Recent Comments

1. over 14 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   DrCanuck said: “(Gosh, I enjoy being reduced to a one-dimensional stereotype by the [one-dimensional stereotype I’m reducing someone else to]. Nurf, nurf.)”

   Way to reduce your comment to irrelevancy.

2. over 14 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   There seems to be some confusion between deficit and national debt, which are related but not the same. The confusion/conflation is very common.

   Just thought I’d throw that out before people start calling other people liars or idiots or something.

3. over 14 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   That health care and education are necessary has been an excuse for far too much reckless spending. And government money is necessary for neither. I’m not arguing against all gov’t funding for either, but money can come from other sources. But so much money is extorted from taxpayers in the name of education. Sparse buildings with quality teachers would cost less than ornate schools with crystal courtyards and a flat-panel in every classroom. (That hardly encompasses the recklessness of “education” spending - it’s just an example).

   While not all military endeavors are justified, a military force capable of defending our nation is possibly just as necessary to survival as a civilization as is health care. And this type of military is not particularly possible, or wise, in the public sector.

   Frankly, rich people are necessary for our civilization to survive. Rich people invest in companies and finance innovations in medicine and technology. Rich people buy cars, houses, yachts, etc., at greater rates than the middle class, and thus ensure the employment of the middle-class workers who build cars, houses, yachts, etc. And rich people can buy more with their own money, which is particularly necessary during a credit crisis, and doesn’t threaten our banking system as much as the middle-class guy with an ARM and $20k in credit card debt.

   I’m not in the tax bracket that benefits most from any tax cut (which happens largely because they pay far more in taxes than anyone else), but without rich people, I’m out of a job.

4. over 14 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   The Constitution requires that the president is not voted in by the public. The public votes for electors and the electors vote for the president (even in recent elections, electors haven’t always followed their states’ votes). If the electors fail to reach a majority, states’ Congressional delegations vote for president.

   And the citizenship requirement isn’t just “US Citizen,” one must be a natural-born US citizen (no, I’m not a ‘Birther’). This is why we won’t have to worry about a President Schwarzenegger.

   There’s also a residency requirement.

5. over 14 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   Yes, Graham, clearly when people use the word “qualified,” they are referring to the Constitutional requirements and nothing else. Clearly, no other qualifications should be taken into account when voters consider a candidate, because that would be contradictory to the Constitution.

   Incidentally, the Constitution doesn’t use that word when outlining the requirements for eligibility to be President. Eligible and qualified aren’t the same thing.

   Oh, and you got the eligibility requirements wrong.

6. over 14 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   Darn. The childish “Snott” nickname’s back.

7. over 14 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   “Perhaps I would. Can you give me access to [TSA’s Suspicious Incident Report]? Do you have access to that?”

   Yes I do, but no I can’t. I mean, I could, but it would be illegal.

   I won’t even try to respond to your “rebuttals.” You didn’t really make any points or offer any reason. The only possible response is an in-kind response of, “You’re just plain wrong.”

8. over 14 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   I’ll admit my use of the words “take down” was not the best choice. That phrase has several possible meanings, and the one I intended is clearly not the one that is being inferred. No, they did not intend to invade and overthrow. But they did intend to take us down from our superpower status, they did intend to take us down from our financial superiority, and they did intend to take down our sense of national pride and patriotism. They intended to render us impotent, which I think can rightly be referred to as taking us down. If you change “TAKE DOWN” to “ATTACK,” the criticism of my choice of words is gone, but the message is just as striking.

   So many claim that we’re less free because we inspect bags and x-ray travelers (and others). I say we’re less dead. Each week there are numerous tests of security at airports, with blocks of cheese taped to cell phones and watches in checked baggage. People leave bags at airports and watch the TSA response. Air marshals are followed and watched by people who document their movements. If you had access to the TSA’s Suspicious Incident Report, you’d realize the watchfulness is not without reason.

   When there’s something to be afraid of, there’s nothing wrong with telling people to be afraid.

9. over 14 years ago on Glenn McCoy

   So you must have forgotten about the plane that hit the Pentagon and the other taken down before it reached Washington, right?

   9/11 wasn’t an attack on New Yorkers, it was an attack on the US.

10. over 14 years ago on Glenn McCoy

    Most of those other groups operated within their own country or at least within their own region. Many of them had a single country as a base. And to include Israelis? That’s like saying Canadians. Israelis are people from Israel. They do represent a country.

    Of course there have been other terrorist groups. We have tried members of the SLA, KKK, ALF and various militia groups in civilian courts because they were citizens/nationals acting against their own country or the people of their country.

    Al Qaeda decided to act as a military force by trying to take down another sovereign nation. THEY TRIED TO TAKE DOWN A SOVEREIGN NATION - that is a military action. Yet they have no nation of their own, they do not fight in uniform. Against whom do we declare war, and how do we identify and deal with prisoners of war? There is no guideline.

    This isn’t the IRA. This is the Mafia trying to take down France. Does France invade the US? New Jersey? Chicago? Italy? How do they know who they’re fighting? Could the ‘world community’ expect them to hold a Mafia hitman as a POW? Would we expect them to give them the treatment of their own citizens?