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It's not taxation without representation; it's their elected representative who proposed the tax in the first place. And while 51 percent of them might have wanted to see him in office, that doesn't meant that 51 percent also think that a $3,500 speeding ticket is a wise and reasonable approach...

You got it in one. I don't really have a dog in the fight either way, but I think that the government should be consistent about it. If they decide that 18 is old enough to be trusted with an M-16 in a combat situation, perhaps that person might be trustworthy with a bottle of Shiner in a...

We are talking about emotional maturity, right? ;) But yeah, honestly, I do think that the government has an interest in restricting personal behavior, to a reasonable extent, before a certain age. I'm absolutely sure that I don't want a 6-year-old trying to drive a car, even if it's the...

The government tells you when you can do a lot of things. They tell you when you can drive a car by yourself, when you can officially post your opinion on the runnings of government, when you can buy cigarettes, when you can consent to sex, when you can be held accountable for certain crimes...

I thought it was kind of funny that all of the "good guy" cars were GMs, and Barricade was a Saleen Mustang. I have this image of the guy from GM negotiating all of the product placement and then saying, "Y'know, I'm not saying anything, but if one of the bad guys could be played by a Ford...

I mean, consider the available alternatives.

My understanding is that Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox, and Peter Cullen have all signed on for two sequels and that Michael Bay has not. Also, they're hoping to introduce an aircraft carrier character.

Saw it last night. One of the perks of being a chick is that when the Autobots assembled and that red and blue Peterbilt transformed and Optimus Prime spoke for the first time and I got just a little bit teary, I could play it off. Honestly, I went into that movie fully prepared to give it a...

So what you're saying, then, is that Gorbachev wanted a reformed, not dissolved, Soviet Union, and that he assigns Reagan responsiblity for the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which we've just established was not what Gorbachev was looking for. That's not giving credit; it's called "blaming."...

My grandmother used to train Weimaraners, and my parents are training their Springer Spaniel, using the Monks of New Skete method (www.dogsbestfriend.com). They have a good way of integrating the dog into the family "pack" while emphasizing the role of the owner as "alpha dog." Jake, the...

You're right, I was making an assumption. Based on the fact that one was a national cable news network and the other was a local broadcast affiliate, I assumed that the one would be carrying national news and the other would be carrying a local perspective. Having now read the Fox News story...

They're covering different stories. The Fox News story (I'm assuming; I haven't read it) was probably covering the core story, while this covered the community response. That was a national cable news network, and this is a local broadcast affiliate. They're two completely different venues.

"It's not a job for hot dogs." Unless someone accidentally grounds out, I guess. Good God, and yikes.

I'm a little bit sensitive about this issue, because I have a friend who just came back from Iraq, where he was an MP, and he's messed up. He's physically unharmed, but mentally/emotionally, he's just messed up, and (as much as he can or will articulate it) it's because of the things that he...

When I was little-little, my mom had a neatnik friend who was obsessed with disinfecting everything her toddler came in contact with. Well, one day, we're all at the park for a playdate, and a fly lands on this kid's lip. Two days later, he's going in to the doctor to get his new abscess taken...

Well, really, it depends. IANAL, but it kind of depends. Traveling with drug-resistant TB isn't a crime in and of itself. They could possibly charge him with something like negligence or depraved indifference, but for that to stick, they'd have to show that a reasonable person would know that...

Hey, according to the tenets of Scientology, if it happens in a plane, it's not gay. Something about no longer being on earth, because you're in the atmosphere, or something or other. Dunno. I'm Catholic; we don't do wacky, arbitrary rules like that. ;)

Well, I'll agree with you that the electoral system is jacked up. But I disagree that the primaries should all be on the same day, and this is why. In the past, there have been a few states with early primaries, and those have gotten all of the attention from candidates. We always hear...

This has been mentioned but cannot be overemphasized - fruits and vegetables (particularly vegetables, since fruits tend to have more natural sugars in them). They tend to be less calorically dense than other foods, so you can eat until you're satisfied without worrying about the calories...

USAToday version - They are one and the same. OleMiss was on the PSC, and she was a schmuck, and the mods were all, "Hey, let us help you not be a schmuck," and OleMiss was all, "Bitchez!" and they were all, "Whatevs, later," and she was all, "Well, when I said 'Bitchez,' I didn't mean bitchez,"...

My cousin and her husband both work in the engineering building. Both are okay, thank God, but what a horrible tragedy.

Actually having a psycho ex when one talks about a psycho ex is commendable. I never trust anyone who talks about a psycho ex because it generally means a) "She got pissed when I wouldn't actually pay attention to her ever," b) "He couldn't read my mind," or c) "I drove him/her crazy." To say...

That's... impressive. Rarely do you hear a "my ex is a psycho" story with actual clinical documentation to back it up. I commend you.

You got me. I'm a tank. :icon_roll

The Prep-H thing really does wonders for eye bags (but use the gel kind - the cream can irritate), and yeah, I have tried it. I don't know if the concentration of the acting vasoconstrictor is enough to tighten body flab, though. I'm just lucky enough not to have any. :D

Sure, MB, just go ahead and tell everyone. :icon_rage

One tee-niney little nitpick there: The legislature and the representatives/senators therein aren't elected to act as the voice of the people speaking to the executive. They're elected to act as the voice of the people dictating the law, because it was decided during the establishment of the...

What about the Republicans who were there in her delegation, who went "with the cooperation of the administration" and then trashed Bush's foreign policy? Is it better to go without presidential approval and then act in accordance with standing policy, or to go with approval and act against policy?

Interestingly enough, catapult deaths have been on the rise in the UK since the mid-90s, particularly accidental catapultings of children.

When the story show up in a legitimate news source, I'll start to care.

*Headdesk.* I'm giving y'all an hour and 23 minutes to figure this out.

Awesome! I wonder if it'll still be available tomorrow... ;)

Now, hold on a minute - Are we delicate little undisturbed hothouse flowers, or are we burly, unfeminine manly-women with unshaved legs and untamed tempers, trying to live like men and do jobs that men should do? My little girlie brain is having a bear of a time processing the contradictions...

Once again, I'm not in favor of arbitrary pullout dates. I've said that. But there's a difference between an arbitrary pullout date and a sensible benchmark to realistically measure progress. So far, the administration has been unequivocally opposed to the latter, and much of Congress won't...

All of that is great, unless you're dealing with human lives and billions of dollars and possibly the fate of the entire Middle East. "Having faith that you're doing the right thing" is a bit of a shaky standard for sending people into combat. Now, I think that an arbitrary pullout date is...

Those are certainly all good points, and there's certainly something to be said for giving a strategy time to prove itself out. But at the same time, there's no need to be stupid about it. When someone in the administration says, "You can't put a time limit on this, we're in it to win it,"...

Not sure what that has to do with anything. Skidz said, "OMG Democrats don't represent the people," and I said, "Except for this situation right here, where the legislation in question advocates what two-thirds of the people want." There wasn't any deeper, hidden meaning to it.

Not that I'm trying to endorse politics by majority rule, because there are plenty of examples of when that's worked out badly, but in this particular case, the "will of the majority" supports the bill. Recent polls have had 59 percent of Americans supporting pullout by September 2008. Again...

I think he just got his letters mixed up. If he'd said, say, "The British use an 's' instead of a 'z' in apologise," he would have been accurate, and that fact may call into question the validity of the letter. Not that it would be hard to question, seeing as how it came from a member of the...

Ditto.

I disagree completely.

From the PR perspective, this guy would have just been fired for doing a really crappy job. The PR team's job was to build a solid brand identity (in this case, "Obama: Too Nice to Go Negative"), and this guy has, with one fell You Tube swoop, directly countered their efforts (by pushing a...

What I find interesting about this, purely from a political standpoint, is that the De Vellis who just got chastened for going negative without (purportedly) the approval of the Obama campaign is the same De Vellis who, on Sherrod Brown's Ohio Senate campaign last year, e-mailed a negative...

Well, there were "not in the greatest condition" conditions, and there were "cockroaches running around" conditions, and there were "toxic black mold in the ceilings" conditions, and there were "injured veteran lying in a puddle of his own urine and no one particularly seemed interested in...

Hey, you've made it two and a half pages without calling me "sweetheart" or "babydoll." That's a victory in and of itself, peaches.

No skin off my teeth. If I've learned one thing from political discussions here, it's that the sound of y'all abandoning the subject at hand to talk about my ass is the sound of debate victory.

Wow. Way to ignore fifteen and a half column inches of post and zero in on the first two lines. I bet you walked out on Casino Royale, didn't you.

Brett - And once again you bring back, in the context of gun control, that which is an issue for all laws - the fact that they only, in the end, apply to the lawful. But I will clarify (ahem, and oh, Lordy): While regulation of legal channels can't eliminate gun crime completely, it can cut...

Brett - Actually, in what is becoming an eerily frequent occurrence, we don't really disagree here. The presence or absence of a bayonet mount, f'rinstance, isn't going to make a whole lot of difference as to the use of the weapon itself (outside of some really contrived premeditated crime...

I've never eaten at Taco Bell without immediate dire distress.