Posts Made By: Paul Kammueller

I agree the republicans could win huge amounts of votes just by being pro-environment and socially moderate. I know people who won't vote republican just because the environmental issue pretty much trumps everything else.

I think what happened to the republicans happens to any party that enjoys power for too long: they start to get all weird and ideological, and as a result lose their status as the Voice of Reason that originally got them elected.

The republican sweep in '94 IMHO was a reaction to what was at the time democratic idealism about universal health care. The democratic sweep in '06 was a reaction to republican idealism surrounding foreign policy.

Presidential elections get influenced by more subtle things, but really big movements in the house seem to occur when people get the idea that the government has entirely lost its grip on reality.

Eh big deal. One more reason to ride a bike. 8)

We may well lose the effort in Afghanistan as a direct result of our misguided adventure into Iraq before Afghanistan & Al-Qaeda was done.

Iraq may have well end up costing us the "war on terror" and Bush and Rumsfeld may well be remembered as the men who brought America to its knees. We will come back, but it will take a while to restore an image of strength and credibility after the military-political fiasco and national embarassment wrought by neoconservative rule.

They're following the Ferengi 1st Rule of Acquisition:

"Once you have their money, never, ever, give it back."

8)

Jim Babcock said:
As usual there are usually 2 sides to every story. Why is it that academia owns the truth and that the truth on any topic is fixed until they decide otherwise?

Nobody 'owns' the truth. Science seeks the truth. But as always, one must always consider the source.

On the one hand, I have scientists in academia studying climate who don't really have a dog in the fight one way or the other as to whether the climate's going to get hotter, colder, or no change. Like in any science they propose a study, get their grant, they publish their results, blah blah blah. Done and done.

On the other hand, I have scientists paid by oil companies whose compensation depends upon they're reaching the conclusion that global warming is not a problem, or that if it is a problem, we should keep burning lots of oil anyway. Gee, no conflict of interest there..... :S

There's no debate to speak of on the matter any more in the academic scientific circles, I can't imagine why there would be at this point. The CO2 concentration is beyond anywhere we've ever seen it and that's an undisputed fact. The global warming 'skeptics' will say we should just relax and keep pushing the concentration higher and see what it does. Won't it be a fun experiment? Unfortunately, we only get to do it once. :C

Prudence would dictate that we take extraordinary efforts to stop the climb until we know the precise extent of the long-term effects of this. The oil companies will say that we should keep pushing it higher just to see what it does. Hmmmmm, who to trust... hmmmmmmmmm... think, think, think...

Jim Babcock said:
I think the way the left acts on this issue is disgraceful. They constantly essentially tell minorities not to apply because the rest of America will not support them, when in fact it is the left themselves who are being...

I don't think anyone's telling them not to apply. I was just giving my honest assessment of their odds in the present day. The bottom line is that currently there are a lot more men that won't vote for a woman than there are women who won't vote for a man. And there are a lot of women who won't vote for a woman either. We have a sizable population of religious fundamentalist types who still firmly believe that the man is the dominant authority figure and that women should be subordinate. We will get past that thinking someday, I just don't think on the whole we're quite there yet. It's certainly possible, I would just say it's improbable. I would love to be proven wrong.

Some observations:

1) Belief in some fairly fantastic things can be readily accepted if the belief is offered from a source with some authority (i.e. mom)
2) Once accepted, explanations for real-world events can be easily seen through the lens of that belief (disappearance of porridge; appearance of rocks) even though these events have more logical explanations
3) Faulty memory combined with insufficient information can create "miracles" (i.e. the sudden appearance of a "new" snow lantern)
4) Belief can be a compelling thing even when the material rewards are meager (i.e. 3 rocks). Belief in things 'magical' carries its own reward to a considerable degree.

How about:

1) WRT foreign policy, run on a platform of restoring respect by the international community with a policy based on confirmed, factual threats and pragmatic realities in place of idealistic 'faith-based' threats and ideological wishlists.

2) Pledge to end the war on science, so that EPA scientists can publish findings free of political editing, and rangers at Grand Canyon National Park can openly tell visitors how many millions of years old the canyon is, free of religious/political pressure from administration officials.

3) Stick with the environmental plank like glue, whatever you do. It's one of your biggest vote-getters.

4) Develop a cohesive platform to rally around, and develop a political machine that can drive it. The R's are organized and have a very effective machine while the Dems have seemed generally disorganized, IMHO. November was easy just because the Prez was so unpopular. But with 2 years of split government ahead, the neocons are no longer free to act on every whim with impunity which mutes their distasteful tendencies, as well as providing opportunity for blame to be spread for whatever happens next.

2008 will be harder than 2006.

It is a little late to talk containment, at least in any unilateral-military sense. A regional emerging conflict requires a regional solution. It is beyond any one nation's capacity to 'contain' such hostility unless you quadruple the occupying force and impose martial law everywhere.

It is time to set idealism and pride aside and discuss options with the regional powers. Often you have to negotiate with adversaries, as well as with friends.

Bill Madewell said:
Has anybody read that NASA is going too BUY a new toilet system from "RUSSIA" for the ISS, for 18 million ?
Thats a load of ***t....... > > >
You can buy a lot of depends diapers for that kind of money.
And this job is being Outsorced... :C
I need a laxitive now, for what I have been shoveled.

For some reason it brings to mind a line from Austin Powers, something about a toilet made out of solid gold...