East Meets West – Podcast

Tom,
You need to let twit know that your name is misspelled in the lower third. They spell Merritt with only one "t".

Gigi
Washington Crossing, PA.

BTW I had a substitute teacher in high school named Mrs. Caulmanure.

Been doing a little digging into US history, and the (rather uniquely, for world politics), codified "party systems". The last system (or the current one, depending on who you ask), beginning with the New Deal, was the "fifth party" system, based on a relatively left-leaning america, with a calmer moderate congress, and the presence of the "new deal coalition" ensuring a large voting bloc continually generated thumping democratic majorities.

Having looked at all the evidence, i'd argue that era is long gone, and we've entered the "sixth party" system. An era of gridlock, political realignment, rise and fall, and an era defined by the politics of deficit (elections will be one and lost on how the deficit is managed, and on how parties pitch their ability to cut it from the current 12 Trillion Dollars). One wonders whether such a massive debt (12 trillion dollars for a nation that collects just a 189 Billion dollars in tax revenue a year) will ever fully be wiped out.

Is the fifth party system dead? if so, or if not- why?

What does everyone think about all the stuff coming out about the 2007 IPCC report that is incorrect. Especially all the points concerning the Himalayas ice cap disappearing and the reports on extreme weather events been more prevalent were not peer reviewed and/or proven to be false. There has also been noted several instances where the report parrots WWF press releases rather than anything peer reviewed. This report is the centerpiece for climate warming advocates to show that scientifically climate warming is true.

I don't know now what is going on but there appears to be a lot of problems with all the alarmist rhetoric from climate warming advocates. There is also documented cases where research and also researchers have been attacked for having views that is against the orthodoxy of climate warming.

What does everyone think?

A place I like to go to find funny, often times geeky music is http://www.thefump.com/

Couple of artists I really like there are The Great Luke Ski and Possible Oscar.

Also, if anyone is in or around Bloomington, MN from March 5 - 7 at Marscon they have a track dedicated to comedy music. http://marscondementia.com

A big thank you to Tom and Roger for chatting with me for a few minutes at the Jonathan Coulton concert. It really was a pleasure to meet you guys; it added to what was already a fantastic evening. I hope you enjoyed the concert as much as I did. Thanks alot!