I like Sarah, her instincts, her views, her independence, her stoicism, her quips, he ability to draw Liberal ire.  But she has an annoying habit of speaking for others.  Obama has a similar annoying habit of constructing straw men which he then lights on fire. 

If Sarah told us what she believes without drawing in "the American people" or the "folks," her appeal would be far stronger.  That's not to say she should not promote what's best for America and state those positions loudly.  We like politicians with whom we agree, not those who presume we do.

Or the basketball coach.

Mao had the yellow cranes at his famed estate.  The German national socialists had their brownshirts.  Venezuela has its underclothes with yellow and brown stains.

 We live in a Peter Pan world where adult responsibilities are delayed and sex is an acceptable avocation without commitment.  Young adults go through prolonged adolescence experimenting with intimacy well into their twenties and beyond and parents continue to indulge and support them.  So, to answer your question directly, if the pregancy is the result of a casual hook-up, then no, marriage is a poor option.  However, if the pregnancy results within an intimate relationship of some standing as so often occurs with our kids today, marriage is a good reason to take the adult step and commit to each other.   

Nothing is wrong with HOAs.  The problem is complacency and lack of involvement.  People get involved with HOA's because they want something from it, otherwise they can't be bothered, that is until they get a letter for leaving the trash bin out or failing to cut the grass.  HOAs need good people to serve for the right reasons.  They are neither neighborhood improvement societies nor neigborhood nags.  They maintain the common property and gently pursuade their neighbors to follow the HOA rules.  The pay is lousy (nothing) and the best compliment is invisibility and none at all.  Unfortunately, the nags and improvers are the ones who want to be on board and that's why they are always getting into trouble.

More than just the presumably "harmless behaviors," there is the sense of communal responsibility, purpose, pride and property that infuses a civil society, restrains anti-social behavior and inspires charity, good nature and well being.  Look at the the response of the people of Greenburg, Kansas, a vibrant civil community, after the devastating tornado tragedy of a few years back.  Compare that to the chaos and lawlessness that occurred in New Orleans after Katrina.  Why is that public housing in our Indian Communities must be condemned and rebuilt, at public expense, every few years?  There is more going on here than just poverty.  Take away the human need to be self reliant and replace it with welfare, and the result is a complete breakdown in civil society.  The result is seen in the city projects, on the reservations, in Detroit, Camden, Bridgeport and in many dying rural communities where welfare has supplanted self-reliance.  More welfare and subsidy is like trying to smother fire with diesel fuel. 

1.  This seems most likely to me.  Clinton, political wife/gladhander turned mediocre Senator turned SOS, went into that all to that familliar media-control mode (remember the bimbo eruptions?) when all hell broke loose in Libya.  Everyone was conscripted into the lie army and the narrative took on a life of its own.  (The best narrative is always one that can sustain continued embellishment.)  Everybody had their chance to add their little bit of plausible detail.  Eventually, it becomes a consensus form of pseudo-truth.  Every person, including Obama, had to support this edifice for to stop was to see it crumble.  In the end, they hoped it might stays erect long enough to become codified history, supported perpetually by supporters posing as historians and true believers.  Now, as the truth emerges and the supports erode, the structure is starting to fail.  It will crumble completely if enough liars fear being crushed with the collapse and run for cover from the falling debris.

What if this caused internet fulfillment houses to move just over the Mexican or Canadian border?  Our constitution provides the same jurisdictional protection among states as is assumed by a sovereign foreign state like say, Ontario, Canada.  Surely Toronto would be thrilled to welcome Amazon or Ebay and would protect the preferred tax status these companies would enjoy if they moved their export operations there.  The US could impose duties on these imports, but that would not help the states seeking "lost" sales/use taxes.  This example proves the fallacy of the entire construction of the so called "Marketplace Fairness Act."  Sales taxes on imports from other jurisdictions are duties and only the federal government can collect duties.

Our constitution was clearly designed to encourage interstate trade and interstate competition.  Federal imposition of taxes had to be proportionate.  States were not allowed to impose import taxes or duties.  People were allowed to move freely among the states.  Don't like the taxes in Massachusetts?  Move to New Hampshire.  Certainly, our forefathers would be appalled that the Federal Government is being used as a bagman for state revenue authorities.  Each state was supposed to be an integral, republican (small "r") experiment in Democracy.  A state's revenue and spending policy, aside from specific constitutional limitations, was a matter for its citizens and their accountable, elected, local representatives.  The Federal government has NO OTHER PLACE in this calculus. 

Imagine the volume of carbon waste we landfill every year, that gets tied up in inert plastics and buried as sludge?  All that plastic in your home is very stable carbon sequester. 

I fully intend to expand into TX when I solidify my position in AZ.  AZ and TX have much in common.

Let's say a high pressure gas pipe gets together with a piece of HDPE conduit containing coaxial cable for cable TV, a kind of co-axis of evil if you will.  The result would be a terrorist's dream (only without the forty virgins - highly over-rated in my opinion) a backflow of explosive natural gas forced into cable boxes and TV's everywhere.  You get home from work, find your place on the couch, hit the remote and BOOM, you get a confirmed Big Bang, not a theory.  Terror threat?  No question.  Never trust a conduit (or was that commie?)  I forget. 

Bike shorts? 

Do they have a nice little built in butt pad for your tookus? 

Any guy who wears bike pants needs a pad.

Wus.

I'm glad I gave you another reason to imbibe.  It's the least I could do.

Also, these drills are so powerful, they can rip through a plastic pipe in a nanosecond with nary a bump.  Tile?  You cant' even detect a tic.  Keep in mind, a directional drill with 30,000 punds of thrust literally crushes small rocks it encounters. 

I enjoyed your comments, so feel good about them.  There no crying in Ricochet.

I'll secretly toast you all when I have that rum and diet coke in my hand.  I fould a new rum by the way, which I will plyg here.  It is called "Foursquare" from Barbados.  It's yummy.