Everyone loves bacon! Everyone except... MUSLIMS!

How well do we really know Fries?

After months of arguing with conservative friends and family members, becoming progressively more disappointed and frustrated and depressed... I feel like a burden has lifted. I don't need to continue arguing, and I don't even feel like gloating; at least for now, I don't have to pound my head against brick walls. It's nice.

From what I've read, Sarah Palin was working for Frank Murkowski when he became governor, and she expected to be given his Senate seat. When he instead appointed his daughter Lisa, Palin resigned and started up her "anti-corruption" campaign that eventually unseated Frank as governor. Hell hath no fury, etc. etc.

What I'm wondering is, did Palin have a hand in revoking the power of the governor to fill vacant Senate seats? This must have been the case at least indirectly, as her campaign would have focused on Lisa's appointment as part of the corruption she vowed to fight.

If so, that's kind of ironic, no?

...over on the SF Chronicle's site, they're all over this already.

I don't know much about IL politics, but the impression that I got on a recent visit was that Blago was universally despised and possibly mentally ill -- that even his own party wanted him gone. Am I right about this? Please tell me that there's nothing to support the inevitable "Obama's best friend" innuendo.

I've gone from initial excitement over the show in the first season, to near disgust over the later seasons, and now am back again to being pretty happy with the show this season.

I can understand all the people here who got turned off by the middle seasons. But, c'mon, it's not valid to say "I figured out early in season two that the show was crap, and because I'm so smart and insightful, it must still be crap!"

Also, it's not really valid to say, "I don't understand the plot, and therefore it's crap." Time travel is complicated, but they're doing a very good job of making it make sense, and pulling together loose ends from earlier seasons. If you can't figure out what's going on, how can you judge it?

I'm still skeptical. I've been disappointed before (Twin Peaks, X-Files), and this could crash and burn too. But the current writers appear to have gotten the car up out of the ditch, fixed the engine, and now have four wheels on the road and some momentum.

What outcome are these loons aiming for? What do they think would happen if someone they prevailed? Impeachment hearings in the middle of a national crisis? John McCain being suddenly put into office (because HE knows how to handle the economic meltdown, I'm sure!)

These people would demand to see a green card before they'd let a Hispanic lifeguard save their drowning child.

From the content of the column to the massive backlash/flame war in the letters section, every single word here is 100% predictable.

I can read Wingnut's arguments almost verbatim on forums all over the Internet. Same with the rebuttals.

What. is. the. point?

"In the past year, over 800,000 Americans have died. Despite millions of dollars of research, death continues to be our nation's number one killer."

Your fourth bullet point:

* Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year and the other parent is a U.S. national

was not operative in 1961. The rule then was five years US residence after age 14. Ann Dunham gave birth at 18 so...

So if she'd been one year older, or it had happened after the rule was changed, no problem.

What operational difference, exactly, would this make even if it were true (which it's not)? What danger to the country would exist because the President's mother was a year too young to fall under a rule that no longer is in effect?

Yammering morons.

I wonder how many of these birthers also believe in astrology?

This is like saying, he was born on October 23, so he's a Libra, and that's OK, while other people are saying no, he was born two minutes after midnight, so he's a Scorpio, and we can't have that!

If for the sake of argument we accept that the officials in Hawaii are all lying and the newspaper was wrong and there's been this huge conspiracy for so many years, and that he was actually born in Kenya, even then, the only reason he would not have US citizenship is because under the law at that time, his mother was one year too young to have citizenship conferred on her child. The law has changed, and if that happened today, he would be a US citizen.

So comparing this faux-citizen Obama to one who was born in Hawaii, the only difference is a legal technicality that doesn't even exist any more. It's saying, NO, he's a SCORPIO! And this implies what? His policies are tainted because of his star sign? If his mother had been a year older, then whew, I guess health care reform is a good idea after all?

I read TDVC and A&D recently and was at least moderately entertained. They made good audiobook material for driving, because they were written at such a simple level, with important points carefully rephrased over and over, that you didn't need to pay full attention.

It's a little disappointing to see so many familiar plot elements being used again (the academic babe, the sexually twisted bad guy, the red herring official, etc.) Twice is suspect; three times is bad writing.

Anyway, the bible on fictional American freemasonry was already written -- the Illuminatus trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. It's probably too gonzo for Brown's fans, though.

Ha! Fnord.