CargoCult:

You said: "It also implies that a major media response (not murder) is what the terrorist(s) were after."

If I am reading you correctly, the terrorists, in pursuit of a successful fear-producing psyop, screwed up by gradually escalating their efforts to the point of using a sophisticated variety of anthrax that led back to themselves -- that almost certainly was unintended, a big mistake. And now the Justice Department and FBI are left with the problem of how to clean up the mess by laying the crime on an innocent party (first Stephen Hatfill, and then Bruce Ivins). So far the mess hasn't been cleaned up -- they are just getting in deeper, with even the mainstream media shooting down the Ivins case. Unthinkable conspiracy suspicions are beginning to go mainstream.

You also seem to agree that the impetus for this crazy scheme probably came from higher up than the biowar industry, although the plot used biowar industry expertise. The best guess is that some lead neoconservative ringleaders of the Iraq War and World War IV in the Bush 43 administration pulled the trigger that set all this into motion.

Focusing on links between the biowar industry and AEI, JINSA, PNAC and other neocon redoubts might produce interesting results.

Susan said: "as had my even more notoriously promiscuous grandmother (her promiscuity is even hinted at in serious historical works of literary criticism)"

You have a somewhat famous author in the family? Or you meant something else?

Sophisticated anthrax - let us remember also

Wallingford mail center retested

By Associated Press, 4/21/2002 15:26

WALLINGFORD, Conn. (AP) The Wallingford postal sorting center was retested Sunday for signs of anthrax, months after tests turned up positive for the deadly bacteria.

About 3 million spores were found late last year during an investigation into the anthrax death of a 94-year-old Ottilie Lundgren of Oxford.

The Wallingford center process mail for Oxford and surrounding towns.

http://www.anthraxinvestigation.com/ap.html

-----

At trillion spores a gram that is a few milligrams but how it jumped from Trenton/New York or D.C. to Connecticut!

I wrote: "... also expect the government to stop the ham-fisted interference in the marketplace and let free men and women interact in a voluntary, informed fashion."

You responded:

Sorry. I thought you were a left wing nut, rather than a right wing nut. Look, I can empathize with libertarian leanings. But complaining about something you have no control over is a waste of time. But hey, it's your time to do with, as you please.

I am to understand that I have become "right-wing" because I do not want ham-fisted interference by the federal government in our economic system? And a "nut" to boot? Damn fellow, what definition of left-right are you working from?

I guess you think ham-fisted interference is needed? How so?

welfare for the rich

Ah yes, the root of all evil, real and imagined. Keep in mind that someonehas to pay taxes. That would be the rich primarily. Actually the best thing you could do is agitate for transparency in the off-ballot pork business. That's where pork gets inserted into conference bills without being voted on. Needless to say, if you're counting on Democrats to respect the Constitution, don't.

Sadly, you don't go to government with the politicians you wish you had, but the rather the ones you're stuck with. These days that group is getting smaller and smaller, because most don't want to deal with the kind of abuse dished out here. You're getting the kind of government you deserve.

Notice that I told you what was "welfare for the rich" and you chose not to quote it and then pretend that I was talking tax cuts or something. How dishonest are you going to get with this subject?

I wrote of government favoritism in all its various forms. When the government lets the large corporation write the law governing that corporation's industry, I'll guarantee you that it just became harder for the smaller companies to compete and the poor working taxpayer got fucked again.

As for 65 trilliion dollars debt... gosh. I believe I've seen somewhere that the yearly GDP of the entire world is 49 trillion. I guess then, we are going to have to go bankrupt, stop all transfer payments for pensions and SS, and start all over. Hows that sound? Surely we cannot go on with such an incomprehensibly large debt? What do you say? Let's just walk away from it, darn it all.

On the other hand (US output : public debt) is still smaller than under Clinton. I'd say there's cause for optimism.

-- shooter242

The long term obligations that accounting principles total up yield 65 Trillion at least according to the Treasury Department. At some point you must pay your debts; even a moron can figure that out.

So, as long as China and a few others will buy our debt instruments we can keep maxing out the national credit card but soon even the Chinese will want payment. There are only two ways to pay the dept. Inflation or debt repudiation. Which do you think will happen? Which is better in the long run? Have a taste for a little hyper-inflation? --- you can see it at work in Zimbabwe. "Zimbabwe inflation now over 1 million percent", says Boston.com.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/
2008/05/21/zimbabwe_inflation_now_over_1_million_percent/

Or, perhaps you think we could pay down the debt a "little at the time"? Tell me how that would work.

You can have the last word tonight, but I am sure we will talk again soon.

I was empathizing with Derbig in that the "roaring 1960's" were not universally the vast sexual smorgasborg often depicted.

My grandmother was part of a "fast set" of intellectuals whose sexual exploits are hinted at ... see Warren Beatty's "Reds"...

My own mother was a 1940's Broadway wannabe party girl ... who was baffled by my lack of enthusiasm for multiple anonymous partners ... thank you very much.

The 1960s and 1970s were at time, before AIDs, when possibilities were vast... but for many, as Derbig was ruefully referencing, the range of "choices" including the choice to say "no" was not easy.

During this primary season I was startled by how little understanding there seemed to be of just how really bad things were back 40 years ago and how much things have changed and how badly, imho, we have backslid as a nation in our aspirations for ourselves and our country. Somewhere in there (I'd blame the Reagan years) we became a nation in which we lost any collective ambition and/or idealism ... we became a nation of ... I've got mine ... self-interest