opportunity costs
 

Even if they have a bad economic policy, isn't engagement probably the better strategy? Look at Cuba. For all our efforts to isolate Castro, he's still. Maybe trade with Cuba over the years would have done more to bring him down.

Replaced Texan
 

I don't know a single Democrat that wants to keep him, in part because he's the money man for the GOP.

I doubt that anyone in Texas in the GOP will admit to wanting to do anything about DeLay.

opportunity costs
 

But even if true, the trade shouldn't be in missile guidance and nuclear tech- you know?

Replaced Texan
 

I would love, LOVE to hear what they have to say in response to Spanky's lectu . . . uh, question.

opportunity costs
 

I guess that depends on whether you insist that any old aluminum tube should be considered nuclear tech.

opportunity costs
 

Oh. Burn. The tubes were for making helium for observation balloons, right?

When your son tells you the Zig zag's you find in his Levi's pockets are to wrap up mints from the cafeteria, remember your trusting nature.

opportunity costs
 

I may be wrong, but I thought the virtually unanimous opinion of the technical experts was that they were only suited for conventional rockets. I think the exception was a guy they kept calling "Curveball", for some reason.

When you see your kid eating a brownie, do you sniff them to see if there's any funny ingredients?

opportunity costs
 

Are you kidding? Why sniff, when you can call the DA and tell them you have right in front of you a cut-and-dried possession case?

opportunity costs
 

Don't be such a moron. Have you been under a rock? Everyone now understands they were for conventional rockets.

• The Intelligence Community’s analysis of the high-strength aluminum tubes offers an illustration of these problems. Most agencies in the Intelligence Community assessed—incorrectly—that these were intended for use in a uranium enrichment program. The reasoning that supported this position was, first, that the tubes could be used in centrifuges and, second, that Iraq was good at hiding its nuclear program.
  
  By focusing on whether the tubes could be used for centrifuges, analysts effectively set aside evidence that the tubes were better suited for use in rockets, such as the fact that the tubes had precisely the same dimensions and were made of the same material as tubes used in the conventional rockets that Iraq had declared to international inspectors in 1996. And Iraq’s denial and deception capabilities allowed analysts to find support for their view even from information that seemed to contradict it. Thus, Iraqi claims that the tubes were for rockets were described as an Iraqi “cover story” designed to conceal the nuclear end-use for the tubes. In short, analysts erected a theory that almost could not be disproved—both confirming and contradictory facts were construed as support for the theory that the tubes were destined for use in centrifuges.

last week's WMD report, chapter 1, pages 49-50

opportunity costs
 

Depends- my kid has never been busted for possesion. For your hypo should I assume that, or should I assume a kid who has?

opportunity costs
 

Dick-head
The helium ballon reference was to the vans. And if you find out your son's ZZs are for wrapping candy- congrats- answer is you still have to call bullshit on him for having them.

"I think the establishment of a democracy in Iraq, and the break down of the other totalitarian regimes, and the creation of a becon of hope to combat the lure of jihad is good- but it doesn't justify what we went and did. After all, a crime happened here on 9/11 but the 18 guilty parties all paid with their lives."

opportunity costs
 

Assume the kid has. Are you sniffing their brownie?

opportunity costs
 

I agree with you that our Cuba policy has been stupid. We should not isolate them. If we had engaged them Castro would have been overthrown a long time ago. What I meant was that certain regimes we should not try and overthrow the regime. The authoritarian government that is pulling a country out of poverty should be left alone. But with a government that is diminishing the standard of living its people, should be undermined at every opportunity. And we should try and overthrow the regime. Uganda has an authoritarian regime right now, but they have a great economic policy (a rare thing in Africa) so they should be left alone. Zimbabwe has a kleptocracy that just stole an election. We should do everything in our power to undermine that regime.

Replaced Texan
 

Their response would be what they always say about me. That I am a heathen and a heretical RINO that is out to undermine family values. And of course completely ignore the point that they are the Democrat's best friends.

opportunity costs
 

I don't parent halfway- I'd eat one to find out.