MsGuy

Blame Canada! That's our plan, let's follow through! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAYMJnO9LBQ

If ever there were a proper place for de minimis lex non curat, the 'crime' of fixing traffic tickets would be it. I always thought fixing a ticket was just one of the perks of wearing a badge, kinda like free coffee at the cop shop. There was a young man named Rex, Who had diminutive organs of sex. When caught for exposure, He said with composure, De minimis non curat lex! "The Law doesn't sweat the small stuff." (very loosely translated)

Actually, if you are willing to grant him his premise that creating such a critter as man was a good thing in the first place (certainly disputable, however much its negation leads to a whole slew of other conundrums) , Liebniz makes a pretty subtle argument that God's doing the best he can, i.e. that this is "the best of all possible worlds." Lawyers should stick to their knitting (logic chopping, politics and hard liquor) and let the theologians and philosophers worry about the mysterious ways of the gods.

In the context of this article, "sex-happy" = high on-line condom purchases: high STD rate; and high pregnancy rate.

According to the WSJ, the automakers believe that the fuel economy gene of their customer base kicks in right about $4/gal these days and are adjusting their product mix and advertising accordingly.

Cameron and Sarkozy finally came out of the closet and admitted that their war aim in Libya is regime change and Kadaffy out. Surprise, surprise.

We could check police dockets to see if an unattended downs syndrom baby was reported stolen from any of the local malls.

So the Repubs are threatening to wreck the economy in a partisan party factional in-fight and the Dems are threatening to sit back and let them do it for their own long term partisan political benefit? So I spent an hour this morning listening to my populist brother rant that the Republic is dead and that all this crap in D.C. is a dog and pony show put on by our behind the scenes masters. Watch the hands, he says, and pay no attention to the magician's patter. I can't buy my brother's paranoid notions (he has this intense intellectual need to believe that somehow there's a guiding purpose behind Washington's antics). But I can acknowledge that our old Republic may be reaching the end of its run. Oh well, it was a fluke of history from the git go and we did some really neat stuff along the way.

just another test flight: http://black4white.tumblr.com/post/4021559942/dna-car-wash or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF9eEmsX6A8&feature=player_embedded yeah!!!!

Constitution, Article I, Section 6, Clause 1... for any Speech or Debate in either House, [senators and representatives] shall not be questioned in any other place. The purpose of the clause is to prevent the arrest and prosecution of unpopular legislators based on their political views.

Have we finally found a suitable running mate for Sarah?

You know, other than your winters, I can't think a single rational argument against your proposal. But maybe after near 63 years as an American, I'm too set in my ways to learn the words to O Canada! And (no offense intended) I'd just feel silly saluting a damn maple leaf.

I advocate forcing our fellow citizens to think about stuff they would really not have to deal with. Can't get much more naive than that. RA1, it will happen when it happens. I suspect, though, it will happen a lot faster if the change in the law is the result of a real effort on our part rather than handed down from on high by the grace of the Supremes. Real social change happens in our local neighborhoods and barber shops, not the marble corredors of D.C.

As opposed to the cost of buying 60 senators and 220 Congresscritters (& then paying them to stay bought)? When you can pretty much count on the Baptists and Mormons bidding against you? (I hear a reserve price of one Billion has already been set on the next presidential election. ) Seriously, other than an all or nothing gamble on the Supreme Court, what choice is there? Nobody promised us a rose garden. When I was coming of age, being Gay was still a mental illness and could get you locked up in most states. We just have to keep grinding away.

Zipper, it all depends on how you frame the problem. Even if you decide the problem is the narrow legal issue of same sex marriage, the only practical quick national route is to beg the Supreme Court to impose a decision and, given the current composition of the Court, that's a very high risk strategy. On the other hand, if you see the problem as Gays being able to live their lives with "the same rights, freedoms and advantages as heterosexuals," then the marriage issue is as good an avenue as any to engage the hearts and minds of America. In a very real way the whole of the Civil Rights movement of the 60's was a massive, sustained educational campaign focused on changing the place of race in American public sphere. Specific immediate goals, and the tactics selected to achieve them, were chosen with that educational purpose in mind. But then I'm a child of the sixties and I readily admit that the events of that decade influence my perception of nearly everything.

It's pasted from the linked NY Daily News article. Long time MER members wouldn't have had to ask; they all know I have no sense of humor.

Zipper, in a way I actually prefer to see the marriage question fought out state by state for a while. Marriage is as good an issue as any to work on changing middle America's perception of Gays.

I watched the hearing the House Republicans staged today on CSPAN. They were trying, as near as I can tell, to capitalize politically on the repeal of DADT. If so, things didn't go as scripted. There was a good bit of blatantly political grandstanding from the Republican committee members, but the Chiefs themselves pooh poohed any suggestion that the military was encountering any real problems. The Chiefs testified quite firmly that preparations were going remarkably smoothly, with little difficulty or push back from the officer corp or the enlisted ranks. "A GOP hearing aimed at stalling efforts to let gays serve openly in the military backfired Thursday when Pentagon chiefs testified the troops don't think there's anything wrong with that. "We've not seen issues," said Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps. "There's not been anxiety over it from the forces in the field." General Amos, the born again Marine Corps Commandant who openly and publically opposed repeal last fall, seemed to be especially proud of the way the Corps was handling the transition. He basically stated that young marines were focused on combat and had shown no problems about serving with Gays. I think this is going to play out about like many people here expected: there will be a few incidents in the first year or two and after that folks will wonder what all the fuss was about. DADT down and DOMA getting more and more wobbly. I'm so very glad I lived to see this.

Hey, watch your mouth, TY.

Not unsurprisingly, the IRS has no sense of humor about folks using their 1040's as a vehicle for political protest. It gets really really really cranked up about stuff like this. Not recommended for people without a high tolerance for pain and suffering.

Bingo, at least for MsGuy. For me it's two parts finding the right Google search terms and one part serendipity. Lookin, however, has the ability to hunt the wilds of the internet outside the cultivated gardens of Google Images. And Lookin's creativity with his pic selection is far beyond mine.

TY, when are you gonna learn to stay away from that keyboard until you've finished your morning coffee?

This is pretty much what was attempted in my state, Epigonos. Here the teachers and state employees went ballistic & were able to fend off the pols and retain control of their retirement money. Maybe it helped that red state folks just don't trust politicians with their money.

Are you being clear in your exposition of the the problem? Yes. Does awarding retiring teachers full pay pensions w/o making any provision for paying them make sense? No. (and the unspoken question) Will the rest of the country bail out Cali so you can indulge yourselves in even more of this foolishness? NEVER! ---- Epigonos, the Miss. State Teachers Retirement Fund (fully funded, thank you very much) had the same 'problem' of excess assets back in the late '80s. The first thing they did was fight off a raid by the legislature and establish the money was theirs and not the state's. Later the teachers trustees set up a "13th payday". The Board annually determines a prudent sum to award retirees from the excess income of the Fund. Thanks to careful management of the assets this bonus payment has been roughly an extra month's pay for nearly 2 decades. The last couple of years the bonus payment has been about half that. And the Fund (and that of the State Employees) is still fully funded.

Three Olives is an English made brand, so I'm guessing the it's probably available in Canada. One of the benefits of your intense Anglophilia. Three Olives Vodka