Two bits of one paragraph stand out:

"I knew that it potentially could be something that perhaps was wrong."

Well isn't that a nice declarative sentence: "potentially" "could" "perhaps" But of course I never checked with anyone and went ahead and did it anyway. As King notes, that was the culture back then.

The other:

"I mean I wouldn't imagine thinking of doing something like that today. It's a different world, it's a different culture." A dfferent world indeed, A-Rod. In this new world, the tests aren't confidential and there are penalties (I suppose I should modify that to read: if you're dumb enough to use something that shows up in tests.) I suppose, thought, that at least the tests are doing SOMETHING if they're at least providing a small measure of deterrent.

Lane, Riehl and Morrisey were also quoted as saying they're still pretty sure that Obama's a muslim who is not a natural US citizen. Lane thinks the jury's still out on the Easter Bunny, and Morrisey wants to waterboard Santa to get the fat man to fess up to his communist agenda.

The biggest reason to do something to halt the tidal wave of foreclosures isn't as altruistic as one might think.

Foreclosures are strking across socio-economic lines like never before. They are leaving houses vacant in neighborhoods both fine and fearsome. And an excess of vacant housing hurts everyone. The rest of the neighbors who have an eyesore with overgrown lawn and weedy driveway lose both aestheics and value in their own property. Overall property values decline further with a blight on nearly every block. Those who need to relocate for work, downsize as the kids move out or upsize as the family grows can't sell their own houses. Builders can't sell new housing when there's so much bargain-basement foreclosures on the market, so tradesmen remain out of work, unable to pay their own mortgages, which increases the spiral.

Propping up whatever percentage of those facing foreclosure who might deserve it might not be pleasant, but refusing to do it out of spite is nothing but biting off one's own nose.

Robert A Heinlein wrote often about "cusp" events. Moments in history where a minor change resulted in a drastically different future.

As science fiction, it was good stuff. As revisionist sports history? Not so much.

There is a provision for increased funding to research and develop hi-speed rail lines, including mag-lev, in various high impact corridors. The Fed Railway Authority is in charge of divvying up those funds to worth projects. While the Vegas-LA mag-lev has been touted often by folks in that area, it's not even in the top-ten of FRA's wishlist. What is? A hi-speed line in Congressman Boehner's district.

As Gomer would say: surprise, surprise, surprise.

Here's what the conservative fan-base for Rush Limbaugh simply cannot grasp: Rush doesn't care about conservatism, Rush cares about Rush.

Rush doesn't give a rat's ass about whether Obama or the country succeeds or fails, because Rush is gonna do just fine either way, thank you very much. He's got tons of money, he's famous and now he gets to pretend that he's actually engaging the President of the US of A in a "debate" where Rush chooses the forum, the rules and the outcome.

For a self-indulgent ego-maniac, it really couldn't get any better.

And because of all that, I think it's a good idea to tie the GOP and conservatism to Rush, because Rush doesn't care if it ultimately winds up hurting the cause of conservatism or the Republican party, as long has he's rich and famous.

So many of the far right didn't really believe in their hearts that it's true.

I have a very good friend who is, sadly, of the ultra-conservative persuasion. He gets his "news" almost exclusively from Rush, Malkin, the AEI and the Heritage Foundation. And he is convinced that a) Obama IS a socialist and wants the US to become a socialist nation and b) Obama and the democrats are working overtime to find a way to implement the Fairness Doctrine (or some equally nefarious "local content" counterpart) to silence those ringing the socialism alarm bells.

So it's not just Bachmann; she's just the one most likely to sound truly idiotic when talking about it.

It could also very likely be that the person has a 2-year contract, entered into long before they lost their job and couldn't afford to regularly put food on the table. And since the cost for cancelling the contract is higher than the monthly charge, and -- as noted -- may be the only communications device they have to use in their job search -- it's a smarter financial move to just keep it. Or perhaps it's a work-provided phone for the only member of the family still employed. With only one wage-earner, they can't make the mortgage payment and put food on the table.

But the ultra-rich conservative mindless freaks who can find the dark lining to any silver cloud are unable to grasp any of this, and merely see an opportunity to insult both the poor AND Obama. A slam-dunk two-fer as far as they're concerned.

Ah yes, comparing your opponent to Hitler and the Nazis. They made Durbin grovel on the Senate floor for a much less direct comparison. Will Beck be called to account? Unlikely, if only because we expect his deranged outbursts; they are, in fact, all that he is capable of.