We could have set up a pretty substantial permanent living base on Mars with a rotating staff for the cost of the Iraq boondoggle. Plus, no one would be shooting at us there.

It's amazing what kind of waste people will countenance, and then freak out over chump change. The finance bailout our lawmakers approved would have paid for NASA's present operations for 40 years.

Let NASA spend its small allowance of taxpayer's money to do pure science. That's what government is supposed to do--fund things not immediately profitable. You never know what you'll get.

If mining asteroids and zero g industries and such are all profitable, like you say, unleash the power of the Invisible Hand. There's no reason why Space X or Virgin Galactic or any of the other space entrepreneurs couldn't cash in on this El Dorado. Sure, maybe some subsidies could help, but why bother? The sky's the limit.

Interesting. Very interesting.

There's a jpeg floating around that has a close-up pic of Giada showing off her pearly whites in an almost painful grin, with the caption, "You're at a ten. We need you at about a seven."

I'm really disappointed in the level you're at today. I think you might want to just chill out until after Christmas, then really hit the threads with a passion.

I guess everyone else is still sleeping off their turkey dinners. The Salon Letters section gets some mighty entertaining posts in the down times.

So long, Harry. Thanks for the effort, yaddayaddayadda, see you 'round.

I was rather excited for another thrilling day with our favorite bad boy, Jack Bauer, but halfway in the first installment and nothing was hitting. Thud-thud-thud, all the punches fell flat. I turned it off, smiled sadly, and reminisced about Nina, Chloe and Evil Mandy.

The letters section smells trolly this morning.

Just remembering the sycophantic gushings of various talking heads and assorted political types during Reagan's funeral makes me a little ill.

And we're heading into serious flamewar territory already.

I'm thinking he'll be opting to spend more time with his family some time next week.

I felt I had to share this gem of a comment from the Freeper thread you posted:

I assume you are urging us to pray for Rush Limbaugh? He is the courageous one. I have no objections to a circular firing squad if RINO’s are in the middle.

I don't think Freeper "silverleaf" thought this scenario completely through.

Here's that circular firing squad they were calling for earlier today.

Heather, either you're a masterful troll, or the outraged atheists here haven't ever read your columns. Folks, when you decide to stop taking the concept of God seriously, that doesn't mean you have to become humorless pricks. It's like you become Godless Puritans.

Moonbats don't worry about black helicopters. That's the right-wing militia groups holed up in their sovereign compounds in Idaho.

Once upon a time there were three billy goats, who were to go up to the hillside to make themselves fat, and the name of all three was "Gruff."

On the way up was a bridge over a cascading stream they had to cross; and under the bridge lived elephantman, with eyes as big as saucers, and a nose as long as a poker.

Hey-zeus, there are some self-important people in here. I read Salon for interesting articles and glimpses into different situations, much like this essay here. Everybody else must read Salon to practice their pompous cattiness and reductivist deconstruction. It's hard to get a good audience in the real world.

Yeah, Tom Tomorrow must be a Farker. His humor is perfectly suited, but this seals the deal.

Get a brain, morans!

Those were my obsessions, at around age 4. Don't ask me why. I thought they were the coolest things in the world. Fans and clocks still, somewhat, to this day.

That would be the fact that Dan Brown is once again sitting on a fat pile of royalty checks.

Oh, and something stinks, when you get a kick out of people's replies, you're basically admitting you're a Farking troll.

I think the question here is, after dealing with a set of twins, six small children, a managing wife, ungodly numbers of film people, makeup artists, lighting experts, and the unsolicited opinions of millions of Americans for months on end, why didn't he have an affair sooner? If there's anyone who needs to blow off steam it would be Jon Gosselin.

It's a trap! You'll get over it.

I was thinking about this the other day--not only phosphorus, but most of the best soil ends up washed out to sea as well. If we can get our various energy problems licked, we'll probably see deep-sea oil rigs converted into mining platforms for seabed muck before long. We'll be shipping North Dakota back up the Mississippi from where it ended up.

Such maudlin, dewey-eyed letters from people who just happen to have the same talking points, numbered and ready to go.

Go save some snowflake babies, dears, and be sure to keep people from masturbating in case they kill off a precious wee one.

I would suspect that many of these first-time posters and their righteous indignation emanate from a single subnet, if not computer.

It's always funny when an Astroturfer calls a troll out on his shenanigans, even when they're on the same side. Did you even read Arizore's post, or did you just run the script?

Cross-correlate their handles here with handles at Little Green Footballs and Free Republic.

...the death of an unborn child is merely a subject of fining, and does not incur the death penalty:

Exodus 21:22: If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she miscarries but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows.