"fear that bureaucrats will intercede between doctors and patients, fear that those same faceless bureaucrats in Washington will deny lifesaving procedures to helpless people."

Well, obviously there are no policies of health insurance companies that come between doctors and patients today; their has never been a risk assessor at a company that denied someone a lifesaving procedure. We have nothing to fear.

The system that we have now gives everyone everything that we need. Why change what ain't broke?

Isn't your writing meant to be fair minded, or even civil, commentary?

"(the giant part is true; even Pat Buchanan marvelled on MSNBC today at how much weight the sweaty, hopped-up Limbaugh has gained recently."

Why resort to an ad hominen attack like this? This kind of cheap shot is supposed to be the bread and butter of people like Limbaugh and Dick Armey. Aren't you better than that?

I live in Gainesville, a liberal college town in the heart of very conservative rural Florida. In past elections I've waited until election day to vote, and never had any trouble. This year, mostly on a whim, I decided to vote early. I voted Tuesday morning, at my local library. I was surprised to find that there was a line. A small line, I only waited about five minutes, but a line nonetheless. The early voting center was buzzing with activity. People arrived steadily the entire time that I was there. To give you some context, for the last round of local elections I was the only person at the voting location when I went to cast my vote. I've never had to wait in line to vote for any elections local, state, or national.

I can't imagine what election day will be like in the major cities in Florida.

I took this quotation directly from phillip-pullman.com.

But organised religion is quite another thing. The trouble is that all too often in human history, churches and priesthoods have set themselves up to rule people's lives in the name of some invisible god (and they're all invisible, because they don't exist) – and done terrible damage. In the name of their god, they have burned, hanged, tortured, maimed, robbed, violated, and enslaved millions of their fellow-creatures, and done so with the happy conviction that they were doing the will of God, and they would go to Heaven for it.

That is the religion I hate, and I'm happy to be known as its enemy. (emphasis mine)

There is no way to read this as anything but a condemnation of the Catholic Church (and any other religious organizations). His works have a religious theme, they may even be soaked in spiritualism. You may feel that, as you interpret his writing, that it is actually, and unintentionally, enlightening. But don't kid yourself, it is explicitly anti-Church.

You are of course free to try to reconcile your faith with your love of a book that condemns your religion. But don't pretend that the book is really just misunderstood. Post-modern interpretations of texts doesn't allow you to simply fabricate the meaning of a work so that it suits your pre-existing preferences.

One problem with the proposed solution is that it would keep me from surprising my nieces with tickets to a Montana show. If I know next to nothing about an artist but I want to buy tickets for someone, what recourse do I have? And if there is some way for me to overcome the so-called security feature, why wouldn't it be available to scalpers?

I'm a big basketball fan. I've watched almost every game of these playoffs. But this ruling will end all of that. I have no interest in supporting a league that doesn't care about fairness and good competition. I'm simply going to boycott the rest of the games.

But there is one silver lining, I can concentrate on the MLS season now.

I'm not from the South. I'm from Miami. (Ah, the Magic City, imagine NYC as a banana republic.) But right now I'm living in northern Florida just about an hour south of Georgia. Let me tell you, southern hospitality is genuine and sincere. People down here really do care about each other, even strangers. Tell a group of Southerners a sad tale and there will be a torrent of kind words and no end to the offers of help. It's quite amazing.

It is easy to see these displays and assume that they aren't genuine. How could they be, you might ask yourself. This behaviour is so foreign to the northern, urban mentality that the only reasonable conclusion for a Yankee to reach is that it must be insincere; It's not. Come down to the South and sit a spell. You'll find out just how nice it is to have truly neighborly neighbors.

Conflicted, do you realize that writing a qualified, in your words a merely "nice," letter on her behalf is probably one of the main things that kept her from getting the job? In academia departments expect to get glowing, unqualified praise for the applicant, anything less is seen as a serious flaw. In fact, it is better to simply admit that you are unwilling to write the kind of letter that is needs, thus giving her the opportunity to get a recommendation that won't doom her application. When you say that a faculty member " despite my recommendation, declined to offer her the position,"[emphasis mine] you should be saying, if your are being frank, that a poor review by a faculty member and your lukewarm letter combined to keep her from getting the job.

Further, do you have any evidence that she is incapable of reigning in her personality inside of a classroom? I'm willing to bet most professors curse (the horror) when they are not in front of students. Teaching is a performance. (And no, I don't think that a second-hand account of an informal lecture supports your position.)