Caveat: I know jack about union laws. It seems to me though, that your dad's employees went about this the wrong way. Had they said, "As a group of people working together toward common purpose, we declare ourselves a Union," things may have worked out better for them. Unless they were dicks with unrealistic expectations, which sorta sounds like it might have been the case. I see no reason though, that people need to seek out an already existing union when they collectively have the bargaining power necessary to fulfill their needs. Every time I hear about a business with nothing but miserable employees, who complain that they can't do anything about it because they don't have a union, I want to scream, "So fucking make one! You don't need anyone's permission! They can't afford to lose every single one of you at once so you can take control of this situation!"

Of course, I'm probably wrong. There's probably some law on the books that says all the sexually harassed waitresses at that Italian restaurant in my town can't be part of a union, or that they can only part of a specific regional union that doesn't give a flying shit about them.

Heck, as I understand it, the Brits have healthier teeth than we do, but they're not concerned as much with the aesthetic. A lot more Yanks will spend thousands of dollars to have straight, white teeth, Brits will make sure they're clean, strong and healthy, and stop there. These are generalizations, of course.

It's less a problem of teachers and more a problem of the punishments they're required to give out. I got in a small fight in 5th grade (Capture the Flag can get pretty heated), and after we were separated we were both made to write a page about what we did wrong, blah blah blah. My page explained what happened and that I had done nothing wrong, except perhaps tagging the other fella too hard, as that seemed to be what he was complaining about when he tackled me. I did the appropriate thing, and intended to do the exact same thing in the future if necessary (actually, I resolved to not start crying after everything was over and my body got hit with the adrenalin shock, but other than that, exact same thing). When I handed the paper to my teacher the next day, he started skimming it and gave me a quick wink and a thumbs-up. It was a few years later that I realized he was probably required to give us both the same punishment. I'm just glad we went to a school that wasn't overly paranoid and allowed teachers to handle things on their own. I wouldn't be surprised if the same scuffle wouldn't be followed up with a police report these days. And no, it wasn't much of a fight. I got tackled, ended up on top, the kid bit my knee, so I punched him in the forehead.

Marilyn Manson had a song about that... holy crap almost 20 years ago. My youth was wasted on shitty music.

Don't be too quick to say, "it was self-defense." In most cases, it wasn't, and you just admitted you did it.

Have a couple of rugrats. You'll end up staying in a hotel just so that you can let your two year old walk around without his great-grandmother having a heart attack about what little porcelain piece of shit he's going to break.

That's a movie. For the life of me, I can't remember the name. Some tiny European nation is going bankrupt, so they decide to send in their special forces to attack the US. Their soldiers are the best archers in the land, in like the 1970s. The plan is to attack and surrender immediately, and thus gain US protection. Of course, the plan goes awry, and... well, I wouldn't call it hilarity, but amusement ensues.

Fuck those countries. With a Mohammed idol.

Admittedly, I've only seen a few, but I've liked every Gilliam movie I've seen so far. Plenty of times I've said, "Yeah, I could see how you wouldn't like this," but it's always worth seeing at least once.

I kinda have the opposite. I'm Asian, so real-life is widescreen to me. Enjoy your 4:3 reality, Roundeyes!

Ha! Found it! Do not click unless you're fully prepared! http://nakedkombat.kinkbdsm.net/

Huh... I wonder if that's like a thing that gay folks will do sometimes as like a BDSM variation. Like get all oiled and leathered up and wrassle over who's the top that night. Any gay fellas wanna chime in? Y'ever ponder something and realize that, while you don't personally find it hot, a good tweak of your sexuality would make it so?

... What?

I see nothing inherently wrong with polygamy. Complicated, commonly embraced by cultures that use it as a form of oppression, but it's not wrong in and of itself.

Well, that's the stupidest fucking thing I've heard today. It's not noon yet, so there's plenty of time for a challenger to take the crown. Let's see how the day goes.

I dunno, I think "Does this medicine work?" is a pretty useful line of questioning. Just because the answer is "nope" doesn't mean it shouldn't have been asked. The 2.5 billion dollar price tag is pretty steep, though.