Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

But maybe without the cuts, there would have been 10% annual *contraction* from 2001-2008. Then the net "growth" resulting from the cuts would be phenomenal.

There is nothing that dictates that the true baseline size of the economy is the prior year.

Re: Newsflash
 

Why is Mormonism any more ridiculous than any other religion?

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Yes, one needs to assume something about the base case. You can choose to assume something extreme if you want. That's silly, of course, and if you're really curious you can go find what the people who model these thing if you want.

Re: Newsflash
 

I tend to favor the candidate who seems least likely to believe in his professed religion and agree that I don't see Mormonism any differently.

Morning Headline
 

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

But that's part of the point. The choice of prior-year-actual as a baseline is itself argumentative in this circumstance, especially when comparing 2001-2010 growth to all post-war growth, without any (non-inflation-related) adjustment.

Re: Morning Headline
 

In what instance is Norquist "good"? At least in your view.

Re: Newsflash
 

Let's go with a comparison to the Big Three.

1. Judaism is probably the most sensible and credible religion becuase it is basically common sense rules for living embroidered with divine myths. Why the embroidery? Because you needed myths to create authority to compel the population to follow the rules. But if you consider any Talmudic debates, you'll see logic more than religion.

2. Christianity co-opted the rules of Judaism, and added the somewhat unrealistic, but nevertheless laudable teachings of Jesus. Sadly, it also centralized into a Church, which is basically a gaudy, silly bureacratic mess, obsessed with bizarre and inane rituals.

3. Islam is the Godfather III of the bunch. It's a contradictory mess of pieces of the first two bastardized into a political/legal framework by an oppressed and deeply resentful culture. It's the sequel no one needed that has, unfortunately, persisted like the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

I don't address Buddhism and Hinduism because they are more personal than community-based.

But what do the Big Three share? They all took hold a long time ago, and the alleged historical facts underpinning them can never be completely validated or debunked. They've also stood the test of time, which many followers can misapprehend as proof they are earnest, or at least more than cynical frauds started by proven con men.

Mormonism, on the other hand, is recent, and can be proven beyond any contrary argument to have been created by a charlatan, a criminal of notorious and embarrassing history. The record of Smith's probable mental illness and sociopathic nature is not in question. And the divine story he wove is so bizarre, and so contrary to the historical record, one cannot accept the Book of Mormon as much more than science fiction. That Joseph Smith is recorded as having created this stuff from behind a sheet, allegedly reading stones immersed in water, in a cabin in upstate New York (a hotbed of religious cults in his day), only renders the myth more ludicrous.

Those belonging to old faiths at least have the excuse that they can never know how much of what they believe in their gospels or verses actually took place. Mormons who are honest with themselves know they're worshipping the ravings of at best a lunatic, at worst a craven degenerate who hated women and blacks and sought nothing more than to fuck as many of a "flock" of deluded female followers as he could. It's nonsense, and I would hope as a country we would question the fitness of any candidate professing to believe something so objectively absurd.

Re: Newsflash
 

if I could start over I'd be Mormon on the off chance I could nail a chick from BYU's dance team.

Re: Morning Headline
 

Good point. The other's tend to flop around in my estimation.

Re: Newsflash
 

Sorry, I just don't see it. Your argument seems to be that Mormonism is worse because it is newer and we can prove for certain that it's based on bunk. In my mind, the only difference between the big 3 and Mormonism is that the big 3 are older. They are all based on bunk. Period. End. Of. Story.

This is not to say that many of the teachings of these religions are not worthy and historically important (or perhaps critical) in human evolution. But they are all based on fantasy and to rule out a candidate solely based on one of these religions as opposed to another blows my mind.

Re: Newsflash
 

You are aware that there is no way to know whether any muslim is a terrorist and/or wants to impose Sharia law on the USA, right?

Re: Newsflash
 

Huh?

Re: Newsflash
 

Herm Cain:

"You have peaceful Muslims and you have militant Muslims – those that are trying to kill us. And so when I said I wouldn't be comfortable [appointing a Muslin to his cabinet or as a judge] I was thinking about the ones that are trying to kill us"

...

"I do not believe in Sharia law in American courts. I believe in American laws in American courts, period."

Fucking Magnets, How Do They Work?

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Sebby,

If you didn't happen to have followed Weed's advice and watched the Tonys, go find a YouTube clip of the kid singing "I Believe" from the Parker and Stone show, The Book of Mormon. You'll love it.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

That bit was excellent, and if the whole thing is like that (which is what I have heard, or better) it is seriously shaping up as an exception to my See No Musicals Ever rule, which has been carved in stone since I was dragged to Wicked many years ago by the woman who is lucky to still be my wife after subjecting me to that bullshit.

Re: Newsflash
 

Yea, I actually saw that live. I was amazed, but didn't think much of it as I didn't think anyone was taking Cain seriously.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Re: Newsflash
 

it seems like anyone named "abu" is al queda

Re: Newsflash
 

Makes using Abu Ghraib look pretty foolish, in retrospect.

Re: Newsflash
 

As Cletus took the easy joke, I'll go with the pathetic sincere response (I haven't got any other moves).

"Abu" means "father of" and is a common alternate name in the Arab world for a man who has had a son. Thus we could call you abu [your son's name] or Hank Chinaski alternatively.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Re: Newsflash
 

so. most non-aq muslims have names w/o abu, like mohammad ali, or barrack obama, but whenever we kill one of these guys it's always abu something or other.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I saw American Idiot, but I'm not sure that counts.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I'm counting it, against you. no offense.

Re: Newsflash
 

Yeah. That's because of a choice someone made about what name to write down.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Apparently all the fun stuff happened prior to the last 30 minutes. For example:

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

"Questions about immigration. Cain, who is for the Constitution except when he is not, says he is against birthright citizenship"

No questions about Cain's "Great Wall of America" proposal, nor the moat, nor the alligators?

Still the best thing about Cain's campaign.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Just a minor quibble, but there are indeed borders between Iraq and Afghanistan, and both the eastern and western borders of Iran are probably being guarded by Americans or our allies right now.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

what's wrong with making wacked out promises?

people promise impossible shit to get elected, especially red meat promises, and it works sometimes. Like Obama promised to close Gitmo to get elected, and he won.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I think of it as a jobs bill, both for the construction and as a tourist attraction afterward. And alligator skin makes nice belts, so you have the ranching aspect as well.

I really have no problem with the concept, except I dunno how he intends to pay for it.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Then they're either doing a piss poor job or those hikers are actually spies.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

doesn't a lot of stimulus money still need to be spent? that'd be a great f-you to ironhead and all these bleeding hearts.

Re: Morning Headline
 

Is the Tax Rasputin losing his grip now?

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I assumed you'd be in favor of yet still more job-killing failed alligator stimulus after I saw those videos of you jerking off crocodiles at the zoo.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Do you think he was lying or naive? Which do you think Cain is?

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

You think they aren't?

Re: Morning Headline
 

We can only hope.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

doing a piss poor job or actually spies?

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Cain is neither. He's at least partly serious, and not out of naivety.

I wonder if Mitt's Gitmo proposal is still to "double" it.