SuperJerk

Oh, there you had to go and drag common sense into this! Geez!

I don't think anyone's mentioned this yet... http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/26/obama.rove/index.html There's nothing Americans hate more than someone who makes fun of the people at a country club...oh, wait.

Given the weapons technology and level of training the government gives not just the military, but also federal law enforcement agencies and the CIA, I'm going out on a limb and saying I think the Citizen Army would probably lose that fight.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080626/ap_on_..._co/scotus_guns Thoughts?

Regulation of marriage has traditionally been an issue decided by states, until the conservatives began federalizing it in the 90s. Somehow it became a presidential issue. I'm still not sure how that happened when neither of the two major parties has endorsed gay marrige.

So long as we're talking about it...I'm super-annoyed that how many sports you can coach is a deciding factor when applying for high school jobs (especially social studies).

I'm not completely opposed to nuclear power. Over 80 ships in the U.S. Navy are equipped with nuclear reactors (carriers are equipped with 2 reactors) without a single incident, and there has only been one accident in the history of civilian plants and no member of the public was injured by the accident. Compare this to the hazards of coal-fire plants.

None of have a choice in teaching towards the standardized test, but that's not really an excuse. Most of the stuff on the test is stuff we were supposed to be teaching anyways. I'm not happy with the tests are graded, such as how writing tests are frequently used to measure reading ability, or the way data is collected using NCLB regulations, or how testing has made science and social studies education an after-thought, but if the tests are well designed they can be a useful measure to gage student learning.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080626/ap_on_...e/teaching_math When I got my Master's in Special Education a few years back, I saw this as well. I think this is a larger trend in general, applicable to all subject and grade levels. For example, when I first started student teaching I didn't feel I was prepared. There's a reason so many teachers work as hard as they can, but the kids never seem to get ahead. Teacher education relies too much on theoretical psychology, and not enough on subject matter comprehension or usable techniques.

Yes and no. That thread was started to talk about about one effect of global warming. In my search I was looking for a thread about global warming in general.

We have plenty of threads where discussions of global warming occurred, but I dug back several years trying to find one where that was the actual topic and couldn't find one.

I miss the days when I was proud of a president. I think I was 10 at the time.

Lots of stufff to talk about... I'm undecided as well, Bob. Different polls have been all over the place. Daily tracking is stupid anyways because the fluctuations from day to day always fall within the margin of error. I think P.G.O.A.T. probably gave the best answer on the press question. I think anyone who voted for the Iraq War Resoultion should be automatically disqualified from being offered the VP slot by Obama. Ralph Nader thinks Obama doesn't act black enough. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/25/nad...bama/index.html In America, if you're black but don't act like a stereotype, in this case a stereotype of a black politician, you're not authentic. It is bullshit opinions like that, whether they are held by whites or blacks, that help keep the racial divide going. For a white man to attack a black man on this basis makes my fucking blood boil. I can't believe I ever voted for that asshole.

I don't know. The stock liberal answer is accountability to their corporate masters, but I think its deeper than that. You could also say "Fox News," but their band of journalism isn't exclusive to them, and there is a market for it. Rather than just spouting out the first thing that pops into my head, I'm going to actually put some thought into this before answering. Meanwhile, here's a fun toy to play with. http://www.says-it.com/mccain/intro.php

So, if you think your neighborhood isn't racist, it mean's you're racist? . . . I'd hope they'd mean "community" in a way that is a little broader than that. Or maybe the "their" meant the African-Americans', not the horrible racist white devils. Or maybe polls and their interpretation are usually dumb, and most journalists are just parrots with typewriters who only repeat what they've been told without any critical thought or desire to inform beyond the most sensationalist, attention-grabbing way of stating things.

And I really don't see the likelihood of ethanol causing a corn-shortage that will chain reacting into an across the board food shortage. Just a hunch. Anyhow, it's time now to enjoy the most surprising poll ever conducted.... Racist White People Don't Like Obama You fucking honkies can go back to talking about corn now.

This chart isn't the easiest to understand...Usually timelines put older stuff on the left and newer stuff on the right, and this one has it reversed. The farther you go to the right, the farther into the past you get. But the chart shows a link between CO2 and temperature, but has no implication for cause and effect. However, saying that CO2 is an effect of heating and cooling doesn't explain what the source of the CO2 is, since matter has to come from somewhere. Obviously, since humans weren't producing shit tons of CO2 tens of thousands of years ago, we can only say that natural processes dictated the temperature. Nothing was putting more CO2 in the air, only the temperature was changing vis a vis the aforementioned variables that I've mentioned. As the temperature gets hotter, the ocean releases CO2, and CO2 levels go up. So just one of the places where CO2 is an effect, not a cause. Or maybe CO2 is part of a bigger cause/effect cycle that we are throwing off by introducing so much of it.

I guaran-damn-tee more people care about abortion than government ethanol subsidies. I know its used in a lot of food products, but somehow I think we'll manage if for some reason there's a corn shortage.

Jame Dobson is a huge hypocrite... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080624/ap_on_...el_dobson_obama

One of a kind...he'll be missed.

This chart isn't the easiest to understand...Usually timelines put older stuff on the left and newer stuff on the right, and this one has it reversed. The farther you go to the right, the farther into the past you get. But the chart shows a link between CO2 and temperature, but has no implication for cause and effect. However, saying that CO2 is an effect of heating and cooling doesn't explain what the source of the CO2 is, since matter has to come from somewhere. Given the emphasis on the ice caps, I'd be interested in seeing more research on this. Do you have a link? The amount of greenhouse gases put out by cows is a direct result of livestock breeding by beef-eating humans, and is therefore not a naturally occuring phenomena.

Yes, Al Gore's invested in a company that provides the type of solutions he advocates. It's called capitalism. Marvin's theory about Gore presumes it is a hoax, but sides-steps the mountain of evidence that this is a real problem. Carbon emissions are proven to have an effect on temperature, but global warming opponents insist that its all part of a natural cycle, as if the planet could just start becoming warmer one day because it hadn't done it in a while.

Some light reading from the fine folks at Newsweek... The latest Newsweek poll shows Obama with a 15-point lead over McCain. Someone is finally talking about the Dole/McCain similarities besides me. John Kerry wants to be Secretary of State.

Assuming the credit card company charges a percentage of the transaction to the retailers, instead of a fixed rate per transaction or a flat monthly fee (I don't know which it is), the pay at the pump method saves money in terms of man hours for extra people and or time to handle a vast increase in register transactions and (as Jingus pointed out) reduced risk of robbery. On the other hand, it probably hurts in terms of merchadise sold out of the store (probably the real reason why some stores--if any--are switching back to register transactions).