There are 2 schools of thought concerning space exploration -- the Manned and the Unmanned school.

The unmanned school has given us a great deal of knowledge about the universe and our own planete which is invaluable yet somehow unsatisfying.

The manned school has not told us very much about the universe or our own planet, yet has helped us figure out how humans can survive in space, which is immensely valuable to our future as a species.

I come down on both sides of this debate -- both sdes provide us critical knowledge withouth which we would face an uncertain and dangerous future.

Without an unmanned program, we wouldn't know m,uch about our climate, how our planet works, how species migrate, survive,...

I turned 9 the day Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin glided across the dust of the Sea of Tranquility. I was in awe!!!

My Dad was involved in the space program, and from the time I was very young, I watched EVERY launch. I got up a 4 am to watch launches, and stayed up late at night to watch others.

On July 20 we squinted our eyes and turned our heads trying like hell to figure out what we were looking at -- Those ghostly images stretching our old B&W TV to its limits -- Is that the LEM? Is that an astronaut? Is that a shadow?

And now, we are about to retire our Truck, as Charles so aptly put it. And in so doing we are about to abandon the single most important trait that differentiates humans from the rest of the...

The cost is bad enough, but read the bill and you'll throw up, I promise.

You will lose your health insurance -- it's guaranteed.

If you have a plan with your company now (called a Grandfathered plan), then you can keep it after Obamacare starts, BUT...

Once the Obamacare plan goes into effect:

Insurance companies will not be allowed to take on new subscribers, so if you change jobs, you cannot pick up your new company's plan.

The only place where you will be able to buy insurance is from the Health Exchange aka The Obamacare HMO.

For grandfathered plans, insurers will not be able to rasie premiums on existing subscribers, and since they cannot take on any new subscribers, they will go out of...

Ann is of course right again. This time, chastizing Republicans for being too nice when Democrats wouldn' consider returning the favor.

This is War and no amount of talking about bi-partisanship etc. will make any more civil a conflict. The bottom line is that either Republicans have to join the battle and fight dirty like Dems, or they have to point out how Dems talk one way but act another.

Dems always talk about the ugly climate in washington and how they want to cage things, even while they are "Rat F***ing" republicans with their own video rentals.

Republicans should join the war, fight like hell AND point out how Dems never ever act honestly... Then, we might win again.

Marriage is a social construct designed for the:

1. Conception
2. Birthing
3. Rearing

of Children.

Despite my steadfast belief that even Gays deserve the same rights and priviliges as Straights, Gays cannot do all 3 things, and since they cannot, their relationships cannot cannot be called a marriage.

Why? because unless all 3 can be done inside the relationship, the relationship is something other than marraige, plain and simple. Call it a civil union if you want, but it's not a marriage.

In the context of a gay relationship gays cannot conceive children. Some straight couples cannot conceive children either, but they hope to when they marry.

Gays can birth children given that one...

There is another provision in the bill that forces states to adopt the California standards for CO2 and building codes (even though Ca has already abandonned those standards).

That provision says that if any state does not adopt these standards, then they get government dollars withheld from them in amounts equal to set percentages of their current federal dollar allotments.

That is, if Texas doesn't comply in 2 years, they lose 25% of ALL their current government money. If they don't comply in 3 years, they lose %35. If they don't comply in 5 years they lose 50%. This is coersion, plain and simple.

All these are lifted from the bill itself, no lie, I read the whole thing.
1. Cash money will be put into the bank accounts of families making up to 150% of the poverty line equal to the amount of "buying power" they will lose due to increased energy costs. That is, if the poverty line for a family of 4 is $40K, then if you make up to $60K you will get money directly fromthe govermtnet every month equal to the increase in the cots of your electricity, gas, oil, costs. Talk about buying votes!!!

2. existing homes will be added to the Energy Star program, so that if you want to sell your house, you'll have to have an energy inspection and if you don't have the right insultation, A/C system, etc. you'll have to upgrade before...

While I like this argument, it is not original. Just yesterday George Will wrote the very same thing in his weekly column...No less valid, but not very original.

I think it's time to move now toward making this argument part of the national dialog on health care -- of course it costs more when your basic stuff is more advanced and your advanced stuff is out of this world compared to previous times.

Once again, George Will demonstrates he is the smartest man in the room. Well said, Mr. will