Re Sussman:
The period after Clinton balanced the budget was one of great prosperity. He was able to do it because winning the cold war, thanks to Reagan, had allowed us to reduce military spending from 6% to 3% of GDP. Does not quite square with above statements on debt. Still, I basically agree. For the US debt is more a bogeyman than a real hazard. I remember people asking me what if China demands we pay our debts; I said we can write them a check. The statement tended to freak them out, but since the dollar is fiat money, if we say it is a dollar it is. No other country can do that. Debt becomes a problem for us when the interest on the debt as a percent of GDP goes up.

I agree with Sussman that the post-WWII boom, as opposed to the depressions after previous wars was a result of people cashing the war bonds. I believe this was a fortuitous accident; that the purpose of the bonds was to reduce the sense of sacrifice people felt they needed to make for the war. Raise taxes, people feel they are suffering; print money, people get angry at inflation. This withdraws the needed money from the population voluntarily. Telling people that buying bonds was essential to the war effort was partly BS, the money was just to stabilize the economy, economically almost the same as a tax, but politically much more palatable.

The period after Clinton balanced the budget was one of great prosperity. He was able to do it because winning the cold war. thanks to Reagan, had allowed us to reduce military spending from 6% to 3% of GDP. Does not quite square with above. Still, I basically agree. I remember people asking me what if China demands we pay our debts; I said we can write them a check. The statement tended to freak them out, but since the dollar is fiat money, if we say it is a dollar it is. No other country can do that. Debt becomes a problem for us when the interest on the debt as a percent of GDP goes up.

I agree with Sussman that the post-WWII boom, as opposed to the depressions after previous wars was a result of people cashing the war bonds. I believe this was a fortuitous accident; that the purpose of the bonds was to reduce the sense of sacrifice people felt they needed to make for the war. Raise taxes, people feel they are suffering; print money, people get angry at inflation. This withdraws the needed money from the population voluntarily. Telling people that buying bonds was essential to the war effort was partly BS, the money was just to stabilize the economy, economically almost the same as a tax, but politically much more palatable.

What, these guys don't want their virgins?

People wonder about trusting an atheist. I would say how can you trust anyone who believes his sins will be forgiven.

For a guy and his girlfriend with two kids all you have to do is follow these proven steps:



1. Don't marry her!

2. Always use your mom's address to get your mail.

3. The guy buys a house.

4. The guy rents out house to his girlfriend with his 2 kids.

5. Section 8 will pay $900 a month for a 3 bedroom home.

6. Girlfriend signs up for Obamacare so guy doesn't have to pay for family insurance.

7. Girlfriend gets to go to college for free being a single mother

8. Girlfriend gets $600 a month for food stamps.

9. Girlfriend gets a free cell phone.

10. Girlfriend get free utilities.

11. Guy moves into home, but continues to use moms address for his mail.

12. Girlfriend claims one kid and guy claims the other kid on their tax forms. Now both get to claim head of household at $1800 credit.

13. Girlfriend gets $1,800 a month disability for being "crazy" or having a "bad back" and never has to work again.


This plan is perfectly legal and is being executed now by millions of people.

A married couple with a stay at home mom yields $0 dollars.

An unmarried couple with stay at home mom nets $21,600 disability + $10,800 free housing + $6,000 free obamacare + $6,000 free food + $4,800 free utilities + $6,000 pell grant money to spend + $12,000 a year in college tuition free from pell grant + $8,800 tax benefit for being a single mother = $75,000 a year in benefits!

Any idea why the country is $18 trillion plus in debt and half the population is sitting on their ass letting the other half pay their way???

Remember 9500 RPM is 158 RPS (Revs per second)

We see evolution all the time. When bacteria become resistant to a drug that is evolution. Insect evolution has been observed. Darwin's finches were the earliest observed. If you want massive evolution it takes billions of years.

Separately,even if a god created it all, why should we believe any religion? Looked at dispassionately, Christianity makes little sense, with a god changing from vengeful to merciful, from being a god of the Hebrews to a god of everyone. Islam is worse. Darwin was distressed when he realized his observations contradicted the religious beliefs of the day, thought for a while god was testing him.

BTW, plate tectonics does explain barren ocean floors, as new floor is created from magma at the mid-ocean rifts, destroying anything that was there.

One-Two-Three with James Cagney and Horst Buchholz. Set in Berlin just prior to the wall. Greta comedy, especially the Russian Commissars. For a more serious but great feel-good movie I loved "Smile of a Summer Night" (Swedish with subtitles) Groundhog Day is actually quite a serous movie with farce overlay. Seems to me it is based on the legend of the Flying Dutchman, who is condemned sail the seas until he can find a woman who will be faithful until death, and only gets one port call every seven years.

At least an overstayer was legally admitted in the first place, and is not likely to be highly undesirable. It is more important to direct efforts at keeping first time illegal border crossers out.

I have found Sowell to be the most reasoned voice I have heard on racial matters. His on-line book about redneck culture in African Americans gives the most cogent analysis of African American behavior I have seen. A great man.

I heard a slightly different version, from my mother:
Twas Christmas eve in the harem
and the eunuchs all were there
Watching the beautiful maidens
Combing their golden hair

The Sultan's voice so hearty
rang out through the hall
"What'l you have for Christmas boys?"
and the boys, they answered "Balls"

This made the sultan angry
and he swore by all the gods
"You'll get no Christmas pudding boys,
you bunch of filthy slobs

Up spoke a hearty eunuch
with a voice as smooth as glass
"You can take your Christmas pudding sir,
and stick it up your ---"

Bad example in King. Tennis players are entertainers. The purse is there to encourage them to compete, not as a compensation for something of value other than the entertainment. The question should not be can they compete against men in tennis, but will customers pay as much to see them.

Must mean tHreat to us, not treat.

This is a true story told to me about 1971 by a co-worker who had been in the medical corps in Italy during WW II. Some troops on leave would deliberately search for girls with gonorrhea to get out of combat. After recognizing this the docs started shooting them up with massive doses of penicillin, declare them cured and send them back into combat. The troops responded by searching for girls with syphilis.

My father told me a variant of this around 1958. It was the personnel manager's joke, "Which one did he hire?"