My ten year old daughter has Squeeze's The Singles - 45s And Under on her iPod.
And, yes, she stole it from me.

James has it right: Perfect pop, just not quite pop. Not quite New Wave, not at all Punk. For the time, Squeeze was uniquely their own, until success pulled them down, and the Costello effect bloomed in full.

In California, we're battling over which Tax Increase Initiative should be on the ballot.

'Nuff said.

The things  we discover that we don't know of each other in this life, are probably the most valuable revelations we can learn.  Today I thought that I would be lamenting the loss of a colossal force in a movement, but instead I find my heart breaking for a wife and four young children.

Safe home, Mr. Breitbart.

I don't think I could see this happening in Texas.

I could see it happen in California. Not in the interior of the state, but definitely on the coast.

The sad thing is that went you capitulate, to nation states, terrorists, or rabble rousing citizenry, you get run over.

The economy in conjunction with the aforementioned Iran bruhaha, and the Russian Afghan excursion all folded in on Jimmy Carter in a vortex. Crises tend to focus the electorate on a leader's inability to address them.

It does seem that we are ignoring the imminent again... Feels ooggie.

Wait - is Andy taking his entire Daily Dish wrecking crew (Conor, et al) over to the Daily Beast with him? Or does the Atlantic get to keep full custody of them?

His obsessive pursuit of the afterbirth should disqualify him for publication in any reputable outlet. He would be fine, though, penning his keen inquisitive insight in numerous conspiracy rags.

I'm not suggesting that he is a rabble rousing sycophant - I'm just asking questions.

Perhaps he is just biding his time for OJ to get out of jail. Then they could team up, and work together to find both the Real Killers  and the Placenta.

The Difference? Frum is at least out front. He doesn't backstop at The Daily Dish.

Hello, The Daily Dish!? "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy" Sorry - Sophistry and Quackery. Why does such a font of absurdity merit a response?

From reading Conor's work, all I can offer, with apologies to Billy Joel: Sophistry, is such a lonely word.

It is never about the subject matter with Conor, it is always about the punditry. About being 'right-er' than everyone else. Which is fine, but when it comes down to real world consequences, it makes no difference. Right and wrong, black and white. With Conor it's always about straddling the equivocation.

Saying the Pledge Of Allegiance.

When I was in high school a buddy attempted to jump a school amphitheater with his father's new Chevy Suburban. We were still allowed to drive to school.

Our garage band played way, way too loud (partial hearing loss) on the quad at lunch. We were asked to cut down on the feedback, but were allowed to continue torturing Les Pauls and each others' hearing.

Our kids' school lets parents know if there are any peanut allergies in each classroom, mostly for class parties. We are allowed to send PBJs for lunch. For now. But don't think yer gettin' away with anything....

No one is SAFE!

Jiff has become a looming threat.

First they came for the paring knives, and I was silent, because I brought a PBJ.

Then they came for the sporks, so no soup, or the college of your choice, for you.

It is said that the Grinch's heart grew three sizes that day. You know, from all the associated misery and mayhem.

I'll jokingly note that the Mac OS is really just a Unix variant with a bunch of "pretty" thrown on top. But it is good. Very, very good. Too pricey for business or game play, thus it's low penetration rate.

Windows 7 - needs a lot of horsepower, and an obscene amount of RAM, but they have it down to where it's pretty painless. Macs are much more efficient. Linux, if you live it every day, can be a refreshing amalgam of Win/Mac.

But as the marketplace demonstrates, Windows with it's brute force approach wins out.

Overkill. It's the American Way™

Fabulous suggestions here Dave - in all honesty at the $700 price point, it will be difficult for you to go wrong.

Macs: Lovely. Delightful. Elegant. Everything that you could think of included and more. But, expensive.

As noted by most commenters: all brands have good spots and bad spots. I've had Thinkpads, HPs, Dells, Toshibas, Gateways, (even Micron for you old timers) and Acers. I've had a problem develop with every single brand. I've also had amazing successes with every single brand. With one exception: Sony. When they work, they're great (and expensive) - but within the first year, every single unit I've had has developed a hardware failure.

I tend to run equipment into the ground. As an example, I am typing this from one of my many Compaq Evo N800v, running Linux. Holds a charge forever, and is quick with my sysadmin tools. 7 years old. Runs 24 hours day. Can't beat that with a stick.

Keep in mind: most of these products are just commodity boxes now, designed to be built to a price point, and replaced in a few years.

Happy shopping!