That the professional sex worker has managed to launder money, avoid taxes and become a minor star all while performing illegal acts?

How is this different from the behavior of people who seek wealth and power?

"One of the things I would do if I were President would be to sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, 'Stop the bullshit.'"--John McCain

Perhaps Mr. McCain should ask himself what someone would have to say to him to get him to change his own cherished beliefs. If he is unable to conceive of arguments that would change his own opinions, then he should not attempt the same trick on other people. Those other people can be just as determined, stubborn, pigheaded, etc. as he is.

Any strategy that depends on other people recognizing the superiority of one's own beliefs and opinions is probably unworkable.

Thanks for reminding me of another commonality between Bush and McCain that I forgot to mention - adolescent black/white dichotomies.

I believe this form of argument is known as the "False dilemma" or "The fallacy of the excluded middle". It is generally recognized as a fallacy, except by Bush and his supporters.

... once remarked that all the economists in the world laid end-to-end would not be sufficient to reach a conclusion.

"Western Security Experts" claim shells are Iranian..

In other news, the U.S. government is investigating a company run by a 22-year-old that somehow got a Pentagon contract to supply ammunition to forces in Afghanistan. The kid was apparently buying old Soviet-era ammo from various sources in eastern Europe and passing it off as new.

So, if someone in Afghanistan is killed by a bullet made by (for example) a Bulgarian manufacturer, does this mean Bulgaria is attacking Afghanistan?

What about barley and hops!

For some of us, transportation means moving more than just our bowels.

Perhaps beer is more nutritious that its ingredients, but people were making beer long before anyone knew there were such things as protein and vitamins. I'm pretty sure they made it so they could get a good buzz, and all of the other purported benefits were discovered/invented/rationalized later on.

I have nothing against beer. I simply don't mind admitting the real reason for drinking it.

IMO, the present dispute about the FL and MI primaries was part of Hillary's campaign strategy, and that this is why she ignored her party's decisions and kept her name on the ballots.

If Hillary was truly concerned about disenfranchising voters, I think she should have made her objections known before the primaries were held. Waiting until after the primaries and then trying to get all the votes for herself is the kind of sneaky trick that makes me dislike Hillary in the first place.

so it's NOT as though Clinton's name was the only one on the ballot.

So what? The ballot did not include all of the candidates, so any attempt to interpret the results is bound to be flawed.

Some people seem to think that Hillary should get the votes for her cleverness in keeping her name on the ballot when her biggest opponent did not. I personally don't think this kind of cleverness is an attractive attribute in someone who would be our president.

I don't buy this argument at all. It presumes that people will be so put off by not having their primary votes counted that they will vote for McCain out of spite. I think this is a pretty silly argument. I believe people will vote for whichever candidate they think would best support their interests.

I feel pretty confident in asserting that if Clinton had lost Florida and Michigan, then Obama's supporters would be pressing to have the delegates seated...

I'd like to know how you think the scenario could have happened. Obama's name was not on the ballots in FL and MI, so it's not obvious how Hillary could have lost.

If Clinton had received fewer votes that 'uncommitted', then I believe you could safely say that she lost.

I apologize. I should have asked how Obama could have been said to win when he wasn't on the MI ballot. Even if "uncommitted" had won, Obama would not have had a good reason to claim them all as his own.

My point was that Obama never set the stage to play the game. He would have kept his name on the ballot if he wanted to play. That's why I am skeptical of statements about what he might have done had things played out differently.

This Is A Legitimate Test

10 frames and get a 50 or you are disqualified from the primary.

Well, that helps to explain how we ended up with a loser like Bush.

... that a lot of this country is built on the assumption that fuel would be cheap forever. That isn't working out very well, and we continue to make the problem worse with new construction.

Maybe we should give some thought to producing goods closer to the customers who will buy them, and selling them from stores that are closer to the customers.

Also, communication continues to get cheaper even as fuel gets more expensive. Maybe we don't really need to move huge numbers of people many miles each day to get to work. I'm sure some of those jobs could be done remotely. I've been telecommuting for over 8 years. My 1999 automobile only has 12,500 miles on it, and I only have to fill the ten-gallon tank once every five or six weeks. My employer benefits by not having to provide office space for me, and also by getting some of the time I would have spent commuting as extra work time.

Whether possibility "A" is better or worse than possibility "B" depends on what one is trying to accomplish. E. O. Wilson's words are not advice, they are just an obfuscated expression of his own prejudices about which aspects of child development are more important.