In the .net period we are in years that are faster than dog years. Besides, what is a lefty? That's just someone who usually stands on the other side of home base, not much of a descriptor.

I find arguments that migrate to the picky details instead of focusing on the structure distracting, although you are apparently fortunate to have a "bloated" higher education opportunity where you are at. I don't find a large "bloated" education problem in my state. Conformity to a process started with Carter would be an interesting argument IMHO.

There were a lot of assumptions I used to make but no longer do.

'We should be seeking out forms of authority and domination, and challenging their legitimacy. Sometimes they are legitimate, that is they are needed for survival. Any form of coercion and control requires justification and most of them are completely unjustifiable.

One major system of domination that is not being seriously addressed that is really at the core of the system of domination is private control over resources. That means an attack on the fundamental structure of state capitalism. That is in order, it’s not something far off into the future.'
paraphrase ~ Noam Chomsky

I like that guy.

Edit: BTW, don't think anyone is trying to "own the air?" Think carbon tax, and cap and trade. Perhaps it's NOT your air.

It’s important to make the distinction. People are agents of morality, the State is an agent of power. It’s democracy 101 is it not? Feel free to debate all the morality of Russia and the US all you want, but the instant a State response is given it is an act of Power not Morality. Let's keep it in mind, there could be a reaction.

IMHO, worth a quick site search and a watch.

A paraphrase of a couple of my favorite parts.

Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2013: David Simon

7:55 ...that notion that profit is the metric by which we are going to measure the health of our society is one of the fundamental mistakes of the last 30 years. It begins, I would date it in my country, to about 1980 exactly, and it has triumphed. And ultimately the farce of this argument that seemingly where capitalism stomped the hell out of Marxism by the end of the 20th century, and was predominate in all respects. The great irony of it is that the only thing that actually works is non ideological, is impure, has elements of both arguments, and never actually achieves any kind of partisan or philosophical perfection. It’s pragmatic, it includes the best aspects of socialistic thought and of free market capitalism, and it works, because we don’t let it work entirely….

11:50.…And ultimately we abandoned that. And we believed in the idea of trickle down, and the idea of the market economy, and the market knows best. To the point where now libertarianism in my country is actually being taken seriously as an intelligent mode of political thought. It’s astonishing to me. But it is, people are saying “I don’t need anything but my ability to earn a profit. I’m not connected to society. I don’t care how the road got built, I don’t care where the firefighter comes from. I don’t care who educates the kids others than my kids. I am me.” It’s the triumph of the self. I am me, hear me roar….