I hate to publically identify myself as part of the reality-based community, but those who are saying that Salon and it's readers support the "war on drugs"

[for example, Cosmo: "It's funny (not "ha ha" funny, but "this milk

smells funny") how virtually everyone who posts on Salon--not to

mention literally almost every person, educated or not, who I've ever

talked to about the subject in real life--denounces the "War on Drugs"

as a catastrophic farce that has done nothing but harm to our world.

Yet, as one poster correctly pointed out, no "serious" media outlet,

whether liberal, conservative, in between or on the fringes, will

really dwell on this point, if they even mention it ever. Salon is a

good case in point."]

should run a search of the Salon archives for the phrase "War on Drugs". You might find it interesting.

There may be lots of problems with the survey that was done, such as biases introduced by self reporting the number of partners, but the stated result is certainly NOT mathematically impossible.

The median is, crudely speaking, the midpoint of the list of values sorted into ascending order (not the arithmetic average). The "High School Prom Theorem" is about the total, and thus tells us about the mean or averge.

A simple example: there are 10 women and 10 men. 3 women have sex with all 10 men, the others do not have sex with anyone. The median number of partners for women is 0; the median number for men is 3.

Now, what, 52% of Clinton supporters say they won't support Obama, while 68% of Obama supporters say they'll definitely support Clinton? The Democrat should still win in November, but not until the Clinton group does everything to intimidate, scare and muscle the Democratic party into giving her the nomination.

I didn't start out with any anymosity toward Hilary. I just liked Obama. She's really trying my patience, that's all, so I can't imagine what others who feel as I do are thinking.

I'm thinking that lots of diehard Clinton supporters are lying to the polls, knowing that their only chance is to persuade superdelegates to support her out of fear that BillaryBots will vote for McCain out of spite. They know that's a really dumb idea. They won't really do it, but like the Clintons, they just have to keep trying.

Does anyone still watch PBS? Why?

To misquote a great American:

the only thing we have to fear is fear of fear itself...

Fear has gotten us into this mess. It's time to leave it behind.

First Giberson accuses Myers of jousting with straw men:

"Myers has earned notoriety with his blog, Pharyngula, in which he reports on new developments in biology and indiscriminately excoriates those he views as hostile to science, a pantheon of straw men and women"

But instead of engaging with the real questions, he simply goes after his own straw men and women:

"I am incredibly impressed with the achievements of science. But I don't think science is omniscient and I am not convinced that science will ever know everything. I am not convinced that science is even capable of knowing everything."

No scientist believes that science is omniscient, or will ever lead to knowing everything. Scientists believe that working on theories that can be tested empirically is a better way of learning about the world that simply saying "God made it that that way".

wow. I used to drink pabst and other cheap lagers in the Lutz back in the late 80's and early ninety's. then I discovered microbrews. let the hipsters have it.

when will the media, congress, and the american people wake up?

This is a disease that has spread well beyond the pundits!

Doubt comes with recognition of complexity; shades of gray instead of black and white. I challenge all to name someone in the Rethuglikan heirarchy who is not afflicted.

It might be helpful for you (P Smith, that is) to remember that the letter writers aren't a random sample of your readers. I have no doubt (zip, zero, none at all) that most of your readers read the article, appreciated your argument, and then quietly moved on to read another column...

John Yoo is a terrorist, and should be arrested and held without recourse to habeas corpus according to his own doctrine...

Has anyone conducted a poll outside of Texas to discover if the rest of the country would prefer to have Texas secede? I suspect many would consider the country much better off without Texas!

every time you write an article repeating the mantra that single payer isn't an option, you are contributing to the problem.

if you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

"Here's the core issue for me: being pro-life means that all life is sacred and should be protected. Like I mentioned, I'm a vegetarian, in part because I believe it's wrong to kill an animal for food when other choices are available."

I always find this argument amusing. plants aren't alive? the little bugs that you eat along with your plants aren't alive? or perhaps, like so many, by "animals" you really mean mammals?

It's coming to America first,

the cradle of the best and of the worst.

My apologies to Leonard Cohen :-{

See the article linked at my signature.

From Iceland to Argentina the populations are undoubtedly better educated and more politically aware than we are in the US. I would assume nothing about the direction of change in a depression. We might go Fascist: the thugs on the right are working diligently to make it happen as we speak...

Wow. Does anyone still watch PBS?

I pump up my tires and I oil my chain!