LateDave's Comments (48)

“Yee haw. Lemme try it...

Fool me once, don't notice. Fool me twice, still don't notice. Fool me three times, hey, what is this? Fool me four times, I think I see what you're doing. Fool me five times, I'm gonna tell my daddy.

Did I get it?”

“Indeed. I know some orbital mechanics, and they never, ever invoke the aid of ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night. It's interesting the way the software that controls the orbits of long-duration spacecraft has been modified in response to our discoveries about the solar system. Over and over, as we have found new phenomena that make our predictions about satellite motion invalid, we have had to tweak the control algorithms, just to keep the gizmos from falling down.

Note that the successive tweaks have been more and more refined, so the quality of the orbits has been getting better and better, but no observable phenomenon can be ignored or denied. One verifies its existence, simulates behavior based on incorporating it or not, and decides - for now! - whether to include it in as a factor.

Consider the effect of variations in solar emission on the size of Earth's atmosphere. As the very rarified outer gas density changes, satellites bang into more or fewer molecules, slow down more or less per time interval, and deviate from their previous orbits accordingly. We don't fully understand the causes of the variations, but we know how to observe and measure them, and we can adjust the motion and position of satellites accordingly. GPS and Dish TV depend on this, for example. Witchcraft? No, physics.

Just because it's news to you doesn't mean it's not *real.*”

“Marable, Manning, _Race,_Ref­orm,_and_R­ebellion_, 1991, p. 149.”

“Does bg concede about the USPO?”

“Right!

Pollution is a great counterargument for an "idealistic" laissez-faire type. Asimov argued, "My right to swing my fist stops where your nose begins." The same applies - painfully - for pollution. If it is clear that your clear-cutting a forest you own will wash out a town downhill from your land, then *you* *don't* *have* *a* *right* *to* *use* *your* *own* *land* *as* *you* *see* *fit.* You can't build a lead smelter upwind of a school. You can't dump hazardous waste into a mineshaft that leaches into a river others use for drinking water.

There are too many people in this world for you to be utterly free. If you can afford to buy an island someplace, great. Goodbye. And with the sea level rising due to "freedom," good luck.

The opposite is also true. *Not* being free, like China, destroys the most important aspect of being human. Balance is essential.

As an aside, I'm afraid that the law granting businesses the rights of humans is very misguided. Likewise the law that identifies management's highest duty as maximization of stockholder wealth.”

“This is a great conversation, and you, Saint, are a great participant. You have correctly reminded us once more (with numbers) that every medical service transaction (doctor visit, etc.) involves paperwork that is very possibly unique.

For example, I took my offspring to a doc-in-a-box to get a minor injury looked at. The billing went to my insurance company. They responded by asking for more information (this is the same delay tactic you use to try to get out of a speeding ticket). The DIAB didn't respond, but billed me directly. After time ran out, the insurer told me it was my responsibility to pay. Poof! Now I hold the bag, and everybody is happy. Almost everybody.

With Single Payer (my choice also), there would be nothing but one standard form (likely online) that would go to the "Insurer," which would pay at a uniform (possibly regional) rate. Fakery would be impeded by uniformity.

With a "Public Option," there would be standards for forms, rules, and fees for all non-private coverage. This would be beneficial, since there would be pressure on the private insurers to accept the standards in place of their own devious arcana. We could even pass laws requiring that the insurers accept the standard paperwork or computer input. Bad for fraudsters, although I suspect they would still be at work, judging by scam efforts on line.”

“Among my favorite songs of all time: Julie Brown, "I Like 'Em Big and Stupid," including the immortal lyric,

He's so stupid, ya know what he said?

Well, I forget what he said but it was *so stupid!*

Now this seems to be life imitating art! To the extent that this is *life*. Okay, he's just an entertainer, so we're back to imitation being the sincerest form of flattery . . .”

“Let me apologize on behalf of all the guys who didn't get it before you laid it out explicitly. It's the next panel on the comic: cartoonist sighs and explains joke to clueless.

I have watched quite young women - girls, really - subjected to catcalls by . . . boys . . . typically within groups, even in work situations. "Beauty" has nothing to do with it. It's macho posturing, collecting points - either from their peers or internalized. The lack of respect for privacy and of self-control is pitful. The reinforcement within all-male peer groups is tragic.

Shy boy/men get pushed into it, to no good. Aggressive ones need better role models, and likely have none. Women pay - with trauma.

It explains why those desert dudes want to put their women in bags - so the men never need to grow up!

BTW, panhandlers on the street use the "gby" line all the time. Pure manipulation. I've never seen a catcaller use it, but I don't see that many. Has it become commonplace?”

“Off topic, but...

I listened on C-SPAN radio to about an hour of the meeting Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) engaged in--the one with the "which planet" and "dining room table" cracks. It was intriguing that speaker after speaker made an initial statement implying respect and gratitude toward the government, as though to lower the stress level in the room, then flipped and began an increasingly shrill diatribe over some imagined evil on the intellectual level of "Have you stopped beating your wife?"

Such a pattern sounds as though it was neatly worked out in advance. The "which planet" lady mentioned the Blessed LaRouche by name, which is a pretty reliable indicator that the planet is not Earth. More interesting to me were other "questions" that weren't sparkly enough to make the news, such as the one from the college kid who wouldn't shut up. Barney was so tremendously poised that they never shook him. He accepted accolades on behalf of the government without losing a certain distance, and reacted promptly to the snarling reversals, forgetting nothing and retaining full command of the subject matter.

One of the best lines came when someone complained that they could no longer trust the government. Mr. Frank pointed out that they are citizens, not spouses or members of a congregation, and that they had no business "trusting" the government in the first place.”

“How boring. Knowledge exchanged. Higher levels of wisdom achieved. Ho hum.

I have seen bits of Bernie Sanders on Keith Olberman's show and been very favorably impressed--although KO is very nearly exactly on Sen. Sanders' wavelength. I am surprised that the Senator is able to attract a fully civil crowd, since his politics is about as far left as mine. Either Vermonters are a whole lot more decent than Massachusans, or Bernie is a wizard in a group setting.

My congratulations on getting to experience a real meeting of real people on a real subject.”

“You forget Dick Tuck. If you want to blame Dems, blame the guy that Nixon learned from.

Daley's machine delivered Chicago, but Illinois probably would have gone Dem anyway. Johnson delivered Texas, which was less sure.

Remember, this was before Johnson forced the Voting Rights Act and "lost the South for a generation" to the racists. Nixon's Southern Strategy efficiently drew them into the Republican Party, which wasn't distinctly racist (i.e., no more so than the Democratic Party) until the 1968 election. Nixon's deal with Madam Nu to stonewall the peace negotiations was certainly a dirty trick--and treason IMHO. Nixon's paranoia (remorse?) led him to overplay his hand in 1972--hence Watergate. Subsequent Repubs learned from the master's mistakes, and Lee Atwater, Karen Hughes, Scooter Libby, and the rest of the band diligently applied their wisdom ever after.”

“- Question: What happened when Mount Tambora blew in 1815?
- Question: What would happen in a major nuclear war?
- Question: Is it good to burn all this stuff (wood, coal, oil, etc.)?

We can now read Earth's history over geologic time. Earlier subjective guesses about human population and expanding energy consumption had no force behind them.

We knew about 1815 (google "year without a summer") and the effect of massive particulate/cloud cover. Extrapolation predicted "nuclear winter" consequential to a US/USSR shooting war.

Once we had gathered enough data, there was an obvious many-year trend within the current ice age (we are in an "interglacial period"--a lull) of surface and tropospheric warming. This directly *correlates* with human energy use, even if it happens not to be *caused* by it. Occam's Razor implies causality.

The significance of this is that many cities are coastal, so slight rises in sea level will cost trillions. In addition, our enormous population depends on very few food crops, generally evolved for the present interglacial period's temperature patterns and effortless water supplies. Change precipitation patterns and results are completely unpredictable.

Remember that scene in "Sometimes a Great Notion" where the son is trapped underwater and his brother buddy-breathes to him? It works after a fashion until there is a slight disruption. We may be able to get along after a fashion with increased temperatures until there is a slight disruption.

Better, I think, to reduce carbon emission on spec.”

“Excellent point! If single payer is in force, what happens to lifetime cost for coverage? Speculative cost growth etc. goes down the tubes.

Pain and suffering has always been hard to get justice for, and will likely remain so. How much does a child "deserve" for getting brain damage from lack of oxygen while having tonsils removed? Seizures and wheelchair for life.

Real malpractice is nasty--there are some bad practitioners who shouldn't be working, but are shielded by other docs. Sorta like bad priests. Some "oops" cases, though, may deserve low pain-and-suffering payouts if the circumstances don't suggest recklessness.”

“Not fair. If I busted my arm last week, that's old news. No residual harm. No need for therapy to restore muscle tone. Just move on.

Same for hurricanes. No residual harm. Just move on.

Same for the Cheney administration. It's gone, so we should forget it was ever there. No signing statements. No black prisons. No hit squads. No consequences to the lies. No worldwide bitterness. Just move on.”

“Haven't read everything here, but...

I heard that police officers have no "peace" to disturb. Comes with the job. Therefore, nobody can "disturb the peace" unless someone *other than the officer* complains. Does this apply to "disorderly conduct" in Cambridge?

What conduct constitutes "disorderly" for one middle-aged man within his home?

Recent Supreme Court case: several people attend a loud, boozy party. Police, in response to neighbor’s after-midnight complaint, go around back to try to get somebody's attention over the music level. They witness blows and blood through the kitchen window, and the case *still* reaches the SCOTUS over probable cause.

*This* case involves one man, alone, who just got home, is exasperated and stone sober, and is confronted with a late-night door knock by a policeman. Now, while I might be lower-key in that scenario, I am a paper shuffler. For a college lecturer, like others in the entertainment business (sorry), a laugh and a soft word might not be one's default style.

Note: there is no consideration of "race" in getting to this point. It's just situation and personal mannerism. I believe it was the *duty* of the investigating officer to stay totally calm, no matter what was said to him. No matter "yo mama," sick kid, wife who just left him, jerk supervisor, overtime--no matter what. House secure? "Second person" a cabby? Thank you, sir. Gone.

And no, I don't think being out on his front stoop puts him in public.”

“Excellent work.”

“The above is widely distributed. Sorry about the format. Search using key words federal-ta­x-state-ou­tlay, for example. Note the year is 2005.”

“FY 2005 RANKINGS

State Outlay to Tax Ratio Ranking


New Mexico $2.03 1
Mississippi $2.02 2
Alaska $1.84 3
Louisiana $1.78 4
West Virginia $1.76 5
North Dakota $1.68 6
Alabama $1.66 7
South Dakota $1.53 8
Kentucky $1.51 9
Virginia $1.51 10
Montana $1.47 11
Hawaii $1.44 12
Maine $1.41 13
Arkansas $1.41 14
Oklahoma $1.36 15
South Carolina $1.35 16
Missouri $1.32 17
Maryland $1.30 18
Tennessee $1.27 19
Idaho $1.21 20
Arizona $1.19 21
Kansas $1.12 22
Wyoming $1.11 23
Iowa $1.10 24
Nebraska $1.10 25
Vermont $1.08 26
North Carolina $1.08 27
Pennsylvania $1.07 28
Utah $1.07 29
Indiana $1.05 30
Ohio $1.05 31
Georgia $1.01 32
Rhode Island $1.00 33
Florida $0.97 34
Texas $0.94 35
Oregon $0.93 36
Michigan $0.92 37
Washington $0.88 38
Wisconsin $0.86 39
Massachusetts $0.82 40
Colorado $0.81 41
New York $0.79 42
California $0.78 43
Delaware $0.77 44
Illinois $0.75 45
Minnesota $0.72 46
New Hampshire $0.71 47
Connecticut $0.69 48
Nevada $0.65 49
New Jersey $0.61 50
District of Columbia $5.55”

“Fire ants evolved south of Texas, where tiny flies evolved to lay eggs on them. The fly maggots devour the individual ants before maturing and flying off. The flies can only reach fire ants that go above ground, so in Mexico and points south they stay under, and are not serious problems for humans. Further north, there are none of these parasitic flies, so the fire ants don't stay underground. Big problem.

Mike, you may be seeing the evolution of a new species of politician--one that has to stay indoors or scurry from place to place to avoid getting snagged by an interviewer. A birther-fi­re-ant-con­gressman being landed on by a parasitic-­fly-journa­list. What an image.

Didn't O'Reilly popularize this form of reportage? Is there a difference if the questions asked are not freighted with catch phrases that play to a base, but rather use the interviewee's own terminology? Do O'Reilly's staffers actually approach politicians, or limit their attentions to nonpublic support people?”

“Exquisitely put.

*Every* judge brings baggage. To believe otherwise is delusional. For a judge to *break the law* or *deceive the jury* to force an outcome is criminal. And not, alas, rare.”

“Just to be contrarian, I'll agree all Americans are racists. I am, for example.

Look at any TV commercial including a couple. Male/female, of course (hey, this is *money,* screw truth), but also identifiable in "racial" makeup. And of what "races" are they? Black with black only (an inaccurate term). Asian unmixed, especially if older. Anglo normally unmixed, but sometimes with . . . a mixed-"race" mate. Latino? Well, Latino isn't one "race," but a varying mixture of Native American (Aztec, Carib, etc.), EuroSpaniard, and African, salted with anglo (northern European).

Why are ads segregated? Because sales people only see sales, and insist anglos don't buy stuff modeled by blacks. Is this prejudice real? It was. It is diminishing. As Juan Williams reminds us, the NAACP was created to combat lynching, and now a person "of color" is President. Does this mean there is no more racism? Hardly!

The reason for a "racist South" shorthand is that overt bigotry still increases as you traverse the old Confederacy: Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi. Not because Boston is colorblind, or L.A. has no "race" riots, or every single southerner is a Strom Thurmond.

IIRC, segregationists have bemoaned a goal of integration to create a caramel society with no more "whites." IMHO, they may foresee a real result, but are wrong on intent. Personally, I don't dread that hypothetical time, only regret that it may indeed take tens of generations to rid the world of prejudice.”

“I could endure David Brooks if he was invariably paired with David Brock. *That* would be entertaini­ng/enlight­ening, although it would be difficult for Brock to actually present any agenda points alongside debunking Brooks in real time.”

“Now, now, let's be precise. The lobbyists are not paying those millions *to Congress,* which would be into the Treasury--perish the thought!--but rather to the individual Senators and Representatives . . . well, to their reelection campaigns, which money can be spent on themselves should they ever choose to stop accepting reelection.

Or to the group-reelection campaigns, which will spread it around to any who find themselves a little short this election cycle.

Or to PACs and "Foundations," which cheerfully dig up obscure fact-like details and transform them into seeming scandalous revelations about opposition candidates, faithfully parroted by a captive media, thereby assuring permanent incumbency.

Or they just create their own seeming truths and broadcast them without shame or hesitation. Their budgets are vast, thanks to inflated drug profits and unjustified denials of service, and their single-payer oppostion is expressly banned from attendance at Congressional committee meetings.

We have the best government money can buy.”

“Great story. I have to agree with ol' AuH2O, much as it gripes me.

I can't ascribe any virtues to Tricky. he *did* sell out our country. Read "The Arrogance of Power" for a partial list of his sins. Bay of Pigs was his deal. The shape of the conference table was his deal. The plumbers, the IRS shakedowns, forcing L. Patrick Gray to burn evidence in his fireplace, and all the rest were selling out the country as far as I'm concerned.

I was a member of a riot squad tasked with defending a government site in event of popular uprising at the time. You have no idea how relieved I was when Nixon resigned. The pardon was nothing compared to the certainty that he was out of power.

BUT - After Nixon came Reagan/Bush. Just as sleazy, but the top man could say his hands were clean, which Nixon couldn't. Except for Bush 41, the Publican presidents have all been cat's paws IMHO. Cheney, as a behind-the-scenes manipulator, was perfectly placed to pursue his vision of an ideal world (!) in company with the rest of the conspirators. Bush 43 almost deserves pity. Almost.”

“Your assumptions are breathtaking.

"No control" is not opposite to "some control," which is all we ever have. Arranging not to mess up is commendable for highschoolers. Never messing up? Unlikely. Having no way to recover is tragic. Manipulating the young so *they* have no way to recover? Sinful.

Sex is for marriage? Why do you say so? Did God tell you? What if I disagree? Does that entitle you to wreck my life?

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics­."-Disrael­i. Your numbers are unbelievable. I question their basis. The dear old half-in-divorce number includes serial divorcers, and thus exaggerates. It certainly assumes "'til death do us part" is always intended and always good. The 2-3% number for virgins is new to me, and I'll wager it's based on weak data.

Should we teach safe drug use? Yes, indeed. Nicotine, alcohol, medication interaction, etc. are neglected in formal education. Even doctors don't get it when they prescribe. Illicit drugs is a different topic, because they are prohibited by law; you really ask whether we should teach people how to be criminals.

You reject seatbelt and airbag analogies, but it is youth, mixed with driving, alcohol (illegal), and speeding (illegal) that kills most often. Drivers who are inexperienced, young , or of uncertain judgment are at greatest risk. Vulnerability can be reduced by education, consequences softened by technology.

Your post is grossly distorted by your unstated biases. Try again.”