Yes. I was trying to explain to a colleague yesterday the cruel irony of mandated health insurance: you're too poor, so you don't buy any, then you get fined for that. At least the MA version works that way. I fail to understand how a mandate can accomplish anything at all for the people who need help most.

about how idiots think, it'll be GB. So why not?

The word is insanity. You do a thing, expecting a result. You get a different result. You do the same thing, over and over, still expecting the original outcome.

Ha..That's exactly what I thought!

Also, as yesterday in Baghdad proves, the Sunnis are awake and blowing stuff up. Buying them off worked really well, didn't it!

For once we agree. Keeping him bought would have cost far less than all this mess. The problem with letting overconfident idiots run things is they get all excited about their bright ideas, and then no one can stop them.

As opposed to Obama, who is an overconfident rocket scientist who just happens to work for the bad guys.

Dean 2012!

The people claiming the US is #1 in life expectancy when violence and car crashes are removed appear to be quoting a U of Iowa study (link to pdf in sig). I don't have the time today to break it down further, but thought I'd share what I found.

http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2009/07/per-capita-spending-and-life-expectancy.html

is that the left and the right are becoming so irritated by things they're wrapping over into one another. Obama (and Congress) *is* running a risk of creating real civil strife, and our freedoms *are* being stripped away. People disagree about the modus (socialism vs corporatism), but in the end I think the anger has the same source. The little folks see it different ways based on what color their lenses are. The accumulation of power in the hands of the other is what is generating so much anger in the populace, and that ultimately does raise the risk of real civil strife for the first time in 150 years. Amazing stuff.

Not sure I agree with you there. It may make an excellent argument in favor of good public transporation: less smog+less accidents == demonstrably higher lifespan. I also think the idea that Americans get crappy healthcare is significantly weakened by that study, if it can be believed. I do *not* necessarily thing that, it was done apparently in concert with AEI, which is about a biased a group as you can find.

Palin/Taintz 2012.. for the children. Seriously, you don't think she can come up with proof she vas born in ze USA?

If there's any doubt (eg XXY chromosomes, ambiguous birth circumstances, etc).. automatically require the athelete to compete with the men. Embarassing for the 'girl' in question? Yes. However, it'd eliminate this entire class of 'problem' for all time. I imagine the Williams sisters (who are unambiguously female!) would not have had so much trouble competing in mens' tennis, if they had been forced to do so. Someone with a Y stuck in their genome ought to do ok too. Maybe they won't be the world record holder.. but there can only be a few of those in any generation anyway, and track sports have never really been about fair, just about natural abiity.

The software that does the mediation should impose whatever delays, etc are necessary to ensure market manipulation doesn't occur. In other words, it's not Goldman's job to police themselves. Everything they do in the market should be logged and wide open to audit, and those audits should be performed.

Given that both parties are owned, completely, by Wall Street, is there even any point wasting breath over whether one is independent of the other? Or why Wall Street once cared about that independence? Sure, I'd like Microsoft and Google to stay independent. But if you were to offer me control of both, why, that would also be just fine.

I for one no longer have any faith in terrorist witch hunts. As far as I'm concerned, until a completely transparent oversight can be established over the trial and incarceration of people taken in custody for "terrorism", they all ought to go free. Yes, this probably would let some very bad characters out to do more bad things to innocent people. Trying (and failing ultimately) to prevent that is not a justification for guaranteeing we become complicit in the imprisonment and torture of the innocent.

It must be nice to live in your world. Such certainty. As long as some court somewhere says a thing is okay, fine by you. No scrutiny necessary! Unless, of course, *you* someday find yourself falsely accused of a crime. I bet at that point you'll cry like a baby for mercy, mercy, new trials, anything, please!

Your lack of empathy and imagination is as dangerous as it is shameful. Myopia of this type has led directly to the global mess we're in. Thanks for that.

inflation and debt can't simultaneously be used to "rob future generations". You see, as the currency inflates, debt becomes less worrisome. You can argue one way, or the other, but not both.

Articles like these are why it is so satisfying to watch the MSM and Repugosphere(tm) try to paint you as a far left loony, and fail.

The people who like to paint themselves as traditionalist conservatives have just damned little to say when you quote the Founders in support of civil liberties.

The simple fact of the matter is that people read what is written here because the content tends to be truth-based in a perception-is-reality era of history. There's no left or right wing in truth, it just is.

Keep it up!

But for the aristocrats, free healthcare forever:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives#Salaries

Until we see something more meaningful than this, there's no reason to call these "green shoots". Local maxima, maybe.