some one should have asked Gerry if her girl Hillary would be where she is today if she wasn't Bill's wife. We're not supposed to talk about that, but I think it's much more true that but for her marriage to Bill Clinton there's no way HRC would be anywhere near the presidential nomination. She also wouldn't have become Senator from NY (a place she never lived) but for her marriage to Bill.

after seeing that photo of biz class on LAN, I want to go somewhere with them now! Look at how big those video screens are. They obvious invested some money in that product. Now, are all of their planes that nice or just this particular one?

not only is there China's lack of interest in using it's influence in Darfur and Burma, they are still locking up their own people who have the temerity to question authority.

the one hope for China is that the growing middle class is starting to realize how rapid industrialization has destroyed they environment and they are starting to rise up. I have read many stories recently of regular people protesting against their local corrupt governments with respect to things like allowing polluters to dump their waste around populated areas. And you have farmers protesting in other areas. There is a whole lot of discontent in China. The Tibet situation is still very tense and isn't likely to be easily defused. I saw footage on the BBC last night of people on horseback charging like it was the middle ages on Chinese forces. You've got the Uighurs in the west. It's not outside pressure from us that is going to change China. It's all of these little cuts and growing dissent within China that will bring about change.

That said I hope the athletes who are at the Olympics will find small ways to make some political statements.

I believe I read in the Thai press that the Brits are kicking all the Thai kitchen workers out too.

depends which state he lives in. Not all convicted felons everywhere have their voting rights taken away. I think even Florida changed some of their laws after all the brouhaha over 2000.

Her quote is a bit odd. Like no musician ever did or said anything political! We'll have to ask Bono or the REM boys about that.

It's also sort of like the reaction in India to the captain of their national football team refusing to take part in the torch relay because he is a Buddhist with Tibetan friends and he thinks it is a good protest to not take part in the festivities. The other athletes who are not dropping out criticize him and make the argument that the Olympics should be about sports not politics. Just like the Chinese are using the Olympics just to showcase sports, and not as a political event I suppose.

There's an article about this on A2 of today's Washington Post as well.

he also gets all that glowing, fawning press coverage for free.

OK, let's agree that she has suffered from sexism in the media. But has she not also benefited from her gender? Would all of those women who are voting for her BECAUSE she is a woman vote for her if she were a man?

heard on the news this morning that Frontier has filed for bankruptcy but will continue flying

This sort of melds with your previous post about the Indians preferring boy children, but what is the breakdown of the children in the ones taken away from the cult in Texas? It seems that this sect has a lot more girls than boys. I remember reading stories about the branch of this cult in Arizona basically discarding all the boys when they reached a certain age. Because the old men need their child brides and they don't want any competition from their boy children. Is the situation the same with this Texas group? Why should any of these adults be allowed anywhere near these children? I guess the women have also been victimized and probably don't have a whole lot of options for leaving the cult. But maybe the state needs to figure out a way to deprogram the mothers first along with the kids and then reunite them later. As the judge says it is a complicated problem for sure, but I don't see how they can allow these people to go back to business as usual like Jeffrey Toobin seems to think they should.

if this guy is so worried about paper bags harboring roaches he shouldn't use paper bags. Just use the re-usable totes. Whole Foods sells the kind that are actually made of woven recycled plastic bags. They are durable. This notion that the bags need a lot of washing is also kind of silly. Almost all of your food comes packaged in cardboard or plastic containers so it's not like the bags ever really get dirty.

And if you need garbage bags they sell those too. But really you should be recycling and composting all of your waste anyway. (OK, that part is going a little far), but I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for people complaining that the bags they get for free at the grocery store they will now have to buy. How much trash can you really fit into one of those grocery bags anyway?

People hate change is what this mostly boils down to. I wish other stores would follow Whole Foods' lead on this. For time being you can always shop elsewhere and get all the plastic grocery bags you want. I've been using reusable bags for several months now. It's a small thing that would really add up if everyone did it. The bags are only about $1, altho I have a cloth bag that I paid $4 for several moths ago.