I agree with most of what you have written. One possible "unintended consequence" that I see beyond the explosion of temps and contractors to avoid all of the onerous mandates on small businesses is a growing underground medical economy. The next time I see my doctor I am going to ask him what his cash rates are. Physicians are taking a big hit with this legislation. Imagine if they could supplement their income with cash customers. No paperwork, no taxes ... I am sure if I combined the savings of dropping my insurance all together and paying cash "under the table" to my doctor I would be way ahead of the game even with the fines. And if something terrible happened, well then I'd just sign up for insurance then; they can't turn me away any more. As more and more people realize this we will have an even more dramatic split between the "haves" and the "have nots", as the "haves" go underground, which I gather is the exact opposite intent of the law. Unintended consequences. Government is a blunt instrument which cannot be applied in a surgical fashion.

... but people who believe everything they read, don't actually seek out other opinions ... typically are republicans. :)

As the poster before me stated, ignorance is bipartisan. Neither party has a lock on the type of behavior you describe. Let me "prove" it by countering your opinion with some personal experience which, while hardly statistically relevant, is at least as credible as your stereotypical declaration. As it happens, I almost always vote for the conservative candidate, so even though I am registered unenrolled most would consider me a Republican. Anyhow, I have been staying on top of the health care reform bill by actually downloading and reading each of the bills. And through the course of this national debate, I have participated in many hallway discussions with my liberal colleagues who reflexively spout party line ignorance. None of them have ever made an attempt to find out what the actual bill says, or what "the other side" is saying. They dismissively disparage all who are opposed as right-wing nutjobs, Limbaugh tools, Faux (so cute) News watchers, etc. Then in the next breath they say how they only listen to NPR because that is the only balanced new source. [Yes, they say this with a straight face; I know, hard to believe such ignorance exists but there you have it]. Anyhow, I listen to NPR *and* talk radio. I read web sites that affiliate with each side. Back when I subscribed to print news I got two newspapers: one liberal-leaning and one conservative-leaning. I know from all of this that both sides pick-and-choose their "facts" and statistics to buttress their claims. With all of that said, it begs the question: Have you actually, personally, tried to "seek out other opinions" to make up your mind, or are you just another On-bot (yeah, both sides have their cute nicknames) who has their short list of like-minded media/information sources?

And since he said it's N-4, he must only drive in tunnels.

These netbooks have a vga out, so cranking out more GFX power might be preferred by those who connect them to projectors (presentation or movie) or their primary display.

I got one of the Aspire One netbooks for my wife for Christmas and the only dislike (besides Windows on it - both of us are Mac apes) is the tini-tiny touch pad. Even the keyboard is usable with my large hands for touch typing. While it is a perfect drag-it-around-the-house-or-garden laptop it is what it is: good for mail and web, skype ... and well, that is it..... but most people need a laptop for only these.

unlike OS X, OS 9 is able to remember window sizes and positions.

Can you give specific examples of where this doesn't work?

Better, go to bugreport.apple.com, create a free online only account, and write up bugs that will get into the bug system.

I agree. However the context is not what media report on.

And when lines such as "The following statement" and 'We, the Australian Library and Information Association, Google, Inspire Foundation and Yahoo! agree that Australia needs to take effective action to ensure that internet users, and particularly children, have a safe experience online." appear first up like that you are in trouble. So yeah, I did RTFA and quoted the entire first paragraph from their statement. An opening paragraph that reads like Conroy himself wrote. Poor job to the PR people indeed.

Or Vancouver is being visited by El Nino http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/david_epstein/02/13/vancouver.weather/index.html

The Constitution does NOT give the U.S. Supreme Court power to nullify laws. It has the power to look at cases, and decide which of two parties "wins", but it was NEVER given the power to nullify Congresses' laws. According to the Constitution, any laws the Court declared "unconstitutional" should still be on the books with full power and effect. No entity was ever given the power to nullify what Congress had passed.

Any religion can talk about politics on the pulpit all they want as long as they give up their tax exempt status.

MDMA is a great experience, but hardly strong enough that it could be considered spiritual, at least from my own experimentation. It took LSD/mushrooms + a balloon of NO2 to finally get a fully-conscious out-of-body experience for my logical positivist materialist ass.

Well, to be clear, I had previously upgraded a couple components and didn't need to do much of anything (Vista picked up the changes and I didn't need a new install).

But when I went to do the mobo and cpu update (can't honestly recall if it was a new gfx too), Vista balked on activation. Called up the number it gave me, talked to an automated system, got a verification number, typed it in, and I was off to the races (as much as Vista without any service packs can be considered to "race", anyway).

... and this is the crowd we want running health care? Just imagine ... your claim for $100,000 for that emergency heart surgery has been denied because the forms were faxed to us upside down. Of course the notice that you owe $100,000 will arrive 3 months later so that even if you are able to send it in right-side-up to get it approved, interest and penalties will apply (see IRS regulations for many examples of this).

I don't know where CNN gets its information. How about this March 2009 Gallop poll http://www.gallup.com/poll/117025/support-nuclear-energy-inches-new-high.aspx that indicates new high levels of U.S. public support for nuclear energy at 59%, with 27% indicating strong support?

You are confusing what he is settling for with what he wants. He has consistently spoken out in favor of much more *ambitious* policies than the process is forcing him to accept. He is undeniably a leftist, but with a healthy dose of pragmatism.

... they neither see negotiating texts (which are being done in secret) nor have any chance to review the agreement before it has the force of law.

What is this, somoe kind of international health care reform?