I haven't lived in NYC for 8 years, and my dad, who was active in politics has been deceased for 6. However, based on politics as it was before i left, the smaller parties and voting for them did serve certain purposes. First, it used to be the case (no idea if still true) that the smaller parties had to get a certain percentage of votes or number of votes in order to remain on the ballot. Therefore, if you agreed with the majority of what the smaller party stood for, found value in their positions etc., it was useful to vote on that party's line in order to keep them on the ballot.
My dad used to hold the nomination on Republican (he was a Rockefeller Republican) and Independent Neighbors. He couldn't win his district without crossover votes and democrats whose arms would fall off if they touched the republican lever would vote for him on Independent Neighbors. My dad also used to say his best case scenario was the conservative party not endorsing him and agreeing not to nominate anyone else.
That said, I do think they exist primarily as power brokers, but they do also provide a voice for a significant number of people who feel ignored by the 2 major parties.
I thought the debate came out to a tie not a decisive victory for either side.
I was happy with Obama's performance. I'd been a little worried because during the democratic primaries, his non-prepared speeches did not impress me and I was concerned about how he'd come across during the debates.
McCain won in he sense that he didn't have an explosive temper melt down. On the other hand, what I assume was a giant tumor on the side of his face was pretty obvious, and it was what I assumed was causing the whistling sound McCain made when he talked. My guess would be that there are people now more concerned about his health than they were before.
Neither candidate made a "I asked my daughter Amy and she said nucular arms daddy" type remark, which is why I put the debate down as a draw. End result, while I hope it shifted people to vote for Obama, I don't think the debate changed anyone's opinion.
I'm surprised it took 97 comments for someone to mention wog.
In terms of racial epithets, I would probably add hebe, yid, beaner, wetback, spearchucker, junglebunny, chink, gook and possibly spade.
Can't really help with curse words and body parts. I've got kind of a limited vocabulary there.
Todd@199 - I believe the federal law you are referring to (I can't speak to similar state laws) is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Part of the issue with COPPA in terms of its limitations is that I think in some aspects it ties the collection of informatin to marketing to children (and then you get into issues of whether marketing must involve attempting to get children to buy stuff).
And of course, since you're talking online transactions, it's difficult to properly establish parental consent. Even if you insist on running a credit card check for identity purposes only, here's no guarantee that Junior didn't swipe the card, although then the company could argue it made a reasonable effort and should not be penalized.
Do you believe that this has stopped? Or does the name Bowers v. Hardwick mean nothing to you?
Actually, in Bowers is that the original intent of the bust was not gay sex. They were there to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for something else entirely, a warrant which allowed them to enter his home. At that point, the cops found him in bed with his boyfriend and tacked the sodomy charge onto the other other charge when they arrested him.
However, I am in complete argeement that adults should not be arrested for engaging in consensual sex acts in their own homes.
I wish that there was a fair way to defend against a wealthy person with a belly full of vitriol and a team of lawyers... but other than offering to settle and go bankrupt that way, I doubt there is.
There are steps that can be taken. In terms of dealing with the lawsuit itself, one can file a motion to dismiss. If the law is on one's side, then costs and attorneys fees can be obtained upon victory either at verdict or when a motion for summary judgment is granted. If the case is in federal court, then making a low-ball Rule 68 offer of judgment is a good strategy. That way if you lose and the verdict comes in at or below what you offered in settlement, the other side has to pay you your trial costs. [It is really fun and satisfying when this happens. I defended a case where the jury only awarded $1 in damages against one of 2 defendants. Because I had made a rule 68 offer of judgment, plaintiff wound up owing for the cost of 6 deposition transcripts, the trial transcripts, the witness subpoena fees, witness transportation costs, etc. She wound up owing us $15K]
If the case is frivolous, then the lawyer may have violated the rules of professional ethics by proceeding with the case. File a complaint with the bar disciplinary committee.
If this guy has filed enough cases that have been dismissed with prejudice, one can attempt to have the court issue an order barring him from bringing a lawsuit without the court's permission, although that's generally a more common occurance with obviously crazy pro se litigants.
I graduated high school in 1985.
It was also the year my family bought its first home computer. It was made by Epson and ran Valdocs and Peachtext and used 5 1/2 inch floppies.
It was the first new appliance my family had bought since 1969. We still had the black and white tv my parents bought to watch the moonwalk, a 1969 Chevrolet Biscayne and the Maytag washer and dryer and GE stove and whirlpool refridgerator my parents bought when they moved into the apartment in 1969.
Another happy thought about the past history of the American Legion - they were one of the groups that actively lobbied congress and helped kill a bill that would have created a U.S. version of the kindertransport.
If the list was meant to be tv/movies with the greatest impact, as opposed to being great on their own, I can see including the first V miniseries. Diana unhooking her jaw and swallowing a guinea pig was something EVERYONE at school talked about the next day. Similarly, while I think DS9 is a much, much better show than TNG, I can see including TNG since it relaunched the franchise that then stayed on my television for the next 18 years. However, if the list is supposed to be movie/tv shows that are the greatest in their own right, then I probably wouldn't have included about 75% of the list.
Agree with Xopher that Farscape ought to be on the list.
Bruce: I was very fond of VR5, although I preferred the earlier half of the series with the stand alone episodes.
Mimi: What about the John Bellairs books such as The House with a Clock in its Walls.
The only Andre Norton juvenile I ever read as a kid was Outside, which I remember really liking. She doesn't do much for me now that i'm an adult. Don't dislike her stuff, don't love it. Of course, when I was seven I loved the Ruthven Todd Space Cat books, so what do I know.
I haven't lived in NY for a while, but if Spano is who I think he is, he's one of the few remaining pro-choice republicans in the state senate. These days, that's enough for some people. It's certainly my make or break issue at the federal level.
So, having read this thread, I've has the song stuck in my head for several days now and I have some thoughts regarding some of the imagery in the video. Mainly I've been thinking about the boy in the chair releasing the pidgeon. In American art in the Colonial era, a portrait of a child featuring a bird or a butterfly generally meant the child was dead. And that the portrait was done postmortem. Portrait painters rode circuit and if you knew one would be passing through, you'd postpone the burial so he could have a look and do a painting. So perhaps the reason she is leaving the school is not because of an affair with a pupil but because of the tragic death of a pupil. No idea how the pirouetting ninjas factor into this.
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