Obesity rates among the poor are far higher than obesity rates among the rest of the population. Therefore, it is a false assertion that your "Lucky Ducky" stand in for the poor man would be hungry in 2007.

Also, as of the 1990 panel in this, if lack of food is really the problem, why doesn't he sell his TV and VCR to buy some chow? It looks like this may be Luck Ducky's brother Dumbass Ducky.

Other than my brief criticism here, I love Tom the Danding Bug. Keep up the good work!

I have seen Joan Walsh on tv, and I don't think that she is actually backing the proposal that she is publishing. The real reason for this story is to sell advertising impressions to Sony, and classmates.com, and the movie The Kingdom. Every time she puts up and incredibly inflamatory article like this, you all post hundreds of responses, and load up thousands (millions?) of pageviews that are sold to salon.com's advertisers. Just another evil corporation dividing the american electorate for profit.

If you feel screwed by ATM fees, don't use them. There is no coercion here.

Take as a counter example, the law requiring all drivers to have auto insurance. Or the proposal that all americans be REQUIRED to purchase health insurance from the for profit health insurance companies. Then, the onerous fees and high pprofits of the companies are coerced out of us.

With ATM's, you are choosing to use the service.

Just three months ago, the Fed's policy was inflation fiighting, and now with this 0.5% rate cut they have thrown that out the window. Our government now appears to be embracing inflation as the solution. For proof, just look at the price of oil ($82 per barrel) or gold ($725 per ounce), the prices are set in dollars and so they rise and the dollar falls. Soon housing prices will start to rise (ar at least stabilize) too because housing is priced in increasingly worthless dollars. This will allow people to pay mortgages with inflated dollars (lower default rate), and when houses are forclosed upon, they will be auctioned off for inflated dollars. This will save both home owners AND the mortgage holders. Of course, the long term cost of this will be calamitous inflation, but that is for the next president (and next fed chairman) to deal with.

Another letter writer has brought this up already, but it deserves repeating. How you you enforce a law the requires me to buy health insurance. What are you going to do if I don't?

Are you going to start auditing people to see if they have health insurance?

Do you put people in jail for not having insurance? (Perhaps a fine of one organ?)

Just imagine for a moment that you get kicked out of your insurance plan because your sickness is too expensive (it happpens all the time). Then the insurance company reports you to the law for not having insurance....

Sadly, you are entireley wrong.

The national health plans in the countries listed and all single payor. There are no giant profitable insurance companies in between you and your doctors there.

As a pacifist, I am appalled by the behavior of these protestors. Calling for the freedom of these thugs is nothing less that condoning violence. How about calling for harsher sentances for the white thugs? How about working the make this country LESS violent? If the black leadership were interested in pursuing peace instead of excusing violence, then maybe liberal america could support them.

I am appalled because the protestors are calling for the freedom of six thugs who beat somebody unconscience. Similarly, I would be appalled by a group of white protestors defending a Klan lynching. It is wrong, and it is a racially motivated wrong. Jackson, Sharpton et al. are condoning race based violence, and it is beyong the pale (so to speak).

To make the outrageous claim that we are protecting Americans so soon after the murder of Carol Anne Gotbaum by Homeland Security thugs is pure irony. Mrs. Gotbaum is a 110 pound woman who was piled on by a half dozen police officers at the Phoenix airport. The scrum that killed her included her being handcuffed by a 200+ pound man leaning into his knee placed on her frail back. Is seems that it is not just terrorists, but also regular Americans who can expect Bush's "humane" treatment.

More details of the murder of Carol Anne Gotbaum can be found at:

http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2007/10/carol-anne-gotbaum-victim-of-death-by.html

"Call it 2%, 12% or 24%. I'll gladly relieve you of yours, Parson Jim, since it's really not a big deal anyway, right?"

That is exactly the point. It is a 2% wage difference, but you feminists are intent on taking 24%.

My home is a lot nicer than my office. At home I have two screaming babies, and at work I have twenty. Unfortunately, reality is what it is. My wife is a student with no income, and I can't breastfeed. Women will always be better at breastfeeding than men. Women also generally feel more caring and nurturing than men. You can artificially create a world where women work, and estrogen injected men breastfeed, but is that really a good idea?