I'd say 4, with the caveat that mainstream climatologists are frauds and have no idea what they're talking about.

The paleoclimatologists (Mann et al.) have been caught modifying their data to make it fit with current measured temperatures. Their data is incapable of matching measured temperatures, yet they persist in claiming that it matches medieval temperatures.

The climate modelers are just as bad. Their computer models have failed to predict the climate time and time again. But this isn't their fault. No computer model can predict the climate. Nobody knows how the climate works, possibly because it appears to be chaotic.

Climate scientists are experts in convincing their patrons to pay for their work. They're just one vertex in the iron polygon.

1. Duty probably went out of style when presidents traded in the traditional presidential role of guardians of the constitution for the more glamorous role of agents of change.

2. Progressivism has been the ruling ideology of the US government since FDR's administration. Change became an imperative rather than a motivator. Instead of being tasked with managing the executive branch most effectively, presidents now are charged with making change (either moving progressivism forward, or reacting against it). I.E:

• Fulfilling the legacy of an assassinated president by pushing through massive social legislation
• Destroying the Soviet empire
• Bringing peace to the Middle East

Ye Gods! Bring back Calvin Coolidge!

De facto or de jure? If President Obama and the administration decide to throw this guy into Guantanamo, who's going to stop him?

That this view could coexist in the minds of those who favored slavery indicates that corruption of thought has been a feature of the American experience from the beginning. We are not a nation that fears self-contradiction. From believing in universal rights of man while accepting slavery, to believing in rational science but supporting Head Start (or that the Affordable Care Act would lower health care costs!), we have proven to be a nation of shameless baloney peddlers.

I saw some Lincoln bashing earlier in this thread. Lincoln may have ended the previous small government order of the United States, but he cut through the bull and ended slavery. Maybe it's possible that that idyllic Tocquevillesque early America could have existed without slavery, but in reality it did exist with slavery.  And Lincoln ended it. Sorry, but I prefer the America that doesn't have slavery, as corrupt as it is in other ways.

I hear the Israelis use the term "infiltrator" to describe their illegal aliens. Sounds apposite.

I was confused by this story. Hasn't the term "illegal immigrant" been banished from mainstream publication for years already? I thought we were calling them "undocumented immigrants". Mark Steyn has been jokingly calling himself "America's undocumented anchorman" on the Rush Limbaugh show for years.

"And there’s a double standard. An obit of a male rocket scientist wouldn’t open w his golf game."

Wrong double standard; an obit of a hypothetical male rocket scientist with the same accomplishments wouldn't have been printed in the New York Times at all.

The court knew the origin of Obamacare when it made its previous ruling. If the justices wanted to overturn it, they would have done it then. It ain't gonna happen.

"And I have always said, the first Whig was the Devil."

- Johnson

Indeed. Browsing through the online fountain pen community forums, there's a lot out there. The Lamy was recommended as easy to use for a newbie, but if I don't like it, the pen won't set me back very much.

After reading the propaganda here[1], I decided to give italic cursive a try. I ordered this book[2] and this pen[3]. We'll see if my writing improves.

[1] http://www.handwritingsuccess.com/italic-handwriting-series.php

[2] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0876780915/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[3] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0030MWE7W/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

But really, do you have any recommendations for fountain pens?

I was looking at some Italic cursive samples, and they seem clean, but I detect a bit of that 20th-century Modernist stink that permeates Corbusian architecture, 60s pop art, and Ikea furniture. But if it's really Renaissance, it can't be all bad.

On the original topic, count me on the pro-cursive side. After the nukes go off and the computers become ballast, your kids are going to need to know how to write with as few errors as possible.

I understand wanting more sunlight after the working day in the summer*, but why not also covet that extra hour of sunlight in the winter? Couldn't people just wake up earlier?

*(except here in Arizona where the sun is my enemy)

Every child in the United States is taught the metric system in school. It is used in every science class during elementary school, middle school, and high school. Every engineer and scientist in the United States uses the metric system.

What more do these people want?

They want the elimination of the US system of weights and measures. They want us to stop using Fahrenheit to measure air temperature. They want us to stop measuring vehicle speeds in miles per hour. They want us to convert our recipes from cups, pints, ounces, and teaspoons to their God-awful metric equivalents. They want to eliminate 2 by 4 lumber, 6 foot 5 basketball players, and pints of beer.

Why?

Hatred.

These psychopaths cannot be reasoned with. If you see one, I recommend a thorough thrashing.

I think you have the right idea. So far we have been using the same methods that the liberals have been pretending to use. Obviously, they don't work. If we were actually trying to build a more conservative nation, some beatings would be in order. Except, Ricochet has a Code of Conduct, and actual beatings are forbidden here.

I don't think liberals like Islam very much. They just hate conservatives more, and support anything that opposes traditional American culture and embarrasses conservatives.

You can see this in Liberals' support of other things they don't really like such as inner city gang culture, voter fraud, illegal immigration, or disliking American flag lapel pins, and what have you.  Liberals don't like any of these things in and of themselves, but they relish conservatives' dislike for them. And this affords liberals the opportunity to preen with tolerance over their redneck opponents.

Remember John Kerry's fulsome praise for rap music?

edit: got the lapel pin thing backwards.