lost highway

Also interesting about that article is that the GDP has never really dropped, except from 2008 to 2009 in the height of the recession, but it jumped up to a record high in 2010.

I think being a sociopath could be relevant to someone's ability to adequately serve in public office. Which isn't to say one person's take is psychological fact, but not quite ad hominem either. Maybe if she had insulted his wardrobe, or his breath.

It get's dodgy because Ringo was never supposed to be a proper songwriter, Revolution #9 is more a sound collage than song, and George only got a song or two an album. He was also a late bloomer. Paul has written some of the most enduring pop music ever. He seems to have slightly more material in the second half of their career. He also seems to be the easiest target.

Wow, Paul is taking a beating here.

There's an implicit irony in extolling the virtues of apathy. I could try and psychoanalyze it, but that would be rude.

Those guys have written some good songs. I'm not a huge fan, and I haven't heard all of it but one thing always struck me about that band: In all the pictures/promotional stuff I see of them they're holding a million accordions, zithers, autoharps, hammer dulcimers and fluglehorns, while wearing Victorian formal wear. Then when you listen to them they sound fairly traditional. They pretty much play out of the rock playbook (a healthy dose of dark new wave in their sound). Not a bad thing, but it seems a little contrived.

Yeah the Beatles. The best loved, most talked about band in rock music that reached the zenith of popular appeal and critical praise. They're in every 'Top Album' list. Their catalog is amazingly solid. So what are the Beatles songs you dislike. (Of course the minute anyone dismisses a song, someone else will chime in and say 'WHAAAT? I love that tune! Which is exactly why discussing the Beatles is still interesting; most people know them, most people like them, and everyone finds their own little spin.) I'll start: 'The Long and Winding Road'- Paul at his worst: sentimental, drippy

Mr. Heartbreak you have argued my perspective in a way that is more articulate and less offensive than I did. Well said.

Another relevant graphic:

Somehow you took my parody as an attack on you. It was not. You are obviously not an idiot. I was merely critiquing a cavalier attitude towards spending in this country that flies in the face of progress. Admittedly it had a straw man element to it, but in my defense I wrote it early in the morning. Here is a look at discretionary spending in the U.S. Federal Budget for 2011. Now, I don't believe this covers Social Security, because it should be non-discretionary. It does paint an interesting picture of what we can do if we move some money around:

What did he do now?

Sorry? If reform can not combat a little parody then it's motivations must be feeble.

Another example of the many things our citizens expect from the government that we are not willing to pay for. Make our military strong? Well that's just red-blooded monster truck American bbq. Raise taxes on us to pay for it? Big government shenanigans. Assist the elderly in their retirement? I guess that's nice when I retire. Raise taxes to pay for it? Socialism.

That link doesn't seem to work, but a look over at Huffington Post of course reveals all kinds of tasty analysis about the latest. So, neither candidate addresses your issues. Perhaps it would be best to start a new thread about upcoming financial meltdown. At this point a light-hearted analogy would be if I created a thread about: Who's better LCD Sound System, or Hot Chip? And you responded: "neither, they are both evidence of what is wrong with music". I'd say about one of those would be a good way to shake up the conversation, but at some point you're interested in a different thr

Gold is shiny metal. It's only inherent use is as an electrical conductant and as a way to make poor people slave away in dangerous conditions. Most of the ways we extract gold are damaging by either causing excessive erosion, and in some cases putting cyanide in the water supply. It is a limited resource in a modern economy that is inherently elastic. People on TV like to sell gold to old people who feel more satisfied with a hunk of metal in their closet than an abstract number, which psychologically makes total sense. If the U.S. switched back to an archaic gold backed dollar in a mat

Paul Ryan favors a budget that would cut medicaid so severely as to leave millions of Americans without insurance. He also would like to cut grants for college students so that more of our motivated youth would have to work through school while acquiring exorbitant student loan debt. This approach to policy will effect you little if you're wealthy. It can ruin your world if you're poor.

There is an amazing Roots song that samples Newsom's hook from "The Book of Right On", in fact I think the Roots song is called "Right On". It also rules. The thing that wins me over about Newsom is her compositional ambition and sophistication. She has these incredible narrative many operas that don't really match any genre I can think of. Ys is a masterpiece.

No significant difference? I see a difference of over 1.5 million dollars in favor of Romney, with the exception of UBS AG with greater contributions towards Obama. The problem with graphics like these is they contain no intelligent analysis. What is missing is paragraphs contextualizing what this means. I fail to see how these two candidates are exactly the same, Sparky. You point out the diversion of medicaid funds in the Affordable Care Act, but miss that Romney/ Ryan's budget would slash medicaid significantly. In an earlier post you suggested that both candidates have the same mi

I learned that one of Romney's proposed policies would be to remove carbon restrictions from the clean air act. I can only suppose he is one of the remaining global warming skeptics. Paul Ryan might still have a right wing buzz going for his over-hyped budget proposal last year. This might be a tactical way to get republicans on board who have a sense that Romney has limited intelligence and no conviction. Kind of like how the Biden pick gave Obama's bid a bit more of a working class appeal.

I think everyone on here can agree on that. What kinds of policy measures do you think the President could have utilized to make a bigger difference?

The overall trend for unemployment in the last three years has been a decrease.

I believe the Obama administration has been helpful in emerging from the economic crisis, just not helpful enough to brag. Everyone knows that he didn't quantitatively succeed in his goals for the economy. I can think of a couple reasons: Obama brought us "Keynes lite". His administration operated under the theory championed by FDR that the government can employ people to make the country more productive and get the economy moving. The administration limited their reach for fear of reproach from the right. Even though the auto bailout, financing "shovel ready" projects, and cash for cl

Joanna Newsom is absolutely amazing. Hopefully the crowd doesn't shit on her.

That's a reasonable question. All the reasonable answers I could try are: We'll have to try for a while to really find out. Less cautious measures have worked well for other nations. We could not in any decency continue with what was the norm for American health care. It has been an embarrassment for a long time.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-august-8-2012/wizards-of-i-d-?xrs=share_copy Here is the Daily Show's take on the voter id controversy.