I've been spending a lot of time in this thread because the meta- side of it interests me, but have better things to do than try to figure out your Salon life history, which is manifestly not interesting.

That may all be true, but you're still acting like a dick.

After all, this thread is not about the biochemistry of THC and friends, interesting though they may be. It's about the politics of drugs, politics like most, formed through anecdotal means by non-scientists. And, like the efficacy of parachutes, we don't need a double blind study to determine that.

I wouldn't be so hasty to dismiss the pedestrian ad-hoc accumulation of empirical evidence. Fraught with peril though it be. While I need many studies to understand the exact bio chemical mechanism whereby caffeine stimulates the body, I don't need one to determine that drinking a cup of coffee gives me a buzz.

Biden does have a restless mouth, so it's possible the condition also spreads to his legs.

You rightly continue to point out the abysmal treatment of women and children under the Taliban, but we really don't hear much about our supposed allies there, many of them part of the Northern Alliance. Those guys don't exactly have a stellar track record either, and my understanding is that their excesses helped to fuel the initial rise of popularity of the Taliban.

Do you really see a big difference between the two?

That is true what you say. For whatever reasons people like him get to pretend they are still conservative. We'd be better off as a Country if the real conservatives managed to strip those labels off. I'm not holding my breath.

Is that where they take a freeze frame of a Predator impacting into one's sorry ass?

I think I'll title mine Dawn Nike.

Mandatory coat and tails and other formal wear?

hahahaha!

dude takes notes!

left Afghanistan completely FUBAR'd.

Hate to pull the keystone from your arch, but there it is.

I would say there are many interlocking spheres of consequence here. I agree that we really have to wonder what the hell was Gore doing and thinking. But that makes the role of the SCOTUS no less savory, in my (as always not ) humble opinion.

And yes, Clinton was (is) as poon hound. That was his fatal weakness and he was hunted on that, and brought to ground. He should have risen above that, but didn't. He let his weakness get exploited and that screwed the Nation and we should hold him accountable for that, but we also shouldn't let the hypocrites slide either. Guys like Newt, Sanford, Vitter, all of the 'C' Street mofos. Why is Ensign still clinging to bitter, bitter political life? What good did their Clinton hunt bring our nation?

No adult conversations in the home of the free and the land of the brave.

I agree with your point. But I'll always wonder if Gore really wanted the job. He looked really happy and empowered walking away.

I still remember Gore's concession speech. It had passion. It had personality. I kept thinking where was that guy the last 18 months??? That guy could win. But maybe Al Gore was that kind of guy you read about in the stories where he gets to the end of the race and decides he doesn't want to win. It's not who he is. He doesn't want the beautiful house with the beautiful wife. He doesn't want to ask himself how he got there. So he walks away.

Given the messed up state of the state of Florida; and Pat B's showing in Southern Florida eternally weird.

yes, they would have had to stop their intravenous feedings of urea and other fertilizers (oh I mean free speech!) from lobbyists and actually take as stand on something...

The media was cynical... Did they get everything wrong? I can't remember if they were pro or anti NAFTA, WTO, China MFN and Glass Steagal repeal....

I tend to think the Framers would have preferred an old school knock down drag out in the House of Representatives. It's what they wrote down.

Dude:

Dick and George left US (that's right, the citizens of the good 'ole USoA) a big freakin' mess in the Afghanistan.

Make no mistake. OUR options are extremely limited. I don't buy that "we could win if only for misguided public opinion" crap for a second.

2009 is 1898

land locked Afghanistan is the island nation of Phillipines

The Pashtun Taliban are really the debauched Spaniards

The Pakistani ISI and the opium trade don't exist

We don't care about $400/gallon gas, it's all about the Martini-Henry.

And your Sarah, is Elizabeth I .

That is all.

Olbermann's special comments have gotten a little tedious, IM!HO, but that doesn't make the subject of his comments any less important. Our government and society are designed to work with people as they are, in all their vain self seeking glory.

If decent healthcare legislation actually gets passed, I'm willing to overlook a certain lack of purity among the participants.

Isn't it a bit much to criticize others for not reading into a film the same resonances and life experiences that you do? Or to fault them for effort applied or not, or even for effort misapplied?

This thread seems to be (more than usual) about the internal lives of the letter writers rather than the film itself. Somehow Stephanie has broken into the sacred garden and peed on the roses. What a bad person.

Color me in for that SF gathering. I have a soft spot for Masas.

We could all wear Neon Spandex with helmets whilst we drive our Volvos eating sushi and sipping cappa-CHI-noes. Would be fun to crash Salon HQ, and mug for a group foto. Everyone would have to bring a garden troll statue for fair and balanced.

It was more relevant to publish in some dusty lit crit journal with an audience of maybe hundreds instead of reaching out to maybe millions.