I couldn't agree less with your thesis as a whole. My very Conservative in-laws lost a bundle because they listened to Sensible Men in Eyeglasses who had the numbers right here, thank you, and no liquor on their breath because my in-laws think liquor is of the devil. They are not big thinkers but the descendants of hard-working country laborers. They moved to the big city expecting to work hard, they worked hard, and they did what they thought they were supposed to do, which was to provide for their retirement in the way the government told them was the best way, and they thought a diversified portfolio meant everything was peachy. Just like that chap who built the Titanic thought having several compartments meant the ship couldn't go down.

However, everything from "very loud now" to "persuasive" is pure poetry. Some of your best writing in ages, and exactly how I feel right now, with one exception, actually, which is that most of the actual old soldiers I know are pro-Obama. It's not the old soldiers who got us into this mess... McCain was late to that party... it's the smooth-faced punk-asses like W whose daddies got them sinecures in the National Guard. They can't use heroic damage as an excuse because they have never been heroes, not on any level. What they lack is compassion, and they lack it because they have never suffered discomfort.

I dream sometimes that W will end up homeless and staggering drunk with a broken arm on a cold, rainy night and walk into a hospital and they'll ask for his insurance and he won't have any and they'll turn him away and he'll lay down in the gutter cold, so cold, and take another slug from his bottle to take the edge off the pain and pray never to wake up. And then I pray for forgiveness because I don't want that really, I just want him to KNOW. It's what all abused children want, and we as a nation are abused children right now. Listening to granddaddy play with matches, just like you said.

"You know, every time that there's a Democratic president, the economy improves."

"I guess I'm going to have to figure out a way to keep working after I retire now that all my retirement money is gone."

"Democrats work from the bottom up, and Republicans work from the top down, and I'm on the bottom."

"Have you got an Obama sign in your yard? Because you really need to be doing all you can."

There are still an awful lot of evangelicals in Indiana, and some of them are voting one-issue versus the evil baby-killing Dems. But the ones I'm related to have done a 180 because they're tired of not having any money. They still think that Dems are evil baby-killers, but they're more interested in NOT STARVING TO DEATH.

Rock on Indiana!

He had one thing going for him - he wasn't religious. His tyranny was at least a SECULAR tyranny, not the mess we've got there now.

I always wanted to believe in Powell. I cried when he betrayed the nation. I'm happy now that he seems to be back on the path.

There are no "good people" and "bad people," there are only bad acts and good acts. All people have fallen short, etc.

fivethirtyeight.com

Was recommended to me as a "neutral" site; however I can't vouch for them either way.

Has anyone gotten one of these? I just read about them on another site, haven't seen them mentioned on Salon. It's a call from someone claiming to be Obama who launches into a bunch of obscenities and abuse. Supposedly confirmed to be from the McCain campaign.

It was funny because that's what the President of Pakistan said. It was funny because it's why she's on the ticket. It was funny because for some reason every man alive seems to have that reaction to her. She's a horrible, horrible thing... and all she has to do is bat her eyelashes and one half of the population forgets it.

I have difficulty watching anything with her in it. Not quite sure why, but she's always been in Uncanny Valley territory for me - the first thing I said when I saw my very first picture of her was "Who is that horrible person?" and I can't say my opinion of her has improved since I found out. If I were a dog, she'd be the neighbor the dog won't stop barking at every time she visits. Seems to be instinctive. Anyway, I find it impossible to suppress the reaction enough to judge whether or not this is funny.

See why the rape exception is important to this discussion?

Or are you saying that it's cool with you to force a rape victim who never agreed to sex to have a baby? But no, you aren't saying that. Just like Asaphe isn't saying it's cool to force a woman to have his baby just because she agreed to have sex with him. Or... wait, what are you two saying, anyway?

Look, it's very simple. Either it's legal to force a woman to use her body to sustain life or not. If not (which is the case in all other areas) then why is there an exception for the unborn?

I'm sorry, but there isn't a way in which you can believe that my body is under your command, AND be a person whose opinions I have to respect in any way. There's just not. You don't own me, and if you say you do, I have the God-given right to tell you to fuck yourself.