I would imagine part of the point of doing this would be so the Ranch DOESN'T become Graceland. In addition to providing affirmative treatment to kids, using the ranch therapeutically would prevent someone from turning it into a shrine that glosses over some of the private scandals of Jackson's life.

No. The reason Sullivan was a First Amendment case was because it was about libel laws. Even if a private person makes use of the courts, the First Amendment impacts how libel laws can be written and interpreted. A person going to court and invoking American laws is making use of governmental authority in a way that…

Eh, those conspiracies theories are frequently barely-concealed sexism. Lots of people don't want to believe that a woman from a small Southern town could write a great novel; believing that a more prominent man wrote it is less hard to swallow. I've never seen a solid rundown of how her style was so similar to…

Friendly reminder: Lance Armstrong surviving cancer and losing a testicle is the least funny thing about him.

Yeah, I gotta disagree with Drew here: the first thing that happens in war is that the two countries at war close their borders. You won't be able to drive from Toronto to Detroit with just your passport, and "we are at war with them" is a really good reason to deny a visa.

If you think a little acid on the junk is going to keep a man from hurting other women, I suggest you rethink that logic. If anything, I'd think being physically mutilated could make many men more likely to hurt women in the future.

Anybody who wants to witness the cleansing hand of the free market just needs to take a cruise.

If a woman takes the time to explain how flirting works (or, more precisely, doesn't work), and your response is to argue with her about how she (and much of the rest of womankind) flirt, maybe flirting and basic human interaction isn't for you?

Of course, I agree we should help people whenever possible to stay with their kids. And I have no illusions that the child welfare system in our country is functional or helpful to women in crisis. I was responding to the comments above that tilted all the way to endorsing exposing your child to abuse and neglect as…

It doesn't matter, in the child welfare context, whether a mom is doing the best she can. If she's not meeting her kids' basic survival needs, the kids deserve a safe home regardless of her best efforts. Some people doing the best they can still can't meet their kids basic needs for daily care because they are very…

Maybe I'm not understanding your comment, but if a parent can't protect a child from abuse, why does it matter why the parent can't protect the kid from abuse? The point of the child welfare system is to protect kids, not to decide how blameworthy parents are. Children deserve safe homes, even if the parent's…

The question is a perfect Michael Scott question.

While interesting, this point seems irrelevant to the problem at hand. Yes, a few cc's of air pumped to high pressure would probably get hot. But the majority of the air in the ball won't get hot. Adding a few cc's of highly-compressed, high-temperature air won't raise the mean temperature in the ball substantially.

Well, you wouldn't feel much pain for a bit after consuming, certainly.

For me, the issue is much simpler. While I generally believe that music is for everybody, "Strange Fruit" is on a short list of songs that I don't think white people need to cover. Some songs are so deeply personal or unique in tone and content that they defy performance by the people that they are not about. "Me and…

Probably the earlier meaning comes from the original English term "knacker" meaning someone who renders animal remains (for glue and other purposes). The "tired" meaning of "knackered" likely comes from a comparison to aged, tired horses whose next stop is the knacker.

By the same token, let's please serve pureed soups in moderation. It is still okay to have basically identifiable ingredients in soup.

There were some funny, first-night growing pains. Maybe most painful was the introductions, where the camera for each panelist went on just as each panelist turned squarely around to acknowledge applause from the audience. The first thing we saw of the panelists was the backs of their heads.

This seems like a great idea for any hygiene items that people are buying at Costco or similar wholesale stores; sometimes the packages give you too much for a single person to use. Maybe buy the large size of things you use and set aside one or two packaged units for your local shelter?

Man invents new way to be a dick to someone, ends up unhappy. EVERYBODY FEEL BAD FOR HIM.