john5746

Well, your opinion is entertaining, but as usual, you are trying to avoid the slippery slope by not trying at all. If I thought the government or any entity had to be perfect to do anything, then I would be a hermit. Children are citizens and have rights that supersede their parents rights to use them as they see fit. There must be a minimum standard - food, shelter, education, medical care. As usual, there is no magical equation that makes this a clean cut calculation, but giving insulin to a diabetic is not on the edge of it. Compromise is possible, we don't have to sacrifice the lives and well-being of children in order to feel safe from government. We also don't want to sacrifice all of our rights to parenthood.

Interesting that you say that. I have a personal story in regards to this. My dad retired from the Air Force and decided to do the Green Acres deal and live on a small farm(non-working) in the Tennessee Appalachians. Having a gun and driving a tractor before age 10 was the norm in that area. I got a shotgun for my 12th birthday and my older brothers had .22 rifles all on display in the basement. I did hunt occasionally, but did not like it. I knew how dangerous guns were. I had a model airplane collection that I kept downstairs in a makeshift room in the basement. One day, one of my dogs got to them and destroyed most of them. I was so upset that I took one of the .22 rifles and started to load it with a shell and shoot the dog. I was so irate that the shell got stock and delayed my intentions. My mom heard me and came downstairs to ask what I was doing. I'm not sure if I would have done it if not for the jam, but I sure was pissed. Ironically, I did use that same gun to euthanize both of my dogs years later on break from college. They were very hurt from fighting themselves and other dogs while chasing a female and they were pretty old by then. I was glad to be able to easily put them out of their misery. People can be well trained, but they still have emotions that can override them - especially kids. Anytime you see a kid throwing things or hitting someone, you can imagine what might occur if they have easy access to a gun. Guns are a tool to make killing very easy. It is very naive to think that people will always be rational, especially with drugs floating around. I do wish America didn't have the gun culture and really the violent culture we now live with. But, we have it and I guess we must live with it. That doesn't mean we need to keep on acting as though guns are as important as life itself.

I think Obama's message about changing politics should not be considered as a plea to stop complaining. One can be respectful and complain. We shouldn't all be yes men. I am sure he expects some complaints and discussions, so it is never to early to start. He wants to spend alot of money, so people should voice their opinion on where it should go or if it should be done at all. Complaints about the inauguration and other ceremonial spending is nitpicking, but so was the stuff about the Big Three CEO's flying to Washington. What goes around, comes around.

The best child proof mechanism is the immediate death of the gun owner if a child gets access to the gun and someone is hurt.

Since an alien could come in many forms, I think the only way I can approach this is what would humans do if we encountered an alien world. Given that we would be more advanced than now, we would probably take every precaution to be peaceful and do them no harm, but in the end we would introduce some virus that would almost wipe them out. Then we would probably try to help them rebuild the way we see fit.

I actually didn't like this too much. It sounds like he's scapegoating asians and whites to me. I understand the 3rd grade attempt at rhyming, but still...

Bush isn't as sleazy as Clinton. Clinton abused his power in regards to some of those pardons, enough to convince me that this power should be restricted in some way. Regarding Libby, a Bush pardon would absolve him of being a felon? I think that would be important to Libby.

not surprised that Bush pardons less than Clinton, but I am surprised he didn't pardon Libby. I guess he blames Libby for making him look bad during an investigation that really turned up nothing. Or maybe he just doesn't look forward to any tell-all books coming from him. Oh well....

I thought of Terri Schiavo.

trying to make sure certain demographics are represented can become a challenge.

So this means what? Can we yell at them? Can we pound on the desk? Will that scare them too much? Can they be questioned for only 1 hour at a time? Do they need to eat 3 full balanced meals a day and get at least 8 hours of sleep? I would consider waterboarding as torture, but sleep deprevation needs more work, IMO. It depends on how long it is used. There needs to be some carrots and sticks to help get these guys to cooperate. No need to get brutal, unless our backs are truly up against the wall, then all bets are off.

They talked about Sarah Palin.

I'm perfectly fine with shipping them to Saudi Arabia and letting them question them and handle them as they see fit. Its not our place to mess with their culture after all. We can then close Gitmo and stop paying to keep these jerks alive.

Yep, the terrorists just have to quit killing people and decide to live for something and it will stop. Too bad.

Yeah, when Obama said he wanted to change politics, to bring people together, some thought he meant he was going to drive over the Republicans and then back up.

1) Energy - its the engine that makes everything else possible, but is also creating a great environmental impact. This should be done on an international and national level. 2) Medicine - international 3) Agriculture - I could be wrong, but I think most of the problem is political

Maybe because the poorly educated masses are the ones who get screwed by the inbred elite retard.

The free market only works well if all costs can be attributed to the resource. That is why people will start buying big trucks again if gas prices remain low. They don't see the real costs of that oil - to the environment, to foreign policy. Yes, it should be private industry working on a diverse set of solutions with the government rewarding those that meet certain criteria. Tax credits, tax penalties, low cost loans, etc are methods for that help. This is a big country with different regions that will utilize varied solutions to the problem. While specific technologies may not be picked, I think those that are the most economic, green, domestic and sustainable should be the winners, not just the cheapest.

http://www.pjtv.com/ Mediocrity seems to be very attractive these days. I had never heard of this "news" site, so I guess it is drawing some attention for them.

I read the first sentence to mean that the idea of returning to the previous status quo(rocket attacks) is a dangerous one. The context of that post supports this as well. How did you read it? I guess your blood lines are all indigenous to that area, otherwise you might hate yourself. Oh, Bomb-US would love that I think

At least he wasn't stupid enough to send this mythological money back to the people so they would buy more stuff at Wal-Mart in their SUV's

You need to read that first sentence again. I thought about this very episode when I first heard appropriate response. Its like people expect war to be clean and acceptable. Of course, in this episode, Kirk assumes that humans would try and avoid ugly wars like those in WWII. I'm not sure this is true with Hamas. They need something to lose.

might need to define what a cut is first. I bet a billion that less than 100 billion is cut. If I lose, I need a bailout.

I think it was pretty crappy of Burris to accept the appointment and allow the race baiting to go on(didn't speak against it). He might be qualified and do a decent job, but it tells me something of his character, IMO.

I think this election is probably no different than others, just so close that the crap that is normally covered is seen. I would think there is more of a chance of rigging and bias in the recount, but more of a chance for plain error in the original election. But, just my opinion.