How do you interpret “some kind of government benefit,” Frank? I reject the interpretation I infer, that much of the population is “dependent” on “government.” I guess our household fits your definition: I teach at Kirkwood, and my wife is a federal employee who does infectious disease research: two fields the private sector stinks at, [...]

Brad, spare me your social Darwinist shtick. And, you will find the phrase “survival of the fittest” nowhere in Darwin: I defy you to prove me wrong. Recessiona and depressions are not like childhood boo-boos. They throw people into poverty and disrupt whole societies. Nice to see you think misery is a necessary part of [...]

Why should I? To heck with your reading of the constitution if you think it’s okay for the elderly and indigent to be priced out of medical care.

Wow. Even given Lt. Governor Reynolds’ position as second-in-command to a Republican governor, this piece is far more partisan and selective in its analysis than I expected. So the GOP wants to turn the recession and federal debt into twin albatrosses to hang from Obama’s neck while denying its own responsibility for the policies which [...]

“One of the reasons that government needs a definite overhaul is that nearly 47% of the population is on some form of government aid.” Source, please. And, your statement is worded so broadly that it could include millionaires who receive ag subsidies, college students who receive Pell Grants, or public employees. Lee, that is the [...]

So, you have an issue with the first ten amendments? The Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery? The Fourteenth, which guaranteed equal protection under the law for all American citizens? The Seventeenth, which established direct election of US senators? The Nineteenth, which allowed women to vote in federal elections? Looks like there’s been a whole lotta [...]

Infamous quote from a college paper: “Sir Francis Drake circumcised the earth with a 40-foor clipper.”

So Jim, are you saying Branstad is a bad money manager, since he received such large refunds?

You may be right: why should we trust Branstad to handle the state’s budget if he makes such bad decisions with his own money?

Too bad Halsey didn’t detach TF34, with its Iowa-class units, to block the San Bernardino Strait, depriving history of a clash between Iowa-class ships and the Yamato.

TF34 would have kicked tail…

Kevin, the real question is this: do you want electoral politics to be bitter, partisan, and gridlocked?

Candidates need to meet one condition: tell us how you will work across the aisle with the other party.

Omigosh! If a confirmed knucklehead like me can get all 13 questions right, and I did better than 92% of the American public, then we are doomed!

Democrats and Republicans are both business parties, with a crucial difference. The GOP has chosen to define itself ideologically as the “conservative party” (talk about an empty signifier!), while the Democrats work to energize a base on class issues. A recent Economist editorial, looking at the Obama/Romney contest, sees the American electoral system as one [...]

Nice attempt at satire, Brad. What is your solution the “the business cycle,” an inherent part of capitalism? How do you propose enabling students to have access to higher education, without being denied due to not having the means to afford an education? It’s funny how many “consevatives” have advanced the old William Bennett argument [...]

Sorry, Nor, Bush II set a pretty high (or low!?) standard for executive incompetence. Nixon set the bar very high for cynical abuse of power.

However, I will agree that the current GOP majority in the House qualifies as “the WORST ever…”

Oh? How about such “monied inteests” as the American Petroleum Institute, which wants to preserve its tax breaks even as it rakes in record profits? How about the manufacturing sector, which will benefit from breaking unions? And of course us public-sector employees, like teachers, among others, are simply parasitic drags on the profit machine.

Picitures cannot do an Iowa-class battleship justice. When we toured the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor, you get a real taste of the size and power of one of these ships as you approach in a lighter. Inside, the crew spaces are amazingly cramped for a vessel this size (it IS a warship!), and you [...]

But Karl, I am implying a “conservative” argument by touting the necessity for compromise in order to keep the present political functioning! It flabbergasts me how people with a very radical agenda, i.e. completely dismantling federal social programs including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, claim the mantle of “conservatism” as if they are propounding holy [...]

Wow. If this thread is emblematic of the GOP, where compromise for the public good is excoriated in favor of ideological purity, then electoral politics is doomed.

*Bill’s sonorous voice resonates in the darkness of the empty theater.*