[QUOTE=Brian-E;356384]No, mate, your work is not done. You still need to get Ernst to defend Richard. Now there's a challenge for you...[/QUOTE]
I could easily do so, but I don't want Kieran to be spoiled by too-easily-achieved success.

But here's a hint: Over in the S&T subforum "relativistic twins" thread, I was tempted to tell davar55 something to the effect of "when you find both cheesehead and me on the same side of the issue, that should tell you something."

OTOH, cheesehead and I don't disagree nearly as often about science as we do about politics, so the real test of Kieran's diplomacy-foo is to get me to defend cheesehead in a political context. Keep working, buddy. :)

[QUOTE=ewmayer;356452]I could easily do so, but I don't want Kieran to be spoiled by too-easily-achieved success.

But here's a hint: Over in the S&T subforum "relativistic twins" thread, I was tempted to tell davar55 something to the effect of "when you find both cheesehead and me on the same side of the issue, that should tell you something."

OTOH, cheesehead and I don't disagree nearly as often about science as we do about politics, so the real test of Kieran's diplomacy-foo is to get me to defend cheesehead in a political context. Keep working, buddy. :)[/QUOTE]
Yes, I am an avid reader of what both you and Richard, together with several other very knowledgable contributors, write in the Science threads and learn a lot from you there (when it's not over my head, that is!). I was thinking mainly of the political threads when I challenged Kieren.:smile:

[QUOTE=chalsall;356156]
1. Wny is Socialism assumed to be so evil by some humans, when it seems to work reasonable well for many other animals and insects (and even humans, if done correctly)?[/QUOTE]We're working on that: [URL="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+YonatanZunger/posts/XtpEcea3Hmt"]Obama is the ANTCHRIST[/URL] [noparse][note spelling][/noparse]
(no need to click -- it is a picture of a protest phrase painted on a back window of a Ford Explorer)

I, for one, [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKbFb6TPVEA"]welcome our new insect overlords.[/URL]

[QUOTE=only_human;356458]We're working on that: [URL="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+YonatanZunger/posts/XtpEcea3Hmt"]Obama is the ANTCHRIST[/URL] [noparse][note spelling][/noparse]
(no need to click -- it is a picture of a protest phrase painted on a back window of a Ford Explorer)[/QUOTE]

LOL - to be politically accurate about such antymatters, though, note that ant societies do have a very well-defined power elite. They seem to manage quite well overall, however - I'm not aware of any antyauthoritarian movements in known antyhistory. [Perhaps the antyelitists simply have extremely effective state-control of the antymedia, though.]

W.r.to "religions begun as result of poor spellchecking", I wonder which is the greater threat to whichever status quo the above truck-painter represents - the ant-zealots or [url=http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?p=131837#post131837]these folks[/url]? I suspect the former, mainly based on superior ant-organization: there's a reason unbelievers [whether proficient at spelling or not] are often labeled with the phrase "like herding cats".

Now, time for this cat-herd to enjoy a refreshing afternoon "gin and catatonic". My favorite brand of the antymalarial latter beverage is, of course, the Quinine Lives[sup]®[/sup] brand, "The best choice for your feliny drinking and driving[sup]TM[/sup]".

kummerspeck
 

[URL="http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2013/10/16/debt-ceiling-bill-funds-kentucky-dam-project-to-ire-of-mcconnell-foes/"]Debt-ceiling bill funds Kentucky dam project to ire of McConnell foes[/URL]
Pork, the other white meat.
[QUOTE]Here’s some dry language from the legislation:

SEC. 123. Section 3(a)(6) of Public Law 100–676 is amended by striking both occurrences of ‘‘$775,000,000’’ and inserting in lieu thereof, ‘‘$2,918,000,000’’[/QUOTE]

Follow-up:
The Washington Post has a kinder take on this.
[URL="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics-live/liveblog/live-updates-the-shutdown-9/?id=a9f2f203-96e6-4943-baf1-bc7ae85af94f"]'Kentucky Kickback'? Not so much.[/URL][QUOTE]But as our David Fahrenthold reports, the funding was actually requested by President Obama and, according to congressional sources from both parties, wasn’t a McConnell project.[/QUOTE]

Among the odder events today, during the final House vote, the stenographer snapped:
[URL="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/house-stenographer-hauled-from-floor-98439.html"]House stenographer hauled from floor[/URL][QUOTE]A House floor stenographer was abruptly hauled out of the chamber after charging the dais and screaming during Wednesday’s late night vote on raising the debt ceiling and funding the federal government.

As the bill sailed toward final passage, the presiding lawmaker suddenly began pounding the gavel. Witnesses on the floor said the woman, identified as Dianne Reidy, seized a microphone and began yelling during the vote.

She was then removed from the chamber by floor staff and taken into an adjacent elevator. She continued yelling as she was taken away, saying phrases such as “you cannot serve two masters” and “he will not be mocked.”

The incident stunned members and staffers on the floor, who had never seen anything like it.[/QUOTE]

... yet some contended that the shutdown would do no harm ...

[QUOTE=only_human;356486]Among the odder events today, during the final House vote, the stenographer snapped:
[URL="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/house-stenographer-hauled-from-floor-98439.html"]House stenographer hauled from floor[/URL][/QUOTE]

The story is still sketchy. It seems that she harbors religion-driven paranoia. She carried on about Free Masons writing the Constitution, and going against god. I suspect that transcribing all the craziness in that chamber overflowed her buffers. It also says something about who gets hired these days in the Hallowed Halls of Power. Of course, that goes double for some of the elected denizens.

[url=www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/17/us-usa-fiscal-idUSBRE98N11220131017?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews]Reuters' take on the debt ceiling deal[/url]:
[quote]The bill amounts to a clear defeat for Republicans, who had sought to tie government funding to measures that would undercut Obama's signature Affordable Care Act.

That effort failed, and the standoff diverted public attention away from the administration's sloppy rollout of the health law's online insurance exchanges.

The fight split the Republican party into factions and left it on the wrong side of public opinion. Though Obama's approval rating fell during the crisis, polls showed that most voters blamed Republicans for the standoff.[/quote]
Re. Obama's "lurching from one crisis to the next" statement in the above piece, I'm afraid that is our fate, since neither the 2008 GFC nor the frightening trajectory of the national debt has led to any of the structural reforms direly needed to address the underlying "debt and excess leverage" issues common to both.

So ... reconvene here in 3 months?

[QUOTE=ewmayer;356560]...I'm afraid that is our fate, since neither the 2008 GFC nor the frightening trajectory of the national debt has led to any of the structural reforms direly needed to address the underlying "debt and excess leverage" issues common to both.[/QUOTE]

There is an important difference between fate and karma.