Marbles were out of fashion in the 1970s but I played them rabidly anyway. Nixon was also out of fashion, but I made my mom vote for him anyway. Great story Peter.

Sajak said it all. The future is a lot of people knowing a bunch of private stuff about you. Sounds frightening but it is tempered by the fact that your private information isn't that interesting anymore because we have the private information of everyone else to gawk at, diluting the value of yours.
If your kid has some embarrassing thing posted about him or her, that's the future. It will pass when the next kid's shame is posted tomorrow, and the next. When the Harvard admissions office sees the stuff, they will have to weigh it against all the other stuff from other shamed applicants. It's a wash.
As far as advertising, I've accepted that I'm going to have Legalzoom ads on my screen forever, even though I work for them and get free stuff. I have to pay for those conservative t-shirts though.

Thanks. I'm well aware of Righthaven. What a bunch of D-bags. Good news, the court issued a minute order today allowing the go ahead for the summary judgment hearing on Feb. 6. I think he signaled that he would rule in our favor, but I hope I'm not reading him wrong. It was they who filed the motion, so victory on Feb. 6 only means we get to go to trial. Yes, they actually tried to get the court to deny us a trial. Thanks for all your support here. I love Ricochet and will post more often when this is over.

They also own Choicepoint, responsible for one of the largest identity theft debacles in history. And they own the Midem Music Conference. They once paid me more than a $1,000 to avoid a scandal when they locked me in a room for 2 hours in Cannes. My crime: leaving the conference two hours early, as an exhibitor.

Thank you. It did brighten my day!

I think the Ricochet crowd is sophisticated enough to know that "charges" are just "charges." Nobody thinks that Pete "fiddles about." As for the spelling of these hippies and their bands' names, I could give a rats [patootie]. Sadly no one caught the Dizzy/Izzy typo, so you're all fired.

My bad. It's so weird my brain has a problem with it.

I was thinking, great, I'll turn Mitt into Pat Boone, but  you're right, he already is Pat Boone.

I was shocked that he didn't say that this money had already been earned and taxed.

Well put. It's the desperation to distinguish themselves from Romney that disturbs me. Newt was doing fine until he unnecessarily went after the courts. Perry has to say he's going back into Iraq?

Troy, do you have the book recommendations they made listed anywhere? I found this in the Amazon instant video section:

Also, do some consulting with Legalzoom.com. They are constantly being sued by bar associations attorneys general, and other dinosaur legal interests across the country for trying to do exactly what Prof. Epstein was talking about in this podcast. Legalzoom makes certain legal documents possible without paying an attorney the kind of rates an attorney would have to charge to mess with these kinds of documents like wills, name changing, copyrights, etc.

When I call it a brain drain,  I'm trying to be kind. My grandfather walked over here from Sonora. He wasn't educated or middle class. He was just cleaver and hard working. If he would have stayed in Mexico, Mexico would have been better for it. I'd be there too. Mexico would be worse for that I admit, but it's a numbers game. They lost a great one when my father in law decided to come here. He's in indispensable manager of an American factory, raised 3 great citizens. We love him, he gave me my wife. Mexico's loss again. 

Secure the border first. Then we will have some leverage to effect change in that country.

Thanks Troy. I still haven't found anything to counter my feeling that Newt is the most qualified and will do the best job. However, your point is well taken.
He should be playing up border security. Everyone knows we can't rip the people he's talking about from their homes willy-nilly; but the fence, the troops, whatever it takes at the border has got to be first. After that, a "just kidding amnesty back peddle" will not hurt anybody or anything, as long as the gates are shut and can be opened and shut with compassion, fairness, and in the U.S.'s interest. You just can't announce this inevitability in advance.

Two things:

1. I mean no disrespect to the Anglicans or Episcopalians, but she could at least get out of the way of the Pope and still pretend to be religious.

2. I know this is a hard one to swallow, but some would propose that if there is a rape, or danger to the health of the mother, harm has already occurred. Taking the life of a baby only makes it worse.

What would a saint do in either of these cases? Fortunately we have an answer, and we are all called to become saints. It's not reserved for the privileged.

Saint Gianna Beretta Molla was canonized in 2004 in the presence of the daughter she chose to give birth to even though she knew she would die without an abortion.

Ricochet's Village People.

John, can you imagine the Limeys' horror when they returned home to find this excellent article in the Daily Mail about the Vatican's reaffirmation of its longstanding belief that Shakespeare was a Catholic. In Hamlet, he speaks of the uniquely Catholic doctrine of Purgatory.
EWTN (Catholic Channel) has been on this for quite some time producing original content about the notion. Until Current TV, or MSNBC start claiming him as a liberal, I'm going with conservative Catholic Doctrinaire, living according to a strict adherence to the Magistarium.