Alan Greenspan, in his flawed but interesting paean to unfettered free-market capitalism, makes a point that income disparity, including the amassing of obscenely large fortunes by a relatively few entrepreneurs and financial risk-takers, is aided and abetted, if not caused, by giant leaps in technology. The railroad barons, that is, being not dissimilar to the dot.com zillionaires. It's one small point in a book that's mostly about how proper management of the insanely complex world of fiat money we've created can provide upward mobility for all humanity. Worth reading if you've got an ample supply of salt handy.

Of hearing Clinton criticized as "calculating" or "triangulating." In spite of whatever feints or dodges she's taken to protect herself, I have a pretty clear idea of who she is and what she stands for. Unlike anyone who bought into Bush's "Compassionate Conservatism." What in a man would be smart, tough politicking is, when it's a woman, something ugly. Whassup widdat?

I agree with a number of posters here who have said we are not without sin and shouldn't throw stones in one form or another. And for Christ's sake, with all the issues that need desperately to be addressed that affect Americans directly (need I name them?) why is one minute of Congressional time and energy being spent on something that, as someone pointed out, there is no Constitutional mandate for Congress to involve itself in? Pure hot air to make it look like they're on the job. Phooey!

Guys like Podhoretz and Kagan are a breed that cannot reproduce normally. If they had intelligent children, those children would repudiate them.

This discussion recalls the big dispute about whether the new century began in 2000 or 2001. I believe the point is, let us pray that GWB is the worst American leader of the 21st century.

Am I not laughing. I have long thought this whole War with Iran business made little sense unless seen through the eyes of an administration that would love to call the elections on account of war.

They're pretty good at Newspeak. So far, a lot of people are convinced that SCHIP was Socialism for Rich People.

I feel just as conflicted as Heather. Nice ladies with smoker's hack taking in kitties is so admirable. But when they won't let you take a cat that's living in a shit-smelling living room with fourteen other cats because you say you want an indoor-outdoor cat for your lovely back yard on a quiet street, no dice. Not only no dice, but you're made to feel like a baby-strangler. Okay, there are coyotes out there, and cars. No one is guaranteed to die in bed of natural causes. Cats love being outdoors (and here I get self-righteous: put a bell on them for the birds' sake!) and everyone knows that cats don't last forever. I love our cat (I lied to the lady the second time), as much as I loved the one before who vanished after five happy years.

They keep throwing out new reasons to go to war, waiting for one of them to gain traction, perhaps through some deus ex machina provided by Iran (they're caught blowing something up on the Iraq side of the border) or another country (Britain suddenly takes it in its head to declare Iran a terrorist state) or who knows what (a little girl is abducted in the U.S. by a molester with an Arabic-sounding name and, whipped into a frenzy by a complicit-or-nearly-so Corporate National Media, all of America is in a mood for bloodshed). Pick your fantasy. Who knows what might suddenly make the difference between a crazy idea and something that sounds like...Yeah, we should do that? It costs them nothing to keep tossing out rationales, hoping outside events will blow some wind into their sails. We, Glenn, AL, the blogosphere in general, have to keep slashing into these war dreams every time a new one shimmers into slashing range -- and maybe, just maybe, we can make it to Inauguration Day without these crazy bastards getting us into another mess and possibly using it as an excuse to call off the changing of the guard.

Face it, people -- our "elected" representatives do not represent us, the people. They represent a subset of the citizenry, i.e. the ones who get them elected. Money people. The rest of us are sheep. We do what the TV ads tell us to do, so what do they care about us? The people who give them the money for the TV ads to make us vote them in -- THOSE people they care about and THOSE people they cater to. It really is that simple. We're not living in a democracy and the only answer is some kind of public funding of elections and getting rid of the idea that the Right to Raise Your Own Money and Run A Bigger, Louder Campaign Than The Guy With Less Money is some kind of free speech issue. What bullscheiss that is.

Look at it this way. Other than foreign hotels and a few meals here and there, most of the money being wasted like this -- including money wasted on the war on drugs -- is going into the American economy. That x-ray scanner? It wasn't made in Nigeria, folks. Drug aid to Mexico? Those helos and fixed-wing surveillance aircraft that are going to go south of the border and sit on the ground until they rust -- Made In America. Defense contractors are mainlining taxpayer money like never before. Ask one of them if Bush is a failed president and they'll look at you like you're out of your mind.

Man didn't come from monkeys, both man and monkeys came from protozoans. The whole monkey thing is used to denigrate science because monkeys are supposed to be funny-looking and primitive. The man-monkey progression is like the last millimeter on a ruler ten kilometers long. If Mike Huckabee doesn't get that, Bill Maher certainly should.