I don't know how you sleep at night when you talk such rot all day. Everybody (in the Bible Belt and in Michele Malkin's email address book) knows the earth is only about 10,000 years old.

Oh, and the dinosaurs? An invention of early Democrats. Never happened.

Dinosaur bones were planted by Satan to deceive us and undermine the will of God. Mark, you're such an idiot.

Why is it hilarious for Michael Steele to suggest the GOP: is "up against fanaticism"? Nothing funny about it; it's absolutely true.

It's simply pressed against them from the back, rather than the front. But technically, they're still "up against it".

Sorry, citizen, if that post was not obviously sarcastic. That doesn't necessarily mean your diagnosis is inaccurate, but I'd hate to have you think I'm an idiot because you believed I actually thought the earth was only 10,000 years old. Or was in the habit of seriously quoting Michelle "Squawkin'" Malkin as a reference.

Maybe low-income families are more debt-averse about college because they are so much less likely to benefit from it -- less likely to graduate, less likely to have even more money for advanced degrees, and less likely to have the cultural advantages to get you on a career track.

It sounds to me like they're making the right call. Maybe if the economy weren't such a cluster fuck, people wouldn't have to waste four years in school to be considered minimally qualified.

"Quite a find: "Scientists today announced the discovery of the oldest fossil skeleton of a human ancestor. The find reveals that our forebears underwent a previously unknown stage of evolution more than a million years before Lucy, the iconic early human ancestor specimen that walked the Earth 3.2 million years ago." "

Well, paleoanthropology has been waiting for years for this Ardipithecus material to finally be published. The locomotor condition of the protohominine has long been a hot debate, and it looks like everyone was a little wrong and/or a little right, depending on how you look at it. It almost makes me wish I was back in graduate school writing my thesis, I sure could have used the data on the finger bones!

Goolsbee just did Kevin Nealon's Subliminal Man character with mediocre delivery. The people of DC are clearly starved of good comedy.

John Boner opens his mouth and out comes-OW MY BALLS.

George Will hates the climate debate for the simple reason that it's much harder to interpret than baseball, which he loves.

Baseball's great for folks who are into statistics; you can find out how many pitches were thrown by a leftie to a rightie when the temperature and humidity were exactly right for a hanging curve-ball and then quantify to three decimal places, how often the rightie holding a wooden object of such and such a weight, length, and girth managed to place a leather covered orb onto a green swath of meticulously managed grass, reaching a flat bag firmly anchored in the ground exactly 90 feet away.

The climate? Pretty damn complex. There are a zillion variables but the evidence seems to point towards a human-influenced atmospheric alteration.

Climate studies aren't fantasy. Will's better off gushing over his beloved baseball, which may be America's past-time, but not necessarily embraced globally.

So did this Ardi person ride dinosaurs to church, too? Besides, according to the Book of the Profit it's all irrelevant anyway.

Who's going to do the story about Jon Kyle?

Today, he offered eight or more amendments to the health care bill. Each was to reduce taxes on the insurance industry or more wealthy indviduals, basically keeping existing law the same (status quo, his words). The offset for the reduction in revenue was to remove tax credits which go to mostly lower income families helping them purchase health insurance.

Note that if any one of these provisions had passed, he would not have been able to introduce any of the other amendments (which have to balance out or increase revenue) because the offset would no longer exist.

The other Republican amendments were similarly directed at helping the insurance industry or the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

ARDI DIDN'T DIE OUT - SHE'S ALIVE AND WELL AND FILLING THE RANKS OF THE GOP

"House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) doesn't think the public option is popular because he doesn't personally know any supporters."

Therefore, Boehner doesn't think there are any smart people, because he doesn’t personally know anyone with an IQ higher than their age.

The Ardi find and the interest or lack thereof in such a fossil is an illuminating example of how modern day hominids interpret the world.

For some, the devil (who the heck is he any way?) placed fossils in the earth (boy he was busy because there are a hell of a lot of fossils!). End of discussion. Dead-end. Hedonistic. Not worth much more than an admonishment to parishioners at a weekly sermon.

For others....well the discussion will last beyond our lifetimes, the fascinating implications of our origins being pushed back further and further in time.

Sometimes I think some modern humans haven't evolved much in their thinking, their brains are fossilized by dogma and pontificatory illusions of grandeur.

I ain't much of an intellectual giant myself, but I detest small-mindedness.

Look at our political discourse these days. Tell me it isn't similar to fossil finders versus fossilled minds!

"Sen. Tom Carper's (D-Del.) public option compromise is making the rounds. Ezra says it's better than the trigger idea; Jon Cohn thinks it might not be necessary."

But if providers don't have to participate, then those Public Option plans would be orphans and their subscribers screwed.

I refuse to besmirch my excitement about Ardi with my usual small-minded political snark. It really is an amazing find and I have been thoroughly fascinated all day.

Peter Galbraith is fired in Afghanistan for questioning the legitimacy of recent election results.

Uh, no, Steve. The illegitimacy of the Afgan elections isn't in question. Galbraith was fired because he accused the head of the UN mission of complicity in widespread election fraud.

"Iran and the big powers... appeared to make progress Thursday... [with] the Iranians pledging to allow foreign inspectors into a newly disclosed uranium enrichment factory."

Actually, Iran had pledged this prior to the talks today. And while they may not have been completely up front with the IAEA when they started building the facility, they did inform the IAEA about it last week. Do the Western Powers inform the IAEA about all of their nuclear dealings?

I believe Obama pretty shamelessly exploited Iran's revelations from a couple weeks ago to make a big splash at the UN conference last week.

I know Benen's schtick is the idiot Republican antics, but maybe he could trouble himself to cast a somewhat skeptical eye toward Obama?

I believe Obama pretty shamelessly exploited Iran's revelations from a couple weeks ago to make a big splash at the UN conference last week.

Agreed. It was positively Rovian. Extremely ugly move on Obama's part.

I know Benen's schtick is the idiot Republican antics, but maybe he could trouble himself to cast a somewhat skeptical eye toward Obama?

Benen's a company man, looking to secure himself a cozy position on the DC pundit circuit. He ain't gonna jeopardize that.

Btw, anyone interested in Ardi should avoid the goofy NG write-up and go to the source.

Stewart bites dogs

His palpable rage isn't play pretend.
And who can blame him?

If we don't get a pubic option...
Who in the fuck needs Dems?

biofuels progress in Nepal:

http://www.biofueldaily.com/reports/Biogas_brings_green_revolution_to_rural_Nepal_999.html

biofuels progress in Minnesota:

http://gas2.org/2009/09/30/update-breakthrough-biodiesel-process-now-running-at-commercial-scale/#more-3666

Two claims in that last seem suspicious: the catalyst never needs to be replaced; the conversion is 100% complete.

The extremely influential Yamal tree:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/10/01/response-from-briffa-on-the-yamal-tree-ring-affair-plus-rebuttal/#more-11361

that article is a preliminary reply by a global warming promoter to a critique by a global warming sceptic to his earlier work. It's always suspicious when a researcher reports only a small subset of data, and keeps the majority unreported for a long period of time. The technique of selection has in fact never been "peer reviewed", only the analyses of the selected data. Statistical criticisms of the selection by Wegman et al have mostly been ignored by global warming advocates. Expect this controversy to get some attention from George Will. I expect that the funding agencies will begin to demand complete disclosure of all the raw data that have been collected, instead of partial disclosure of some processed data. For some journals, complete disclosure of all raw data is a condition for publication.

More on the Olympics boondoggle from a Chicago progressive.

Come on folks, stop throwing us to the lions for the sake of national party unity.

Tom Nicholson: There are a zillion variables but the evidence seems to point towards a human-influenced atmospheric alteration.

Substantial amounts of recent evidence have never been made public, while global warming promoters publish analyses of small subsets of (highly processed, not raw) data. I agreed up to about 5 years ago with what you wrote here, but I am increasingly sceptical.

* George Will really should steer clear of columns about the environment.

Will's article is a critique of an MSM article. The MSM article itself is pretty much trash, and not atypical of the stuff that MSM write promoting global warming. Will's articles, taken all together, are not worse than Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."

To Boner:

YOU LIE!!!

There has been at least one story about how a constituent of Boner's, a student at Miami of Ohio, died because she didn't have health insurance.

I find it VERY hard to believe he has received not ONE email or telephone call supporting the public option.

Please, Miami students, video tape your call to Boner's office, asking for the public option, and post it on YouTube.

My bad. Boner qualified his statement by saying he hasn't heard from a "regular" American who wants the public option.

Methinks anyone who likes the public option is, by Boner's definition, NOT a "regular" American. Even if Republican, as 47% of Republicans seem to prefer a public option.

Tautology, thy name is Boner.

"George Will really should steer clear of columns about the environment."

In a TV discussion of the movie "China Syndrome" back in the 70's, Will made a categorical statement that it could "not happen here". This was just before Three Mile Island.

Will's article is a critique of an MSM article. The MSM article itself is pretty much trash, and not atypical of the stuff that MSM write promoting global warming. Will's articles, taken all together, are not worse than Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."

Bullshit, Marler.

Here's how it works. Will writes a bunch of outright lies that -- quelle suprise! -- coincide with the agenda of corporatist Republicans. Will's nonsense is swiftly and thoroughly debunked. Will simply pretends to be unaware of the criticism and blathers on with his right-wing talking points.

As such, Will reveals himself to be an intellectually dishonest water carrier for the Republican Party who argues in nothing but bad faith. He forfeits all credibility, and anything written under his name can be presumed to be bullshit of the rankest order unless convincingly demonstrated otherwise, and is not at all entitled to any benefit of the doubt.

Exactly like you.

How dare you pretend that Will's serial dissembling on climate change is equivalent to Gore's message.

Jackass.

Big difference, Marler . . .

. . . Gore has studied the topic for years.

. . . Will knows nothing other than what he's heard from other conservative pundits.

. . . Gore tells the truth based on the science.

. . . Will dissembles based on his prejudices. He may or may not actually believe some of his falsehoods.

Do the Western Powers inform the IAEA about all of their nuclear dealings?

Sure, why not? The "western powers" created the IAEA for that purpose.

I believe Obama pretty shamelessly exploited Iran's revelations from a couple weeks ago to make a big splash at the UN conference last week.

Good. The man's a skilled politician. Shows he knows his stuff.

Agreed. It was positively Rovian.

Rove didn't invent public political maneuvering. It's been around since the pharohs and probably longer.

Extremely ugly move on Obama's part

What's ugly about it? For a couple of lessons on how skilled politicians school lesser opponents, even habitual liars like the Republicans and the Iranians, check out Morris' Theodore Rex and Goodwin's Team of Rivals.