That segways well with another post he had talking about whether, from a long astrobiological view, civilization was a good thing or would things be better off (astrobiologically) if humans had never progressed beyond hunter/gatherer. To wit civilization is in great danger of destroying much of the life on Earth long before it would otherwise have been wiped out (by an asteroid strike or by the Sun dying).

My own answer: it's a gamble but I'd say that astrobiologically Civilization is the better bet. If civilization identifies and deflects a single asteroid then the world would get a massive boost in biological survival and if civilization succeeds in bridging the world gap and colonizing another world(s) then our worlds biology would have hit the equivalent of the Powerball since earths biology would then be extended beyond the hard limit for hunter/gatherers (the lifespan of the sun). The possability of civilization exterminating all earth life on the other hand is far from a certainty so I'd say on balance even on the long view civilization is the winning bet.

It seems to me Tom that Obama's done what he can to keep the comittee on task. His promise to veto any attempts to wriggle out of the sequestration consequences of a logjam are far from weak tea.

A depressingly good post.

Is it egocentric of me to note that every one of the Leagues major breakups or cataclysm's occurred while I was on various vacations and thus was not on the net much? Yes I think it is. Honestly, I can't take my eyes (or monocle) off you people for even a second.

I'm like that, I worm my way in and people just assume I had always been around.

Welcome!

Heck, you could toss that one off every morning when you got up from bed and otherwise lead a life indistinguishable from your standard athiest.

If it were that uncomplicated who wouldn't?

What I fail to see Roger is where they make the connection. How does someone else being able to get gay married or have gay sex condemn a righteous person's soul to hell?

So the social right believes gays are condemned to hell? Clearly gays do not believe that. So why do the social right spend so much time trying to make life in this world a hell for gays as well? I mean they've got an infinity in the lake of fire ahead of them. Based on that, everything social cons do to make their limited time in this life more miserable is a hugely harmful and malicious act (and this is without even broaching the question as to whether the social right is correct or whether a God who set things up this way is worthy of adoration).

Rufus, I'd submit that what we're seeing is just a natural conclusion of a social flood. Social conservatives had a dam against divorce, the dam broke, there was a flood of divorce. The built up pressure has normalized and divorce is dropping to what would have been its natural level if it hadn't been prohibited in the first place.

Always good for a smirk. Have any Mallard Fillmore?

When was the last time the Dems pushed a bill on the fairness doctrine, have they ever? I'm spacing. Gun control... on the state level must have been one pushed relatively recently. Acorn? Err what? When's this cartoon from?

I'm uncertain myself James, I don't listen to radio. I remember the whole left wing talk radio project sputtered to a relatively ignomius end with that Air America thing. I just wanted to object to the idea that the spectrum of discourse has Beck as its rightmost anchor and Andrew Sullivan or Ezra Klein as the leftmost one. That leaves a lot of ground out to my mind.

Wouldn't the left wing equivalents of Limbaugh or Hannity be more like some NPR types? I mean if a blogger like Klein or a Conservative apostate like Sullivan is the left wing equivalent of Limbaugh or Hannity then what does that put the really out there left wingers?

Ah I see, it's not a replacement arguement, it's a living space use arguement. Well I don't have much to argue with about that though I wouldn't go so far as to agree.

I'm going to object to the kids thing. People are not being irresponsible if they choose not to have children or to have only one. In fact I'd say that carefully considering and controlling the number of children one has is the height of responsability.

It's a very easy mistake to make, they both had their meltdowns at near the same exact time but their fundamental problems were very close to polar opposites.

Even if it's partially real that is somewhat depressing.

Then we must travel immediatly to their canvas headquarters in Oakland and New York and seize their time machines before they can wreak more havoc.

Though to be fair Elias I'd say your position would be much more accurate if you were talking about the Irish. In that case they very literally volonteered to cover their banks losses (when they were not forced to) and essentially turned their country insolvent. If I'd have been an Irish citizen at the time it would have been pitchforks, torches and lamp posts time for me.

There is blame enough to go around Elias, certainly Germany reaped a lot of plump benefits to its economy during the heyday years of the Euro expansion, so did the Greeks. Now the party is over and alas both of them are having to pay. The Germans are ponying (ever so reluctantly) up the bailout money to keep the southern states solvent and keep the whole system from imploding. The Greeks similarily are having to (very reluctantly) accept that their system of mass tax evasion, their nationalized railroad that spends out four times what it takes in and other such public trough numnums will similarily have to go.

I don't like people enough to be a politician. Also I'm not crooked enough.

Expect the worst that way all your surprises are pleasant ones. I'm not surprised.

It does when it comes from right wingers directed at lefties, so why not vice versa?

 Minnesota is up next on the voter initiative train, I'm volunteering and we're all working very hard to put this voter initiative thing to bed at last. We have a decent shot at it too (though I'm expecting the worst so that the only surprises will be pleasant ones).

Beuller?