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Stephan Flister

Maplewood, MN
Commenter for
4 years 27 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 12/21/11 at 07:12 pm in response to Stadium politics played role in Koch and Brodkorb dismissal, insiders say

#18 says"This is the problem with Cyndy Brucato - because she is a political insider you never know WHY she is telling you something, "

Yes, you do.

Posted on 03/31/11 at 10:23 am in response to Stress and poor sleep — but not 'screen time' — can sabotage your weight-loss plans, study finds

Ms. Perry: I appreciate the great work you are doing as an important part of MinnPost, which is itself our only hope for a useful regional information source. If readers provide feedback its only to help make a good thing better.

Posted on 03/30/11 at 11:58 am in response to Stress and poor sleep — but not 'screen time' — can sabotage your weight-loss plans, study finds

If I read the abstract correctly, Phase I of this study reports a correlation (an inverse relationship between stress/poor sleep and weight loss).

The headline for this report - Stress and poor sleep — but not 'screen time' — can sabotage your weight-loss plans, study finds - is a statement about causation (can sabotage).

Correlation is not causation. I think people would understand science better and be less confused by media reports on research if this crucial principle was...

Posted on 03/10/11 at 08:29 am in response to The oldest trick in the book: the politics of division

Mr. Westgard, it may interest you to know that we have arrived at a description of exactly what goes on with Minnesota pensions for state workers. Contribution rates are set by statute, not collective bargaining. Age eligibility and service credit rules are set in statute, not collective bargaining. Benefit formulas are set in statute, not by bargaining. In fact, no aspect of state worker pensions is bargained.

It may interest you to know that of current benefits paid, 68% comes from...

Posted on 03/09/11 at 04:58 pm in response to The oldest trick in the book: the politics of division

#7, But Mr. Westgard, your (implied) standard for public pensions is 'all', not 'substantial'. Even with a standard of 'substantial', the ASO is making assumptions about ship and aircraft life span, battlefield attrition rates, wear and tear rates, and so on; are they not? My guess is your studies helped the ASO to make realistic assumptions, and to set up tracking mechanisms to watch for deviations from those assumptions in order to make ongoing adjustments. Why, we could do something...

Posted on 03/09/11 at 03:15 pm in response to The oldest trick in the book: the politics of division

Mr. Westgard #5: yes, let's do just that. Perhaps pensioners can then feel some assurance that contract obligations will be honored.

And while we are at it, let's up the premium on every annuity sold in the United States so that every dollar to pay the annuity at an optimistic life span is collected up front and put in a hole in the back yard at 0% return.

Oh, and let's buy all the spare parts we could conceivably need for every aircraft carrier (and its aircraft) (and...

Posted on 03/09/11 at 10:31 am in response to The oldest trick in the book: the politics of division

Mr. Westgard would like us to ignore market returns on aggregated funds ("...without including the tax revenues or contributions....") which is the actual source of most of those future dollars, just as it would be if the privateers had their way. It's not just China that buys treasury bonds.

Posted on 02/25/11 at 07:48 am in response to Open season on the public sector is misguided

"It's not what you don't know that hurts you. It's what you do know that ain't so."

"But to make any noticeable dent in the debt we also need to fix Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and whittle down defense spending. "

Please explain how Social Security contributes to the debt.

Posted on 02/25/11 at 12:16 pm in response to The Republican Party and the F-word

This is interesting:
[from wikipedia/fascism/definition]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism
"Since the 1990s, scholars including Stanley Payne, Roger Eatwell, Roger Griffin and Robert O. Paxton have been gathering a rough consensus on the ideology's core tenets.

For Griffin, fascism is "a genuinely revolutionary, trans-class form of anti-liberal, and in the last analysis...

Posted on 02/25/11 at 10:42 am in response to The Republican Party and the F-word

Peder - Mr. Black didn't mention Nazis, just fascists. We already know we are not supposed to talk about Nazis.