IntenseDebate - RhodesKen

5 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - Hurricane season again · 1 reply · +3 points

I know you know this, NCG, but it bears repeating: Half a loaf is better than no bread at all.

E.g., boosting photovoltaic electricity while correspondingly reducing combustion for electricity doesn't solve the problem, but it helps reduce the problem.

We can't eliminate the problem today, but we surely need to start chipping away at it at a faster pace than we have been. And the "coming together" doesn't have to be all of us pulling our oars in unison. We can each pull an oar, even if the oars are not all synchronized.

5 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - Hurricane season again · 1 reply · +4 points

Let me see if I understand your theory. There have been lots of murders over the years. We try to solve them, arrest the criminals, and try them for their crimes.

Yet there are still murders. So how has all that detective work and trial work and incarceration worked out? You know the definition of insanity?

5 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - Hurricane season again · 2 replies · +1 points

This website needs something that seems to be common to the other blogs--a "Like" button. It could save me lots of keystrokes, compared to having to post a reply to say "YES."

5 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - U.S. Immigration Polic... · 0 replies · +2 points

The problem, I suspect, is that you're arguing the case rather than the venue. The decision of whether the actions of the marshals were legal is different than the question of whether they were performing their duties. If the order came down their chain of command, then I think their conduct, including whether it was a lawful order, would have to be judged in Federal Court.

5 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - U.S. Immigration Polic... · 5 replies · +1 points

I didn't see where Stuart Levine drew any statistical conclusions. What you call "one anecdote" is, in fact, a detailed write-up of how the President's policy led directly to the death of a previously healthy child. Led directly, for sure, because were it not for that policy the healthy child would not have been forced to live in close and continual proximity to the unhealthy child.

The fact that the mother was unable to distance herself and her child from the other five families *in the same room* was not an accident of her financial status or her mental health or her education level. It was totally out of her control, once she had decided to seek asylum here.

Immigration policy my ass! It's a policy of disdain, pure and simple.

5 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - North Carolina Congres... · 1 reply · +2 points

Couldn't follow the link posted above. However, this NYU website has a very thorough review of the entire progress of the case: https://www.brennancenter.org/legal-work/common-c...

Something that's disappointing to me, yet quite impressive in terms of "lawyering skills," is the way the NC legislature managed to delay for two years.

5 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - U.S. Dist. Judge Order... · 1 reply · +2 points

The following may seem like a semantic quibble, but it seems important to me.

"Judicial appointments have consequences" is a true statement, but almost always the consequences were what was intended. That's because judicial appointments are made by politicians. When a politician appoints a judge there are expectations of what that judge will do, and it's a rare surprise when the appointing official is disappointed.

The problem we have to deal with is that when we elected that politician, or allowed it to happen by our apathy, then our political failure has consequences. I think it's often that secondary effect that's ignored by the ostriches among us who would bury their heads in the sand, proclaiming "none of those candidates are satisfactory to me."

5 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - How big a problem is h... · 0 replies · +1 points

Idle curiosity...which things are going that way that would make you expect those sorts of revelations?

5 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - Statement from Former ... · 0 replies · +1 points

"Quite clearly a signal."

Yes, quite so. Nevertheless, a slightly more subtle signal than the ones we've been seeing for the last two years--the vitriolic tweets that seem to assault us every day.

5 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - Language gaps · 1 reply · +1 points

"Vicious" sounds too much like whining. Like "Have you no shame?"

I'm embarrassed that I would write that. But being correct isn't enough these days. Have to take the battle to the enemies of America, not just complain about them.

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