From United Press International:

In America we like our juries dumb and predictable. God forbid they should know anything about the case they're judging, much less the law they're judging it by. We need to protect them from all sorts of things that could infect their brains with information.

If we didn't do that, it would be like trusting 12 guys off the street to dispense justice. What a quaint idea. And, obviously, a dangerous one.

The idea of a jury is at least 3,000 years old -- the Greeks thought 12 was the perfect number of panelists -- but our version of it is much younger. We're coming up on the 800th anniversary of the year when King John was told, essentially, stop forcing your laws down our throats or we're going to burn down your castle.

Voila! The modern jury system was born. The king could decree all the laws he wanted to decree, but from then on it would be 12 guys from the neighborhood who decided whether they would actually be used against anybody.

More here.

From HowStuffWorks.com:

Most people know what communism is at its most basic level. Simply put, communism is the idea that everyone in a given society receives equal shares of the benefits derived from labor. Communism is designed to allow the poor to rise up and attain financial and social status equal to that of the middle-class landowners. In order for everyone to achieve equality, wealth is redistributed so that the members of the upper class are brought down to the same financial and social level as the middle class. Communism also requires that all means of production be controlled by the state. In other words, no one can own his or her own business or produce his or her own goods because the state owns everything.

More here.

From HomeGuide123:

The worst housing slump since the Great Depression is prompting all sorts of new bailout plans. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is encouraging banks to forgive portions of mortgage debt, the Democrats want to use billions in federal money (actually, it's taxpayer money) to buy up bad loans and the Bush Administration is preparing to dump bank losses on the shoulders of taxpayers.

In reality what the Democrats and Republicans are doing is exactly the same thing: They're using welfare (either social or corporate) to drop the burden of these bad loans on the shoulders of the middle class.

More info here.

From AOL News:

A California court ruling that challenges parents' legal right to teach their children at home is angering home schoolers, who hope the state's Supreme Court will overturn the decision. Otherwise, advocates say, thousands of families may be forced to abandon home schooling.

More here.

From wired.com's how-to wiki:

You might as well check your dignity curbside. Soon you'll be shoeless and flustered, spilling comics across the floor as you dig your MacBook from the depths of your duffel. But take a deep breath, frequent fliers: It is possible to pass security with your ego intact. Here's how.

more here.




Just a rhetorical question: When did it become the government's job to provide security for private business?

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the Human Jukebox performing the Beastie Boys classic Intergalactic Planetary:

Here the animated animal population of Busy Town -- you remember them from your childhood, right?! -- rap, altogether convincingly I might add, to the Beastie Boys' 'Sure Shot.'
And without further ado:

From Yahoo News:
A former adviser to Barack Obama who resigned Friday after calling rival Hillary Rodham Clinton "a monster" said Obama may not be able to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within a year as he has promised on the campaign trail.

Samantha Power, a Pulitzer Prize-winner author and unpaid adviser, made the comments in two separate interviews with foreign media while promoting her latest book. In a tight Democratic presidential campaign where attacks are becoming increasingly bitter, Power's comments ignited a flurry of accusations between the two candidates.

More here.