As I understand it the subpoena to Verizon (and presumably to the other telephone companies) requires them to give information they have -- that is, what numbers called what numbers and how long the calls lasted.  Except in a very few cases -- e.g. where the phone company itself is making calls or being called -- they wouldn't have transcripts or recordings of the conversations, and so, couldn't provide them, even if the government asked for them. 

But e-mail might be a different story.

I've read two press reports on the FBI agents injuries.  One said he was "stabbed" though not seriously injured.  The other said he had "abrasions"  If he was stabbed, I can see the shooting might be justified, but someone outside the FBI needs to look at the incident carefully.  If there were only "abrasions" then the agent should be in deep trouble.  Something went badly wrong here.

Seventeen trees is a representative sample?

Membership Greg:

I don't work in healthcare.  I'm hoping to avoid it as long as possible

Spencer's book is quite good, but it's hard to believe there was no Muhammad.  After all there is no disagreement between early Muslim historians on the names of his parents, the names of his wives and concubines, his sons-in-law, etc.  Plus one of his early biographers was the nephew of his youngest wife, Aisha.  (True, we don't have that biography, but much of the information appears in later works.)   That doesn't mean that all the information Muslim historians have produced is true, but supposing there was no such person is a stretch, I think.

Please don't use acronyms unless you spell them out first.

If your neighbor's welfare is not "objective and identifiable" then the command to love him as yourself makes no sense.  Love would be pointless, as you would have no way of benefiting him except by a lucky guess.

Surely the best way to look at it is that by and large we do know what benefits people and what harms them, but, as with many things, there are questions at the margin.

The benefits of Christian unity in a practical sense are not so easy to see.  Less choice for laypeople and a greater possibility (though perhaps not much greater) of despotism for non-Christians.  Neither of these would be good things. 

But my main point is that the presence of the Patriarch of Constantinople at a Pope's installation mass (if that is what this is) is not only unprecedented since the eleventh century, it is unprecedented altogether.

Well, one drawback would be that if I write a letter in handwriting, which I occasionally do,  cursive non-readers couldn't read it.  Granted, there are people whose writing you can't read even if you know cursive, but not learning cursive makes it worse.

Still, in the 1920s, the Turkish government substituted Latin letters for Arabic letters in the writing of the language and taught only the new system, eventually making most Turks illiterate in material written before the change.  Turkey didn't disappear; people adjusted.

Well, whoever put up those signs probably ran out of Rs.  With the Sequester, the school budget had to cut something, I guess.

Is this an area of German settlement?  I'll bet most schools would spell it "Kindergarden"

Listening to the presentation, I first thought that it was about "wealth," that is, the value of what different individuals own.  Later, he was talking about how much different individuals "make," that is, I assume, income per year.  Those are not the same thing.  Which is it?

The most famous example of brother-sister marriage is probably Abraham.  He excuses himself for telling Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister, instead of (truthfully) telling him she was his wife, by saying, And besides, she is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother.

Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln are in one class (formal education measured in hours or days); Hemingway and Bradbury are in another (no college, but formal education measured in years).  Mark Steyn, a very good writer, didn't finish high school, so there's another example.

My guess is, excellence in some subjects (higher mathematics? economics?) is close to impossible without a teacher who knows the subject; excellence in the spoken and written word can be achieved without any formal education.

Mollie Hemingway

Well, I was trying to straighten out any confusion about Eastern Church practice, but it is true, your post caused me to remember Berberova's translation; it was fifty years ago, so I hadn't thought about it for a while

The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not restricted to citizens.  Obama referred to our most fundamental right as citizens.  Of course, children (and in some states, felons) are citizens and they can't vote so voting cannot be a fundamental right of every citizen.

Still, as an approximation I think it's OK.

When the poet Nina Berberova translated T.S. Eliot's Ash Wednesday into Russian, she had to think hard about what to call it, as there isn't anything called Ash Wednesday in the Russian Orthodox Church. 

She said Lent for the Russians begins on Monday.  (She wasn't herself a  believer, but she liked Eliot's poem.) 

She titled the poem First Day of Lent (or of the Fast), that is, Pjervy Djenj Posta