Does thos mean that in Cilifornia the Boston bomber could someday become a ludge in California and bend the law toward a shira outcome?  Just asking.  Sound like the law of unintende consequences may come into play here.

The question shouldn't be  - Is it better or worse, But, is it adquate.

I have to agree with Mark.   For a long time now, I have identified myself as a conservative - not a Republican.  The reason is the thinking displayed by Sens. McCain and Graham.  This is like Vice-President Biden saying: I agree with my church (against abortion), but I won't impose my beliefs on other people.  What weasels!   If they were my Senators, I would not support them.

We've all said that the President has been given a "free pass" all his life.  The actions of Sens. McCain and Graham appear to bear this out.  I will always admire Sen. McCain for his actions during the Vietnam War, but, today, he seems to have lost the ability to fight for his convictions.

God help me!  We have a lot to do!

Great post!  Let's consider any religious group similar to Jim Jones' group or Marshall Applewhite's Heavens Gate whose members suffered a similar fate.  Lots of people died!  "Sensible" restrictions should be instituted  to protect all of us from falling into such groups and being drawn down similar paths.

I enjoyed your post.  It reminded me of an episode of Star Trek with William Shatner.  They encountered a planet where all the people were black on their left side and white on their right side or white on their left side and black on their right side.  One of the inhabitants said something like "I'm glad I'm not like them".

I agree!  Harry has not been given ebough credit.

Barka, I have a questions for you.  How are the children of your singlemom girlfriends?  Is your answer based on your observations, what others tell you or have you talked with them directly about not hav ig a father or not having a father around?  Do they even know what they are missing?

I have sons and I've done things with them that their mother or another female could not do.

I could not get to support@ricochet.com.  Since I'm not a computer savvy guy, I don't understand what my problem is.  I've had this problem before and have had to give up on what I was trying to do.  Unless I've got another way to get there or Ricochet makes it easier, I won't be buying 3 more annual subscriptions as Christmas gifts.  This experience illustrates my point (I have two other prior comments) about ease of subscribing.

I just renewed early my annual subscription.  But, it wasn't as easy as it should be.  I had to read the promotion article for NR/Digital to find out how.  I 'm now going to support@ricochet.com to purchase 3 annual subscriptions as Christmas gifts.  If only 1% of your non-subscribers wanted to subscribe but found it too much of a hassle to get there, then you would have what you need.  I think the older you get, the more you accumulate and the more conservative you become.  If this is true, then the people who visit Ricochet  tend to be older.  Older people tend to be less comfortable using a computer.  You need to make signing up and gift-subscribing easier to do.

If you want to be a "business" then act like a business.  Advertise and do everything to get to 2%.  At the point you reach your goal then you can start to revert to your original model.  That is provided you don't become addicted to your success.  Ricochet is a terrific product.  Membership is worth twice the price.  Get my drift?

In the meantime, I'm going right now to purchase 3 gift subscription for Christmas gifts before the price goes up!

For adverting people.  If I'm a retailer and 1,00o viewers see and hear my commercial; I hope 1% become customers.  That's 10.  I'll ratchet up 20 decibles, maybe I'll increase response by 30%. That's 13.  In doing so, 30% of the viewers "hit the mute button".  My commercial won't move them.  Now I'm down to 700.  At 1% I attract 7 customers.  By boosting the decible I can attract 30% more customers, 2 in this case. Now I have 9.  Something is wrong here!

If you think that's bad, compare C_____t to others.  I won't bother you with my story.  I recently switched to another cable TV provider for reasons other than cost.  As a bonus I'm saving about $100.00 a month.  Enough to pay for my  new 60" HD television in less than a year!

Stupid me!  When I called C_____t about my problem, they saw another problem - I was paying too much.  Perhaps the other cable company had already called in the switchover.  They had never before told me I was paying too much.

Why is he getting probation?  Would it be cheaper to confine him to jail than to use tax funds to help support Nos. 2 through 9?

Add me to your list.  Enough has been said.

One less than the Isreali children killed by the Hamas rockets fired into Isreal.  That is my answer to your question.  Now here's one for you.  If you allow your next door neighbor to fire rockets at your neighbors down the street from you and you do not stop him, do you share in his guilt?  If so, to what extent?