"If the airspace was indeed closed then what was MH17 doing there?"

Ban sports talk radio.

This is a great piece and I have no specific answers or criticisms. But I will point out one thing: The top global economies on the planet - and I realize this fails to take into consideration population size, density, and innumerable other factors - are the USA, China, and Japan. The three most batshit-insane,…

Funny. We're not actually that far apart re. Marxism and feminism, though obviously we disagree regarding their usefulness. I view them and all manner of similarly smaller-scale social movements as flawed but useful bludgeons; nobody gets it all right, not that I can myself, but they all serve to identify areas of…

I'll ask again. What is your problem with feminism specifically? Does it just piss you off when a group of people who feel like they're being shit on by the way society has been structured complain aloud?

Ahh the old, "People are flawed! You can't trust them!" canard. That's a fun way to avoid ever having to accept a scientific consensus that conflicts with your current worldview! Why, it effectively grants you the right to pick and choose your own reality according to what makes you feel best. Must be exhausting,…

OK. So science is "infected" by Marxism and feminism, presumably, a whole host of other evil libruhl concepts. Yeah, that's one possibility. Of course, the far more plausible explanation is that "science" is not a fucking ideology, and it's not a religion. It's a collective gathering of information, and it morphs and…

That's a false equivalency and you know it. They remain in the fringe, and aren't a driving force of mainstream center-left or left-wing politics. Can you name a single prominent political figure or ideologue espousing any of these views from a bully pulpit approaching the size and scale of a sitting Republican…

I truly cannot understand how someone who finds science fascinating enough to read a website like this one can get upset when science writers express opposition to a side of a "debate" that routinely props up people like Paul "Evolution is a lie from the pit of hell" Broun, to name one of any number of truly asinine…

When you say physical pain, what do you mean?

I wonder how this might relate to psychopathy?

Have seen speculation about Messi being, if not an autistic soccer savant, something pretty damned close to it. So much of it is badly translated foreign press...but it would mesh pretty well with the bland public persona.

Yup, absolutely. The slight disagreement was really just one of semantics: You had intended your first comment to be a reflection of legit, raw brain power, while I was stuck on a culturally nurtured interpretation of the word "smart."

The article you linked to in another comment is very interesting. Hadn't seen that one before, but it makes sense that some level of added brainpower would be necessary to negotiate a far more complicated social life. Obviously explains us humans, too. Hell, the nuanced communication via facial musculature that dogs…

Cats speak their own emotional language. Dogs speak ours. Learn the difference and cats make great pets. Expect them to operate according to our rules and you'll never stop fighting each other.

Nailed it.

If Columbia or Costa Rica win it all, you ought to come back to gloat. But until the end of the tourney, there's not much in this piece to quibble with.

Yes, making an accurate and objective prediction regarding your team's chances is exactly the same as actively rooting against them. One most be slavishly and blindly devoted to one's team and their chances in order to qualify as a "real fan."

If he hasn't, I think Mr. Ley ought to elaborate on that tweet.

Yes, there is a difference. And I agree, the law ought to be adjusted somewhat to assign a different penalty to teens who break it than to adults who take advantage of kids.