric CO2 and see if temperatures decline. But no, the deniers say it is too disruptive to reduce CO2 without knowing for sure what the effect will be. They say there's no proof CO2 is driving climate change, but then don't want to do the experiment, a remarkably circular bit of evasiveness. The other approach is to try to examine all the other explanations. As Sherlock Holmes said, once all the other explanations have been excluded what remains is the true one, no matter how unlikely it may be. We have excluded every explanation that has been suggested, such as the sun warming up, Milankovitch cycles, etc. It's not enough to just state that "climate changes" without postulating a reason why, something the CO2/climate change deniers have failed to do. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

According to some Republicans, it all comes down to priorities. If that 64-year-old chooses food and shelter over health insurance, that just means that "

That was inappropriate for me to add to the post, and I apologize for that. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Certainly that is my opinion. However it seems obvious to me that anyone who actually gave a damn about the functioning of the judicial system would ensure the replacements were ready to take over before requiring the incumbents to clear out. Also it seems gratuitously disrespectful, indeed it seems deliberately cruel, to dismiss people on a couple of hours notice, including people who had been asked to stay on the job, and to let them find out via a press release without even the courtesy of personally notifying them. However perhaps you disagree, or make a practice of treating people that way yourself? Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Is it a blessing or a curse to be omniscient, to know the truth about everything better than people who have spent their entire career actually doing research on a topic? On the other hand, everyone I've ever met in person who is certain they are the worlds expert on every subject have turned out not to be omniscient, they were just insufferable arrogant narcissistic dicks. No doubt you are the exception to that trend? Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Words have meaning. For example, regarding the Clinton administration: "President Bill Clinton’s attorney general, Janet Reno, asked for resignations in March 1993, but allowed U.S. attorneys to stay in place until their replacements could be confirmed. " (quote from the article you linked). In this case, then, the term "replaced" fits well. Regarding the Trump administration: "Flores initially declined to comment when asked if the prosecutors had to leave their posts right away, but said later Friday that the resignations were to be “effective immediately.” and: "The White House has not yet lined up replacements for the Obama-era U.S. attorneys being shown the door, a senior administration official told POLITICO. Trump has not yet formally nominated anyone to a U.S. attorney post." We cannot say the prosecutors have been "replaced", as they have been terminated before any of their replacements have been even nominated, much less confirmed. In this case "ousted" describes the situation more accurately. Indeed Politico is showing it's true colors: accurate reporting of the news. No-one has disputed that the President has the right to fill political appointments with people of their own choosing. Clinton replaced prosecutors, but did so in an orderly manner that allowed ongoing investigations and prosecutions to proceed in an orderly manner. Trump, as is his "style" has decided to replace prosecutors in a manner that will ensure as much chaos and disruption as possible. Clearly he has no concern if he jeopardizes the prosecution of ongoing cases. This seems consistent with his obvious disrespect for anyone with actual professional credentials, as opposed to his love of "populism". That disrespect, indeed contempt, is also evident in how those US attorneys were notified of their dismissal: several learned of it via phone calls from reporters, or by hearing about it on the news. Preet Bharara, the US attorney for New York, had earlier been asked by the President to stay in office. As is typical of Trump and his sycophants, people are regarded as tools to be used or discarded, not as human beings worthy of respect and decent treatment. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Not especially. That would be even more of a waste of time than the usual "pissing in the wind" that goes on here. You are very unlikely to change your attitude, and I'm unlikely to ever understand your perspective. Hopefully you are taking advantage of this non-winter to get out on your motorcycle. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

I think you're more likely to be in for a rude shock. The opinions you regularly post here do little to bring Christ to mind, at least from my perspective. I doubt that Christ's intent was that we think only of ourselves and say "fuck you, I got mine" to the rest of the world. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

True, but not much more so than relying on a system where a Wyoming voter is worth 3 or more Texans or Californians. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Considering that Californians pay more in federal taxes than the state receives back (see here), it seems your thesis is based on "alternative facts" and not actual reality. In fact, California could, from a fiscal perspective, tell Trumpland to go fuck themselves, and the only ones who would lose (fiscally speaking) would be all the red states that depend on Californian tax dollars to survive. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Perhaps "well oiled machine" would be more appropriate. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Speaking of laws of the US, apparently neither you nor Ron are familiar with the Posse Comitatus Act. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

From the Forum Rules and Policies: "The Forum Rules: No personal attacks. No jokes about or references to pedophilia. None. No advertising in the forums. Post to the correct forum and stay on topic." I suppose you did not realize you are posting on a forum that practices censorship! Poor little snowflakes, can't handle personal attacks! Of course, if you continue to post that means you accept the censorship. That's also in the Policies and Rules: "You agree that this is private property and you are our guest, and that Dropzone.com reserves the right to delete any message. Membership on Dropzone.com is a privilege, not a right. We may at any time revise these rules and policies without notice. Please check back regularly. Continued use of Dropzone.com after a change has been made is your acceptance of the change." So, what are you going to do? Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

But all we ever got was a radioactive Russian satellite crashing on our country! (Ref: Kosmos 954)My father was in charge of the recovery/cleanup on that one. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Those who are not familiar with this history should google NORAD. Of course, the concept was to eventually be able to detect and shoot down incoming ballistic missiles from Russia. And where would the highly radioactive debris land? Why, Canada of course. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Coming up: more taxpayer money wasted in defending an unsupportable bill before the Supreme Court (at least until Trump gets one more appointment). Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

I've seen otherwise good people get caught up in the emotion of the divorce and behave in unexpectedly vicious ways. The situation around Trump feels different to me. I get the impression that intrinsically ugly people (on the inside) have been given carte blanche to show their true nature. How else are we to interpret and environment where even basic civility is mocked as "political correctness"? Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

I think that for many people the point of the exercise is as much about the fight as it is about the policy. Just winning the policy debate is not nearly as sweet as cramming it down the opposition's throat and then rubbing their face in the mud. Notice how some people here in SC cannot make even the most reasonable point without wrapping it in insulting comments about SJWs, snowflakes, etc. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)