There are two important things that Congress CAN do on this issue. First, they can affirm the basic principles of net neutrality; any law they pass should do so while leaving the details to the appropriate regulators. Second, they can pass a law that explicitly empowers the FCC to regulate it, and not pass the proposed law that would forbid the FCC from doing anything.

For me, opposing the death penalty is simple. Nobody has the moral right to take a life in cold blood; not an individual, not an organization, and certainly not the government. Following the wrong of murder with a second wrong (execution) does not make a right.

The first red-green 3D films date back to the 1920s, with experiments happening even earlier. Some used the now thoroughly obsolete two-color Technicolor process; that used two pieces of film that were GLUED TOGETHER for the projected image. There were some red-green 3D films produced later, including in the 50s and 60s, though other writers are correct to note that most of the 3D films of the 1950s were made using a Polaroid process and thus could be shown in full color. The modern 3D process for theaters uses digital projection and circularly polarized glasses.

3D for home use is being worked on; there are already a couple of products for computer displays. Most are using liquid crystal shutter glasses and high-refresh-rate displays (either LCD or DLP projection) that alternately show the left and right eye images. 3D for Blu-Ray is expected soon.

There is a good summary of the history of 3D filmmaking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3d_film and info on 3D television can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_television

In many states, when you buy a car there is a 48 hour period when you can legally return the car with no consequences if you return it undamaged; you have the legal right to walk away from the contract. The burden here is very different from the abortion case; instead of all buyers having to return later, only those who choose to exercise their right not to buy have to. Unfortunately, there isn't any way to do the same thing with abortion, so it is not possible to use the same approach.

Microsoft does make newer OEM images available; XP is available with SP3 rolled in now, and SP2 has been available for a couple of years. An OEM still shipping new systems with SP1 disks is absurd.

Furthermore, OEMs can create their own custom system images (which some do because they include their own apps) so a diligent OEM could go even further to provide a more up-to-date system. But the sad fact is that they don't do it; that would require the computer manufacturer to employ an actual support staff.

Nothing is perfect though. A new Macintosh or Linux system will also want to install updates right out of the box. At least in most cases the process is cleaner and only requires one reboot, though you may still get asked questions in the middle. I don't really care about the download time for the uploads after an OOBE, but I would like it to happen with ONE restart and with all the questions front-loaded so I can walk away from it and let the computer do its work.

Count me in the numbers who are sad to see Life on Mars go. The premise inherently means a limited series, but I think the natural length would have been two seasons, not one. As it is, we're going to get a hurried conclusion, and the growing relationship between Sam and Annie is cut short.

Womynpoet: the UK series has not yet been released on Region 1 DVD (the kind that will play on standard US players). Amazon.com lists it for pre-order with a release date of July 28, 2009. They also list the US series as due on September 29, 2009 -- though what I'd really love to see is for them to make it one of the first TV shows to be released on Blu-Ray.

Blockbuster never had my business because of their refusal to rent NC-17 films and thus being one of the reasons it is so difficult to make one. (The other two big ones: Wal-Mart won't sell them and small-town newspapers won't run ads for them.) I know that the suits have trouble wrapping their heads around the idea of being boycotted because of what they DON'T sell, but that's exactly what I did.

The point has been made that the women who write sexually explicit blogs get a lot of negative reactions. But nobody has made the point about what happens to men who write similar blogs; they don't get negative or positive reactions, they get ignored. We're not seeing a lot of writing about sexuality by men here and now, and one reason seems to be that nobody cares what men, or at least non-gay men, think about it.

The 2010 census is counting gay marriages, but then removing them from the released results because DOMA forces the Bureau to do that. But DOMA is currently being challenged in court, and possibly in Congress as well; if it is repealed, the results will be revised.

As for the Bureau not asking about sexual orientation: if that is true, that's an interesting change in direction, and would certainly make the job of agencies that target services to GLBT people more difficult.