It's a land line.

It's situational: civilization doesn't progress far w/o "local" respect for human life, and some disrespect for "foreign" human life is partly good at unifying the tribe.

Support the troops: bring them home?

Shades of Smedley Butler...

Don't believe AC that the US installed the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party into power.

And the "home of the free" legalized slavery for 89 years and now wants to tell people how much Coke they can drink in one serving.

I had to be Fair And Balanced (no, I don't watch FNC) as a sop to left wing America-hating pansies who blindly deny that there are groups of people in the world more Eeeevil that the US Military.

Who is the sensible person? We Westerners really think that we are sensible, and that those Ay-rabs are bat shit crazy, but Mohamed Atta thought it was imminently sensible to fly a plane into the WTC, and there's nothing we can so or say that will convince millions of Muslims otherwise.

Senseless? Few people kill just for the fuck of it.

Now, whether you agree with a US soldier's rationale for killing a 12yo boy or an Al-Qaeda follower planting an IED that kills whoever detonates it is a different story, but they all have a definite rationale.

Multiple copies. One on your person and one with your luggage at the hotel/hostel.

As if ear buds are the only way for children to have their privacy.

"Within reason" means "restrict(ing) how loud they can have their music".

No, I'd have told them to stop being rude to the rest of the family.

While I can't stand my daughter's pop music, my kids haven't yet reached the stage of purposeful antagonism yet.

Also, they know to keep the volume down when I'm in my office.

Besides the standard parental "You'll hurt your ears!", the main reason is that it's been obvious to me since they became popular that constant ear bud usage is antisocial, and as long as I have control over my kids, I'll do everything I can to prevent it (even if that means listening to music I can't stand being played from a stereo).

Then why did the Soviet Union collapse?