50 things you probably didn’t know about Barack Obama

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  Dan Klarmann on Climate and Conspiracy
  Karl, is there any connection between my question and your answer? I can't figure it out.Have you bothered to peruse the evolution of climatological understanding over the last three decades during which global warming oozed from an odd idea that explains all the observations to a near certainty? »
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  Erich Vieth on Hypocrisy award goes to “children advocacy” center
  This is not the first time Disney has tried to privatize "the commons" with its money and power. »
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  Erich Vieth on An inside look at Reverend Billy Talen’s Church-of-Not-Shopping
  In this March 6, 2010 sermon, Reverend Billy preaches that the biggest purchases that we make here in American is war. "Bombing Baghdad is shopping. And there is no solution to this that isn't radical. It's time to be a radical American again right not. Think of the extraordinary things that radical Americans have done!"We can't figure out what th... »
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  Tucker Chapin on Boys’ Toys
  to respond bionicles have been sadly discontinued but can still ve found in toys r us and targets nationwide along with lego stores worldwide. i have been playing with legos and bionicles for almost fourteen years now, almost my entire life. my parents are very incredibly anti violence, guns, war etc. but bionicle especially and constrluction sets ... »
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  Karl on Climate and Conspiracy
  Dan asks, "Where's the profit for those would have us believe in the vast majority of the evidence?"Circular reasoning is all over this.This is why people like Al Gore and his cohorts passing out grant money to find trends that they can use to scare the unsuspecting into taking actions, like buying "carbon credits," actually has nothing to do with... »
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  Erich Vieth on Medicare for anyone who wants it
  Alan Grayson on DemocracyNow:http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/17/rep_alan_graysons_medicare_you_can »
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  Ben on Morning Smoke
  It sounds like they are ready for "The Talk".You know, the one where you gently explain that Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, and certain Gods likely do not actually exist -- except as tools to make children obey. And that they, just like their father and almost EVERY AMERICAN, got a big (steaming) dose of Heyzeus poured into their young impressionable mi... »
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  Erich Vieth on Medicare for anyone who wants it
  Niklaus: I assume that the big package gets more overall consensus, since most folks can find something they like in a big complex bill. I do like many of the features in the Obama proposal (as described on the White House site). I would not leave the payment system in the hands of for-profit insurers, however. There's not need to scoop profi... »
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  Dan Klarmann on My disorientation
  I'm with Alison. I regularly stretch my imagination to see the roots of how we came to be and are still becoming.It is a trip to realize how few of the atoms that were the adult me three decades ago are still part of me. Even neural tissue and bone exchanges ions busily. Yet memory (malleable as it is) persists.It is a hoot to see how most of our a... »
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  NIklaus Pfirsig on Medicare for anyone who wants it
  The reasons the house bill is so large is that it is comprehensive and contains language that specifically targets various abuses of medicare by corporations. This is not only limited to insurance companies, but also to such practices as "dumping" by corporate employers who, rather than contribute to a private health-care benefit plan for their emp... »
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  Alison on My disorientation
  Disoriented, Erich? I think of the same things, and I feel amazed and excited. The size and historic scope of the universe itself all the way down to our own, more limited, earthly existence,gets me all pumped up. In my lifetime, most of the mysteries will still remain unsolved. The fact that we're aware they exist, though, and that people are ... »
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  Planeten Paultje on My disorientation
  Best ride ever. Too bad about the people who are scared to death about it and try to stop the ride, mostly by pretending it all simply doesn't exist. »
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  rachel locke on How unique are you?
  what really blows me away - and maybe its solely due to my naivete (sp?) - is that not only do they know where i live and what my phone number is, but how OLD (or young) i am! But somehow, and this actually makes me feel better, they seemed to have missed the mark a bit on the spouse - i'm sure he'd find it funny to learn that he is GK Locke. »
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  Rachel Locke on My disorientation
  Yeah, I'm there all the time. If i think about it too much, i just get more bewildered. And why am i writing a neurobiology of disease textbook??? »
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  Erich Vieth on Medicare for anyone who wants it
  For comparison, a bill currently being considered by congress is 2,300 pages long.http://budget.house.gov/doc-library/FY2010/03.15.2010_reconciliation2010.PDF »
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  Erich Vieth on Medicare for anyone who wants it
  President Obama made a backroom deal last summer with the for-profit hospital lobby that he would make sure there would be no national public option in the final health reform legislation. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/ny-times-reporter-confirm_b_500999.html »
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  Erich Vieth on Morning Smoke
  I tell my two daughters that scientists have no sacred cows. They ask rigorous questions about all aspects of human animals, including the question of why some human animals believe in God. I tell them that to be good scientists, they will need to have the courage to study themselves, because absolutely nothing should go unexamined. I don't yet k... »
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  Tim Repole on Using the U.S. census as a teachable moment
  Erich, Brynn: Thanks for the informative replies. You've taken what was an abstract concern for me and made it very concrete. Considering that history it's hard to imagine that they'd be bold enough to put those reassurances in the envelope with the form. »
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  GSLeader on Don’t buy Girl Scout cookies
  Our money we earn does go for all girls. There is no individual benefit for the girl who sells the most and no punishment for who sells the least (other than incentives from council which I have no control over..I even work the numbers to make sure everyone gets something). No one pays more or less for outings based on cookies sales. We earn thi... »
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  Derek on Morning Smoke
  Interesting post. I suppose it raises the question of parenting and in what direction your hand points with your children in these matters? Not being a parent myself I cannot say, but being raised in a family that seemed to foster logic in all situations helped shape who I am today. My parents never required anything of us as far as religion goes, ... »
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