And I'm convinced that if it's done seriously by a truly independent prosecutor, it will be a key step toward exposing the whole truth about what really happened during those dark Bush years. And, one way or another, the truth will come out.

If exposing the whole truth will increase the probability that those responsible will be prosecuted, "it" is not going to happen. Maybe there will be the appearance that "it" is going to happen; maybe like nuclear fusion which is always 20 years away, "it" will always be about to happen. The will to do "it" is just not there at the top.

I think Pam expresses her thoughts well. Wish I could do as well.

357 comments in a day and half. Who knows what will happen tonight. You could best support your observation by not commenting again.

You failed to mention the 800,000 successful TASER “landings” that resulted in much lower uses of force and have greatly reduced injuries to suspects and officers – not to mention the lives saved.

Bullshit. It is very clear that Tasers are being used in situations where no force would have been used before, and no force was necessary now.

You can keep your science.

The findings are no surprise to me and are not probably a surprise to others, but where there is little agreement is the matter of who is responsible for effecting change (does this fall solely on the shoulders of out LGBTs of color, something tossed out there quite frequently when I raise the issue) and what are the methods of bridge building that need to be implemented...

The short answer is that everyone is responsible. If the group who most needs the change is not willing to work to effect the change it will not happen. On the other hand if those who need to change remain openly hostile, it cannot. Then there is that state where people are privately sympathetic, but unwilling to break with the group, usually for fear of being treated "just like them". I saw this in the 50s and 60s with the black civil rights movement. It was possible to move from environments where open hostility to blacks was OK, but sympathy was kept private, to those where it was just the reverse. The former did tend to change into the latter. Slowly, but faster than many thought possible.

Given that we are and will remain a society well-supplied with fire arms, it seems likely that the result of taser abuse on the part of the police will be an increase of sniper attacks on the police.

This will lead to retaliation, and on a hot summer day we will have riots again.

The goal appears to protect anybody in any position of responsibility, and the hell with the rest of them.

This brings up this question: who is actually setting this policy?

(D: Your second quote block contains the third. Did you intend this?)

I would like to additionally suggest that the real conceptual breakthrough was special relativity which told us something important and surprising about the nature of time and space.

Very good point. Special relativity was the first real scientific break with intuitive understanding of space and time. It made Maxwell's equations consistent with the rest of physics in a simple way and provided motivation for much new experimental and theoretical work.

I agree.

is both the practical source for nearly everything we now have and the mystery that defies intuitive understanding. It is both man's greatest intellectual accomplishment and the highest inspiration for additional theoretical work. Ignore it, and you are irrelevant.

And no you don't need a bevvy of robots at more than LEO. Higher orbits are generally for other uses. Like Hubble.

You really are a clueless idiot:

HST  (Hubble Space Telescope)Norad Id:20580ULauch:April, 25, 1990

(37º launch of the year)

Inclination:28.4706°

Apogee:568.09032095211 km

Perigee:562.67854034906 km

Orbits per day:15.00467704

Period:95.970076274297 min

The shuttle services it; so it cannot be too high, right?

It's a robot's job to take measurements of earth from perhaps as much as 500 miles up. No more. No one proposing that this kind of work ends.

Did you bother to read the article?

The paper went on to report that, "Even before her warning, scientists were saying that America, the world's scientific superpower, was virtually blinding itself to climate change by cutting funds to the environmental satellite programs run by the Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA. A report by the National Academy of Sciences this year warned that the environmental satellite network was at risk of collapse."

"Robot job", indeed. It is precisely this stuff that we need. Some of the satellites need to be a lot higher than 500 miles, by the way.

I would not have had the patience to be so pleasant; well done.

Rocky, that was below par even with your handicap. Let's see some references to some decent documentation. I do not mean Rush L.

The release of those ice photo was a dramatic illustration of what was already known, at least to those willing to pay attention. But dramatic verification is good. If scientists are to be criticized on public relations concerning global warming, it would be that the rational and cautious approach fails to counter the vocal opposing minority adequately.

We need to study and continue to monitor our space environment, both from space and from the ground. The sun and all the space between it and the earth's surface affect us. We need to understand all the process that affect our earth and the life that inhabits it.

WTF is up with the other 40% and do we really want them ministering to our psyches?

No, but stick to happier thoughts. Otherwise you will cause rain in Northern Canada and annoy everyone else.

Have a good vacation.

Glenn, too.