Hoskins

Little late to the conversation but... I'm not an immigrant. I was born here. Most of my ancestors from about 1700 onward were born here too. Not a lick of Native American ancestry in there, either. At what point do I get to call myself "American"? At some point, we stop being from the old country and start being from, you know, here. Where is that point? I'm absolutely opposed to what trump is doing, but man, people don't like to acknowledge their American heritage. My sisters went to Ireland and were nearly thrown out of a pub for saying they were "Irish". We're not Irish. We barely have any Irish heritage. But say that to them and it's like I've just ruined their childhoods. so yeah. Not an immigrant.

I've done the 23andme test. I'm as white as mayo :) The sexual orientation information is collected from users through the use of surveys they conduct as part of signing up users, and as part of the "experience". The surveys ask any number of widely varied questions - one of today's questions is "When you were a child, did you ever have febrile seizures?" There's also a full "cholesterol" survey running. It would take about a half hour to take it, I don't have time. 23andme used to market their test as a way for you to predict your health and future illnesses based on genetic markers, which is something they were not certified to do - they never ran it by the FDA and consequently the FDA banned them from marketing their tests as a health service. They are attempting to get the FDA to let them do that, but it's going to take years, if it ever is actually proven that you can use gene markers to predict future health, which isn't at all clear is even possible. The FDA keeps a close eye on how they market their service and on how they report results. The DNA tests at 23andme now focus on genetic heritage and on relative matching. My results, for example, highlight a period of about 23,000 years ago and report that I have genetic markers that suggest my ancestors lived in a now-submerged area of Europe called "Doggerland", and at the same time has matched my DNA to several known relatives who also took their test. It's pretty cool, but anything they report outside of genetic results should be treated as self-reported, and carefully curated to not step outside the guidelines set down by the FDA. Since sexual orientation isn't something the FDA cares about, you see a lot of those types of surveys and results. I've done a fair bit of research on 23andme because there have been concerns among privacy advocates that 23andme would sell information about users, and surveys, and DNA tests to third parties, and the future of privacy is something I care about very much. The company has a reputation for being pretty free about selling email addresses of users, and they've been kind of under the microscope lately.

WHY IS THERE A COMMA BETWEEN REPAIR AND THE BRACKET

I honk it's time to activate the Mobile Toenail Pulling Squad, myself. You don't want to see what they have in their van.

It won't matter once they find the alien base and are reduced to carbon atoms, anyway.

I thought it was a great story too. I could have done with about half of the meal descriptions though...

Wouldn't it be "Round the bend" in Britishian?

Berkeley Breathed bright back Bloom County. He has an opinion. http://i.imgur.com/Td1AQLM.jpg http://i.imgur.com/a9C7qrr.jpg http://i.imgur.com/DbZSEA2.jpg

I went to the hearing where she reversed her decision and allowed the kids to go to camp instead of staying in state care. The statement she read to the court was one of the most self serving, ass-covering pieces of journalism - it clearly wasn't a legal opinion - I've ever heard. It had more to do with how angry she feels about being portrayed as a baddie in the news than it did about, you know, what's right for the kids and family. To sum up, she's an asshole. She needs to be removed from the bench or at the very least censured for her actions. I think she acted out of frustration that she's been trying to get these kids together with their father and they're having none of it, so she popped a gasket. Which is fine, we're all allowed to be frustrated once in a while except that she's a goddamn judge who's supposed to be impartial. One of the people there was going to start a petition to have the case removed from her docket, and have her behavior assessed. I hope they find she needs to go to camp.

Mid to late 60's elementary school in michigan, we were taught all aspects of cursive writing, using pencils and ball point pens. We weren't allowed to erase, though. Since then, after like, 10th grade in high school (so mid 70's), I haven't used it since except when signing my name.

...and then he turns to his right and says that children must have heterosexual parents: http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/one_day_after_thousands_march_in_rome_gay_pride_pope_says_kids_must_have_heterosexual_parents The pope is a politician pandering to a problematic papist population.

I've read all but the short story, several times. It's a really well done series, and I can only hope it does well on syfy, except, you know, syfy. I really recommend it, too.

And please apply any Java updates that are pending - "a new java update is available" - you know, that little orange box in your system tray. These websites use java vulnerabilities to inject code into ads. When the ads are presented, you get malware if your java version contains a vulnerability, which is most of the time. When you apply your java update, don't forget to uncheck any "offers" for the ask toolbar or yahoo web search. I hate java.

I had a house that was on Ruth Ave. It was at the intersection of Ruth and Hazel. The address was 69 Ruth.

Parents lost control when the FCC deregulated broadcast news, and local news stations were able to take a cost center - broadcast news - and turn it into a profit center. When TV stations can make money by getting your eyeballs to stick to their commercials, they can make a lot of money. What gets your eyeballs to stick through the commercial breaks? Fear. Fear that your house is full of radon gas. Fear that your child will be taken. Fear that there's a child molester in your neighborhood. Fear that your schools aren't all that great. A strange vehicle has been spotted in neighborhoods around town! Tune in after the break to find out where (pro tip: not usually your neighborhood). I'm not saying that's the only reason, but I think it's a big root cause for why we live in such a paranoid condition about kids. Once that ball got rolling, well, now people in positions of "authority" (like Nancy Grace, right?) can leverage those fears remarkably well. If you immunize your children, they'll get autism! If you don't immunize your children, thousands of schoolchildren will die at your hands! There should be laws about this! Which is where politicians come in, because pandering to the Fear means votes and cash for supporting laws that criminalize parental decisions that, in generations past, would have been laughed off the platform. The Fear State has resulted in laws that are there to "protect" the child at the cost of the family and the parents, because of course, every parent is perfect in the raising of their kids, but obviously every other parent is doing it wrong. Parents are now judged by their ability to control their children (but no slap on the butt in the grocery store, that's abuse! And no leaving your kid in a locked, cool car in a parking lot for five minutes, because that's abandonment). Along with the Fear State came, paradoxically, the mindset that (a) when a kid is in school, it's the school that's responsible for the kid, including all aspects of their behavior, and (b) parental monitoring of anything where the kid might come into contact with others, to ensure that the child gets what they're entitled to, which is, of course, entirely subjective to the parent and usually at odds with point (a), because it couldn't be MY perfect child that's been bullying others, or is just plain bad at math. That's a failing on the part of the school. So what do we get? School administrators that run their schools according to the whims of the insurance lawyers. Schools that teach to the test, so that everything is "fair" and no child is just "bad at math". Police departments that are keenly watching for parenting "outside the box", because to fail to enforce petty laws against free range parenting is to expose the department to bad PR and of course, lawsuits. It's all based in fear. 100% manufactured fear.