But ... to loosely quote Klavan (a knuckledragger that we should hate) The debate is over! The science is settled! Any other point of view in this day and age is hateful. The time for talking is past. The experts have reached a consensus. We’ve come too far to go back now. The people have decided. The toothpaste is out of the tube. We’re not going to return to the bad old days. Sure, there are some who insist on being anti-science. There are people who are still clinging to their Bibles and their guns. Don’t they know this is the 21st century? If you disagree, well, you are not welcome here. We’ll sue. We’ll boycott. We’ll get you fired. We’ll revoke your invitation to speak. So get on the bandwagon. Fall in line. The debate is over. It’s over! O for o. Ver for ver. Over. The future does not belong to those who have any other point of view.

I'm lucky, I have two choices for Broadband in my area, AT&T which delivers 6 mbps service (with an actual throughput of 4.2 mbps) and I can get Comcast service which delivers 50 mbps service with an actual throughput of 70 mbps ... though service fails intermittently (outages haven't been too bad for the last few months ... knocking on wood as I type that). Both cost about the same monthly. So I will continue to hold my AT&T stock because of the obvious profit margin, but I will buy Comcast service for my household. I have AT&T VOIP landlines so I also pay the extra to have the AT&T DSL (no U-Verse for us) as a backup for those Comcast outages.

I'n not the one who left you looking "like some Palestinian-supporter", you took care of that nicely on your own. I don't really take a side in any war in the middle east, as I have been on the planet long enough to know better (Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, etc).

My point is that Hamas has been extremely aggressive in this go-round and has targeted civilian populations both for attacks as well as retaliations. Hamas is actually proud of the civilian death toll. For example today on Hamas TV: Dead Gaza civilians privileged to have died this way (Warning Graphic) https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3F... Here is another example, Hamas members brutally beating civilians of Gaza who leave their homes following IDF warnings (Warning Graphic) https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3F... Hamas sucks, there is no way around it, they are not the "good guys".

On the other hand Israel's destroying the only power plant in Gaza can in no way be considered legitimate unless there was a tunnel beneath it.

The idea that anyone there will ever set "aside generations of prejudices to actually put this shit behind us and move forward into a new era of peace" is a nice dream. Ask Anwar Sadat how that works out.

Convenient that you don't count prior years ... Since 2001, Palestinian militants have launched thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have frequently violated international laws of war by firing rockets indiscriminately from within civilian populated areas into civilian populated areas. They are proud of that fact and regularly take credit publicly for the attacks.

Did you really think the rocket attacks started this year? I only linked to the latest year's worth of data, but in that link the first line contains this link: Since 2001, Palestinian militants have launched thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

Hamas is so proud of their rockets that they unveiled a monument to them this year. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fph.news.yahoo.com%2Fvide...

Either you are being deliberately obtuse or you are simply sowing disinformation. Either way I'm certainly wasting my time engaging you in any further discussion regarding this topic.

"searched and berated" The same thing occurs out on the streets of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles every single day. Yet I don't see any rockets flying from Hyde Park into the Loop.

"Can you point out Hamas' aggression here?" Ok ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

"the brainwashed do not realize their condition" Oh the irony ...

$15/hour for burger flipping is a good way to get a $10.00 burger. The guy down the street with the Burger Makin Robot is still selling $5.00 burgers.

So in the end ... Demanding $15/hour for burger flipping is a good way to get $0/hour.

Well we can control costs another way ...

Because now it's in all of our own best interests to nag, cajole, and browbeat those who take unnecessary health risks. I don't just mean smokers. Eat too much? You need counseling and mayhaps a fine. Extreme sports injury? Sorry sky-diving, rock climbing, long distance running, swimming in the ocean, bicycling, hiking, camping ... all much too risky ... and you should be fined if caught participating in them without that extra "Extreme Sports Insurance". There oughta be a law!

The DEM/PUB hype machine will be happy to step up, pretend to argue about what the penalties and restrictions should be, performing yet another "Good Cop Bad Cop" routine for the TV cameras, to convince us that all we need is to pass this one small additional law, and give them that much more power.

Rince Lather Repeat

Another fun fact is that there's no actual "debt ceiling" right now. At all.

The fiscal deal passed by Congress on Wednesday doesn't actually increase the debt limit. It just temporarily suspends enforcement of it. We the people just gave a bunch of politicians a blank check.

" Apple/Samsung/ Apple's iWatch is as real a product as" -- "the iPhone and the MacBook Air" convergence device. Isn't the whole discussion here about a speculative product?

heh, indeed, however this year we see some of the other tablet offerings taking just one more bite (Android), or a nibble (Kindle), sometimes just a crumb (Win8).

Apple tablet market share last year, nearly 60 percent ... this year about 50 percent. Unless the iPad 5 has some stellar sales numbers this month an beyond, it looks like the market share pie consists of less and less apple and a lot more filler and crust.

I do love pie

Whatever they are working on, they are working on it without Steve Jobs (the iWatch moniker was the in the parent's headline so you may want to take that up with Iw54) . I hate the idea of Apple going to the dogs as much as anyone. But I certainly remember Apple stock prices in the 90's. Until Apple proves that they can continue to innovate without Steve Jobs, IMHO we should look at their current leadership's design and planning ability with a jaundiced eye.

You must be pretty young ... or old ... to not know about Apple in the 1990's. A larger bite of market share does not necessarily compute to "Catching Apple" but since you brought it up, my Apple Copland OS is pretty bad ass!

It's neither, it's desperation. The announcement comes a day or two after MS announced (rumored/leaked whatever) that the Win Phone 8 OS is going to be ported to the small tablet form factor (7 to 9 inch). While Apple wastes time on the Dick Tracy watch wanna-be , MS is racing with Google in attempting to take a larger bite of tablet market share pie.

I love pie