Oh Shoot

Well, it did take at least 50,000 years to reach the sophistication of all the current charlatans. More professions added all along the way. - OS

No, shaman = priest/preacher - OS

Don't forget the first shaman who discovered if he conned the tribe that he was in tune with the spirit world, didn't have to go out and risk his life killing the mammoth to get fed. - OS

Public and private sector pensions in the civilian world are much the same. - OS

There is a huge difference. At this point, whether any admin can save America from reaching The Big Pain, or even set a course for future admins to do so, is unknown. But the difference in philosophy is stark, and the clearest in my lifetime. Depending on the final makeup of Congress to set the speed, even that most imperfect captain Mitt Romney has a shot at avoiding the iceberg. BHO and his minions have none. This time around, the American electorate may not get all it deserves from a Romney admin, but it will deserve absolutely all it gets from Obama's. - OS

Well, all the racial explosion is supposed to happen "this summer", so they better get cracking. Maybe when the weather cools down some, revolutions are a bitch when it's in triple digits outside. - OS

Ah, relax some, yer gonna blow a fuse. GJ will get the same ole half percent or so. Total votes don't matter, only state by state. I'll eat your hat if he makes a diff here. Only possible question I see is whether it could make a favorite son diff in his home of New Mexico if it turned out really tight there. Possibly, probably not. At any rate, ain't likely anyone voting in NM you can preach to here. - OS

You're right. Doesn't matter a whit either way, as per usual. Last time it (sort of, maybe) did was Perot in '92 and that didn't crank up anything afterwards. - OS

Sheep have purtier eyes than goats, jest sayin.... - OS

Just a note: it is legal in TN for a non-student adult to store gun in car on campus, presumably unloaded; although it may well be a fireable offense in your terms of employment, dunno. - OS

In video. Looks like more calibers than he had guns to shoot. - OS

I tell them to hurry up, I don't have much longer. - OS

Well, it doesn't start THIS year, and being part of the .5% again ain't gonna foment jack crap. - OS

I don't know just what justification(s) will be used, only that it's bound to happen. Might even get triggered from a minor case example: like two guys or women of rank in military not being allowed to set up housekeeping on military base like married couples can. Can now be openly gay in military, but still can't receive same privileges as non gay. Maybe compounded by being stationed in a state which allows same sex marriage. Who knows? Eventually the federal government will either have to cave and dictate national change for civil unions (without the term "marriage"); or go the other way and decree it to be only between a man and a woman. The second option will take a constitutional amendment though, IMO. - OS

Yep, there's really a groundswell movement underway: Highest third party percentage: 2008: Nader .56 2004: Nader .38 2000: Nader 2.73 1996: Perot 8.4 1992: Perot 18.9 1988: Paul .44 1984: too low to pick Liberals have had the best third party turnout since Perot. Ironic, eh? Libertarian got .4 in 2008. GJ will do about the same, maybe less. Bob Barr probably had better name recognition. - OS

Part of it is that depending on your lifestyle, half the places you go are no carry. And most folks obey the law and don't want their gun stolen from their car. - OS

He's a cantankerous entertainer. Just like Rush, but Bill's politics aren't as consistently conservative. Or consistently anything, really. His style is what sells; he's the master of the "don't let 'em say much of anything, this is all about ME". Worse than Hannity. Slightly. His ratings prove that it works. Whole show is worth it when Dennis Miller has his segment. Watter's World is a hoot too. There's a new deadpan conservative comic on some too, pretty good, haven't tuned into exactly who he is yet. - OS

The cash register is cueing her through the process. if you answer "handgun" you are supposed to be 21 by federal law. Rifle ammo, 18. You're only 28, maybe you look much younger. - OS

Got it. You want to remove all the existing economic lifelines in America that could benefit one's spouse: social security, military death benefits, retirement pensions, annuities, you name it. I agree that if you could do all that, then there would be no discrimination ,since no one would no longer receive any real world advantages due to marriage. What you really aspire to thusly do is "fundamentally transform America" so that marriage no longer has meaning as a legal status, but only a religious one. - OS

It would have to be in an extremely close election state for less than 2% of the vote siphoned off to influence the results. TN almost certainly won't be one of them. I admit, though, it could have elected Gore via Florida in 2000. Then again the SCOTUS would probably have still elected Dubya. - OS

False analogy, fun with statistics. .5% vote doesn't equate to .5% "chance". It equates to 0 chance of winning. - OS

All third parties combined got less than 1.5% in '08. I imagine that will be about the same this year. - OS

He announced in Sept. that he will. - OS

You really call a .5% vote share a "viable option", huh? - OS

You don't seem to know much about the party you're now touting. Their convention was in early May -- Johnson doesn't pick his veep, it's done by convention vote. They chose an ex judge named Jim Gray from Kali. - OS