So when do we nuke North Korea, btw?

Cuba is an island. We already have some ocean between us, I don't think a moat would do any good anyway.

Saying that anyone stands a chance to unseat the great Rick Perry as the undisputed champ of political comedy is near treasonous. Watch that, pal.

Hey! You criticized Dr. Carson without mentioning that he, a Republican, is black! RACIST!!!

(Guess who that's an impression of.)

@4 - Comedy is subjective, but don't underestimate fantastic works of Herman Cain.

RE: Ben Carson -

id·i·ot sa·vant

noun: idiot savant; plural noun: idiot savants; plural noun: idiots savants

a person who is considered to be mentally handicapped but displays brilliance in a specific area

Carson's a brain surgeon? Sounds like he needs some of his own medicine.

To further expand on the theme that @2 is teasing at, Carson's stance is actually an excellent justification for a British-type National Health Service, where the public coffers build a wholly-owned national system to provide prepaid care for everyone. Building or buying your own hospitals and hiring your own doctors costs a fraction of what we're doing now. We've already got two or three national health systems of sorts providing limited services or serving limited populations. 1) Medicare/Medicaid, 2) VA Health, and 3) NIH/CDC for research and logistical support of the entire medical sector. All told, we spend more per capita of our entire country on those limited functions, than the UK spends to provide equal or better service to their whole populace.

@5

Not sure. Zok?

@8/9: It's actually so great having a smart doctor in the race, because they are generally well to do, nearly always convinced that they are self-made, and often relate to other humans only on the basis of patronizingly doling out brief moments of their precious, precious time to patiently demonstrate their objectively superior knowledge to a vast horde of ignoramuses.

In that regard, they're almost as reliably laughable as inheritors of great wealth such as Mitt Romney and the Koch Brothers, but with more true conviction and less self awareness.

@5/11, sounds more like c_s and his brand of "gotcha" idiocy.

@13: Give this man a pineapple!

Those who oppose normalization of relations with Cuba should also oppose relations with China and Viet Nam. Oh, I forget, the Republican class has joined up with the Chinese communists because it is cheaper to make things in a repressive country which sometimes uses slave prison labor.

@14: He seems to be gone anyway, I have not seen a post of his for a while.

The place has gotten much better since they actually started monitering the threads. It just isn't as fun for the trolls anymore. Maybe Raku will come back.

@18 Either that or one of his LARP Libertarian playmates cut his head off because after all there can be Only One True Left leaning Mini-Archy Anti Ayn Rand and The Paul's oh and Black Gay but Sometimes Bi Sommelier wannabe Libertarian.

(I might have missed a few C_S slices his Libertarian baloney pretty thin.)