"Everybody I knew as a child had measles. I personally had a couple of kinds of measles. It wasn't that bad, and nobody I knew or heard of had any serious effects. There were no vaccines, so all the children in my family had measles, had mumps, had rubella, and had chicken pox. We all turned out to be reasonably smart,smartass kids except for the oldest sister who thinks she's either Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn. I don't think measles caused that."

True blue, sorry to pick on you, but just citing from example that all your friends and family are fine after having measles doesn't mean much. I lived overseas as a child and got the measles and am just fine myself.

However, my uncle who grew up before they had the vaccine, contracted measles when he was just a few years old. Unfortunately, he was one of the kids who had complications, was hospitalized, and nearly died. Thankfully he survived. Unfortunately, he suffered from brain damage and mental retardation because of the measles-related encephalitis he developed.

According to the Mayo clinic: "About one in 1,000 people with measles develops encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain caused by a viral infection, which may cause vomiting, convulsions and, rarely, coma."

Because of the measles complications, my uncle was fairly mentally retarded and was never able to fully function on his own. He also suffered from frequent seizures, and that's what eventually killed him, albeit 20 years later.

Sad story, sure. Point being that it's been so long since most people have seen the serious complications that can occur from common childhood diseases, that they're more afraid of autism (with an unproven link to vaccines) than the illness themselves (with a proven link to serious health issues and possibly death).

As for the some of the commenters who are parents of children with autism, I do feel for you. And to answer a question posed earlier -- no, I don't have a child on the way. But please remember that there are plenty of parents who have experienced devastating complications from these childhood diseases. Parents who didn't have the option as to whether or not to vaccine their child.

Thanks for sharing!

Hillary Scores

You have to see this brilliant RJ Matson editorial cartoon that talks about just this tendency to want to reframe how success is defined...

Here's a link:

http://www.rjmatson.com/images/cartoons/STL652.jpg

From firedoglake.com/2008/06/24/fisa-call-your-wobbly-fisa-senator/#more-26614

If one of the following is your Senator, give them a call and speak up:

Bayh (202) 224-5623

Carper (202) 224-2441

Obama (202) 224-2854

Inouye (202) 224-3934

Johnson (202) 224-5842

Landrieu (202)224-5824

McCaskill (202) 224-6154

Mikulski (202) 224-4654

Nelson (FL) (202) 224-5274

Clinton (202) 224-4451

Nelson (NE) (202) 224-6551

Pryor (202) 224-2353

Salazar (202) 224-5852

Specter (202) 224-4254

Feinstein (202) 224-3841

Webb (202) 224-4024

Warner (202) 224-2023

Snowe (202) 224-5344

Collins (202) 224-2523

Sununu (202) 224-2841

Stevens (202) 224-3004

Byrd (202) 224-3954

Lincoln (202)224-4843

Reid (202) 224-3542

Coleman (202) 224-5641

Durbin (202) 224-2152

Smith (202) 224-

Stabenow (202) 224-4822

Kohl (202) 224-5653

Leahy (202) 224-4242

Schumer (202) 224-6542

You have seriously confused COURT ORDERS and GOVERNMENT REQUESTS.

There was never a government order. There was an illegal request from the President. Not a court order / warrant from the FISA court, or any other court for that matter. Last I checked, the government didn't get to do whatever the hell it wanted. And we didn't want to encourage folks to do whatever the government wants when it's illegal. If the telecoms wanted to protect themselves so much, they could have asked for a court order / warrant.

So, the next time the cops ask your landlord whether they can search your apartment without a warrant, I'll be sure to let your landlord know that it's okay -- because if the government asks you to do something, you have to do it. No need to press for a warrant or probable cause or any reason why the cops think they can search the house. Just whatever they want to do is fine.

"I have no love for the telecom industry but in this case they were acting in good faith, complying with a govermnment order. Shame on the Bush administration for asking them to do so, but the telecoms should not be subject to lawsuits for this."

I mean, in Japanese or Chinese, you could easily get away without specifying a gender -- in fact, pronouns in general are used rarely -- instead of "I go to school", you say "go to school". By inference, it's clear who the subject is. You get used to it.

However, in English and many other languages, there is no commonly accepted, gender-neutral pronoun. Facebook isn't to blame if our language hasn't evolved to embrace transgender individuals. I'm sympathetic to this awkward situation, but presumably transgender users face this every day.

Patrick, I can't quite top the butter knife story, but did hear a good line about why TSA officials believe such rules are necessary.

A friend of mine is also a pilot for a major airline. A few years ago, he went through security checkpoint at a US airport. They stopped him because he was carrying a wine bottle opener. Told him it wasn't allowed. When he asked why, they said it was because he could use it to seize control of the plane. He responded "that's going to be a problem, because I am going to be in control of the plane". In the end, he had to give up the bottle opener.

Okay, he's a first officer, but you get the idea. According to the TSA, Pilots need to be searched because they could take command of airplanes.

If natural-born citizen means someone who was a "citizen at time of birth", then why wouldn't that include someone who was born to parents who are both US citizens -- regardless of where it is.

While I was born here, I spent some time overseas when I was young and it seems crazy that someone born to two US citizen parents overseas would not be a "natural-born" American.