Everyone keeps saying "The Emperor has no clothes", but remember the story. In the story, the Emperor was lied to and flattered to the point that he convinced himself that the clothes were real and that he had to continue showing that he saw them or be exposed as ignorant and unsophisticated. We, the American people, are the Emperor. Bush and his ilk are the tailor and his assistants. We're the ones that have been lied to and who voted him back into power; that was our donning of the clothing. What do you do to the tailor when his deceit is exposed?

Most people that post here with angry comments about articles seem to be posting about something in their heads and not what's on the screen.

brianhoxie and Brian (possibly the same person there...)

No one is saying it is to become the official version. No one is saying you or your kids have to sing it in another language. Why do you care if someone sings it in another language? You write as though someone's trying to make you do something different or (heaven forfend) learn something! Nothing could be farther from the truth. If they really want to sing a song about a batle in the mostly forgotten War of 1812 in Spanish, more power to them.

That was before we started wars with Mexico and Spain, maybe they'll forget that we did.

I was a little worried yesterday when you weren't back yet and all the notices saying you were on vacation were taken down. Glad to have you here again.

I've been saying this for awhile now, capitalism in America is out of whack. Companies should be responsible to 4 groups: Customers, Employees, Managers, Investors (i.e the stock market) in roughly that order. Customers and Employees in essentially equal parts and Managers and Investors in essentially equal parts after that. Today, however it is either Managers or Investors first and well after that, Customers and well after that, Employees. The effects are a long time coming, but will be seen in higher disgruntlement, lower quality product and lowered productivity. There'll also be less brand loyalty from putting customers 3rd. I think this is one huge reason "buy American" doesn't really resonate any more. People will say it and agree with it and then go buy a cheap import at Wal Mart.

One of the best takes I've seen on team prayer was in an episode of Third Rock from the Sun when Tommy is on the basketball team and can't understand what the team prayer is for. First he asks if their god is stronger than the other teams god and his attempts to make sense of it just get funnier from there.

First: the Porche or Watch fallacy has indeed been addressed many times over the years since it was first introduced well over 100 years ago. The reverend William Paley was likely the most famous of those advancing this idea, but as this was before Darwin, it was not intended as a refuation. One large problem with this idea is that it is a blind alley. If the existence of a watch implies a watchmaker, the existence of a watchmaker implies the existence of a watchmakermaker and so on ad infinitum.

Second: You stated in reference to the creation of the universe "It is a unique occurance that has only happened once, and will never happen again." This is not necessarily so. There are several theories in existance at this point that imply multiple instances of the universe. The latest of these therories can be found here: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060508_mm_cyclic_universe.html

Please note that this theory is testable and the authors are in the process of gathering evidence.

Third: You state "Because our universe is bound by time, it does not seem fit that the Universe can break its own laws" . However, while the Big Bang theory does state that the universe began at some point, it also states that the first few moments had physics very much unlike those of the current universe. The laws changed at some point. An article that references some of the testable aspects of this can be found here: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=0009A312-037F-1448-837F83414B7F014D

Finally, where you state that intelligent beings can circumvent natural laws, this seems to me to be just as arbitrary a decision as stating that it cannot happen without an intelligence. There's no choice involved. The use of this word, just as the use of the word "creation" to describe the universe is a loaded choice designed to point to a predetermined conclusion. I don't know how or why the universe started, no-one does. There are some theories and I have ones I prefer. If you like to think a big man with a bushy beard flicked the on switch, enjoy, but please don't pretend there's any evidence to support it.

If everyone but Qwest has given over the records without a warrant, can customers sue?

I set up my best friend's bachelor party almost 10 years ago. We rented a meeting room at the local hotel, set up a Computer LAN and played network computer games all night with 10 or 15 people. We took a break for dinner and went back to playing. The only way strippers entered the idea at all was that we kept joking we'd hire them to pass out snacks and distract other players. In the end, we didn't bother and everyone had a great time.

It is the Wall Street Journal. The Rich Man's answer to Fox News. They're so conservative they don't run pictures of their columnists, not trusting that "new fangled" technology. Heck half of them probably thinks it steals their sould. The irony there is they don't have any!