At least in parts, Tracy doesn't give a good representation of Weldon's statements. E.g. teen pregnancy: "She also said women should have babies early, then go out to work [...]". It seems a bit unfair to equate "early" with "teen", no?

I'm not sure why she thinks that order is important (first children afterwards career) - but it doesn't seem particularly anti-feminist either. Most women want children and want a career too. Maybe she thinks having a baby break early is not such a bad plan - afterwards you can focus on the job and get ahead?

The rational argument: No matter how you implement public health care, there is nothing preventing you to buy additional services.

The reality check: Let us not forget to celebrate the kind, caring HMOs which we have now. They would never influence medical decisions by cost considerations. You never have to call them up, pleading with them to get approval for legitimate procedures - that's completely unheard of. That's what HMOs are like in magical fairytale land. Of course the US has a different kind...

When you are elected to lead: lead. Bipartisanship just means to replace a two-party system with a single-party political class without any interest in the will of the people.

Telling people how to speak, forcing them to change their language, that's a very rude thing to do.

That's exactly why people hate PC speak. Asking someone to change the way they speak implies that they were doing something bad (e.g. discriminating against someone) even though they weren't out to cause offense. Most people will not be to happy either with the "teacher and naughty child" relationship this implies between the corrector and the corrected.

Besides, think about it: the only people who'll comply with your request are people who didn't want to offend you in the first place.

So whether you are a stewardess, a waiter or a dwarf: don't look for a reason to be offended, and don't be rude in response to an imaginary slight.

As for the ATMs: if there is a row of the machines - why not have one which is a bit lower, so that it's more convenient for smaller people? Seems an entirely reasonable request to me.

"Obama's constant attacks on family values so disturbed this poor Republican that he had no choice but to have gay sex."

I haven't actually checked whether Rush Limbaugh has made that argument, but I assume he has.

Teaching your kids ethical behaviour is a complex task, because ethical behaviour is complex, too. If you find yourself in a position of power, doing a job you are utterly unqualified to do, and knowing there are better people available to do the job... In that case resigning is the right thing to do. It's a good example for her kids too, she just needs to explain that everybody has limits, that "you can do anything you want to" is actually a lie.

Not sure if this will help, but they are not showing a 3D flight path on a 2D map. The earth is round (as you are obviously aware) and a map is a projection of the 3D shape of the earth onto a 2D surface. The flight path shows exactly the positions the plane will have on that map as it travels to its destination. That will look like an arc.

You could make things more obvious if you were to choose another method of projection. However we are used to the Mercator projection (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_projection) and using that helps us identify positions on the map. This site here has some pictures which might be useful: http://plus.maths.org/issue7/features/greatcircles/

Not that I believe this letter is real, but the people here trying to defend the mother's actions ... just wow. Must be fun being old and lonely and not knowing if you have grandchildren or not.

This is an article from "Der Spiegel" - a left-wing, German news magazine with a good reputation for political journalism. To blame it on the CIA is a little silly.

Yes ok, very likely it will not work, you will eventually break up because you just have too little contact. And yes, if that happens it will hurt for a while. Having had a serious relationship will add something to your life, don't be afraid of a little pain. Love hurts, love is wonderful, love is risky. Take the risk and live.

Ok guys, I'll let you in on a little secret. The reason Salon has titled this "Who hates who"? It's a play of words referring the well known "Who is who". Is that sorted now?

It's debatable whether open support or a hands-off approach is better in the current situation. However the Republicans are right about at least one part of this: their role is to be the opposition. It's their job to examine the weaknesses in the governments position and to publicly discuss them. It's the Democrats who engage in president-worship whenever they are in the opposition role, and they fail the electorate by doing that.