They hate us, we hate them. We need to get a divorce while it's still possible to do it without violence. The Czechs and Slovaks did it. why can't we. I don't want a fence on the Mexican border, I want one on the Ohio River. (and I'm on the Ohio side for anybody wondering).

He just happened to be talking to women. Lily Tomlin said it best " The problem is, even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat."

The vast majority of people (being sane) don't want to live in Jack Welch's world and make choices to avoid it and can still live comfortably in fulfilling lives even in major corporations. Corporate execs are those who made other choices to strive for the top rank. That doesn't mean they were more successful, just that their priorities were getting to that rank. Welch was just laying out those choices.

Having degrees in both history and chemistry, one thing that has always struck me is how different the entry level courses are taught. History entry level courses are survey courses that do not get into the 'construction' of History (languages, econometrics, political theory) but rather the narrative. This is because they are not aimed at creating budding historians just at teaching people about how things fit together.

The entry level sciences however -are- aimed at budding scientist and to a large extent aimed at weeding out the 'weaker' members of the class. They strictly divide the subject (Physical chemistry, organic etc.) Students that are just filling a requirement develop a 'survivor' mentality. For the most part, they leave and don't look back. They don't integrate science into their everyday worldview.

This difference isn't an accident, it is how they are designed mostly by the same scientists who then complain how misunderstood they are.

High school is similar (at least back in my day). Freshman general science was fun, had a narrative and tried to integrate the science over the year. The disciplines then were college prep which simply fed into the college problems above.

What they are protesting is what they see as a corruption and subversion of it. They believed in the power of the ballot and it failed. That is why you see Mullas as leading members of both camps. Similarly much of the military and police in Iran are ambivalent about the use of force because they do not see themselves as the 'forces of repression'. The real problem Khamenei has is what if he called out the tanks and they didn't come? I would guess this would have been inconceivable at Tiananmen. The Revolutionary Guards and the basiji are a different matter. They are the 'true believers' but they do not appear to have as much support as expected. Perhaps the best argument that the election was fraudulent is that if Ahmadinejad had won by the margins claimed there would be a lot more of his supporters in the streets.

We have waited way too long (20-30 years) for any sort of combination of conservation/sustainability to be the most important part of the solution to global warming. If by some miracle humanity disappeared from the planet tomorrow, global temperatures would continue to rise for the next 40 years due to what we've already done.

The short-term human costs worldwide (loss of agricultural resources, loss of low-lying habitable space, changes in disease and weather patterns) are happening now and accelerating.

If we had a decent universal health coverage and retirement system there wouldn't be any need for marriage at all except as a religious ritual or sacrament which is definitely out of Gov't jurisdiction. Inheritance etc should be a matter of contract law anyway. There are plenty of churches or professional busy-bodies to stage-manage whatever kind of ceremony you want.

Obama should first nominate an outright radical (Does William Ayres have a law degree?) and after the Righties gets their panties in a bunch, compromise with a more "moderate" candidate (about Feingold range on the ideological spectrum). That's how the Republicans originally made so many extreme rightists look mainstream. You couldn't get a Scalia without a sacrificial Bork.

The Democrats have that. Unless the "party elders" got some promise/evidence that Specter would vote differently as a Democrat than he has as a Republican the letter behind his name is irrelevant. Sestak is perfectly right to adopt a 'wait and see' attitude. Luckily we (and he) has over a year to see what Specter will do.

and would welcome into the democratic Party (Snowe and Hagel come to mind) Spector isn't one of them. He's a weasel. Let him fall.

is not in their numbers, it is their potential for violence. Their world-view was overturned with the Obama win and while some may have re-examined their error, more have just gone more extreme. This group has guns and are becoming more enamored of violence. They are the mirror image of the 60's leftists who thought a violent demonstration would catalyze a general uprising. I just doubt they are as well infiltrated as the Weathermen were. In fact I fear it is more of a case of them being the infiltraters of police and military forces.

"The Death of the Republican Party", it would be worthy of Puccini at least. The bloggers on the Right and Left wings would be the Greek chorus. But no matter how they try to shut her up, the Fat Lady won't leave the stage and keeps singing over the actors. It writes itself.