MsGuy

The one appeals to duty, the other to admiration for a sibling. The effort to shift responsibility is essentially the same. And please note that the vast majority of Germans who made that argument back when got prison terms, often quite short, rather than the noose. Frankly, similar arguments are often raised on behalf of US servicemen who have behaved badly while in the field, arguments that I find difficult to ignore. Jgoo, New England polls strongly against the death penalty. Even folks who say they could vote for a death penalty (which they have to do to be put in the jury pool) can find themselves feeling pretty queasy when it comes to actually choosing to kill a young guy who's been sitting in front of them for weeks. The defense team will do everything it can to feed that queasiness. All it takes is one holdout to drop the penalty to life w/o parole.

Damian Lewis does make an attractive Henry, doesn't he? Most folks don't realize it but Henry was very much of an athlete (until gout limited his activities) and prided himself on his physique. He rode well, was a noted hunter and archer, played tennis and even participated in jousts. Like a lot of athletes he kept right on eating after he gave up physical activities and ballooned into the guy we usually see in the movies.

A story goes that Joao Goulart, president in the early 60's, was much revered in a particular Brazilian city for whom he had built a bridge over the river (although everyone knew he had stolen 90% of the money appropriated for the project). Asked why such a scoundrel was so beloved, the locals invariably responded that the two previous presidents had pocketed all the bridge money and neglected to build the bridge. From all I've read, I suspect that the real gripe most Brazilians have with their political class is that they aren't delivering on essential public services and are running the economy into the ground. World wide, at a certain stage in development, folks wading in sewage start to question where all the money for sewer pipes has been going.

And one modern rabbit that wants to kill himself for Easter.

If you have a taste for English history, you might enjoy Wolf Hall, the BBC's costume drama about Thomas Cromwell's rise from blacksmith's son to Lord High Chancellor and Henry VIII's go to guy. Very well written and superbly acted, IMO. Six episodes on PBS, started Sunday (but they usually get some extra mileage by rerunning episodes during the week, so check local listings). (Spoiler Alert ) They played politics for keeps back in the old days. Thomas Cromwell winds up getting his head chopped off by Henry. In a bit of historical irony, it was Thomas's remote descendant Oliver Cromwell who lopped of the head of Henry's collateral kinsman and remote heir, Charles I.

Well this dude may be from the same small island. Perhaps an older cousin? Damn, this island is completely inbred. They all look alike.

That gave me a hard on flashback too, Sucky. Any idea where to find more on this cutie?

Wire him up to a moisture sensor. Sure fire cure.

Sugar frosted chocolate coated frogs? Or did I translate incorrectly?

Much better.

I ain't interested in any of your damned used 'Likes' right now, MsAnn, and none of your lame excuses neither. What did you say about that chair?

Not to fan the flames or anything but what the hell did he say about that lawn chair? A flame shall always be burning on the altar; It shall never go out. Leviticus 6:13.

Too tall, bad hair, cute ears, kind of homely... I'll pass but thanks for thinking of me.

Is it later yet?

+1 to Zipper for finding that quote (if it's not real, it should be ). I think the Beib's "come to Jesus" moment at the end would have come off a lot better if he had had his spiel memorized rather than reading it off a teleprompter. Also the Beib as lesbian meme went on & on & on & on...& on...& on... & on... & on... And of course we all know the pretty boy is straight so that makes the faggot jokes even funnier, right?

LOL, RA1 probably favors the aspirin method of birth control, too.

"In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread." Anatole France Lookin, while such a law might at first glance seem to have a slightly disparate impact on gays, that doesn't necessarily mean there was any intent to discriminate on the part of the Kentucky legislature.

Mvan 1, I love that kind of detailed descriptions of services and step by step directions. Many folks skip over stuff they consider obvious, to the confusion of their less knowledgeable readers.

From the New Yorker magazine: Speaking to reporters in his office in Indianapolis, Pence said that he made the astonishing discovery about gay friends late last week. “A lot of everyday people have gay friends, and they’re not afraid to call and/or e-mail you to tell you that,” Pence said. “To be honest, I’m still trying to process it all.” Pence said that from what he has been able to gather thus far, the phenomenon of “ordinary folks” having gay friends “has been going on for years.” “You could be walking down the street, and without you knowing it, this person is friends with gays and that person is, too,” he said. “It really seems to be pretty widespread.” “It’s the darnedest thing,” he added. While Pence acknowledged that he has “no gay friends personally,” the growing popularity of being friends with gays has made him question whether he has been “missing the boat on this.” “When I see so many people having gay friends, it makes me wonder if I should go out and get one,” he said. “But I guess that would be kind of hard for me to do now.” I was about mid-way through the piece before I realized it was satire. Dumb ass me.

I was wishing it had been around for my mother and my step-father.

This links to the 60 Minutes program that aired tonight. If you missed it, researchers at Duke University have developed a treatment for solid cancers utilizing a genetically modified polio virus that only infects cancer cells. Apparently the virus initially kills some of the cells it infects but mainly flags all infected cancer cells so that the regular immune recognises them as targets and attacks them. This is still all in stage one clinical trials so who knows how it will all turn out but some of the results obtained so far are nothing short of astounding, especially since stage one trials aren't intended to cure anybody, just to try out different doses of the meds to see how patients respond to different levels of medication. However this particular set of trials work out, this is the biggest conceptual breakthrough on cancer treatment in the past 50 years.

Hey! No advertising here in the forums, Oz.

"Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover there are other views." William F. Buckley, Jr. "Let a thousand flowers bloom." Indirection worthy of RA1.

You don't find it a bit of a reach to equate telling a pollster you favor the death penalty with "just waiting for the opportunity [to hang someone] ? Not quite the same thing or so it seems to me. And only a far snottier liberal than you would fail to admit that, AS.