TomAiello

If the previous government had been competent, this government wouldn't have had to handle any of those things. Obama's government didn't create the longest recession since the 1930s. You mean the one that started after the Dems took Congress in '07? Economic cycles are very long and complex. It's unfair to decide that whichever party is in whatever part of the power structure is responsible. The truth is that we're going to experience economic cycles forever, regardless of who is in charge. Trying to pin down what causes them is an endless debate, and trying to determine if it was something done 2 minutes, 2 months, 2 years, or 2 decades ago is even harder. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Except that you won't have as much money to pay for it with, because you'll be paying into the national healthcare system. I mean, why not make people pay for something they don't use--sounds terribly efficient, doesn't it? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Sure you can, if "you" are the library board. Then "your" job is to maintain the most welcoming, accessible library for everyone. If that's how you think it's most likely to appeal to the broadest range of library patrons, that's what "you" do. seems like a lot of work (IOW, money) that could be better spent on improving hours or resources. That's kind of for "you" (the library board) to decide. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I had thought that Euro-MP's were elected FPTP. Is that not the case? Or does it vary from country to country? edit: nevermind, I see from the linked article that these seats appear to be apportioned six to a district on a proportional basis, which just seems like a bizarre hybrid system to me. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Sure you can, if "you" are the library board. Then "your" job is to maintain the most welcoming, accessible library for everyone. If that's how you think it's most likely to appeal to the broadest range of library patrons, that's what "you" do. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

We're talking about FPTP elections in geographically divided districts, in reasonably remote areas. Yours for your parliament, ours for our congress. How are they not the same? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

You're channelling Sonia Sotomayor. From the bench (in the baseball strike case), she once observed that the purpose of a union is to promote the welfare of the members at the expense of all non-members. The difference is that she thought that was a good thing. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

As in, say, ~7% annual return? Oh wait, it does. What was Bernie Madoff's "return" ? If you are earning a return, then your principal is still intact, and you've added to it. Bernie Madoff told people they were earning a "return" but it turned out that the principal was all gone. Social Security works exactly the same way. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I've seen plenty of well travelled and intolerant people, and I've also seen plenty of very tolerant stay-at-home types. I am thoroughly unconvinced that the two qualities (amount of travel and degree of tolerance) are more than marginally related. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

You see any KKK party on the ballot? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Sure it is. We're just a couple hundred years ahead of you guys. Our states began ceding sovereignty to the federal government 200 years ago. You guys are only 15 or so years into your changeover. We still have state legislatures, same as you've got a UK parliament. We also have a federal government, same as you have the European Union. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I don't believe that either of them is. I'm against both. Why not ask yourself the question in reverse? Would you trust the entity that's poured billions into invading other countries on scant evidence with something as important as your health care? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Do you really believe that Social Security is "working"? If it were working, it would be earning a positive return on the largest investment fund ever created in human history. Or at least it would still have some of it's initial capital left. Social Security makes Bernie Madoff look like a kid stealing candy from a grocery store. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

What you are proposing would basically put all the small insurance companies out of business, and lump all the money, power and decision making into what is already, right now, the largest insurer, the one that is primarily responsible for the current situation. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I think you may be confused as to how we currently apportion representation in our government. Our House of Representatives is divided into geographic districts, just like the Euro-parliament. We currently have those areas you're referring to (not sure exactly which ones you mean) electing representation to the House all by themselves. And yet they don't seem to have returned any Nazi's. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

There is a huge difference between tolerating differing viewpoints and holding any particular set of views. I know people on the very fringes of political thought who are very tolerant of other views, and people who are closer to the center who can't stand disagreement. I know people on both the left and right who are very tolerant of disagreement, and again, other people on both left and right who can't stand it. Tolerance is not the sole domain of any viewpoint. It's a characteristic that can be found (or not) anywhere in the spectrum. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

That hasn't been my experience at all. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Because Annapolis grads are likely to be terrorists? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

They don't. Compare the actual specs straight across and they run right in the same price range as Compaq, Dell and company. It's just that Apple doesn't make any low end series, so you can't compare on the bottom end. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Why are you trying to starve those poor children? And you want to take them away from their parents because the only make minimum wage? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Do you really go with your teenager to the library every time, and personally inspect every book before allowing them to remove it from a shelf and look at it? When my kids are, say 12 years old, I want to feel comfortable letting them run around in the library and look at things (and learn things). There are materials that I won't consider appropriate for my 12 year old to happen upon. I'd rather those materials were held apart in an area for adult (or parentally consented) access. Same goes for library computers. They have net nanny software precisely because I won't let my kid use them without it, and the library knows that, and wants my kids to be able to use them. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

What is the differenvce between a partial birth abortion and a mother throwing her kid in a dumpster right after having the kid? The difference is that the fetus must sustain itself directly from the mother's body. The hypothetical dumpster baby could be sustained by another person. Your analogy between the partial birth abortion and the dumpster doesn't really speak to the point I made, because in the case of a partial birth abortion you're talking about a fetus that could survive without the mother's body, given the correct care from other people. The "viability" standard basically means that you draw a line at the point that the fetus can be sustained by persons other than the mother, without physically nurturing itself from the mother's body. Viability happens well before birth, and moves back a bit with each new medical advance. In theory, some day we'll reach a point at which viability occurs at conception, and then viability won't really be a valid standard for this debate any more. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Having a variety of perspectives isn't the issue here. We're talking about a comment which appears to imply that one perspective is inherently better than another. This isn't about the value of having differing views. It's about elevating one view above others as superior. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'll probably get one too. My 3 year old macbook is on it's last legs, so it's time to either upgrade or crack the case and start replacing things. With the new stuff out, I think I'll just upgrade. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

You've made that decision. Other people have read the passage in context and made the opposite determination. Simply stating that it's obvious to you doesn't make it so. It's obvious to plenty of other people, who have read the full passage, too--it's just obvious in the other direction. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com