Allie mentioned: 'One thing the article didn't mention is the radio. People have listened to talk radio while driving for years, and the radio personalities presumably don't know what conditions you're driving in, and yet no one's complained that talk radio is dangerous.'

As a non-cellphone user who generally hates people who yak on theirs while driving, I have given your point above some thought.

The main reason, IMO, is that listening to the radio is generally a one-way, passive exercise where your brain doesn't have to follow the communication to the point you have to if you're having a 2 way conversation with another thinking entity.

I would think that someone who is listening to 'talk radio' might be more invested in the sounds emanating from the radio than they would be if just listening to music.

Bottom line, please try not to use the cell phone while driving & if you have to either pull over to side of road or keep conversation brief. Sample conversation: 'I'm driving right now, will call you later'.

Class all the way. Would have been cool to be in a movie with her.

Also nice that she worked her way up & wasn't given anything.

I keep on wondering why if McCain is flailing all over the place this past week (as it seems to me), the polls in several states we must win show McCain gaining on Sen. Obama.

Bush was very effective in painting himself as an 'everyman' to the 'teacher's pet' VP Gore. Could McCain be doing the same thing (maybe even inadvertently)?

I think the tests are designed to try & ferret out a hermorphodite who is competing as a female. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but since a hermorphodite has a 'Y' chromosone, they are barred from competing as a female in a 'female only' competition.

A famous example from the past is Tamara Press, who retired from competition rather than submit to a gender test. She is thought to have been a hermorphodite. Of course, you also had Stella Walsh, who competed as a woman, but upon 'her' murder was found out to be a man.

I feel that only those with 'XX' chromosones should compete in 'women's only' events. If there's someone cheating in this manner, I hope they are busted (legally).

Grungie: Appreciate your nuanced respnse vis a vis young person who is technically an 'XY', but doesn't get any physical advantage. Maybe a special exemption waiver to allow her to compete?

Tryfan: "hermaphrodite" is a hard word to spell (without spellchek). I'll try & think up some non-offensive euphemisms to avoid trying to spell it again ;-)

Choosing Gov. Pawlenty might help Norm Coleman in his race against Al Franken. If this is a consideration in picking him, it means the GOP is really scared about how many Senate seats we may pick up this fall.

Also, could be that 'McCain - Pawlenty' can't be made (easily) into an unflattering synonym (as Gore - Lieberman became Sore Loserman).

I do have a try: McCain - Pawlenty becomes 'McLame? Puhlenty!' I urge some of our other snarky commenters to give it a try (Merry Xmas from Hell, this should be right in your wheelhouse).

who responded about S. Walsh: 'Actually, Stella Walsh was found to have both XX and XY chromosomes as well as male genitals. She wasn't a man, she was an intersex person who lived her entire life as a female'

In my book, if you have XY chromosomes & a penis, then you are a male. I understand that Ms. Walsh was raised from infancy as a girl, something she would have no control over until she was able to escape her parent's control.

I do feel she should not have competed as a woman. Speaking in hindsight, of course.

Had a hard time with the pronouns in this response, went back & forth until I decided to keep it 'she'.

who generously allowed: 'now @ paul- there is absolutely NO sense in trying to discuss anything logially with " real men of genius" like yourself. of course you'd feel the testing is perfectly right, because men like you are often uptight toward any form of diversity.'

If my posting history shows anything, it's that I'm against diversity in any form. Kudos to you for sussing that out (or should I say 'sassing' that out).

On a side note, are you related to david sugarman?

To a member of congress, the only polls that matter are the ones done on voters in his/her district. They also only care about registered voter's opinions. Even though they're the reps. of all the people in their district, generally speaking, if you don't vote they don't give a shit about what you think.

I think that in many of the 'Blue Dogs' districts, they (a Blue Dog in question) think that Bush still polls reasonably well. Many of them are in districts that gave Bush big majorities in 2000 & 2004.

Bottom line, they're chickenshit about being painted as a DFH & don't seem to think that our arguments on the rule of law, respect for constitution, etc. carry enough weight with the Repub-leaning voters they think they need to get re-elected.

Personally, I think they need to grow some balls & start standing up for the freedoms this country was founded upon & for which so many young men & women have died over the years.

who said: 'If I were a century-old vampire with Harvard degrees... why the hell would I ever go back to high school in Nowhere, Washington?!'

Doesn't anyone in this town in Washington (where they seem to have more than the usual amount of weirdos, the state that is) notice this Edward fellow is 'cold & hard as stone', etc? If he is so great looking, aren't all the other girls in the school swooning over him & scheming about how to usurp poor Bella?

Sounds really lame, from the article.