It was fairly short, nobody seems to know what it said yet. It's very clear as writing on the video but I guess VHS recordings from 1990 aren't easily enhanced. For all I know, it might have said 'Hi Mom' or "Take Mittens to Vet", not long enough to be a cheat sheet. Your objections may differ from the norm on this one, my point primarily being that writing on your hand is not in of itself an indicator of stupidity or dishonesty... after that it's really an "eye of the beholder" situation.



Yes, not a pistol grip on shotgun fan, I think I mentioned as much when we were previously going over this sometime last year. I don't really have a problem with concealed weapons where the motivaiton is simply to be able to carry a gun without having gawkers everywhere you go. Of course, I'm used to carrying an assault rifle everywhere I go and it being 'normal' and my mental attitude towards pistols tends to be 'ah, well, blatantly inferior but probably not so ackward'. I don't object to conceal bans, but I don't consider them especially useful either, I agree it doesn't fundamentally violate the 2nd amendment to have laws about concealment. I don't really favor those laws, but it's a local issue IMO - note that I may not be especially representative of 2nd amendment sorts on that though. I wouldn't want the penalty to be especially big either, if you have a permit or your area doesn't require one, and you move and get frisked, I think'$100 fine' is appropriate, not 2 years in prison.



I think he'd have stepped down. Now, let me emphasize, I don't believe term limits are built into the constitution (with the obvious exception) so my attitude is that every state should decide. I think if Colorado wants to pass a law saying their senators can only be around for 3 terms, well, that seems fair, if they want term limits on their governors, that seems fair. There really is no pre-eminent right to vote for whoever you wnat in elections, since there are already rules controlling a candidates age, country of origin, etc. For POTUS, well, I tihnk what FDR did was wrong, I think Washingston was very right to establish that precedent, remove it, both as a rule and a tradition, and we will get president's serving for life. You'll always get a certian segment that will resist a change under the 'devil you know' principal.



Of course the service industries would probably point out to you that the two are the same. Trust is practically a marketable quantity. I'd say you're more like to get good service and a profit on the private end then you are to get good service and low cost on the public end. Scoundrels not invcluded, but I don't think there are really that many scoundrels and they end up in both areas anywya.



Well, that's always an area to look at for corruption, but as an example, a lot of military contractors are stacked for of ex-soldiers, and on the other end of that, a lot of their higher ups end up in positions of gov't power on the military. Sometimes that just a matter of common association and passion, people often mistake that for corruption, when that's usually on a small minority of the cases. Not saying something isn't up there at Cintra, just playing devil's advocate on it.



More or less, realistically the higher speeds people travel on them at is probably using more fuel than medium-heavy traffic occasional braking does. The faster you're going, the more energy you lose to air resistance per distance. So I wouldn't say you really save at the pump, but certainly you do in time. And of course avoiding those toll roads to take back country roads will involve some winding, probably equalling out or exceeding what you burn on the freeway. HArd to say, but in theory, yeah. The gas taxes are supposed to pay for the roads, so the tolls save people who don't benefit from those roads a fair amount of money, and toll roads aren't evenly distributed like normal roads are.



Agreed. Still, we have a number of things that we could do a better job at there if we had a bit more control. i.e. Not forcibly making everyone take HIV tests but making them free and issuing people 'clean cards'. A lot of people wouldn't do it, but in the more promiscous sectors (for fun or profit) you might see people saying 'Wait, you got your card?' and infection rates might drop significantly. That sort of thing doesn't trample on anyone's right or represent an objectionable public expenditure, though now that I think on it, that particular example probably would tick off the 'increased safety breeds bad behavior' crowd too. But that's just a random example that comes to mind, I tend to feel a mixture of shame and embarrassment combined with a free lollipop is a good way to influence behavior.




Well, I meant vouchers that applied to private schools fix a lot of the objections... I want evolution to be teachable in schools and sex ed too, but I don't like fighting battles with people who have legitimate objections. Handing someone vouchers says "You don't like it, send your kid to X, they don't teach it there" and that sort of thing diffueses it. This is how I meant vouchers tend to solve most of these problems. People who object to sex ed and those who don't but support them, well, the latter will desert when ther former has an option around it, and most of them will grow less strident on the matter. There objection is basically 'not my kids' as opposed to 'no one's kids'



Yes, I had a survey with something like that I posted a few days back. Removing warning labels isn't going to fix stupid people via darwinian removal, they are unlikely to know how to read them

I want to emphasize on tort reform, we're not talking about setting draconian limits, we just want limits. I think 7 mill might be a bit high for a 40 year old, but it's not ridiculous. If you think the average award should be maybe 2 mill, then a cap at 10 mill seems fair. Personally, having that sort of subconscious ire that comes from knowing my life was worth exactly 500k to my family (which actually seems quite fair, generous even) I have difficulty thinking wrongful death should ever be paying out much more than a million, if the guys ultimate earnings would have been more than that, well, his survivors should already consider themselves pretty blessed.



I still like Bush. Anyway, Kay or Rick, I'd imagine they'll win by a decent margin, I'm not surprised he's leading, like I said, nobody in the party hates Hutchinson, but she's not been to good about toeing the line, and while we don't go around punishing them for that, we don't really like to reward that kind of behavior either, especially when intregity in the party is all that's keeping the opposition form having it's way, so anyone with a rep for 'doing there own thing' justified or not, is going to be viewed with even more dislike than normal. When you're 60-40 or 59-41 in the senate, and that's the best situation you have in either place, well, you don't view Snowe's, Anthony Kennedy's, etc with much enthusiasm.