caeron

Yes, the point was to treat birth control like any other medical drug/equipment under your health insurance. If you have a co-pay for other stuff, you do for this too. That the republicans want to pick this as a 'wedge' issue baffles me. Almost everyone in the country supports access to birth control. 90+% of sexually experienced catholic women have used birth control at one time or another.

The problem is that these kind of christians don't actually read and study the bible. They just have some vague idea of what they think is in it, and judge accordingly. Christ was pretty judgmental about divorce, but you never hear that these types because they're only interested in using the bible to judge sins they don't themselves have any interest in committing. They're the new pharisees in the temple.

He's a crazy wingnut christian who made a big issue of the horrors of evolution not too long ago. Morons will do what morons will do.

In high school, when I first got a checking account a LOT of years ago, I was meticulous about keeping a running balance for about 6 months and comparing it to the bank. Then, I realized that it was a lot of time to spend for potentially very little return, and have not done so since. No regrets. I review the bank statements for any anomalies, and do sometimes find them (have had a few fake charges on the credit cards that required reissue of the cards), but otherwise don't bother. And as Expat says, the difference in return on cash accounts is so trivial as to be immaterial unless you have a LOT, LOT more money in cash accounts than I do! I tend to keep most of my cash in the checking so I have easy access if something comes up. My first job out of school was in Tokyo. Back then ATMs were only open when the banks were open, so I got in the habit of carrying lots of cash after a few weekends when I ended up tapped out too early (horrors for a young gay man!!). I carry that general perspective today, so I like my cash accessible because you never know.

My opinion,yes. Once the person qualifies as a real friend, there is the expectation that your communications are honest. Whether you actively lie, or merely avoid honesty, the effect is the same, the communications are no longer honest. That said, I think if you're uncomfortable being honest with someone, you have no obligation to be so. But it does have bearing upon what the friendship is if you choose that course. For instance, I have a number of good friends who know I am gay and married to a woman. They don't ask about how I scratch my itch. If they did ask, I wouldn't be honest. That's not part of my life I want to share with them, and I don't think the lack of sharing impacts the rest of our relationship.

I'm with your friend. Credit cards and cash, but mostly credit cards. I use mileage cards, and pay them off at the end of each month. I rack up a lot of miles that way. Groceries, gas, pretty much everything goes on plastic.

If you're a lesbian, sure.

I'm with you. I had a single pierced ear in college, and some people probably thought the earrings I wore were kinda crazy, but these things look like plastic raincoat buttons or something. Not appealing at all. But then I hate the proliferation of body art too. One or two tattoos I can live with, but these inked out kids turn me off. Old Fogeys Against Change! OFAC (somebody come up with a good G word for our new organization, we need to be OFAG!)

Desktop, definitely. It is both easier to upgrade, and easier to service. With minimum training, you can swap components on a desktop. Not so a laptop. And if you have a defective part, you can often replace it without shipping the whole system off as you would need to with a laptop. Obviously, laptops have their benefits, but for a dedicated home system, I don't see why anyone would prefer a laptop, since the one critical value they have, portability, isn't relevant.

If you are omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, how could you have fucked up the world this badly?

Congratulations. Too bad you can't ding the cops for abuse of authority too.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/abusedpuppy.asp

So I'm visiting Bangkok March 19th to 25th. I am engaging purple dragon (the gay tour agency) so that I can have somebody show me the sights. Any recommendations for unexpected must-sees? Anybody in Thailand want to have dinner? Any general advice for a relative new traveler there?

I wrote JC Penney in response to this, and got a great reply. Figure I'd go buy some clothes there this week in support.

I don't think there is any aging gracefully! At least for us mere mortals.

I know what you mean. When you're young and beautiful, everybody wants you. When you get older, parts start to go. Like your 'L'

A man can hope. I'm sure none of the rest of him is soft...

Yes, if anybody hasn't seen Rome, that was an amazing show and well worth the look.

Hey Lucky, My doctor says I'm a gonna die if I don't take an immediate all expenses paid trip to Rio for my, um, health. Help a brother out?

I remember a survey where people thought exactly that. I'm not sure why, but I guess they figure if you're not afraid that the imaginary man in the sky is watching, you'll just go be evil.

Interesting analysis. Though many of the 'biblical christians' I've encountered who hate gays don't know the bible in english, and are frankly boggled by the thought that it was written in another language first and that translation matters.

My parents were from there, and I visited in my youth often enough, but it was kind of a waste land. Connersville Indiana was fun if you were a kid going to the county fair demolition derby, but I gag at the thought of living there now.

His followers do, but having taking a clear-eyed view of the world, I cannot both be rational and believe in an invisible man in the sky. Jesus, God, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Odin, Zeus, or any of the others. So, I'm an atheist. Some, I guess, would think that would make me less ethical, but I think since this is all we're ever going to get and then the lights go out, that every life is infinitely precious. I mostly don't hold it against people who choose to believe. I can see it would be a great comfort to be able to stick your head in the sand and pretend death isn't final. I've come to think of it as a minor character flaw of which all of us have a couple, provided they don't get obnoxious about it.

My japanese is really rusty, but if I read it correctly it's a "face slimmer". You do exercises with it for 3 minutes a day to have slimmer face.

My opinion is that neither Apple nor Microsoft will be important for the next wave of computing (consumer/desktop anyway). It will all be browser based, and Google will be in the driver's seat.