HAPPY 4th of JULY ROUND TABLE

feeds@yuku.com (Freeborn61) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:33:12 GMT

Another huge beef recall: does this drive up the cost of beef?

feeds@yuku.com (sear) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:29:41 GMT

Nebraska Beef Ltd. recall now 5.3 million pounds

By JOSH FUNK - 1 hour ago

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska Beef Ltd. is expanding a recall announced earlier this week to include all 5.3 million pounds of meat it produced for ground beef between May 16 and June 26.

Federal investigators have linked Nebraska Beef's products to an outbreak of E. coli illnesses affecting 41 people in Michigan and Ohio.

The USDA's...

Why are we...

feeds@yuku.com (Ducky M) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:19:15 GMT

... so concerned about issues such as whether gays should be allowed to marry, and so relatively unconcerned about studying the root causes of the perpetuation of the worst forms of serial killing?

An exercise in dialectics

feeds@yuku.com (Ducky M) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:34:30 GMT

Thesis: Rebellion.
Antithesis: Acceptance.
Synthesis: Humor.

How far in our future (if at all) is the genetic silver bullet?

feeds@yuku.com (sear) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:26:44 GMT

How far in our future (if at all) is the genetic silver bullet?

We've long known that our honey bee population is in alarming decline.
It seems they face a variety of adversities.

But is there in this grey cloud, a silver lining?

Every species on Earth is genetically different from every other species on Earth. Right?

Well, it seems the honey bees have particular genetic vulnerabilities.

What about mosquitoes? Don't they have a...

An unusual rebel

feeds@yuku.com (Ducky M) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:38:20 GMT

From http://www.cosmoetica.com/DSI8.htm :

DM: I was a child during World War Two and grew up viewing adult humans as rather disgusting - people whose...

Hello United States of America. How are you today?

feeds@yuku.com (sear) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:55:02 GMT

July 2, 2008.

- This weekend The New York Times is expected to announce that uber-bombast Rush Limbaugh has agreed to accept $400 $Million for signing a multi-year contract. [*source NBC-TV News]

- George Washington's boyhood Virginia home has been found after several years of searching for its location. It is currently being archaeologically excavated.*

- The price of oil closed at a new record high per barrel...

Does economic growth have a natural limit?

feeds@yuku.com (ethinker1) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:45:34 GMT

Folks,

My wife has an allotment, which provides us with some fruit and vegetables. Over the years we have increased our cultivation of this plot, until it is cultivated to the edges, with small paths in between the beds. We have reached a balance, where further effort will not produce noticeable gains in the crop. So now, year by year, we get about the same crop from about the same...

Mike Reagan Talk Show Host Calls for Murder

feeds@yuku.com (David L88) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:54:32 GMT

Mike Reagan Talk Show Host Calls for Murder

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsEK3kyKfeA

Chuck Dryden, Tuskegee airman known as 'A-Train', dies at 87

feeds@yuku.com (sear) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:33:06 GMT

The Tuskegee airmen represents the flip-side of the Tuskegee experiments coin. The Tuskegee experiments were an ugly chapter of U.S. history.

But the Tuskegee airmen lived a history that reaches fairytale proportions.

Some say these men were picked for a program that was intended to fail; that they were intended as chumps, to prove that Blacks simply were not the equals of White U.S. military pilots.

Yet their military achievements were remarkable by any military...

Cindy McCain settles debt with San Diego tax man

feeds@yuku.com (Freeborn61) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:40:55 GMT

It's about TIME, isn't it?? I'm sorry...but, this doesn't look good for someone's whose husband is running for President, does it??

Cindy McCain settles debt with San Diego tax man

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Cindy McCain's debts with the county tax collector appear to be settled.

Officials said...

Should Prostitution be Illegal?

feeds@yuku.com (SecretSimian) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:39:47 GMT

This isn't a topic I've come across frequently in my travels and I'm not sure why. In the United States prostitution is largely illegal and yet it seems to be thriving through traditional methods and use of the internet.

Is there any logical reason for it to continue to be illegal?

Should it be legalized and left alone or legalized and regulated?

Other than a 'moral' argument is there any logical argument to be made for it's continued...

How do you pick which political candidate to vote for?

feeds@yuku.com (sear) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:45:57 GMT

In an ideal world, we'd select the candidate that on every single issue, advocates for precisely the policy positions we most favor.

It has never worked out that way for me.

In fact, I don't recall ever finding a candidate that took my position on the three issues most important to me; except for a few Libertarians. But voting for them is kind of like voting for Elvis.

So how do you really pick which candidate to vote for?

My (bulimic,...

Is it time the U.S. readjust its Afghanistan / Iraq military asset allocations?

feeds@yuku.com (sear) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:37:19 GMT

[quote] "It's the second straight month the deaths in Afghanistan exceeded those in Iraq." PBS NewsHour
They didn't say so, but I interpret this to mean U.S. military troops.

Before Bush began the War in Iraq, we were told it would be financed with Iraqi oil money, and that we'd only have to pay ~$60 $Billion.
Well we've already spent ten times that much, and it looks like we're about to have signed into law another funding bill that...

The Great American Road Trip

feeds@yuku.com (Elkhorn2) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:22:48 GMT

We are starting the last day of our 2008 road trip here in Colorado. It has been mostly good with whitewater rafting, fishing, a train trip from Durango to Silverton (remember Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?), visits to Mesa Verde & the Great Sand Dunes National Park, the mountains, and the wildlife. Tomorrow we begin the 25-hour plus drive back home with hope that our sump pumps have been working as storm after storm dumped rain in the area (as much as 6 inches one night according to...

Pelosi says impeachment is off the table. Is she playin' girly, or real hardball?

feeds@yuku.com (sear) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:50:28 GMT

Since the standard, the precedent has already been established, in the impeachment of former President Clinton, it seems that if impeaching Clinton was appropriate (& also if it was not) that impeaching our current President would be appropriate too.

Yet the Speaker of the House, Representative Nancy Pelosi has said neither Bush nor Cheney will be impeached.
If they were impeached, it seems they could arrange to grant themselves Presidential pardon, and thus escape...

Who has done more harm? bin Laden, or U.S. President Bush (younger)?

feeds@yuku.com (sear) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:00:10 GMT

Who has done more harm to humanity, to national economies, to human infrastructure? bin Laden, or U.S. President Bush (younger)?

Usama bin Laden has deliberately killed thousands of humans, and destroyed private and municipal infrastructure.
He's also done serious damage to the global economy.
Some estimates indicate his attacks of 09/11/01 alone may have cost the U.S. economy a $Trillion.

But in quantifiable term, U.S. President Bush has killed 10's of...

U.S. Federal debt: should the U.S. run a federal lottery; proceeds to debt principle reduction?

feeds@yuku.com (sear) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:28:26 GMT

The U.S. has a debt that's fast approaching $10 $Trillion $dollars.

States have implemented State, and even multi-State lotteries to help them with their budget shortfalls.

Of course, realistically, even if the U.S. did run (or license) a federal lottery, the net revenue would simply dump into the treasury.
But the enabling statute could specify that the U.S. federal debt would be reduced by that net revenue amount.

Would that be a good idea?

...

No more bees, no more ice cream EITHER!!!!!

feeds@yuku.com (Freeborn61) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:54:29 GMT

No joke. Look......

Un-busy bees a disaster for almost everyone

Could strawberry ice cream disappear from our lives? What about vanilla Swiss almond?

The folks at Haagen-Dazs are worried enough that they and others have mounted a campaign to halt the shocking decline of honeybees and other pollinators of strawberry plants, almond trees and the rest of the roughly 90 percent of terrestrial plant life that needs pollination.

Officials of the...

Question

feeds@yuku.com (SouthernLadyGA) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:08:32 GMT

Hillary and Obama between them have raised a whole lotta cash...

Where is all this money coming from? I thought we were in a recession.

@Heavy

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