Breaking Bad: A Happy Ending? - The "Breaking Bad" Roundtable - The Atlantic

Breaking Bad: A Happy Ending? - The "Breaking Bad" Roundtable - The Atlantic: "As Linda Holmes put it a few weeks ago, "What makes Breaking Bad one of the most moral shows in the history of television is that actions have consequences, whether those actions arise from pain or greed or fear or panic. You pay for your actions, not the operation of your heart." "

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Angus King: Conservatives Who Encourage Young Not to Enroll in Obamacare 'Guilty of Murder' | National Review Online

Angus King: Conservatives Who Encourage Young Not to Enroll in Obamacare 'Guilty of Murder' | National Review Online: "“That’s a scandal — those people are guilty of murder in my opinion,” King said.  “Some of those people they persuade are going to end up dying because they don’t have health insurance. For people who do that to other people in the name of some obscure political ideology is one of the grossest violations of our humanity I can think of. This absolutely drives me crazy.”"

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Riddle Us These?

Riddle Us These? «: "(1) If the rich have so much influence, then how come the vast majority of taxes are paid by them? And how come (excepting the big elephant of the payroll tax and hidden regulatory fees and costs) the BOTTOM half of wage earners do not pay income taxes? The “rich” must not be very good at what they do.

(2) If employers have so much bargaining power, then how come well less than 4% of the workforce earns the minimum wage? What is going on with the other 96%? Or how come the average production worker on a manufacturing line makes just about $20 per hour?"

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Facebook

Facebook: " i understand the beauty of diversity, but there is only one kind of race in this picture. If each of these children or one of the adults were a different race like Asian, black or Indian, then I could say diversity."

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The new standard: diversity in every photo.

Amazon.com: Haribo Gummy Candy, Sugarless Gummy Bears, 5-Pound Bag: Grocery & Gourmet Food

Amazon.com: Haribo Gummy Candy, Sugarless Gummy Bears, 5-Pound Bag: Grocery & Gourmet Food: "Then came the, uh, flatulence. Heavens to Murgatroyd, the sounds, like trumpets calling the demons back to Hell...the stench, like 1,000 rotten corpses vomited. I couldn't stand to stay in one room for fear of succumbing to my own odors.

But wait; there's more. What came out of me felt like someone tried to funnel Niagara Falls through a coffee straw. I swear my sphincters were screaming. It felt like my delicate starfish was a gaping maw projectile vomiting a torrential flood of toxic waste. 100% liquid. Flammable liquid. NAPALM. It was actually a bit humorous (for a nanosecond)as it was just beyond anything I could imagine possible.

AND IT WENT ON FOR HOURS."

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Networks That Touted Tom DeLay’s 2010 Conviction Now Silent About His Acquittal | Media Research Center

Networks That Touted Tom DeLay’s 2010 Conviction Now Silent About His Acquittal | Media Research Center: "Back in 2010, when ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was convicted on money laundering charges related to campaign fundraising, all three network morning and evening news shows made sure to tell their viewers. But Thursday night and Friday morning, after an appeals court overturned that verdict and completely acquitted DeLay of those charges, none of the broadcast networks bothered to even mentioned the former Republican leader’s exoneration."

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I wouldn't call having a conviction overturned on appeal an "acquittal," though.

The Corner | National Review Online

The Corner | National Review Online: "On Sunday night during the Emmy’s, leftwing filmmaker Michael Moore tweeted that Breaking Bad’s award-winning plot would have never transpired in Canada because cancer-stricken protagonist Walter White would have received treatment shortly after his diagnosis. In the show, White, a high-school chemistry teacher in New Mexico, turns to making and dealing meth to secure his family’s finances before he dies. In Canada though, Moore argues, White would have received treatment paid for by the government and wouldn’t have felt forced to turn to a life of crime."

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Some should tell Michael Moore that TV isn't real. White never turned into meth dealer, and therefore, everything must be fine with our healthcare system.

Obama Vows to Veto House CR : Roll Call News

Obama Vows to Veto House CR : Roll Call News: "“The Administration is willing to support a short-term continuing resolution to allow critical Government functions to operate without interruption and looks forward to working with the Congress on appropriations legislation for the remainder of the fiscal year that preserves critical national priorities, protects national security, and makes investments to spur economic growth and job creation for years to come,” the administration said."

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Here's an idea for Republicans.

Give the Administration a short-term continuing resolution that only authorizes critical government functions. We're talking critical functions only--not funding as usual. Make it as long as possible. Now the pressure is off. Hold firm on defunding Obamacare, even when the continuing resolution is about to expire. Offer another continuing resolution with similar critical-function-only funding.

If they kept going like this, Republicans in the house could, in fact, significantly cut the size of government.

Opinion: The impossibility of gun control - Rich Lowry - POLITICO.com

Opinion: The impossibility of gun control - Rich Lowry - POLITICO.com: "The Navy Yard massacre won’t revive the gun debate in Congress for a simple reason. There is no gun control agenda this side of a total ban and confiscation that would have stopped Aaron Alexis.

The Toomey-Manchin bill could have passed Congress unanimously. The assault weapons ban could still be in place. Gun-controllers could have achieved their long-ago goal of barring the private purchase of handguns. And every step of his mayhem at the Washington Navy Yard would have been unimpeded."

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Zimmerman prosecutor Angela Corey now under state investigation | Washington Times Communities

Zimmerman prosecutor Angela Corey now under state investigation | Washington Times Communities: "“Then, Corey called the school and told the Dean the professor should be disciplined for reporting her misconduct, the school called me, I told Corey that was unacceptable and she must apologize to the Dean and the professor.

“Corey refused my direct order. Then she was given another chance, she refused and was fired.”"

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CIA Employee Who Refused to Sign Non-Disclosure On Benghazi Suspended | Washington Free Beacon

CIA Employee Who Refused to Sign Non-Disclosure On Benghazi Suspended | Washington Free Beacon: "A CIA employee who refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement barring him from discussing the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, has been suspended as a result and forced to hire legal counsel, according to a top House lawmaker."

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Breaking Bad: Did Walter White Betray His Family—or Begin to Save Them? - The "Breaking Bad" Roundtable - The Atlantic

Breaking Bad: Did Walter White Betray His Family—or Begin to Save Them? - The "Breaking Bad" Roundtable - The Atlantic: "Walt's wrong, of course. He doesn’t care about feeding his family; he cares about feeding his ego. The only thing an egomaniac loves more than himself is martyring himself. And where has that led him? To the back seat of an old minivan, forced onto the road toward what he fears most: an ordinary life alone, with neither family nor drug dealers nor any inferiors to marvel at his genius. This is his hell."

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Weekend Ponderance «

Weekend Ponderance «: "That’s right. Never in my life have I stumbled into a more surprising response than when we have the chance to show some positive economic or environmental information to students, it’s as if I told them the opposite. I mentioned this one the other day in passing, but you should imagine the look on students faces when they do research to confirm that global warming isn’t really going to kill very many people. Tears almost well up in their eyes – and not tears of joy. Or what if you show students the temperature record of flat temps over the last 15 years? Or the fact that extreme hurricanes seem to be less likely now, not more? Or that our air is cleaner now than at any point in our modern history. Or that our living standards are unconscionably better than they were 100 years ago or beyond. And so on."

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Weekend Ponderance «

Weekend Ponderance «: "That’s right. Never in my life have I stumbled into a more surprising response than when we have the chance to show some positive economic or environmental information to students, it’s as if I told them the opposite. I mentioned this one the other day in passing, but you should imagine the look on students faces when they do research to confirm that global warming isn’t really going to kill very many people. Tears almost well up in their eyes – and not tears of joy. Or what if you show students the temperature record of flat temps over the last 15 years? Or the fact that extreme hurricanes seem to be less likely now, not more? Or that our air is cleaner now than at any point in our modern history. Or that our living standards are unconscionably better than they were 100 years ago or beyond. And so on."

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American Ineffectualism | National Review Online

American Ineffectualism | National Review Online: "It pains me to have to say that the versatile Vlad makes a much better columnist than I’d be a KGB torturer. His “plea for caution” was an exquisitely masterful parody of liberal bromides far better than most of the Times’ in-house writers can produce these days. He talked up the U.N. and international law, was alarmed by U.S. military intervention, and worried that America was no longer seen as “a model of democracy” but instead as erratic cowboys “cobbling coalitions together under the slogan ‘you’re either with us or against us.’” He warned against chest-thumping about “American exceptionalism,” pointing out that, just like America’s grade-school classrooms, in the international community everyone is exceptional in his own way."

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Who knew Putin was such an American patriot? (unless dissent is no longer the highest form of patriotism)

American Ineffectualism | National Review Online

American Ineffectualism | National Review Online: "For generations, eminent New York Times wordsmiths have swooned over foreign strongmen, from Walter Duranty’s Pulitzer-winning paeans to the Stalinist utopia to Thomas L. Friedman’s more recent effusions to the “enlightened” Chinese Politburo. So it was inevitable that the cash-strapped Times would eventually figure it might as well eliminate the middle man and hire the enlightened strongman direct."

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I'm single at 50. Why? Men hate me being brainier than them, says KATE MULVEY | Mail Online

I'm single at 50. Why? Men hate me being brainier than them, says KATE MULVEY | Mail Online: "For me, this is stating the blindingly obvious. I've lost count of the times men have rejected or insulted me simply because I was brighter, wittier or cleverer than they are.

They have called me 'intimidating', 'scary', 'difficult' and 'opinionated'. Translated, that means: 'You are too clever and I don't like it.'

An older male friend - supposedly tired of me dominating dinner-party conversation - even wagged his podgy finger and told me I would never get married because I was too confident and demanding. "

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I'm single at 50. Why? Men hate me being brainier than them, says KATE MULVEY | Mail Online

I'm single at 50. Why? Men hate me being brainier than them, says KATE MULVEY | Mail Online: "What had I done? It should be depressingly obvious. I had dared to dent his fragile male ego.
By speaking in a language Philip didn't know, I had managed to make him - a successful writer, ten years my senior - feel small. How selfish of me to embarrass him in public with my linguistic prowess! "

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Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time: The Complete List

Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time: The Complete List: "What do white people have to complain about, George Carlin once posited. "Did Banana Republic run out of khakis? Are Hootie & the Blowish breaking up?" If only."

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Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time: The Complete List

Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time: The Complete List: "Of course, white people aren't like most listeners, and will tolerate almost anything they're told is good for them; hence the group's popularity. Unlike Weetabix, however, there's not a shred of evidence suggesting Fleet Foxes prevent colorectal cancer."

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3 Things to Tell Your Kids When You're Getting Divorced | The Stir

3 Things to Tell Your Kids When You're Getting Divorced | The Stir: "“Daddy is not a bad person/jerk/asshat.” Ok, so you don’t have to state this one specifically, but do refrain from name-calling. Your kids are half you and half your ex."

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This is sort of simplistic, but it helps me see why kids would be so injured in divorce. Half of myself can't live with the other half.

Pope Francis assures atheists: You don’t have to believe in God to go to heaven - Europe - World - The Independent

Pope Francis assures atheists: You don’t have to believe in God to go to heaven - Europe - World - The Independent: "Responding to a list of questions published in the paper by Mr Scalfari, who is not a Roman Catholic, Francis wrote: “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith. I start by saying – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience.

“Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.” "

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Harvard's Gender Bender - Bloomberg

Harvard's Gender Bender - Bloomberg: "If you put a bunch of people in their late 20s together in a small space for two years, they’re going to spend a lot of their time looking for a spouse, because that’s the age at which they’re supposed to be finding one. And treating them like kindergarteners who can’t be trusted to choose their own clothes just sends the message that fighting sexism is about being a humorless nanny. Judging from the comments from the male students, that is, in fact, exactly the message they picked up."

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What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria - NYTimes.com

What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria - NYTimes.com: "The United States State Department has designated Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, fighting with the opposition, as terrorist organizations. This internal conflict, fueled by foreign weapons supplied to the opposition, is one of the bloodiest in the world."

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Remind me where those weapons came from?

Social Liberalism is Not Libertarian Part 3,086,012 | National Review Online

Social Liberalism is Not Libertarian Part 3,086,012 | National Review Online: "Longtime Corner readers know this is one of my great peeves: the idea that liberals are “socially libertarian.” It’s an idea that liberals — and even quite a few libertarians —  love to perpetuate. It’s also not true. Take, for instance, the recent decision out of New Mexico holding that a wedding photographer had no right to refuse to work at a gay wedding. The libertarian view of the case, broadly speaking, is that the photographer may have been in error morally or economically but he was within his rights. The socially liberal view, broadly speaking, is “Hooray! Victory for gay people, defeat for bad people!”"

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The Corner | National Review Online

The Corner | National Review Online: "Perhaps the most alarming fact about contemporary progressivism is that it is a movement led by radical lawyers. The use of the law to undermine our constitutional tradition is in effect the use of the law to undermine itself. But worse than that, it is the use of the legal profession as a kind of revolutionary instrument. That is a particular problem because the legal profession has always had a special role in the Anglo-American common law tradition as precisely an anti-revolutionary instrument—a repository of cautionary precedent and prudent mulishness."

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Facebook

Facebook: ""What's something you wish you'd enjoyed more while it lasted?"
"Raising my kids. I mean, they turned out well. So I raised them well in that sense. But I was always working. Even on a lot of weekends, I was working. When I was coming up, that's what the man was expected to do."
"If you had spent more time with your family, do you think you'd regret not having progressed as far in your career?"
".... no.""

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A Famous Victory in Colorado | National Review Online

A Famous Victory in Colorado | National Review Online: "Guns are a notoriously touchy subject in America — a supercharged third rail, if you will. But so too is the notion of accountability. The country was founded, after all, by men with guns grumbling about the nature of their political representation."

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Band Marketing 101: If You Can’t Sell 100 Cds, You Suck! | Home Recording Blog

Band Marketing 101: If You Can’t Sell 100 Cds, You Suck! | Home Recording Blog: "Unless you are an orphaned only child raised by wolves, you probably have have friends and family. Guess what! These are the people you HAVE to sell to. Some band people seam to think that they shouldn’t charge their friends or family for their music. Well, in my experience, these are the easiest people to get to buy your music. It’s WAY harder after that!"

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Norman Podhoretz: Obama's Successful Foreign Failure - WSJ.com

Norman Podhoretz: Obama's Successful Foreign Failure - WSJ.com: "It is entirely understandable that Barack Obama's way of dealing with Syria in recent weeks should have elicited responses ranging from puzzlement to disgust. Even members of his own party are despairingly echoing in private the public denunciations of him as "incompetent," "bungling," "feckless," "amateurish" and "in over his head" coming from his political opponents on the right.

For how else to characterize a president who declares war against what he calls a great evil demanding immediate extirpation and in the next breath announces that he will postpone taking action for at least 10 days—and then goes off to play golf before embarking on a trip to another part of the world? As if this were not enough, he also assures the perpetrator of that great evil that the military action he will eventually take will last a very short time and will do hardly any damage. Unless, that is, he fails to get the unnecessary permission he has sought from Congress, in which case (according to an indiscreet member of his own staff) he might not take any military action after all."

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Global warming? No, actually we're cooling, claim scientists - Telegraph

Global warming? No, actually we're cooling, claim scientists - Telegraph: "The Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has remained blocked by pack-ice all year, forcing some ships to change their routes.
A leaked report to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) seen by the Mail on Sunday, has led some scientists to claim that the world is heading for a period of cooling that will not end until the middle of this century."

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Joseph F. Smith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joseph F. Smith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Smith ultimately adopted five children and fathered forty-three children. Thirteen of his children preceded him in death: Mercy, Leonora, Sarah Ellen, Heber, Rhoda, Alice, Hyrum, Alfred, Albert, Robert, Zina, Ruth, and John. His adopted son, Edward, also preceded him in death."

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Weekend Ponderance «

Weekend Ponderance «: "Walmart and Applebees and Timmy’s Taco Shack and the like are all bad guys because they are actually employing people and producing things for bums like me. But the rest of us are given a 100% total free pass. I haven’t employed a single person (meaningfully) in my entire life. Not only do I not pay a living wage, I don’t pay minimum wage, indeed I pay less than zero. All I do is “take” from other workers. Yet if I slapped together some bumper stickers and signs, I would be viewed as a champion of workers’ rights?

What kind of logic is this? I am in every real sense an enemy of workers by refusing to employ them myself. Calling me a champion of workers is a bit like a tick the champion of deer."

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Pope Tweets Against Syria Strike, Writes Putin, Plans Saturday Vigil | TIME.com

Pope Tweets Against Syria Strike, Writes Putin, Plans Saturday Vigil | TIME.com: "“To the leaders present, to each and every one, I make a heartfelt appeal for them to help find ways to overcome the conflicting positions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution,” the Pope urged. “Rather, let there be a renewed commitment to seek, with courage and determination, a peaceful solution through dialogue and negotiation of the parties, unanimously supported by the international community.”"

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The Corner | National Review Online

The Corner | National Review Online: "Not to be outdone, the Daily Telegraph’s Tim Stanley put together a list of ten ways in which Britain is “vastly superior” to Russia, including “an alphabet that makes sense” and a reluctance to put dogs in space.

And then there’s this:

British films last 90 minutes, not 4 hours. Everyone says Andrei Tarkovsky is a genius, but his best movie – Solaris – features a ten minute close up of an actor’s ear. “Comedies” also tend to involve fat men falling in ponds and women crying about the price of bread. Dwarves feature prominently."

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Blogger: Althouse - Post a Comment

Blogger: Althouse - Post a Comment: " Ipso Fatso said...
And prank emails!!!

--All The Best,

Pope Francis!!!!

P.S. Go Packers!!!!"

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Economist Ronald Coase Was Chased Out of UVA in 1964 for Supporting Market Solutions. - Hit & Run : Reason.com

Economist Ronald Coase Was Chased Out of UVA in 1964 for Supporting Market Solutions. - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "The Twitter feed of academic Siva Vaidhyanathan points to this story about how recently deceased economist Ronald Coase was chased out of the University of Virginia in the early 1960s.

The heinous crime of Coase, who would go on to win the 1991 Nobel Prize in economics? He stood against the rising tide of belief in an economy managed by experts and regulators."

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The New Scientific Method, Illustrated «

The New Scientific Method, Illustrated «: "Female doctors earn $50,000 less than male doctors
You’d think that what follows is research from a peer-reviewed paper that controls for all of the factors that belong in earnings functions, using simple Mincer equations or more complicated methodology, and that this $50,000 difference is what remains after controlling for “explainable” factors. But you’d be wrong."

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Thoughts on Adversity

Thoughts on Adversity: "“Someone once said, I forget who, ‘In October, when the leaves fall, you can see deeper into the forest.’  It’s true.  So much foliage had fallen from my branching ambitions, and as a result, I could see deeper into the forest that was my life.”  (78)

‘Trees need the winter.  I never knew that before.  They need time to strengthen for the growth they experience in springtime.  All that green, pulpy growth has to harden, or the tree would not be able to withstand the seasonal winds that whip against it.”  (78-79)"

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Defending the Faith: Event convinced Saints of Brigham Young's mantle | Deseret News

Defending the Faith: Event convinced Saints of Brigham Young's mantle | Deseret News: "Indeed, in 1843, Joseph had openly expressed his intention to release Sidney from the First Presidency. However, at the church’s general conference in October of that year, President Rigdon asked to remain in his position and the congregation, contrary to Joseph’s express wishes, agreed to let him stay."

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Was Mitt Romney Right About Everything

Was Mitt Romney Right About Everything: "“Everyone thought, Oh my goodness that is so clever and Mitt’s caught in the Cold War and doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” O’Brien said. “Well guess what. With all of these foreign policy initiatives — Syria, Iran, [Edward] Snowden — who’s out there causing problems for America? It’s Putin and the Russians.”

Indeed, earlier this summer, Moscow defiantly refused to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden to the United States, prompting Obama to cancel a meeting he had scheduled with Putin during the Group of 20 summit. Russia has blocked United Nations action against Syria. And on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told lawmakers that Russia was one of the countries supplying Syria with chemical weapons."

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Ann Coulter - September 4, 2013 - COMMUNITY ORGANIZER GOES TO WAR

Ann Coulter - September 4, 2013 - COMMUNITY ORGANIZER GOES TO WAR: "
Obama says Assad -- unlike that great statesman Saddam Hussein -- has posed "a challenge to the world." But the world disagrees. Even our usual ally, Britain, disagrees. So Obama demands the United States act alone to stop a dictator, who -- compared to Saddam -- is a piker.

At this point, Assad is at least 49,000 dead bodies short of the good cause the Iraq War was, even if chemical weapons had been the only reason to take out Saddam Hussein. "

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Ooops!

Ooops!: "As we await Congress’s decision on authorizing the use of U.S. military force in Syria, Democrats are suddenly realizing that their foreign-policy brain-trust completely misjudged the world.

Being nicer to countries like Russia will not make them nicer to you. The United Nations is not an effective tool for resolving crises. Some foreign leaders are beyond persuasion and diplomacy. There is no “international community” ready to work together to solve problems, and there probably never will be."

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False ID at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics

False ID at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics: "So what responses might we expect from Behe or Dawkins? Behe, I think, would have the easier time of it, since he can always contend that the natural numbers must have been intelligently designed. But that paints him into a pretty isolated corner. In my experience, even the most committed theists are reluctant to believe that an equation like “2 plus 2 equals 4″ is the result of a design choice.

For Dawkins, I think, the game is up. Surely he won’t want to argue that the natural numbers have evolved, so that their properties today are different from their properties at some time in the distant past. (Of course, our knowledge of the natural numbers has evolved, but that’s a different matter entirely.)

Not everything that’s complex — not even everything that’s irreducibly complex — was designed. Not everything that’s complex evolved from something simpler. Whether any given complex structure was designed, or evolved, or was just plain complex from the get-go, is a question that requires more than an appeal to glib, and demonstrably false, generalities."

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Power Transmission at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics

Power Transmission at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics: "And then there’s this passage, which I feel compelled to assure you I am not making up:


Many of the laws he rushed through Congress in such unprecedented numbers …were inadequately thought through, flawed, contradictory, not infrequently exacerbating, at immense cost, the evils they were intended to correct. But his very declaration of that War [on Poverty] was a reminder — as was his overall concept of a “Great Society” — of government’s responsibility to strike blows against ignorance and disease and want….In storming, on behalf of those laws, long-held bastions of congressional hostility to social-welfare programs, he used the power of the presidency for purposes as noble as any in American history.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that was Robert Caro telling you that rushing willy-nilly into poorly conceived policies that do more harm than good is as noble as it gets in the world of presidential power.

And they say that economists wear blinders!"

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