I hope you disclose what an inefficiently-minded and callous person you are before engaging in contact with others.

Agreed. Consent is paramount, and nobody has any right to pressure anyone about such a significant choice, but asking any and all tough questions about her desire for this baby and the feasibility of parenthood is well within the bounds of appropriate behavior for a friend-sister relationship. There is nothing wrong…

No hate, but isn't "peanut gallery" a problematic term with a racist history?

Also, how the hell did someone so astonishingly stupid attain a law degree and become a judge?

Good you didn't, since it was dripping, obvious sarcasm.

No, I am very obviously not serious.

So Zimmerman is found not guilty of manslaughter, and these guys merely won't face the death penalty in their trial for murder. Both egregious miscarriages of justice, equal in all respects. Why are these black boys getting preferential treatment?

Exactly. I don't see how this concept could be at all difficult to anyone who sees that the horrible nature of murder comes from something (anything) but the "sanctity of human life." Basically, the comprehension of any of the more practical reasons that make murder a tragedy.

Human life is not inherently precious,…

I would like to express my sincere admiration for the state of California for designing a law which should be completely obvious to anyone who has pondered this scenario for more than 15 minutes.

No, you cannot murder a fetus that is not alive. Yes, it still is a heinous crime to force an "abortion" on an unwilling…

Neither, though both those reasons are compelling. I simply believe that you have to be an idiot to submit to or support the state's right to kill you.

Alex Colville.

I've been thinking about that a lot lately - a neighbor of mine just died, and he was a fairly famous (the most prominent living..) Canadian artist. Naturally, all the stories covering this mention his most important works, which include a couple works which are only particularly prominent because they're owned by…

I made under 20k last year and I also define true wealth as having no financial constraints. People with a net worth of $4M probably think about money in a budget-y sense just as much as I do. Except I'm not asking myself "can I do that?" it's more like "how undesirable does starving sound, and just how much starving…

Damn, I wanna fuck that racist old man.

Actually it's not tradition. Diana knew the sex of William beforehand, 30 years ago. Maybe they chose not to find out this time to illustrate that it's not so important.

The royal peerages aren't the same as the regular peerages, so this child is well-above viscount Severn, even if he didn't hold a higher title. That is to say, his precedence comes from his rank as #3 in line to the throne. Similarly, Viscount Severn is above the Duke of Norfolk, who is the most senior peer.

Strathearn…

I think it would be Earl of Strathearn. I thought it was interesting that the official notice shied away from acknowledging that this child is legally His Royal Highness the Earl of Strathearn. At 6 hours old. Ridiculous. "Her Royal Highness and her child," rather than "their Royal Highnesses."

Constitutionally plausible, but practically impossible. There is no chance that Canada, Australia, or any of the other commonwealth nations would refuse to recognize a female monarch in favor of her younger brother, effectively creating a new monarchy (though legally all of them are separate already.) If they did do…

Actually, those aren't analogous examples, since these states (and regions) have never been nations and are not now nations.

A better example would be how we don't call him President of Puerto Rico. Even though he is President of Puerto Rico.

It's only an insult if you give an inordinately large shit about some American journalist's knowledge of British royal titles.

Thank you for explaining the United Kingdom to me. Still, she spends the vast majority of her time in England. Was born in, married in, crowned in, and will likely die in England, as I'm sure…

At least you're polite about it. I am waiting for all the angry Welsh people to come here with their "SHE'S QUEEN OF THE UK" crap. Which, duh.

People say Queen of England because she lives in and is (by far) most associated with England, and it is factually correct (though not completely correct) to say it that way. A…