Lucky...

Well since I did not vote for the Shrub.. I guess I am not in fear....but a WHOLE lot of people certainly voted for him out of fear...You can fool some of the people some of the time..... or you can fool ... the fools far more easily. "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/multimedia/foolbush.mov

Me jumping out of an acft over farmland isn't going to kill you or anyone - you smkoing near me will slowly poison me.

Are you sure you understand what "logic" is? If you're going to equate pubic indecency with something that a quarter of the population does in public 10 times a day, I'm wonder. You're committing a common logical fallacy to argue your case - the strawman. Non smokers are acting fairly in wanted a restaurant section that is truly non smoking. Likewise, it would be obnoxious for a smoker to stand on the upwind side of a bus stop and light up. But do non smokers have a right never to experience smoke anywhere anytime? Not a chance. Not when car exhaust dominates the streets. The point I was making is that you are diminishing smoking to just a bad habit. It's not just a bad habit, like chewing tobacco, where only the fool sucking on it is physically affected. Don't grandstand, no falacy here, just an abstract comparison. The ultimate abstract representation: comparing a mode of transportation to an addiction.

I disagree, thee should be a farting section. There are several. One of them is called Twin Otter So it was you? ..... Ewwwwwwwwwww. Worse is a 172

Smoking claims a higher percentage of people...but you shouldn't ignore the timing. One third die - in 30 or 40 years. Skydiving - 1 in 1000 die - NOW. In the form of DUIs - drinking kills 1 in 10000 - NOW. Plus the other stuff - in the 30-40 year frame you got the liver damage. In the short term you have the accidents and date rapes. If you want to play the cost game, there is plenty of ammo to ban all 3. The attack on smokers (of which I have *never* been a member) has long gotten out of hand. Taxing a quarter a pack to pay for anti smoking ads and programs is defensible. Taxing a buck to fund preschools and ER services is a joke. Also a dangerous budget practice - if the higher prices work in driving people to quit, you have insufficient funds. Just look at the lawsuits flying this month when it was ruled that the established tobacco powers deserve part of their reparations back due to declining market share. Smokers can no longer smoke in restaurants and bars in California, and many states. That has largely been positive. I wouldn't go to night clubs before because I didn't want to dress up just to smoke my nicer clothes. And to allow smokers to go outside, clubs no longer have a no exit policy, so I can go outside for fresh air/quiet as well. But now the drive is to ban smoking in the place these people have been directed to! If smoking isn't allowed within 50ft of the doors, don't be shocked that there is a ring of people at the 50ft distance, and a concentration to rival amtrack trains in the 80s. It should be permissible for an office building to have a smoking room. Same for restaurants and bars. And on the street, up until the point that they throw their butt on the ground it should be smooth sailing. People are still allowed to have bad habits. With this logic, shouldn't we be able to masturbate in public? I mean, we are allowed to have bad habits, right? Oh, it's offensive? Well at least it won't kill or make ill anyone.

I disagree, thee should be a farting section.

Good manners? You can't legislate morality, but you can legislate dangerous behavior.

Not a plan, but you are on to something. The answer is poverty. The poor cannot afford the same level of health care as the middle and upper classes. Z Oh yeah it has nothing to do with genetics and lifestyle Actually the poor qualify for more medical assistance than the working middleclass...ask any ICU nurse how much care is provided to the poor vs. the wealthy or middle class....its the same care only 1 group won't have to pay Which demonstrates that if we had socialized medicine we would all have the same level o care and very available to all.

Very astute of you. And to what do you attribute that disparity? Go ahead and guess, and I'll tell you if you are correct.... Z It's a plan, by the man, to keep the brother-man down......

And why would Americans have more stress? COuld it be working more and getting fewe services? Do you mean more, or a greater rate? So having guaranteed medical coverage doesn't boad well to longer life, versus having zero medical coverage unless you're dying on the doorsteps of teh hospital? That is really a hard argument to make. That's like saying a car doesn't need maintenance unless it is towed into teh shop; preventive oil changes and other PM are needless.....

And Canadians live longer; where's the flaw?

I wrote: I can't understand why you wrote in quotes, "Free Healthcare" when I did not. Nothing is free, but as I wrote, Canada can provide 100% medical coverage and still has their dollar incresing compard to ours, so that was the point. We are horribly inefficient......

You're a lawyer, you fck people all the time - carma.... Naw, I hear ya and altho I'm for the immigrants, they're trying to say how they're an imntegral part of the community and by hurting their employer they're actually opposing that message.

Precisely, most drug-related crime occurs in the act of obtaining drugs, as opposed to after being watsed. Beer, well, that's a different story.

High oil prices = high jump ticket prices

Which is why Libertarianism has its limits. Libertarianism is one of those utopian things that has almost no presence in reality. Why is it that electricity and water, etc have regulation? Because they would run amuck if they didn't.

That's what's killing us here in the US, refining capacity. We need to build about 30 refineries yesterday. Of course the treehuggers won't roll over for that (while bitching about the cost of filling up their oil leaking VW peace van). That and there are about 200 blends of fuel the refineries need to adjust for every spring. Enough to drive you mad... Please, $75 a barrael is just that, no matter how you stack em. Even if we had the most proficient method of refining, it's still 75/barrel; how do you escape that? Whatever..........

Just as I read this I thought, "Currency exchange rate," then I saw lawrocket wrote that too! We are $1.15ish Canadian to $1.00 US, whereas when I grew up it was 1.30 - 1.50. Irony is that their dollar is tied to ours, so they should be very proportionate. How is it that Canada has the ability to provide 100% medical coverage to its people when we don't, have its dollar tied to ours and still find a way to appreciate their dollar compared to ours?

I agree, but to strengthen the dollar we would have to lower the debt and increase GNP/GDP, right? Bush has thrown the debt thru the ceiling via his military spending and lower tax revenues due to tax cuts for largely the rich. I believe the GDP has been shrinking, not precisely sure, and I believe tax revenues are down as well, but Bush's reaction to all of this is to lower taxes and have the Republican COngress continue to raise the debt ceiling. Furthermore, he's thrown us into a war that is doing nothing but raising the price of gas - was low 20's/barrel before the war, now 75 - so this gas hike and the exacerbated effects are basically solely his doing.

Please explain how Bush is driving oil prices up. Are you suggesting there is a conspiracy within all oil exporting countries to raise the price of oil globally? If so, please provide a source. It couldn't have anything to do with China and India's increased demand for oil could it? Naw, that would be too easy and besides, why let reality get in the way of a good Bush bash. - Hmmmmmm, I wonder when gas prices have sharply risen over the last 30 years after the OPEC embargo? Could it be during the Gulf War and the Iraq War? Pure coincidence.....

That idiot Bush just started promoting alternative fuels in photo ops this week... AFTER his administration policies produced the fastest rise in fuel prices we've ever seen. Not to mention enormous profits for his Big Oil buddies. That's kinda like the drunk behind the wheel promoting MADD after he caused a horrible accident. Jack Great analogy

AHA, misdirection... remember, we are one of the last industrialized nations to still execute people, but China has summary executions. Instead of focusing on present reality, focus on other countries or other entities..... still doesn't address a thing here.

True to a point, some presidents have far worse or better rankings at the end of their terms, but this is one of the only presidents to have 90% of the rest of the world hating him/us.

But enough about theory

I wasn't planning to jump on Saturday. What this means is that I won't be making any money on Saturday. And this isn't the first time Mr. Bush's travels have interfered with my ability to make money. But you're right. I really should just suck it up and go get a job at WalMart. The pay sucks and there are no benefits but at least WalMart doesn't have to shut down when he decides to travel. IMO, and I am very serious, if this guy is so damn important that he has to shut down air space, maybe he should leave the white house. If he's got something to say he can say it on tv from the white house. His stupid secret service drones made me land with the airplane once and I was pissed. The secret service are so uninformed and stupid I can't believe their rational. Stupidity runs at all levels of the government. Judy In all fairness, I think the SS have a tough job in that Bush is probably the most hated president in decades and I'm sure there are attempts and potential attempts all the time that we might not hear about. The SS have their work cut out.