geoguy

Agreed. I run into this all the time in less controversial evolutionary lines (invertebrates such as orders of brachiopods, rugose corals, etc.). We work with a richer fossil record but even still there are many unknowns. It might be fun to speculate but speculation on human evolution is dependent on what book we've read last and no hands on experience. We aren't inmmersed in the primate evolution sciences and don't know which research, individuals, etc. have the most credibility within a profession. Primate evolution is educated speculation based on educated speculation...often 'a tooth begatting a tooth'.

Americans spends more per capita on health care than most western universal systems (every one else) but has the highest infant mortality rate and about the lowest life expectancy.

You have made a lot of generalizations. The modern world is a big place with a lot of variations. I like a few of the responses so far. Especially those anchored in the reality of the 'here and now'. work ethic! social skills! flexibility! There is much more to success and renumeration in life than heredity and education. 'Carpe diem'...seize the day. Don't wait for the world to change and come to you. My wife and I have gone back and forth between academia and energy industry for 30 years.

Health care in Canada is run by the provinces. Under our constitution health and education are provincial jurisdictions. This makes it much more efficient to meet regional needs because of differencs in demographics. The Feds set standards and chip in with money so that all regions receive a base line quality of care. We lived for a while in Nevada and or health coverage was fine. Many of the differences sited in the press between private and public systems are often due to regional conditions, availability of hospitals, specialists and so on. Evidence is cherry picked to support either system. Our province has excellent health services but we also have several billions in surplus every year. In the USA a medical system run by the states might work fine but some of the depressed southern states would need a helping hand or the poorest of the poor will be on the fringes whether it's a private or public system.

Excellent.

Being in most of Israel wasn't much different from being in a European city. Western values are as strong as in London or Detroit. Parts of Jeruselum and a few other places were the exception where there were large visible Aab populations. There is no sense of threat (cetainly no paranoia) on a daily basis. The amount of violence in Tel Aviv or Haifa would be much less than in a same size American city. The difference was that the Israelis were prepared at a drop of a hat to mobilize and deal first hand with any situation. Adults everywhere carried weapons and would immediately shoot anyone that threatened the civilian population. There's no internal threat that couldn't be handled swiftly and effectively. The Israelis wern't paranoid because they had confidence in their own capability and in the utter bumbling incompetency of surrounding Arab militaries. Any external threat will be dealt with on Israel's terms. Israel can escalate to the necessary miliary level of their choice. They an shoot a few Palestinian militants... shell sites well into Lebann or Syria or launch a devastating and total strike. Their choice. They are in the driver's seat and will control their destiny.

So true. Unfortunately the attorney general was working with the FBI and CIA to sidestep the Constitution and infringe on rights. The attorney general, in contrast, should be vigilant in protecting those rights. The momentum under Gonzales is in the wrong direction. He was an agent of Bush and not the People. The Attorney General is not suppose to be the President's sock puppet.

wow. what an intelligent reply. Right up there with George W. Bush

I agree with much of this but not 'Israel dies' without U.S. support. Like most members of the Canadian armed forces I spent a year in Middle East (six months in Egypt and six months on the Israeli-Syrian border). The standing joke about the 'Six Day War' was what did the Israelis need the last 5 days for. The Arab armies and the infrastructure was pathetic. So pathetic that nobody believes the stories unless they have been there themselves. Israel doesn't need the USA or anyone else for survival. The Israelis need the USA if they want to maintain a western standard of living...actually they don't even need the USA as much as the financial support and networking of Jews (mostly American) around the world. Israel has an estimated 200 nuclear weapons on delivery systems and these weapons are not 'going away' tomorrow or any time in the future. 'If' the USA wasn't backing Israel militarily then the Israelis would be much more likely to take pre-emptive action before any threat was at a point where it would threaten the state's existence. The USA is a restraint on Israeli action against a country like Iran. Israel is a fixture and isn't going away....and the USA isn't going to give Texas back to Mexico... and here in Canada Europeans aren't returning to the Old World and turning the land over to the natives....and the Celts aren't heading back to France abandoning Wales to the Picts. The morality can be argued about but the reality is that Israel is controlled by the Jewish population and will be for a long time.

Actually it is. Glasgow, Montana is just south of us in the USA. If you want to get there from South Carolina just travel SE to South Africa, then north to Iraq, across Asia and then south across the Canadian border into Montana.

She came in third The first time I saw the video I thought it was a comedy skit and caricature of the dumb blonde or a spoof on southern education. Her pose at the end of the answer is precious. As others have said, she doesn't appear the least bit nervous but STUPID. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

You should try and achieve excellence as they do in the education system in South Carolina. Here's an inspiring example from the Miss Teen USA contest. This teen did so well that she came in thrid place:

Isn't the Attorney General an important position in the USA? Regardless of whether its Rumsfeld or Gonzales, why would the President have kept an individual in office so long who had little credibility. Isn't credibility an important tool in getting the job done? Doesn't actual progress or achievement matter? Then again it goes to the character of many of the Republican senators around Bush. They know that part of the problem with America's image is Bush himself. Bush is a liability in both international affairs and on getting a meaningfyul solution on Iraq. 'Loyalty' has no instrinsic value when the object of that loyalty is not a positive. The loyalty of a President should be to the people first and not to an ineffective attorney general and the loyalty of Sentators should be to their contituents and not to be Bush's sock puppets.

It's not enough for folks to care or have an opinion. That's easy. It's actually, as you say, doing something about it. Something that impacts their own lives. 1938 "Fritz, what do you think of Hitler?" "I don't like him. ... what type of mustard is there for the bratwurst?" 10 years later "Fritz, did you support Hitler" "Not me, I never did like him. Didn't vote for him. Don't blame all us Germans."

I agree with much that has been stated. The exception is that the amount of money involved is large. It's actually peanuts in relation to how much a people value their democracy. 2 bucks every couple years per voting citizen? The USA spends more than that a week trying to establish democracy in Iraq. What's staggering is the amount of 'time and energy' that elected officials and other candidates need to spend in raising money to have sufficient funds to compete. Credible third party candidates are viable because they are billionaires and can fund their own campaigns....Perot, Bloomberg. true, however, if it was just money then a billionaire would be president. Money is a factor but not 'the' factor. Another phenomenon is the 24/7 news network. Filler is need for all that air space. This is shaping politics more and more. Non stories become stories AND take on new importance. The funds raised by candidates becomes a story in itself...tracked as much as polls. Candidates gain or lose credibility by how much they have raised so they have to go out and raise even more just to maintain credibility. They can't step out and take another approach because the dollars at the end of the month are indicators of momentum...winning or losing....gaining or fading. I'm not a fan of John McCain but he got a bit of a bum rap and his campaign went down the toilet not so much when his support from Republicans dropped as much as when his fund raising numbers were anemic. If he had spent twice as much energy raising money in the previous month and less time in the in the Senate doing his job then he might still be viable.

I understand your desire to be excluded from the aggression of your country but the USA is a democracy and your representatives of the American people have voted several times to continue to support and fund this aggression. words are nice but what counts are actions. I'm not equating American action in Iraq with the Third Reich but Americans are even more non-credible when they use the 'gee whiz' moral defense. Every american can speak out, vote and make a difference after the fact of aggression but still choose not to. It's incredible the American people willingly sent the same folks back to their seats in the Congress. Please also be equally as vigilant to advise posters not to use collective words such as 'Iraqis' or Sunnis' or 'Muslims' or 'Republicans'. Don't use the word 'the military' or 'cowboys' or any other term above the level of the individual.

It's just the latest in a series of 'let's try this angle'...meanwhile the parrot is still dead. This weekend the angle is it's Malaki's fault. The President and his group play Americans like fish on a line...give the surge a chance...as if it's a new ball game...then it will be Malaki gone and 'give the new Iraqi leadership a chance....on the 5th annversary of the American aggression itll be a new PR campaign and strategy...stay the course 'there is light at the end of the tunnel'. Americans are fools if they keep lapping up the garbage.

Sounded like a nice place until someone mentioned Bibles and Football....ugh. Any town of 300,000 that fills a 100,000 seat football stadium must be quite the intellectual hotspot. Rah,rah Jesus..Rah, rah Football. How come we can guess that it must be one of those states that voted for Bush and is near the top in obesity?

I've never been too up on the trivia of american culture. They might be some famous folks in the USA. Can you name the generals of the Spanish Civil War? Zoo guys in Canada? How can someone be in a jackass? I thought that type of activity was illegal in the fundie states.

Some good points with the exception that Bush is along the philosophy of Thatcher and Reagan. Reagan was a product of the Democratic party and understood that a lot of that philosophy didn't work and moved over to represent the same the 'silent Majority' that Nixon understood so well. Reagan built his base out of the American people and not on religious whackos. Reagan's appeal was speak to the american people (and the world) and call a spade a spade....whether or not one agreed with him or not. Reagan was a realist whose philosophy was found in the practical world. Thatcher was the same. Bush, in contrast is a muddler who doesn't grasp consequences and finds his pholosophy in a black and white world of inspiration from god.

Might be Texas, He mentions a U.T. I doubt they have universities in Tenessee....it's all that Beverly Hillbillies country and Montain dew. Jethro completed school and it only went up to grade 5.

Take 20 cities in China with more than a million people and 20 made up words that sound like Chinese cities and 98% of us wouldn't know which was which except for a couplel like Beijing and Shanghai. The same for many large India cities...Brazil cities and so on. C Darwin: "We've made a few famous people. James Agee, Admiral Farragut, Nikki Giovanni, Jack Hanna... Trace Atkins... Yes, Johny Knoxville..." Are you trying to be funny? 'Famous? Never heard of any of them. 'Johny Knoxville'... is that cartoon spaceman? Ive heard of Jebediah Springfield...fellow who founded Springfield.

I don't in particular like her but I think she'd make a good President. Bush junior and Carter were likeable... Carter was a poor President and Bush is a disaster. Reagan was disliked by many but was a good President. At this point in history the USA could do with a sargeant major...someone to piss some folks off but get the ball moving. Bill clinton would be a great asset in international affairs where the USA needs to rebuild its image.

Some of those first three were 'the good guys' to the Americans when dealing in American weapons. President Bush keeps calling the Saudi despots 'our good friends' and sells them 20 billion dollars in even more weapons....some of the very same Saudi princes who encouraged and funded attacks on the USA. In 10 years, when the Saudi thugs are overthrown and replaced by Sunni fundies, there will be a poll on : 'Gee whiz....why don't the Saudi people like us?'

the Islamic whackos are not stupid. Their goal was not and is not to bring the economy of the USA to its knees. That must be more baloney americans hear from Bush and his lads. The Islamic whackos have the physical capability of limp noodles to impact the USA either militarily or economically. Their only power is to do exactly what they provoked the USA into doing... over react and shoot themselves in the foot. Exacerbate the 'us vs them'... good vs evil' . Helter Skelter. The result is the USA is distrusted by much of the world and the American president despised. Meanwhile OBL is the most admired man in the Islamic world. The USA has turned a gnat into an elephant. The Islamic whackos are grinning ear to ear whether they be hold up in a cave in afghanistan or in the President's office in Tehran. George W would have been welcomed with cheers if he walked down a street of Ottawa the months immediately following 9/11. Today Bush would be spit on. I doubt he could visit any capitol city in western Europe without having to be wisked through back doors to avoid the hatred he'd receive from the crowds. The Islamic whackos have played the USA like a fish on the line. As a fellow mentioned on the Mcglaughlin Group last week, the fundamentalists including those in power in Tehran get down on their knees and ask for an attack on Iran from the USA. Bush keeps playing right into their hands.