<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.hoenzb
{mso-style-name:hoenzb;}
span.EmailStyle18
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark<br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, November 13, 2013 8:12 AM<br><b>To:</b> ExI chat list<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] The Republican Party Isn't Really the Anti-Science Party<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>On Tue, Nov 12, 2013 at 2:06 PM, Max More <<a href="mailto:max@maxmore.com" target="_blank">max@maxmore.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>> A bit of balance:<br><br><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/11/the-republican-party-isnt-really-the-anti-science-party/281219/" target="_blank">http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/11/the-republican-party-isnt-really-the-anti-science-party/281219/</a><span style='color:#888888'><br clear=all></span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>They're not just anti-science, after learning that the majority of Republicans in the House and Senate voted to default on the national debt I concluded that Republicans were anti-logic. I could no longer stand the humiliation of being a member of such a hillbilly organization<span style='color:#1F497D'>…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='color:#1F497D'>Now that is an egregiously elevationist comment. They prefer the more respectful “Mountain Williams” if you don’t mind, and believe in the fundamental equality of all mankind regardless of distance from sea level.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>therefore last week I resigned from the Republican party ending my long association with the party of Lincoln. John K Clark<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>How will they ever cope without you, John? Utter collapse is imminent! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Or not. Be kind to Republicans John, they may soon run your government.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>John you were aware that the state of California has defaulted twice that I can remember, once in 2009 where they sent out IOUs. I didn’t have any but I saw one. People treated them as real money for a while, and even when they weren’t immediately redeemed, the discount on them wasn’t much. Note that the state of California went Chapter 11 (not 13) with a balanced budget requirement and the option of its citizens to move away, taking their money with them. So if that wasn’t a big catastrophe, you can see why the citizens of California (and pretty much everyone else) didn’t get too panicky over the threat of a US default. A US default would raise our price of borrowing, but our borrowing should be more expensive than it is: it is riskier than it appears. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>The Fed has a bunch of options the states don’t have, such as their arbitrary calculation on inflation. They could just find a way to declare inflation negative and give COLA decreases on all Social Security pensioners (that is coming) or just keep raises for all federal employees and pensioners to zero for a year or three. They could take the money in Medicare, dump it into some other plan (whose name escapes me at the moment, perhaps named after that guy in the Whitehouse) then declare that program delayed indefinitely because of technical issues of some kind, such as a faulty website. Yes this is a form of default and yes you and I are holding the bag. We knew it was coming (didn’t we?) for a long time. Yes it will be painful. But do let us move on to the acceptance stage, shall we? Our government set up a huge Ponzi scheme; eventually it has to collapse. It is doing that now. Anger and denial are so yesterday.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>spike <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><br> <o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>