You might be interested in this article. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11741350 Given how rampant daydreaming is, I'm not so sure you can blame contemporary television on attention span problems. Maybe TV is one factor keeping us from fighting the natural inclination for our minds to wonder, I don't know. Just food for thought.

I'm not stating a position on the search of the 3-year old, but I will point out a story in response to your statement. I know a person who came back from doing time in Iraq who told the story of one time having to shoot down a little boy on a bicycle who was approaching the base and would not stop when told to turn around. He had explosives taped to him. Sure, this isn't Iraq, but to think the parent is making up some crazy situation that could never happen is sadly incorrect.

Thank you for posting this. There is a lot to be said for looking at the opinions of someone you're inclined to disagree with and to find those things that bring enlightenment. The current mix of news and entertainment in the modern world does sometime make everything feel like a freak show. I can jump from a story about a murder to the latest on Lohan without much of an emotional reaction. Of course, the Pope is following his own agenda after the bashing the Church as received recently. But that doesn't mean there's a shadow of truth there that's worth noting.

I'm pretty casual myself, and only have to plug in my DS Lite once a week, if that. And, if it gets to the point where it takes as long to get the DS loaded from hibernation as it would have taken to save my game and then load it properly, I'm not sure I see the point.

Unfortunately, the miracles of modern medicine have made such ideas, while highly appealing, incredibly unlikely.

I'm in the same boat. Sure, there is the occasional little thing to do, but generally I just sit here. Unfortunately for me, I've been here so long that I no longer have the confidence to try finding another job (even if that wasn't borderline impossible in this economy). What if I got a job that actually challeneged me, and I could no longer live up to those challenges? And so I've stagnated.

My poor mother...if she'd only purchased a copy of Clue (The Movie), we wouldn't have to rent it every other week all summer. Then again, maybe she looked forward to that week off. I also remember renting Illusion of Gaia and desperately trying to finish the last area while my father waited to return everything to the store. I knew that if it went to the store, someone would erase my save! Those SNES games were so much fun to try out. Good times indeed.

A gladius has a dip in it. This one is more triangle-shaped. It looks like a standard fantasy short sword, maybe an arming sword.

As much as I care about my partner, I like the day he works late. I can go back to my bachelor-like lifestyle for a few hours, sitting at my computer half naked, playing video games and eating chips for dinner. It also helps me appreciate the days he's there all the more.

I almost installed iTunes one time. I wondered what was available at the store, and decided before agreeing to the EULA that I didn't really care that much. Every day for the new few years, my computer asked me to install/update Quicktime, despite my attempts at removing any trace of my brush with iTunes. Eventually, the problem was "fixed" (my motherboard busted and I got a new computer). Despite derision from the hipsters, I refuse to get an iPod, for I will never go near iTunes again.

When they start getting old, all you can really do is make pies with them.

Fox News isn't the problem. America is the problem. If Fox News wasn't giving people what they wanted, they'd get it elsewhere. People who watch Fox or worship Rush do so not because Fox and Rush exist. They do it because it's what they want to do. And that is the real problem.

Was there a difference? Didn't most kings of the time claim to rule by divine right, given to them by God?

For some reason, this makes me think of the kawaii movement that happened in Japan. School girls started adding drawings to their letters, making them very cute and difficult to read. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawaii

I recall a recent story about a lab worker in California admitting to stealing and using drugs, and how all the cases that person worked on are now in danger of being brought up on appeal, and the probable criminals being released from jail because the lab technician could not be trusted. Isn't it possible that the dispatcher unit would need a zero-tolerance policy as well? If there is any hint of misconduct, a defendant will cling to that in court. It's the sort of liability a city can't afford to keep. That, and what would happen if this dispatcher unit had some unfortunate misses. Calls they thought were pranks or police units sent to the wrong place. The investigation the state performs after a complaint will likely find posts like this and wonder why the unit kept this woman on despite this.