Aside from the fact that what we're talking about is the ability of institutes of higher learning to opt-out of subjecting their customers and students to military recruitment and that O'Reilly is yet another example of a warmonger who's own family (realizing his children are young and including neices, nephews, etc) isn't being offered up to the war machine, why has no one yet rebutted by pointing out, as discussed in the red-blue debates following 04's fateful election, that the coastal cities pay more in taxes! San Francisco's doing ITS part to support the military; how do you do yours, Mr. O'Reilly?

When we closed on our condo late in August, we gave ourselves a week to: renovate the bathroom, rip out all the carpet and put down wood flooring, and paint all the rooms (with partial 12' ceilings).

5 months later...that stuff looks done. The bathroom took three weekends and 2 passes at laying vinyl flooring. The shower/tub enclosure and toilet were left in place. The wood floors took til the beginning of October, and we scaled back the area we covered a little, waiting til we tackle the kitchen and get ceramic tile. We had to call in reinforcements to paint the walls. We lived with barely a bathroom for weeks. The kitchen is/was rather awkward, but we're holding off til next summer. There's a patch of subfloor left where I pulled up the carpet and we're going to extend the kitchen floor out to. I put many, many holes in the bathroom wall trying to hang a cabinet and light fixture, discovering that we have metal studs in the process. And my subfloor wasn't ideally level, so the perfectionist in me frets about the future of the bamboo flooring a bit, and about the little gaps here and there where it's not completely tight, and I still haven't capped the edges with molding.

But it looks nice, and impresses people, and it's our first attempt at all this. I can put things in perspective. And we got all that done, with some tense moments, by sticking to get-it-done mode and being a little frenzied for a few months.

The forced air heat from the ceiling (it's a 130+ year-old school converted to condos, with a heat pump and duct work per unit) isn't terribly efficient we've learned, but we're learning more as we go along.

I guess my point, and response, is...put your nose to the grindstone and have faith. Stick it out for a few years, build equity, keep improving upon things, take breaks now and then (as I said, our kitchen is still TBD), and you'll have something more impressive to sell and upgrade from in a few years' time.

Good luck!

The act of 1998 is actually the Child Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, correct? I've seen it labeled COPA all over since this news came out. Compliance with the act usually has more to do with age verification measures and not collecting marketing, demographic, or personal information on children. Auditing sites that provide content to children with login accounts and opt-in emails is what the act typically justifies.

While I agree with the author's premise, the real point isn't just the ease of BASIC as an entry point, a "gateway" programming language, it's harnessing the simple, operational concepts of low-level development that's important. There is a belief out there that all comp sci students, or the non-academe as well, should study Assembly language. Are web developers writing byte code or operating systems? No. But learning efficient programming techniques and memory and resource management makes you an even more effective programmer.

I also have to ask: What about finding BASIC through LOGO (remember making the turtle move?) or using product's like LEGO's Mindstorm?

GORE/OBAMA '08. We CAN undo the past 6 years!

I wish the focus wasn't on who has the best shot at raising campaign funds securing primaries but rather who could make the biggest impact in '08 and beyond. I think for what the nation needs, and what the public at large will be ready to act upon, is to undo the past six years' damage by giving Gore, who has acted selflessly in the public's interest of late, the chance he earned then. Put Obama in the Vice President's seat to gain experience and be poised for a later bid. How can you lose?

We're just like you. We got pregnant a few months after our 1-year anniversary, 1 year after we bought a condo at the peak of the market that we're stuck with. We hadn't paid off enough debt, hadn't saved enough to move into a real house with real rooms, etc, etc. We're happy and excited! And it's pushed us to focus on real plans. I'm in the process of quitting my job to go solo so I can be at home, make more money, and truly be doing what I want to be doing, making me feel good as a role model. The baby's due in 7 weeks.

Things happen for a reason.

With everything we've done over the past 18 months to provide our son a consistent bedtime and routines and structure to his day, my wife and I are appalled to see her infant lugged on stage at 9:30 at night, not to mention surrounded by lights and noise. Sure kids are adaptive and strong, but they also thrive on routines. And her child is one with special needs. I think it's deplorable.

Duh. Bill owed Eric a favor for taking the annoying girl. Eric announced in Merlotte's that they knew when they were wronged and would seek retribution. Lafayette sold V. Bill needed blood, owed Eric a favor, killed Lafayette, and told Sookie he fed to recover.

Whose foot fell out of the car... THAT is a mystery.