Well he is a physicist, so it is possible he will be harder to bullshit on the subject than your average bear.

What about the most important consideration of someone at a high executive level in the government? Is he a guy you can have a beer with?

Good luck ita!

Kat, thanks, but sadly no. The cookies are little sesame tea cookies. My mother used to make them, and they were about the only baking she ever did that was edible. Anyway, I did a quick search and it seems that they're made with lard which means no more sesame cookies for me anyway. Boo on that!

I need to go find my copy of the Buffista Cookbook and look for some good cookie recipes.

I'm very curious as to what Obama will do with the Defense budget. With the shitty economy and the need for large bailouts and stimulus packages, we're gonna be running mega-deficits for a long time. Do we really need to keep on spending more on defense than the rest of the world combined? Our current defense spending as a % of GNP is way more than at any time in the Cold War.

I think to avoid a collapse of the dollar, we have no choice but to make huge defense cuts. Quite a lot of our defense expenditures are still geared toward the Cold War, and do nothing to help fight terrorism (e.g. the F-22).

Cutting programs from the DoD could be problematic because of resulting job losses. I doubt anyone in the government wants to do anything that will cost jobs right now.

Quite a lot of our defense expenditures are still geared toward the Cold War, and do nothing to help fight terrorism (e.g. the F-22).

Yeah, I think the F-22 could be a fight. I think it's been about 30 years or more since the Air Force has had a new fighter design so there is a bit of falling behind newer fighters like the Sukhoi 27, Dassault Rafale, Saab Gripen, and perhaps others. OTOH, I don't know if there is any reason for the F-22 with the less expensive F-35 coming up.

I doubt anyone in the government wants to do anything that will cost jobs right now.

Yeah, it sounds like the Obama transition team is worried about double digit unemployment happening.

I keep thinking back to Sarah Vowell on TDS saying, "I cried when Bush beat Gore because I thought he'd ruin the nation's water supply. It was a failure of the imagination."

Yeah, Gud, unless they're UAW workers.

Awesome squid hats for sale!

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Btw, Jesse, I happened on MTV Jams the other night and was thinking of you while I watched Li'l Wayne pop up as guest dude in about ninety thousand videos.

I know I'm old because I only know Lil Wayne by reputation.