Phi for All

The "lowest bidder" system is flawed, similar to the budget system that encourages departments into the use-it-or-lose-it spending mentality. No one wants less next year so they spend all they are allotted and clamor for more.

Ah, but you are talking about ideal conditions, with no idiots around. I think most speed limits are figuring some kind of average traffic circumstances. We all know, for example, you can generally corner faster than the advisory signs tell us (in the US, about 15mph faster), but what if the weather is bad or the traffic is heavy, etc. We always forget there may be some idiot who overreacts or underestimates their own abilities while driving. Where I think this lapse of judgement is most dangerous is in highway driving in moderate to heavy traffic. Here in the States it's not uncommon to see many cars driving 65-70 mph with only 1-2 car-lengths seperating them. Reaction time is sufficient if someone ahead simply slows down, but if they have to really slam on the brakes I can guarantee there will be an accident. I see "accordion" collisions on the news every week, 10+ cars all jammed together.

A good start, but remember that some of these mega-corps have hundreds of subsidiaries. Can they each donate as well?

I agree, and I started a new thread. We're starting to get pretty off topic from Kerry's Purple Hearts!

Imo, capitalism works best with lots of competition, and the bigger businesses get, the less competiton there is. One of their biggest threats is their influence in politics. Any thoughts on how we can curb this unfair influence?

Physicist Michio Kaku warns in his book Hyperspace that it is the small countries with nuclear capabilities we have to worry about if we are to survive our discovery of the properties of uranium. The Russians, the US, the UK and a few others have improved radically in their social growth, but not enough in context with the millionfold increase nuclear weapons provide in terms of mass destruction capability. Small countries who have only had the bomb a short time haven't had the social growth needed to keep their fingers far enough away from the buttons. They may see dwindling resources and fewer opportunities for power and advancement as detrimental to their future and are much more likely to feel that their backs are against the wall, with offensive nuclear weapons as their only recourse. Aggressive superpowers are just going to make it more likely that they feel threatened.

I don't think that was the only reason, but since it is a fact that Bush and many of his administration were adamant about invading Iraq from day one in office, and since Cheney's ties with Halliburton were still strong, I think you'd have to be a bit naive to believe there was no connection between the White House and Halliburton's no-bid contracts. I know you're thinking those contracts were given by the Army Corp of Engineers, but come on.... One of the big explanations for why Halliburton was given the green light was the time factor, the urgency of need required. To quote the GAO Report report to Congress: For example, the Army Corps of Engineers properly awarded a sole-source contract for rebuilding Iraq's oil infrastructure to the only contractor that was determined to be in a position to provide the services within the required time frame. But if Iraq was the plan from the beginning, why wait until the urgency requires the vice-president's former company to do the work? It's one thing to be opportunistic and take advantage of market circumstances, but creating the urgency that lets only one company do the work, and it just happens to be Cheney's old firm?!? is just too much of a coincidence. Of course they did everything by the book from there on, but it's the delay/foreknowledge that bothers me most about the Cheney/Halliburton deal.

Sometimes they give me a cookie! The Rhyming thread's OK, but we need you over in the Official Jokes section, too. Read them all, memorize them, and then add any new ones you can think of. Things are very serious here, what with the science and the politics and all. We need some funny.

Good luck, blike! Arizona is a dry heat, though, not like that humidity you're used to in Florida after four hurricanes. Use a moisturizer.

You're wrong, believe it because I said so. Why? Because I talk to cucumbers all the time. They're not stupid, they're just seedy. Welcome JohnB, I like your style.

At one point during a game, the coach called over one of his young players and asked him, "Do you understand what cooperation is? What a team is?" The little boy nodded in the affirmative. "Do you understand that what matters is whether we win together as a team?" The little boy nodded yes. "So," the coach continued, "when a strike is called, or you're out at first, you don't argue or use foul language or beat the umpire with a pair of cleats, right?" Again the little boy nodded. "Good," said the coach. "Now go over there and explain it to your mother."

A little boy returning home from school said to his mother, "Mom, what's sex?" His mother, who believed in all the most modern educational theories, gave him a detailed explanation, covering all aspects of the tricky subject. When she had finished, the little lad produced an enrollment form which he had brought home from school and said, "How am I going to get all that into this one little square?"

A new blonde recruit is going through Paratrooper's schooling. His sergeant told them all, "Once you jump you need to open your parachute by pulling the ripcord. If it doesn't open, you have a reserve one, pull the cord on that. The Jeep will wait for you on the ground". So, the blonde guy gets on the plane and when his turn to jump comes, he jumps clear of the plane and pulls the ripcord. It doesn't work so he pulls the cord on his reserve chute. That doesn't work either. "Oh, great!" he says to himself, "I bet the Jeep isn't going to wait for me either!"

Gir, these National Enquirer people are getting too close to our secret alien identities! Bring me the solar-neutrino vortex and aim it at Boca Raton, Florida, extra-wide setting!

Did you do those, Douglas? Those are great! I LOVE jabs at McDonald's, in any form.

Did you cut and paste that from the "How to Avoid the Issues" handbook? Perhaps it was then-Deputy Press Secretary Scott McClellan: If it was him, he should have been fired for such a major "misleading" statement. What's that you say? He was promoted to Press Secretary?! Hmmm. Someone to replace Ari Fleischer, a man who has also been caught telling lies, or, as Douglas prefers, misleading the people of the world as the press spokesman for the President of the United States. Apparently, having a major misleader to speak for him is very important to Mr. Bush.

September holding on by one hand from the cliff as October laughs.

If I can't get a straight, honest answer from you, which is all I asked for, what makes you think all these politicians and strategists you seem to know are going to respond to my question?

First of all, you're asking me to put words in other people's mouths, something you know is wrong and pretty much worthless. Second you told me before: And third, I answered your questions before in post #53. There is a difference between telling a lie and being a liar. So far in this thread I have not called Bush a liar. I said he lied. To repeat myself, insanely expecting a different result, asking other politicians and strategists to call Bush a liar makes it sound like every word out of his mouth is a lie. I never suggested it, and it seems like you are trying to put those words in my mouth to discredit me. I still maintain Bush lied about the IAEC reports, hoping no one would check his facts and believe that Saddam would have nuclear weaponry within six months if we didn't invade Iraq ASAP. The fact that his staff did nothing to correct it, but instead, when caught, referred to an earlier report, which also was a lie, suggests they needed this lie to work very badly. And now I'm asking you again, Douglas, since it's clear Bush was not mistaken (insisted the IAEC had said "six months away" despite ample opportunity to retract), or misled (when caught out he had his staff refer to a different report, which was also bogus), wasn't this simply a lie?

Great job, Gilded! Can you do the "In a parallel universe, I'm kicking your ass right now!" one next? Sayo, that is funny! I can't wait to see the "Progress" one.

How... evasive. Ever considered politics? Imo, your problem here is the difference between telling a lie and being a liar. Asking other politicians and strategists to call Bush a liar makes it sound like every word out of his mouth is a lie. We've ALL told lies, so being a liar is one of the most common conditions there is. The distinction here is that Bush told a lie in order to get backing to go to war, jeapordizing thousands of lives and spending billions of dollars to do so. It's one thing to get faulty intel and quite another to make make up a lie about an enemy's nuclear weapons capability and get your staff to back you on it. Remember, they didn't say he was mistaken, they kept referring to quotes from different IAEC reports that never, ever existed. If you can't at least agree to that point, Douglas, how can any of us take the rest of your arguments seriously? Sidestepping this issue makes it look like no amount of proof can ever persuade you, so why are we wasting time with you?

I liked your idea of the retro-illustration style. The juxtaposition of the old graphic with the new saying is perfect. I vote black/dark shirts, white/light illustrations.