Not really, there are actually quite a few. The trick is getting physicians to prescribe them, as the feds keep pretty close tabs on them and may investigate doctors who they feel are writing to many prescriptions for them. Many hospitals and practices also have policies against writing pure narcotic prescriptions.

Some examples though are morphine (ms contin is the extended release version), oxycodone (oxycontin is just the extended release version), fentanyl (in transdermal patches, suckers, buccal tablets), Hydromorphone (dilaudid), tramadol, oxymorphone (opana) and probably many others.

Ask your doctor about fentanyl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl). It's a very, very, VERY powerful pain killer that is metabolized outside of the liver. It can also be delivered using a 72 hour transdermal patch, making it very easy for the patient to use.

Absolutely right. And, at least in the U.S. and in my very limited experience, it is also a huge problem with juries. I recently finished jury duty in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland, Ohio), one of the most impoverished areas in the country and not generally considered to be a county with a high percentage of government/police supporters. I was absolutely shocked by the attitudes of many people on the jury - some even stated that they thought that the detectives on the case wouldn't waste time and investigate or bring charges against innocent individuals! They also expected the accused to prove their innocence (present alternative scenarios, accuse others of the crime, etc) rather than have the prosecution actively prove the accused's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. So in many of the jurors eyes the defendant was guilty simply by virtue of his being accused and before we even saw any evidence. And it was then the job of his (public defender) lawyer to prove his innocence.

And what really got me is that the people who felt this way didn't seem stupid, intellectually lazy, overly gullible, etc. They simply could not comprehend that it didn't matter if the defense proved innocence, it only mattered if the prosecution proved guilt. They didn't seem to be able to comprehend that the police can make mistakes, witnesses can be wrong or have an agenda and sometimes shit just happens.

After this experience, I sincerely hope that I am never accused of a crime. I have next to no confidence that a jury of my peers will really look at the evidence and decide whether or not the prosecution proved guilt rather than simply convicting since only guilty people end up in court.

Right, Bush is one of those slick greasy MBA types. Completely different I'm sure...

Will anyone else give them a loan for the amounts they need on terms even remotely similar to what their getting from the government? If not, then it's a bailout regardless of whether or not they have to pay it back and are charged interest.

Of course, there could be many reasons that ATT and others aren't seeing many repeat offenders after forwarding takedown notices. Personally, after a "friend" received one such notice, they very quickly learned about using IP tables and exclusively connecting to encrypted peers when using bit torrent. A year later, and my "friend" still hasn't received another notice so it seems to be working very well. Of course, it isn't for the reason the RIAA and the ISP would like.

All I can say is good luck with that. I commend you for trying and I'm sure doing a very good job, but there can/will always be things your children are doing that you will not be aware of. I had two very involved parents who did a fabulous job of raising me; they were very involved with my life, knew all of my friends, attended the same church, knew many of my teachers, I was excited to share my life with them, etc.

However, there were still many things that I did that they never found out about that would have gotten me in MAJOR trouble had they discovered them. And it wasn't that they were bad parents or I was a bad kid; rather, I was a kid and needed time grow up. Part of that maturation process is doing stupid things and discovering exactly who you are. Hopefully along the way you also discover that you are not a stupid person who enjoys doing stupid things, which I definitely discovered about myself. But if you never have the opportunity to do stupid things, you might not be able to discover that you don't like them until you are out of the developmental period and you are expected to not do stupid things.

So if I buy fire insurance on your house, am I gambling? Well, I guess if I torch it I'm not...

And that's the point - MOST of AIG's customers were buying insurance on CDOs that they didn't even own. Pretty much gambling in my book.

Why in the world is "haha lookit my rockit go!" not a valid purpose? I would wager that for many a future engineer, physicist, astronomer, etc model rocketry is what set the hook of their interest in their future profession. I guess if we want everyone to be writers (and not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm one) we don't need to encourage private experimentation and exploration and the sciences. But if we ever aspire to be more than that, we sure better encourage more kids to "haha lookit my rockit go!"

Yes - earn an MBA and presto! Instant NPD!

Oh, I don't know, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, etc. Sure wish those foreigners would just get out of the US! It's not like we need their factories anyway!

You know, the torture going on isn't just waterboarding, humiliation, koran desecration, human pyramids, being threatened with dogs, or "not getting the right jail." It includes what acts that are unarguably torture, including being beaten and chained up until dead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilawar_(torture_victim)). Even when the sadistic bastards believed the detainee was innocent.

Some other examples of "not really torture" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse):

        * Urinating on detainees
        * Jumping on detainee's leg (a limb already wounded by gunfire) with such force that it could not thereafter heal properly
        * Continuing by pounding detainee's wounded leg with collapsible metal baton
        * Pouring phosphoric acid on detainees
        * Sodomization of detainees with a baton
        * Tying ropes to the detainees' legs or penises and dragging them across the floor.

And some other forms of torture, with real torture names that can really kill you, like strappado (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manadel_al-Jamadi). Although folks like you, Rush Limbaugh and all the other right wing nuts seem to prefer the doublespeak term "stress positions."

And I guess because some soldiers were just so stressed out and needed to blow off steam, some prisoners were just tied up, put in sleeping bags and beaten to death (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/02/AR2005080201941.html).

But you're right, waterboarding isn't torture and it was only 4 guilty as hell terrorists anyway.

What happened when the Germans decided to bomb Pearl Harbor?