I think I've got a pretty off-beat sense of humor, but I don't find "NAAPC" funny. Most things that are likened to slavery are just nowhere-near close. To the point of being insulting. Frozen embryo = an adult black male beaten and enslaved with his family taken away from him? I think not.

Meanwhile, I find use of the term "Preborn Children" to be pretty wacky. Is an egg a "Prefertilized Child?" What about the ova developing in a developing fetus? Is that a Predeveloped-Preborn-Prefertilized Child?" The idea that something is a child, it just isn't BLANK yet is really odd because the BLANK part is pretty important. That it isn't born yet seems sort of important to me. That it might not be in a womb yet also seems important.

But such lawsuits are a fact of life. When the Supreme Court intervened in Roe v. Wade (which I think was ultimately for the best), they made "where life begins" an issue of federal law, not state law, science or moral conscience. Technically, the Supreme Court ruled on "privacy" but the net effect was the same. As such, we'll continue to have lawyers filing such lawsuits unless science or conscience changes their minds.

lawyermom nailed it. Sanchez is retired and thus fair game.

If you voice a contradictory assessment while in uniform, you're ignored at best, and stop getting promoted/are demoted at worst.

If you voice a contradictory assessment out of uniform, you should have spoken up sooner.

The message is clear: don't voice a contradictory assessment.

I'm not surprised, but I'm still effing furious.

They admit to handing over information 720 times over two years. Let's say each of those 720 times involved calls to 20 people. Who also made calls to 20 people. Now we're up to 303,120* people affected.

And that doesn't even count the internet records. With how many people do you communicate by internet that you don't communicate with by phone? Hint: you're communicating with maybe 100 strangers in this forum alone.

Verizon "does not determine the requests' legality or necessity because to do so would slow efforts to save lives in criminal investigations." Really? So I can I just ask for anyone's records because I say it's really important? Maybe I'm a private investigator. A journalist. A random blogger. Maybe I'm checking up on a cheating significant other. But I promise I'm trying to do justice and save lives.

Verizon, you have a contract with your customers.

Effing douchebags.

-

*Math geeks, correct me if I'm wrong. I haven't had coffee yet.

Get over it.

Many modern women had tea sets, stoves and nursery sets as little girls. Yet, miraculously, our little developing minds were not irreparably stifled.

That's because we also had other Hasbro toys like Play-Doh, Lite Brite, Tinkertoys and Playskool products.

But the Rose Petal Cottage does have an insidious side, just not what you think. This isn't about molding little girls into housewives. It's about molding little girls into little home-decorating consumers. Everything is "made just for her with beautiful appliances and accessories that she can arrange however she likes."

Next she'll be shopping at Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma. Then they'll have her registering online for her pretend wedding.

Hmm, registering online for a pretend wedding... Should I be patenting or copyrighting that?

The Dissenting Dozen forgot option three: hire more mercs.

Why, oh why, did the Army captains not consider this fantastic option championed by Bush NeoCons? Perhaps they don't think matters of national defense should be left up to privatization and rampant free market forces.

AKA Smith re: "They signed up knowing full well that they might be required to kill people at the whim of their government."

• Actually, I think they signed up believing that their government would send them off to war truthfully and only if it were truly necessary. They were betrayed on both counts.

To: Anonymous re: "the problem was the Pentagon thought they could handle it with the soldiers they had on hand."

• More specifically, It was Rumsfeld's vision of a small, light, mobile army.

meffert: "Church of the Iraq War" is an apt description.

Interesting point, Canuckistan Bob.

The relevant section of the bill:

SEC. 104. LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF RELATIVE MENTAL HEALTH CONSEQUENCES FOR WOMEN OF RESOLVING A PREGNANCY.

(a) Sense of Congress- It is the sense of Congress that the Director of the Institute may conduct a nationally representative longitudinal study (during the period of fiscal years 2008 through 2018) of the relative mental health consequences for women of resolving a pregnancy (intended and unintended) in various ways, including carrying the pregnancy to term and parenting the child, carrying the pregnancy to term and placing the child for adoption, miscarriage, and having an abortion. This study may assess the incidence, timing, magnitude, and duration of the immediate and long-term mental health consequences (positive or negative) of these pregnancy outcomes.

(b) Report- Beginning not later than 3 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, and periodically thereafter for the duration of the study under subsection (a), the Director of the Institute should prepare and submit to the Congress reports on the findings of the study.

The bill says this study may be conducted and then instructs the Institute to submit findings. Does this mean the study is optional or not?