I would think that a decent probability and statistics class would go a long way towards developing and reinforcing (with math!) critical-thinking skills, which would benefit society immeasurably.

um... i followed the news.. this was public freaking knowledge

remove your tinfoil hat

and the service interruption was probably caused by the fact that a lot of network equipment driving the transatlantic link was in the WTC FFS!

I Stopped reading your post when you said "aggressively leaving the opposition out of even the most trivial policy discussions." that's egregiously dishonest - as it is well known to be false. Obama fucked the healthcare bill by allowing more and more compromise with republicans in an attempt to get them on board WHEN NO MATTER WHAT THE WERE GOING TO VOTE AGAINST IT.

Did the Administration and the Democratic leadership remove any one of those compromises they made, that failed to get any republican support? NOPE!

There were more republican amendments than democratic amendments, but obviously they're "aggressively leaving the opposition out of even the most trivial policy discussions.".

Your dishonest is astounding. Who modded parent insightful? you should be ashamed of yourself.

I guess it is too much to ask for something to have to be accurate to be insightful.

plausible, but sounds like an attempt at character assassination. It also ignores the simple fact that: we cannot drill our way out of a situation not created (in the short term) by limited supply, but by market manipulation thanks to Bush II energy market deregulation.

in the long run "Drill, baby, Drill" just delays the inevitable, and the longer the inevitable solution to other power generation sources is delayed the more money is wasted (over time, and at the eventual forced conversion).

>You really think that such improvements would happen in a hyper-regulated marketplace?

As evidence by Europe: yes.

Note: basic consumer protection is not "hyper-regulated", only an ignorant anarchocapitalist thinks that kinda crap - and considering implementing even a few of the anarchocapitalist deregulatory wet dreams led to the current recession: why the @#%$ should we listen to you?

maybe we should just nationalize all that cable we paid for

we PAID FOR IT afterall.

sales taxes are not just not-progressive - they're regressive.

Rich and poor people need to buy a lot of the same basic things that are taxed - that tax eats up a larger percent of a poor persons income. that is the definition of a regressive tax.

you don't know what the fuck a progressive is, so please refrain from trying to tell us what we are in the future.

Libertardian dumbfuck.

don't put words into my mouth that i didn't say. the team that currently controls congress and the presidency might fit me better than the other one, but they're still very ill fitting.

this is true, until we get private money out of elections the government will, at best, half heartedly serve the people so long as it doesn't cost their corporate overlords too much.

"There's a pretty strong current of entertainment in her work"

yeah just like "Rush Limbaugh is entertainment"

bullshit. they're hate mongers who make money off kicking people with fearful personality types (this is scientific fact if you've been paying attention) into a fear frenzy so that their $-masters can do what they want.

in many states Felons loose the right to vote. Did you not know this?

Someone who knew what the bill was :D good. I was hoping an informed person would actually crawl out of the framework.

As a progressive and a defender of the collective right to gun ownership (voting is also a collective right) - i have no issue with a well formulated assault weapons ban. One more formulated than "scary looking guns" - ie weapons that can be easily altered to fully automatic, etc.

The simple fact is that the claim that "more guns make for a safer society" is proven unequivocally wrong by global statistics. So I'm not gun up on guns.

I believe that you should have the right to own guns, but I also believe that right comes with the responsibility to prove that you can be trusted with them. I also believe that right, like many other rights, is subject to reasonable restriction.

Yes he has failed to fulfill a campaign promise thus far (renew the AWB), but he never vowed not to let them into national parks. The idea that you couldn't take a rifle into national parks is also retarded, some of those parks are vast and if you're back country camping you might need that rifle to defend yourself against a large predator. (not likely if you're careful, but it can happen)