Any love for Polywell from Obama?

Roger · Post by **Roger** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:31 pm

Professor Science wrote:Just throw half the budget at the NSF and keep the grants coming and everything will more or less work out for the better, an excess of scientists is better for a society than an excess of bankers and investors.

I like to hang out with scientists, but I choose not to socialize with money changers for possibly similar reasons.

Well many of those bankers etc, were looking to figure out ways to make more money without building something that involved Carnot or horsepower. I fell no pain for those ex financial workers.

Simon, dems have effective control in the senate? Since when did they have 60 votes that would actually allow them to call for vote on something as mundane as a parliamentary matter. I wanna end debate, I cant, I dont have 60 votes.

Effect control my ass, when we get effective control, I'll let you know. WE had 55 in the senate in the 100th Congress ('87-'88 ) and stopped Reagan and the republicans dead in their tracks.... not.....

......and we have 56 now. Chairs and assignments are all we really can control as the party in the majority.

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:20 am

Simon, dems have effective control in the senate? Since when did they have 60 votes that would actually allow them to call for vote on something as mundane as a parliamentary matter. I wanna end debate, I cant, I dont have 60 votes.

The Rs in the House are disciplined. In the Senate the Rs have defectors.

In any case the threat to the Ds is not the regular voters. It is the 50% who normally take little interest in politics. Which is why tea parties have struck fear in the hearts of the politicians. If even 20% of that 50% gets motivated enough to register and vote the Ds (and any Rs who voted for huge spending) are in trouble. Big trouble. My Cong Critter (Don Manzullo - R) is in a swing district. He got 60%+ in the last election. He has voted against ALL the bail outs. I expect he will do well in '10.

Also note: Americans tend to be fans of divided government. That may be more important than party building.

Professor Science · Post by **Professor Science** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:39 pm

You actually think the semi-insane tea baggers are something that frightens politicians? dressing up obama in a hitler costume and calling for book burning is not going to get more than 20% of americans interested, and that 20% already hated the people in power because they will always hate the people in power.

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:50 pm

Professor Science wrote:You actually think the semi-insane tea baggers are something that frightens politicians? dressing up obama in a hitler costume and calling for book burning is not going to get more than 20% of americans interested, and that 20% already hated the people in power because they will always hate the people in power.

Hey. They did all that Hitler stuff with Bush. I think it has become a tradition now. All Presidents are Hitler.

I missed the book burnings at the tea parties. Got a link?

Hating the people in power is a very good thing. It reminds our "servants" in Washington who their ultimate master is.

But yeah. You are right. All that tea party stuff will not matter a bit. No sane politician would pay it any mind. Keep the money and the red ink flowing. It is a good thing.

Professor Science · Post by **Professor Science** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:00 pm

crazy rants encouraged
Bush was loathed, but we waited for him to actually start suspending habeus corpus and freedom of speech before we called him a facist, these people are just doing it cause they're unhappy that the rich are getting taxed.

JLawson · Post by **JLawson** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:24 pm

Oliver Willis is seen (and held up as) as an impartial source?

Polywell must have opened some wormholes to an alternative world...

Professor Science · Post by **Professor Science** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:31 pm

Since you're unfamiliar with the concept of a primary source (such as diaries, source footage or experimental data) I'll give you it form someone conservative so you can believe it. You bloody tool.

edit: The codes not behaving very well, the relevant url is http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article ... _the_Books!

JLawson · Post by **JLawson** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:50 pm

My goodness. I express skepticism of Oliver Willis as an impartial source, and you push me to a LGF source which has an 'unnamed speaker' at an informal event spouting nutjobbery, and another one later on (again unnamed) spouting about burning the books.

The obvious conclusion you seem to want me to draw is that everyone, everywhere, involved with the Tea Party phenomenon totally agrees with that nuttiness, and it's proof that's what they intend to do, if given half a chance.

Where are the piles of smoldering books? Where's the enraged mobs breaking into colleges and torching libraries? Where's even a paperback lit on fire? Or a flyer blazing in an ashtray?

And you insult me besides.

You're really working hard on trying to convince people you've got the right take on things, aren't you?

Professor Science · Post by **Professor Science** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:54 pm

If I didn't want to know news about polywell development I wouldn't bother coming here. It depresses/infuriates me talking with you people.

JLawson · Post by **JLawson** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:10 pm

Prof -

People have differing opinions, whether on science or politics. Maybe you're one of those who can't stand ANY disagreement when it comes to politics, and feel you've got to totally 'destroy' the other person through withering remarks and insults. That's your privelege - but I hope you'll forgive me if I believe it's possible to disagree on political subjects yet remain cordial to the person.

But if you get depressed or infuriated because your opinion isn't automatically agreed with on a board that's nominally non-political, you might want to try to figure out why your opinion is so important that even a minor challenge to it messes you up

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:52 pm

Professor Science wrote:If I didn't want to know news about polywell development I wouldn't bother coming here. It depresses/infuriates me talking with you people.

Well you know how it is. We have a lot of engineers here. Engineers tend to drift to the conservative side of politics because they have to deal with the real world with real money riding on their choices. Not to mention the amount of havoc they can cause if they make a really bad choice.

The real world is a bitch and it is most unforgiving of even the best of intentions. It is not enough to want your designs to work.

Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 2:02 pm

Professor Science wrote:crazy rants encouraged
Bush was loathed, but we waited for him to actually start suspending habeus corpus and freedom of speech before we called him a facist, these people are just doing it cause they're unhappy that the rich are getting taxed.

Nope. It is the blatant corpratism going on. It is a variant of socialism once referred to as fascism. But the original meaning of that word has gone out of style. The Fascists have reverted to an old American term with similar if not so definite meaning: Progressive.

But really. There is nothing progressive about destroying an economy. Polywell depends on the wealth the economy generates. We can't learn new things at the rate we would like if we don't profit from what we already have. The more profit the faster we can learn and change.

gblaze42 · Post by **gblaze42** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:01 pm

Professor Science wrote:You actually think the semi-insane tea baggers are something that frightens politicians? dressing up obama in a hitler costume and calling for book burning is not going to get more than 20% of americans interested, and that 20% already hated the people in power because they will always hate the people in power.

Wow are you mis-informed, seriously, you do realize that your pointing out less than 1% of the people who were there, I say this as both my wife and I went to the tea party in Atlanta. Several people who attended were Democrats as well as Republican.
Why do so many liberals resort to manipulation when they are faced with anyone who's worldview is different from their own?
Sorrily some of us don't fall so easily into the "group think" that so many liberals see as enlightenment.

TallDave · Post by **TallDave** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:06 pm

Since when did they have 60 votes that would actually allow them to call for vote on something as mundane as a parliamentary matter.

Since today.

Everything that goes wrong from here on out is now completely the Democrats' fault.

TallDave · Post by **TallDave** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:11 pm

Bush was loathed, but we waited for him to actually start suspending habeus corpus and freedom of speech before we called him a facist,

You do know there's still no habeas corpus at Bagram, right? And I assume youve heard of the effort to reinstitute the "Fairness Doctrine" (aka "Kick Rush Limbaugh Off The Air")? And the fake DHS "terrorism" report claiming anyone who wants tax reform or immigration enforcement could be a dangerous terrorist -- esp. if they're veterans?

So if Bush was a fascist, Obama certainly is too. And it's only been 100 days.