We need a new tire for our car,  just filled it with gas, got the oil changed and had to have a new serpentine belt.  That all comes to upwards of $300.  For some, no great expense...for us---down to half the income we earned in 2001---we're glad we've purchased most all of Christmas at secondhand stores because we likely couldn't have done much Christmas otherwise. 

So, FYI...and perhaps I'm not the only person in this boat (??), if there was a starter gift membership in the $10-$15 range, for 3-6 months, for example, I could whet one friend's appetite (I know just the friend)  and let her re-up when her months have passed and she can't imagine a single one without Ricochet.  Which I know she couldn't!  

I came to Ricochet tonight intending to cancel my membership.  Not out of anger or irritation or any specific complaint.  But out of a tiredness that has grown in me throughout the long election season.  I am bone-weary of hearing the predictable sameness of conservative/republican  points of view...the center-moderate-neo-con-go-along-to-get-along-cuz-heck-well-everyone-else-does.  The selfsame folks who marginalize minimize, and patronize the  (shut my mouth!)  small-l liberterian conservative  who dares to put forward their coloring-outside-the-lines ideas (I mean, didn't they get the talking points?). These free-thinkers dare assume  they, too, have a place in this Foxnews/talkradio/Ricochet podcast, predictably-big-R-Republican-dominated culture.  And then I read Ryan's thought-provoking, beautifully conceived and executed piece.  And I read the civil and thoughtful responses.  And decided to stay awhile longer.

Loved Dr. Vaillant...What a fascinating study...Powerful and substantive info...I especially appreciated his including nature as well as nurture in compiling and analyzing the data and results of the subject interviews. I look forward to reading the book...And to more of the Acculturated podcasts.

Don't look at him. 

Look at me, me, me, I , myself, moi, see me, see me, see meeeee?

You said it so well...I can neither add to nor abridge what you wrote to better effect.  I frequently think about the deaths in Chicago and wonder at the lack of attention the loss of each individual life garners. 

I add to those lives lost in Syria, a concern for the 50,000-plus lives lost by our closest southern neighbor, Mexico, criminal collateral damage of our hapless and failed war on drugs. 

"If you're libertarian about this sort of thing on the premise that "it's no worse than booze," does your position change even slightly given the evidence that pot actually does permanent damage to your brain, especially if you use it when you're young"

Still wanna keep booze legal even though alcohol abuse is the most harmful drug of all to an unborn child? And the most deleterious drug of all to family health and well-being? And the most dangerous drug for drivers and their victims in accidents? The only thing worse than legalized alcohol consumption was prohibition. 

I've never met someone from the midwest but that they were sensible, kind, generous, and 'regular'...as in normal.  Another great origin of the best people is the state of Montana.  Some of the sweetest, most down-to-earth ever.  I'm a native Oregonian and we tend to be more standoffish, independent, and sadly---with some notable exceptions, including yours truly-- are in the main, liberal to a fault.  And it's a big fault that has left Oregon rivaling California for foolishness and leftist elitism.  Gone are the days of my childhood when the great governor Tom McCall had Oregon State erect signs at the California border commanding, "Don't Californicate Oregon".  Alas, the Californication escalated to the point that many of my best friends here in Oregon now are Californians--which fact leaves me severely conflicted, and having to constantly moderate my opinions of what are the appropriate origins for my nearest and dearest....But so also are we overrun with those Californians who brought their leftist ways to Oregon and made it not even a shadow of the state I grew up in. 

Graham Greene.  I wrote a great and meaningful comment about why, but it's gone into that place between comment preview, and what should follow...a posting...but instead pouf! 

So, once again, and once and for all, Graham Greene.

Say. No. More.

I like Ferguson's ear as well as eye for good writing.  Too few writers tune with care, the sound of their prose, focusing more on the cleaver usage of words for the eye and English major in too many of us.  It's more effective communication--for MY ear, anyway.

Claire erred on the 'three minutes' promise, but forgot to include the 13 gales of laughter guarantee!  I love totalitarianism everywhere but here, where it chafes equally but is practiced with such pseudo-goodness so as to be totally boring, while remaining totalitar-ally straitjackety.

Dittos on your entire post.  Reading the mainstream media on this subject is such a waste of time...Nay, their efforts to control the 'facts' leave me searching the media 'way into the weeds' where bloggers and 'outside-the-box' economists knew where this economy was going years before the rest of us experienced it.  The collaboration among media, political, and corporatist forces is stunning as well as disheartening.  Their success at influencing the conversation across the political spectrum, including conservative candidates,  is most dispiriting.

I was stoked at the public firebrand Breitbart was.  I'm warmed to know the kind of family man he was. 

Trained seals.

I can't wait for the Bend, Oregon meetup....I'm heeeeeeere.....

Thanks, Molly.  I'm not a Catholic, but nevertheless I did a double-take when I read the 98% figure.  As usual, you got to the nub of the story.

This piece feels like a devotional, in a lovely and inclusive way.