If the US is doomed, then let it die. The entire point of our founders was that even "people this stupid" have the right to govern themselves. If you really don't believe that, then let the system kill itself off.

The many states being allowed to have varying laws is actually shown to be effective here. Missouri tried something new and failed. The rest of the country can choose to take what happened here into their own decision making process. One state now suffers the consequences of passing a law like this, instead of the entire population.

No, he's saying that children are impressionable. This is proven. But if your perspective is taken into account, then every student has to be evaluated on their capacity to make any decision before being allowed or disallowed to make it. This won't work because no evaluation system will work for every student in every situation, and as soon as one student's capacity for making a decision is overevaluated and that student is hurt or something, the entire system will be blamed. It's much easier to understand trends of student development and to realize while the occasional very mature student is restricted by the system, most of them follow some basic patterns, including a vulnerability to exploitation by those in authority until late high school or afterwards.

It sounds like the teacher there wasn't using his authority to encourage or coerce the student into a relationship. That's the real risk as far as teacher-student relationships; a student may feel like it is entirely voluntary but the teacher's authoritative position has formed the entire thing. And that should be the target of any law. Instead, teachers are treated like criminals. We are held to a very high standard of behavior, but treated like dog shit in return.

FTFY

We in Nashville eagerly await Amazon's move here.

Not at all. The best recent breakthrough in getting people to stop speeding have been big signs that show you your speed. Now, just about in every school zone, I get a flashing light when I'm going over 20mph. No cop, no ticket, no privacy invasion. I get a personal message that I am breaking the law. And really, that's all it takes.

Will he actually surrender control over the company's direction, or play puppetmaster instead? I'd like Apple to use their resources to make laptops and desktops the way they've made iPhones. Focus on encouraging manufacturers to make better, more efficient, cheaper products (or buy them outright). Get rid of the ridiculous prices around right now. Then, maybe, just maybe, I could consider buying a Mac. But then again, more factories like Foxconn wouldn't exactly be great.

TFA did not say Rick Perry went to a quack. TFA said that there is a fear that people will think stem cells are magic cures and will seek out quacks who claim to heal them, all because they "heard Rick Perry did it."

The argument here can't be boiled down to "This is or is not a person." The real argument is whether it is in your personal values to consider a fetus at whichever point to be close enough to be considered worth saving. The arguments over whether it is a woman's right to choose, whether the process is humane, etc. are all secondary to that main point. And the answer here is that every person's response is somewhat unique. The difficulty arises when this spectrum of personal values is polarized to a single yes or no question: should abortions be allowed to happen? Almost everyone's (real) answer, is "Yes, but...". Some are "Yes, but only in extreme cases." or "Yes, but only very early." or "Yes, but only with after a serious discussion with a therapist and a doctor." Even those who support abortion at points considered to be very late in the usual arguments (third trimester, for example) would probably say that aborting two weeks before the expected due date would be wrong, or at least a poor choice. So rather than saying that anyone who is against abortion is a "republican who [doesn't] understand or believe in science," understand that there is really no right answer to this question. Human gestation is not a simple process, but it is definitely connected to our personal beliefs and values about life and humanity. Disregarding that connection will only alienate you.

No, when a child at that age has sexual abuse causing them to become reactive, one year makes it so they can sleep through the night. Two years and the worst of the behavior can be suppressed. Three years and they start to return to normal, but require pretty constant therapy still. That's assuming all of the therapy is working. Often, that's not the case.

A constitutional right? I know many states give workers the rights to do that, but where does the Constitution fit into this?

That was a really harsh response. You could have said, "I try to live with three months of expenses saved away." Instead, you said "I'm better than you because I don't live paycheck to paycheck."

Don't know why you were downvoted. Your tone was awful but your point was very accurate. Music is overpriced and has been for a while.

When it started, paying 99 cents for a song was great. Now, it's extortion. People need to realize this.