Jessica, that's a great martini glass. Not $85 great, but great nevertheless.

Not even $42.50 great. Cause it's a set of two. If it had been a set of four, I would have thought about it.

Okay, so Obama's bitter statement? Totally impolitic. But the truth of the matter, even though I'm not in a small town, I am entirely BITTER about the economic state of my life and my country. It hasn't yet turned me to god but it does make guns look sort of appealing.

I can sort of see his point, but I don't think it put it the right way. IMO, small town America has been getting the economic shaft long enough that they've given up on politicians' proposals to address economic justice issues and have become more concerned about issues of religion and gun control. In Missouri, you get the impression that any support for any type of gun control will immediately lose you the rural areas of the state.

Totally impolitic.

You know, I had to read it three or four times before I figured out what the fuss was. I get that no one likes to be described sociologically like that (and that putting religion and xenophobie in the same syntactic group was unwise), but wasn't he just saying that lots of people don't trust government to make things better for them and have turned their attention and trust to other things?

My heart bleeds

Gonzales can't find a job

In Missouri, you get the impression that any support for any type of gun control will immediately lose you the rural areas of the state.

One of my coworkers votes primarily on the basis of the candidate's position on guns.

Mind you, a position on guns is often associated with other positions, so I'm guessing it's more of a shorthand, but still that's his main concern.

Gonzales can't find a job

Ha!

Of course, he deserves to rot in jail for the rest of his life for his part in committing crimes against humanity, but still....

It's weird, but after WWII we executed Nazi war criminals for doing what members of this administration have done....

wasn't he just saying that lots of people don't trust government to make things better for them and have turned their attention and trust to other things?

Yes, but the way it came out was more like "People in rural Pennsylvania only go to church and like guns because they're too poor to know any better."

Obviously if he knew it was going to be on the news he would have phrased it better (or not said it at all), but yeesh. Not a shining moment for someone who's best known as a great orator.

"People in rural Pennsylvania only go to church and like guns because they're too poor to know any better."

Really? I mean, I know that's how some people have interpreted it, but I thought he was very clear in saying that they have good reason not to trust government, and that they turn their attention to these other things.

Obviously, what ends up mattering is how people interpret it, and of course I tend to assign the best interpretation to whatever he says, but I thought he was specifically NOT saying, "Those dumb hicks do this stupid stuff because they're stupid."

And it occurs to me to wonder -- have either of the Dems outlined a clear plan for getting out of Iraq?

You have independent medical providers competing against each other for your health care dollars providing incentives for both quality of care and reduced costs.

It might be different if that was how the system worked, but the reality is that you can't have a true free market, because the most of the customers are big companies, not the patients. Also, there are several studies that indicate that as much as 25% of the health-care dollar is spent trying to *not* pay for treatment.