LOL (seriously, I did) :-)

"If you're a Type I diabetic like myself"

Ditto. I love coffee (and caffeine by extension), but don't like it unsweetened. I usually use Splenda when available.

I'd be interested in Stevia, but there really doesn't seem to be much effort behind producing ready-made drinks with it. I did see Coca-Cola with Stevia in the market the other day, but it was 50% Stevia with the rest sugar, which wouldn't do us much good.

I'm a type 1 diabetic you insensitive clod! I have no insulin to respond with! ;-)

"Should your data usage exceed 15GB in a 30 day period and your usage affect other network users, we reserve the right to limit your Service."
http://www.three.ie/terms-cond...

It may not be a cap, but I'd definitely not call that "unlimited". Take it for what it's worth.

"well-regulated = well-trained"

I know what you're aiming for here, but that doesn't guarantee any more level of safety against incidents like this from happening. The pilot in this situation was well-trained, and I'm sure went through a psych-eval during his career. Nidal Malik Hasan was also well-trained and vetted, and a member of the military (the people you WANT to have guns), and that didn't stop what happened at Fort Hood.

"Initially, a recommended 20% of the PEPFAR budget was to be spent on prevention, with the remaining 80% going to care and treatment, laboratory support, antiretroviral drugs, TB/HIV services, support for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), infrastructure, training, and other related services. Of the 20% spent on prevention, one third, or 6.7% of the total, was to be spent on abstinence-until-marriage programs in fiscal years 2006 through 2008, a controversial requirement "

So yes, some of it was devoted to abstinence-only programs (which are proven not to work), but:

"To slow the spread of the epidemic, PEPFAR supports a variety of prevention programs: the ABC approach (Abstain, Be faithful, and correct and consistent use of Condoms); prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) interventions; and programs focusing on blood safety, injection safety, secondary prevention ("prevention with positives"), counseling and education."

I know Wikipedia isn't the gospel truth, but somehow I doubt mcclatchydc.com is either. Feel free to update Wikipedia with the claim that the groups were "prohibited from spending any of it on family planning services or counseling programs".

Since it's paywalled, I guess we'll never know.

The program mentioned in the article (PEPFAR) did devote money to programs that promoted abstinence, which is definitely somewhat misguided, but still spent two-thirds of its funding on programs which supported the use of condoms. Wikipedia makes no mention of an "insistence" or requirement that the aid money be devoted to abstinence-only methods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

The link you provided confirms it...the U.S. gets less than 5% of it's oil from Iraq. I guess when I said "gets very little" of it's oil from Iraq, I should have been more specific.

"besides insisting foreign aid be tied to no contraception?"

Where on Earth is this official U.S. government policy? I know there are a lot of crackpots in the U.S., some of them in government even, but you'll be hard pressed to find any official documentation to verify this.

And 20 years is too long ago? What about 10 years? 4 months?

Yeah, they sure did utterly fail to act and ignore what was happening in Africa because of the lack of oil. How did that work out for them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U...

"Japan wanted the oil in the Philippines"

uh, wut? Japan wanted the Philippines to protect their southern flank and for agricultural purposes....they wanted Indonesia for oil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

But you are correct.....Afgahnistan does not have oil, and the U.S. gets very little of its overall oil from Iraq.

http://www.eia.gov/energy_in_b...
http://news.mongabay.com/2007/...

It seems ironic that he would find the wiping out of another 100,000 people by atom bomb too horrible when the conventional bombing of Tokyo killed that many during Operation Meetinghouse on March 9-10 1945.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...

People sometimes get pictures of the conventional Tokyo bombings confused with those of Hiroshima.

"They aren't completely brain-dead."

I'm pretty sure that somebody willing to blow himself up on the premise that he'll receive 72 non-existing virgins in a place that doesn't exists ruled by a made-up deity fits of the definition of brain-dead pretty well.

"All they taught me in high school was how to write a check."

Seems like this is what is needing to be taught more nowadays....along with balancing it, and how APR and interest rates work.