I have been around Thailand and Cambodia. Most places in the big cities have western style toilets with paper. But apparently the sewage system can't handle the paper, so they have little waste baskets (usually with a lid) to put the paper in. Many also have a little hose with a nozzle like a kitchen sprayer to do the bulk of the cleaning so you use the paper to dry. I always worry that the spray hose is going to make a big mess.

I have been rather perplexed by the squat toilets, not really knowing exactly how one is supposed to use them. And with my bad knees I also worry about the pain of squatting down and keeping my balance.

I guess this whole thread to TMI.

I voted today here in Virginia. The county has set up a room on the first floor of their office building. Lots of workers, I assume from the registrar's office plus some volunteers. Took a couple of minutes to fill out the form. Virginia requires you to state a reason why you need to vote early, but they have many categories for doing so. In my case my work day plus my commute consumes at least 11 hours out of the 13 the polls are open. I was offered the choice to vote on the computer voting machines or a paper optical scan ballot. The whole process took about 10 minutes. And there was a steady stream of people arriving. In a heavily Dem area like mine it is good to see so many voting now. I think the Democrats are much more energized and are really relishing their vote this year.

It makes sense to allow a longer window to vote like this rather than require everyone to show up on one day. The lines at my polling place were hours long in 2004 and during the primary this year. Lots of people left because they couldn't wait that long.

As long as we insist on this silly tradition of voting on Tuesdays, and not making those Tuesdays any sort of holiday, then early voting is a boon to the democratic process. People who have to work for a living can't afford to stand in line for hours on a workday to vote. Give them an alternative and let them vote when they are able to do so.

As everyone else has said, how much deliberating is left to do? I think the vast majority of people made up their minds months ago. It's only the stupid "undecided" voters who are up in the air at this point. Without a deadline those people would never decide. And many of them probably won't end up voting anyway.

I'm not sure I buy these hypotheticals. The people voting early are not the undecideds. They are the people who are going to vote for one or the other no matter what. I would bet that even if your hypothetical happened that McCain's supporters would still rationalize a way to vote for him anyway. So I don't think there are many who voted early who would regret their votes. And anyway, if there really was a big story like that it would have been exposed by now.

As to early voting before the debates...so what? The debates are a joke. I don't even bother watching them. It's just regurgitation of talking points. It's not a real "debate". All these debates really do is reinforce what people are already planning to do. Obama's supporters see him as cool and collected and the winner. McCain's partisans see their guy in the best possible light and spin him as the winner.

Your opposition to early voting based on some outlandish hypothetical possibility is greatly outweighed by the fact that it allows many more people to vote than would otherwise be able to do so.

It's not like he's going to stop the blanket, saturation TV ad coverage he's got going on.

I see no risk to his campaign from this. And even if there were a risk it sounds like this is clearly the only real choice he has.

How is it that The Daily Show can easily find video of McCain basically saying the exact same thing Obama said with regard to the rich paying a little bit more to help those less fortunate, yet the MSM seems completely incapable of doing so? This whole "socialist" BS could be dismantled in seconds if they would put McCain on the spot.

As Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan noted in her column today, Clinton and Stacy buy women whole new wardrobes for $5000 on their show.

And does anyone actually believe she was planning to give away her clothes after the election? And what about the clothes for her family? Why do all of them need a new wardrobe? they aren't running for office.

All of the polls leave out the fact that there are several other candidates in the race. None of them will get much support. But it will be a few percentage points nationally which will probably increase Obama's margin over McCain.

What may be remembered most about this interview was McCain's inability to remember the "five former Secretaries of State" who have endorsed him. He could name four, and he did it a couple of times. But you could see when he said "...and one other" that a little of the life drained out of him as he realized that this little interlude made him look senile.