>What is it about the US environment that would select such beliefs for inter generational transmission?

You can make a lot more money when most of your population is stupid.

CronenBurgerMeister:"Much respect. We don't agree on much, but we can agree on this."

What he said. Thanks, really.

I hope you're correct, but I (hopefully wrongly) would not be surprised to see support for Joe repeated.

I think "Poo stack" sounds better. That's just me.

(Well, the gf technically, but she's giving me usage rights).

About the Muslim holy buildings getting trashed... I don't count on the average viewer, *especially* to a film of this nature to know what they are. They might mistake them for something they're familiar with, but that's it.

So... gain zero ("so they trashed that ugly statue near 280... so?") and lots of freaking out ("they trashed !"). Sounds like a net negative, pretty big. No point. Trash stuff people know & won't be bugged by.

>The Mayans never said the world will end in 2012.

Correct, and thanks for mentioning this. It's just when the calendar ends; if they were still around, they'd just reset the counter & start again. Time to pick up a new free one from a local restaurant! Really, that's it... it's not like we freak at the end of the year when the calendar runs out (barring really, really bad additions to the punchbowl).

>"... the unanimous voice vote of 50 of 104 executive members..."

Er, what? If I'm the sole dissenting voice of a crowd of 1000, do I get to pose myself as a "unanimous voice" too?

I know, I should go read the article first... maybe I'm missing some kind of context.

I had some work I needed done a few months back. Nothing huge, but I'm not good in the carpentry area so I looked around for a contractor. It was work that pretty much had to be done and yet still the minimum of what I'd have wanted done (the functional needed action; the cosmetic can wait).

Quite some years ago we, after much time, remodeled our kitchen; kind of an anniversary present to ourselves. It took more than a little while to line up someone to do it, they were so busy.

This time around, finding someone to do it - and quickly! - was trivial. As in "today is Thursday; I can start tomorrow" without my prompting.

In addition, the contractor deposited my check the day (if not the hour) he finished & got my okay. I didn't mind; it was fine work and I had no objections. I just didn't expect to find things *that* desperate.

I've more or less had this discussion with my relatives from Rightwingistan and that's the logic they're used... more or less.

>I agree that if I eat ... perhaps a republican?

Nah, too fatty, plus who knows what other chemicals are floating around in the creature's body.

>PETA is a fringe organization, considered by most liberals and most >Democrats -- hell, by most vegetarian, Prius-driving, soy-milk-half-caff-latte-drinking, East-coast-dwelling liberal Democrats -- to be >a bunch of nutcases who have no part in serious political debate.

True for the west coast, too. I live in a *very* left area; I work with a number of vegans, vegetarians, localvore, avid biker, EV-angelist and so on typical leftie stereotypical west coast folks. I count myself in a few of those categories.

I don't know a single person who thinks PETA is anything other than a bunch of loons - and this counts a fairly loony student population. Every so once in a while we'll get into discussions over whether a given point could be salvaged from the mass of dookey PETA coats it with, but generally it's a wash.

Hell, some of us like to joke it must be a rightwingnut funded org, akin to Nixon specifically having his limo driven through protest crowds to drum up opposition to the dirty hippies.

>...if McCain would have won and republicans still had Congress we would be hunting republicans with DOGS by now.

I always get diss'ed when I point out that it has to get worse before it gets better. I'm glad to hear someone else say it.

Not that I like the idea. I'm no great admirer of Obama, but even with the current situation he's better than McCain. Thing is, Obama (or whomever besides the nuts from Rightwingistan) came too early. People didn't have enough crap dumped on them. He got elected in '1929', not '1932'. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I have a nearly centenarian neighbor who remembers the GD pretty well. Nobody was really freaking out that much until 1931-2. It wasn't until the fecal matter started hitting the blades with the force & regularity of an overdose of Metamucil than things changed.

If FDR had run a handful of years earlier, he'd never have gotten into office. By slowing - not preventing - the current problems Obama et al may postponed the pain, but I'm not convinced we're going to avoid it. At least, not as things are now...

... not that it decreases the amount of geek love I have towards it...