D'kian

This should teach children to think of themselves as part of a collective earlier on. I hope some parents sue their pants off for intentional infliction of emotional distress on their children.

Leave out the military draft, and you might as well be talking about the USA.

You really shouldn't insult someone without ana rgument to back it up. Dr. Cuddy is the one character in the show who is consistent in her pursuit of values. Be it her career, her staff, her family or even obtaining a nicer place to live. besides she is a businesswoman, and quite a ruthless one at that. See the show where Foreman gets his job back.

We are not amused.

Did anyone ever see Natalie Wood as Gipsy Rose Lee in "Gipsy"? I'd date somene like her.

House uses people and discards them at need. That's contrary to Objectivism, since he obviously doens't mind collecting sacrifices. If any one character in that series is close to Objectivism, it's Dr. Lisa Cuddy.

In the novel he has a ray screen that kills internal combustion engines

From the article: That's just sad. What is commemorated on May 5th is the Battle of Puebla. Briefly, France invaded Mexico in the 1860s and installed a minor Austrian noble, Maximilian of Hapsburg, as Emperor of Mexico. During that war General Ignacio Zaragoza dealt the French a major blow by winning a battle near the city of Puebla, about 100 miles east of Mexico City. Eventually Maximilian was installed as Emperor, though, and a few years of civil war ensued, until the French were driven out. Now here's where the article really gets ironic. The only reason Napoleon III's troops were even able to invade our country was that America couldn't get involved. Why not? because the US was at the time fighting her own Civil War. When that ended, America did threaten to intervene and then the French were driven out.

I know there are Iron Man comics. I don't think I've ever seen one (he said while looking for signs of fan-blood boiling... ) Thanks anyway. I guess I'll rent the doubel header in ten months or so.

Would you say it's necessary to see the first movie before the sequel?

Oh, that's easy. "Don't bother to examine a folly. Ask yourself what it acomplishes." The objective of portraying the right-wing protesters as dangerous is simply to discredit them. The reason is that they threaten the Left's hold on power, at a time when an activist Obama is making many of the Left's dreams come true. The ignorance lies in believing such stataments. That's what the smear merchants on the left are couting on: ignorance. Really, the only thing that's surprised me since Obama was elected was Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs viciously attacking the Right, even when he goes after things worth fighting against such as creationism. I wonder if he'll take up "fake but accurate" next.

Let's take a rational look: Right now lifting one pound into low Earth orbit is very expensive. Much more expensive, by far, than shipping one pound around the world in the 1500s. Once in low Earth orbit (LEO), it takes relatively little expense in fuel to boost that pound anywhere in the Solar System. it doesn't take much to boost it to the nearest star, either, if you don't mind waiting millennia for the cargo to arrive. If you want it to arrive within 4.5 years, which menas boosting it instantly to 99.999999% of light speed, and then decelarating it instantly at the other end, you're talking about a major expense again. Therefore interplanetary piracy, never mind interstellar, is worth a great deal more many times over than the plunder. Of course we don't know all there is to know, but we're not ignorant, etiher. We know how to lower launch costs to a small fraction of what theya re today, at the expense of large capital invesmtents. It would be possible, using space elevators, mining the asteroids, the moon and other planets int he system, using solar sails, electromagnetic tracks, and other things, to launch an interstellar ship at aabout 1/3 light speed to anywhere in the universe you care to aim it. At such speeds a ship would take over 13 years to reach the nearest star. So any invading aliens in Proxima Centauri would be better off developng industry on their own. I'd worry about real estate. Earth is an atypical planet compared to the rest of the Solar System and an outright freak of nature compared to what we kno fo extrasolar planets. Any aliens from an Earthlike world looking for new lands to inhabit might invade and conquer Earth, and perhaps wipe us out, just to own the land we now ocuppy. as for hypersace, antigravity, and other double-talk drives (with apologies to Larry Niven), they make a good story, but we're as likely to have them in real life as we are to find unicorn feathers (yes, I'm aware of what I just said).

Someone should seriously start digging around Giza for the Stargate.

Did I ever mention I get nervous when Orwell gets too prescient? "Free trade decreases freedom," is right there with: Freedom is Slavery War is Peace But above all: Ignorance is Strength.

1) Next time a ball pinballs uncertainly off someone, and an offensive player comes out of nowhere to catch it just before it hits the ground, and then he runs it for a TD in a playoff game, I'd be willing to call that "The Immaculate Reception." 2) The Manning to Tyree play should be called The Dodge. Manning avoided capture and sack by at least three defenders before he threw the pass. That took skill and luck. The catch by Tyree was pure luck. In The Catch (SB LXIII version), Big Ben placed the ball past three defenders at the precise spot where only Holmes could get it, and he had the skill and talent to catch it and stay in bounds. So there

Right. That's why Holmes' play in Superbowl LXIII has replaced the Clark play as The Catch. Come on. Mr Holmes beat three defenders and caught the ball right at the edge of the end zone. It doesn't get any greater than that.

These prices are insane! Seriously. Donovan McNabb got traded to Washington for a 2nd round draft pick in 2010 and a 3th or 4th round pick in 2011. That's the biggest bargain I've ever seen in the NFL, until yesterday. Yesterday NFL Net reported the Steelers traded Santonio Holmes (he of The Catch, and Superbowl MVP) to the Jets for a late round draft pick in 2010 (5th, I think). Word is there were locker room problems and off the field porblems. He also faces a suspension regarding the League's "subtsance abuse" policy Of course, since Big ben was spared sexual assault charges, that means he won't be traded to Detroit for a 100th round draft pick in 2112 <whew!> Seriously, once is happenstance, twice is coincidence. I fervently hope Roethlisberger will confine his news-making activities to the playing field. In other news, Texas Stadium was demolished yesterday. The Cowboys (who?) played there from 1971 til last season. That's quite a run. Normally I'd say good riddance, but any serious NFL fan has to hold a few people who unfortunately played or worked for the Cowboys in high regard. I'll mention just one, who is also the greatest one: Coach Tom Landry. A little bit of analysis to finish. the Eagles clearly think McNabb is through. Not only did they let him go cheap, they traded him to a division rival. Meaning they don't expect McNabb, ro Washington with McNabb, to be any sort fo threat. They know McNabb best, anturally. But the new Redskins' coach is Mike Shanahan, the man who elevated John Elway to his greatest heights and won two Superbowls. Of course he's also the man sho needed to win just one game to clinch his division two years ago, and wound up melting down and out fo the playoffs altogether. PS This year's Brett Favre soap opera hasn't quite gotten started yet.

"Illegal Art" my ass. It's second-hander's "art."

I get really frightened whenever something Orwell imagined begins to take place. Here we have a failure to doublethink correctly. BTW if hearings are held I hope at least one witness will say something laong the lines of "This is what the bill we read says, Congressman. Have you read it?"

Objective Realty

I would suggest moving close to the border and buying a policy that covers treatment at Mexican hospitals, or buying insurance in Mexico outright. Private hospitals here, especially in big cities, are first class. Local doctors are very good. Of course, many of the doctors who work here trained or did work in the US to begin with. Innevitably their quality will drop once American healtchare goes down the crapper.

There's been talk of extending the season by one or two games. To do this, they'd drop one or two preseason games. The NFL's done it before, when it went from 14 to 16 games. More games that count also means more chances to get injured. As to OT, I'd thought they'd change the rules for all games, not just playoffs, but it makes sense not to. Injuries aside, it might lead to more ties because scoring a TD isn't as easy as scoring a field goal. The defense would play conservatively in order to force the other team into a field goal situation. So two field goals seems a likely scenario, and that may also consume so much time the game's effectively tied. In post season you can have more than one OT period, so that's not a concern. Playoff games can't be tied. BTW no Superbowl has ever gone into overtime. Eventually one has to, but 0 out of 44 is quite a record.

Yeah, it's too early to begin a thread for this year, but there are some developments: 1) There's a mess involving the salary cap, the player's union and the collective bargaining agreement. I'm not following that, except that it may lead to a strike in 2011. 2) New overtime rules for the playoffs: In this year's playoffs a field goal may not be enough to win in overtime. Let's say team A wins the toss and elects to receive. If they score a TD on their first possession they win. If they score a field goal, they have to kick off to team B. Now team B wins if they score a TD. If they score a field goal they kick it off to team A. If team B doesn't score, team A wins. If overtime is tied after a field goal each, then the old sudden death rules come into effect, and the first team to break the tie wins. As usual, as many quarters of OT as are necessary will be played. I was going to call this change the Minnesota Rule (patent pending), because when it was discussed the press was rife with references to the Vikes' loss last season in the NFC championship in OT. But Minnesota actually voted against the new rules, so that wouldn't be fair. It's still the better part of a year before we see what the new rule will do, and then only if any playoff games go into overtime. For one thing teams will have to be less conservative in their OT offenses. As it stands now, most OT games are won by 3 points, any TDs are usually accidental (interceptions, fumbles, blocked field goals, defensive mistakes and so on). Under the new rules it makes more sense to go for the TD. No word yet on whether PAT or 2 point conversions will be available in OT. Under the old rules they were not. It doesn't really matter, but it may affect how bookies handicap games.

A is A is A is A Copy Place

I think I'll see it. I did like the old Disney version. I found it whimsical and, at parts, witty. I like the scene with Alice in the flower bed ("Have you ever seen an Alice with a blossom like that before?" "Come to think of it, have you ever seen an Alice?") Anyway, has anyone read the Loiuis Carroll books and are they worth reading?