"Much like the US president can only run for two terms, wouldn't it be grand if there was something similar for the politicians lower down the tree! Politicians _should_ be people who've been out in the real World."

Unintended consequences -- you don't have people in office long enough to be RESPONSIBLE for anything. All "bombs" get pushed off until the next election cycle when Councilman A is termed out and becomes State Senator A, or Assemblyman A.

Look to California for everything you need to fear.

And more than 3/4 of a million dollars in a settlement he might have otherwise avoided.
And a stain on his character that will follow him for eternity.
And, arguably, his stink stuck to Al Gore enough to cost him the Presidency.

"Ahh yes the dreaded Oath. Nothing gets lying people to tell the truth more than a verbal agreement to tell the truth backed up by supernatural threats if they dont"

Do you understand how the legal system works? If I say on the public street "I didn't see the bank robber" and I'm lying, there's no problem. If I say "I didn't see the bank robber" to a police officer and I'm lying, there's some legal issues you may have to address (re: Martha Stuart).

You say that under oath to a prosecutor and are lying, and your whole life can change. Isn't that right Mr. Clinton?

"Yes. Because the right to be forgotten is not designed to destroy the evidence. Instead it is designed to make it just a little bit harder to destroy someone's life."

Particularly kids. Enter my daughter's name in google and POOF, you can read all about the horrors she and our family went through when she was kidnapped. I've ran around to a number of news outlets and for the most part they have been cooperative when I ask them to remove her name/image, but it's hardly perfect.

However, there's some nasty arse bloggers with ego's far bigger than Neptune...

I've had nothing but good experience with T-Mobile customer service. I can't speak to Sprint's level of service, however.

"I'd be very, very, surprised to see a belief bred out of a population in a species with such (admittedly flawed at times) high levels of general-purpose cognition"

Why? It's a parents job to teach their children their beliefs and values. Even if they don't ACTIVELY try, kids will absorb much of it anyway. If you remove someone from the pool of "parents", those folks wouldn't be able to pass on those beliefs and values as readily.

Is it a "given"? No. But it certainly would lead to a decline and contribute to it being "bred out".

Friend, I had more police bodies on my property than any two "family gathering' bodies combined. And we have a big family. "What ever you need to do, do it. What ever you need to take, take it."

One thing you never think about -- finger print dust is a PITA to remove. We just painted our house a few weeks prior and that stuff just embedded itself in the paint. The windows of my 30 year old truck still have the "dust" sheen on them (old glass was pitted, I guess).

They parked two mobile crime labs on our block -- one IT specific, the other finger prints and other physical evidence related. When the police returned us home after being interviewed at the local station, the shear MAGNITUDE of what resources were being expended was humbling. Think that would have happened if we acted like "privacy nazis"? Feh.

"Don't talk to the police. Ever" is just crappy advice. Police come knocking on your door and say "a little girl is missing from next door -- did you see or hear anything" and if you have information you withhold, how can you NOT be seen as being in part responsible for what happened/happens to the little girl?

In the grand scheme of things, my wife and I would much rather have faced and continue to face the challenges such an event has wrought rather than the alternative. How many parents never find out what happened to their child? How many find out from a forensics report? We consider ourselves the luckiest parents on the face of the earth. We got to plan and enjoy our daughter's birthday rather than her memorial and burial.

What happened is bad -- it's part of the story of her life now. It's our job as parents to make sure it's just a footnote and not the plot. And our daughter has proven to be incredibly strong and resilient. How can we feel "poor me" or "poor us" when our daughter can smile and have fun after such a horrific ordeal? She gives *US* strength.

"A bit of helpful advice: If your daughter is kidnapped, call your lawyer BEFORE you call the police."

You must not be a parent and are probably incredibly young. The only response I have to offer this is: "What kind of fucking parent would do that?"

3am, your wife is in a panic, you daughter isn't in her bed and the side gate (which she can't possibly open) is open.

"Calm down, honey -- let me call Duey, Chetum and Howe".

Fuck you. I got "really really lucky" because the PD/FBI figured out REAL fast that we had nothing to do with this and had no reason to suspect us and tossed enormous resources to find our daughter.

"Never talk to the police, ever! Lawyer or no lawyer."

I hear this often and take issue with it. Last year, my daughter was kidnapped from our home in the middle of the night. My wife, son and I talked to high-heaven answering every question, letting them look at every thing they wanted. FBI, too.

My goal was to let them rule us out as fast as humanly possible (which they did).

I understand your sentiment, but those words "never" and "ever" that makes it just wrong.

(Daughter was recovered. Monster is about to go on trial)

Bite me.

Well, no wonder, since it's Detroit.

Not that I should gloat since the Bruins may not be long for these playoffs is they don't pick up the defensive pace tonight.

Hey, Red Sox are up to .500 for the first time since ... April 4, I think.

Cute.

I live on this planet:

http://losangeles.urbdezine.co...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.co...

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/n...

http://articles.latimes.com/20...

http://articles.latimes.com/20...

This is my planet. Glad you can make a cute statement and run away without any effort to back it up.

If TWC doesn't perform to my satisfaction, I go to ATT. If ATT botches it, I can jump to a number of cellular or satellite solutions. And if it's REALLY bad, I can make sure next time I move I'm in a better area with better coverage.

If you want YOUR local government to take over more stuff, bully for you. Don't even THINK about making it manditory. This is an effing HUGE country with countless different needs and functions. My town has "again and again to cost-cutting in the interest of short-term profits, the neglect of upkeep, and the failure to maintain sufficient overcapacity in order to deal with surges and failures" while private services and businesses who wish to survive need to keep up with client needs -- or at least be better then their competition.

The cause doesn't matter. Because it cannot be fixed. If it could, it would have been already.

The rule of thumb is to keep as much out of government control as possible. It should fix roads, put out fires and protect people from crime. Anything beyond that and you get exactly this result.

The government is a huge arse hammer. The majority of problems we have historically ask them to solve are *NOT* nails.

If you want different results, don't ask the government to solve problems.

I disagree with the semantics. It doesn't MATTER the cause. I'm arguing the RESULT. The RESULT is that local government botches infrastructure.