fishnguy writes: "

So...when Obama wins it must be the way God wants it. You McCain and Palin supporters will have to accept it. His will be done and all that malarky.

Don't worry, they're covered in any case. McCain wins: god's will. Obama wins: mysterious ways.

Frankly I find the whole folksy talking-down pretty insulting. There we parts where I expected her to bring out a pop-up book to explain economics to all of us Joe six-packs.

Those who seek a natural method of population control will get exactly that - starvation.

- Richard Dawkins

...instead of checks. There, guaranteed economic recovery AND a new iPhone in every pocket! I'll take my Nobel Prize now please.

"Where is your faith in science? Where is your wonder? Where is your readiness for the surprise of new knowledge?"

There isn't much investment into pure science anymore, it all focuses on direct to market applications, mostly military.

The problem is that most of the big scientific discoveries of the past century came out of investment into pure science - grants given to brilliant scientists to just go out and explore whatever they wanted. If Queen Victoria said to her staff, "here's 100,000,000 pounds, invent me a machine that can transport pictures and sound through the air across the entire world", she would never get a TV. That invention stands on the shoulders of dozens of seemingly unrelated and abstract scientific discoveries.

Most people do not appreciate that there is no viable alternative to oil in terms of portability, energy per unit, and other factors. It will take a major, major, scientific breakthrough to come up with something else, and this will not come out of the private sector which is notorious for short-term thinking. But as long as our leader wants to teach bronze-age nonsense to our kids, how can we expect a serious investment into science and our future?

The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility.

A Christian point of view:

- The universe was designed for ME.

- The creator of the universe made ME in his image.

- There is a plan for ME.

- I am special and will live forever.

- * The Earth is the center of the universe.

A rationalist's point of view:

- I believe in what can be proven. For unresolved questions "I don't know" is a perfectly valid answer until the evidence is found.

Who is more humble?

* Claim abandoned after multiple (merciful) stake burnings.

Anonymous wrote: "And for those who haven't been reading the literature over the past, say, 35 years or so...today's natural methods can approach 90% effectiveness (as opposed to the old calendar method)."

So if you have sex more than 10 times the odds are you will have an unwanted pregnancy? Go rhythm method!

AndrewH writes: "In other words, so long as Blackwater is careful to only use US nationals, and so long as the US can be defined as a "party to the conflict", Blackwater get to do pretty much whatever they want with impunity."

They're using Chilean army soldiers, so they are now effectively mercenaries in the letter, as well as the spirit of the term.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1162392,00.html

"To put this into context, the amount paid to Halliburton-KBR is roughly three times what the U.S. government paid to fight the entire 1991 Persian Gulf War."

To put THIS into context, The U.S. government paid only about 15% of the cost of the first Iraq War. The other $52 billion was picked up by Coalition Members, including Saudi Arabia.

Not that paying inflated rates to private companies to peel the soldiers' potatoes isn't obscene.

Anonymous writes:

"My niece was held prisoner by her Mormon husband when she tried to leave him. The church elders knew about it and were involved. My brother contacted the police, who weren't willing to intervene because they were all Mormons too. (This was in Salt Lake City.)...But a ***FEW*** [emphasis mine] freakjobs who justify their behavior by appealing to a particular religion doesn't mean the whole religion is bad. Every religion has freakjobs."

So not only was your niece's husband a freakjob, so were his church elders, and the entire police department of Salt Lake City. I think you need to re-examine your definition of "few".

There are two types of Nalgene bottles.

1. Those made from polycarbonate and contain Biphenol A. You can recognize them by having a "7" in the recycling symbol on the bottom of the bottle.

2. Those made from HDPE (the orinal Nalgenes were made from this) and do not contain Biphenol A. They have a "2" in the recycling symbol.

Where do these people think all the minerals and various nutrients plants need come from? Dead animals. If you're grossed out by sleeping with a meat-eater because all you see is dead animals, the same image should pop up next time you hold up a stick of celery.

Oh and by the way, plants are living things that do not want to be eaten. Many have evolved complex systems of spines, toxins, and camouflage to ensure that.

It's one thing to argue about veganism based on economics, unnecessary animal cruelty and so forth, but face it - if you want to live, something else has to die somewhere up the chain.

Sarah O,

Engagement metrics typically time out a session after 30 minutes and reset it with page reload. So keeping a tab open for a week would only count as a half-hour visit at most.

"Every American we meet here says they don't like Bush. But if no Americans like Bush, why did he get reelected?"

Those that elected him rarely travel outside their state, much less country.