DISQUS

The BBC list from Dykeman's article is screwy, they list The Chronicles of Narnia, then they list "The Lion, the Witch and the Warddrobe". They also list both Hamlet and "The Complete works of William Shakespeare".

This certainly sounds like a silly meme, as many of these literary classics haven't been required reading for a long time. This reminds me of the controversy caused by the release of the Modern Library 100 Greatest Books of all time list, which had most readers in something of an uproar.

Clinton is remembered more often for scandal than his accomplishments as President, however, he is one of only two presidents to be impeached.

What President Bush seems to have forgotten is that those popularity polls represent the feelings of the people of this country, and we are ultimately his boss, not the other way around.

I hope that history remembers him not for the charm of his good old boy image but for the unfortunate decisions he made as president that have garnered the lowest approval ratings in the history of the presidency.

TO be honest, humble in one interview doesn't make up for eight years of conceit, arrogance and the utter inability to admit the mistakes of his administration.

Thank you for this post, as it is rare that those of us who have ventured down this path are reassured of our decision.

My wife was 4 months pregnant when we started dating, and I think damn near every friend I had told me that I was insane (even though they agreed that she was a great girl). My parents thought I was insane (although thankfully their opinion has done a 180 in the last eight years).

Grant turned 8 in September and I am thankful every day that I didn't listen to my parents or my friends.

I think what Jason was trying to say is that CNN is trying to be in the middle, whether or not they are pulling it off is a different matter. Personally, I appreciate Jason's honesty and I appreciate his participation in the community. Jason, unlike many other social media founders, has become a part of the community and uses his commentary to foment discussion, which is sort of the point of a social news community. I appreciate that he isn't afraid to get his hands dirty, nor to bring his personality and viewpoint to work with him, as opposed to checking it at the door. Jason does not claim to be bias free, and I think the social|median community is better off knowing up front where the person running the company stands, as well as that he is willing to consider alternate viewpoints.

As someone hwo uses social|median everyday, I have to admit that I haven't paid all that much attention to Jason's use of twitter for political expression (maybe I don't pay as much attention to my twitter stream as some). However, what I have noticed is that the political discussion that occurs on social|median is far more measured and friendly than the discussion on most other sites. As a professional, I tend to avoid politics in the workplace, however, as a political wonk I enjoy it's discussion, as long as the discussion is productive (or at least civil). Thus far (and I was an alpha tester for S|M) I have thoroughly enjoyed S|M's community, especially when it comes to politics.

While I agree that you do spend a lot more time at home once you have kids (I have two, 8 and 16 months), I have to disagree that putting your entire life on hold is a requirement.

First off, new parents need to make sure to spend time away from each other, trust me, you will almost definitely get on each others nerves, especially after long nights and little sleep.

My number one tip would be to make sure that you develop a balance. Make tradeoffs. If you have poker night (although I would suggest keeping it to a couple of hours at most) make sure she has a couple of hours to do something with her friends.

The movies thing is a good idea though, although you may just want to get Netflix and expand your movie viewing horizons.

The problem with this issue is that our society is too comfortable, meaning that anything that pushes them to experience something outside of their "traditional" values is immediately seen through the lens of fear. I'm certainly included in this group, we all are, it's how we're raised.

I have many gay friends (mostly men) and to be honest, (speaking as a straight man) seeing two men kiss makes me feel weird, not wrong, just weird. But you know what, seeing a 65 year old man kiss a 25 year old woman makes me feel weird too.

Sexuality, whether it is our own or someone else's, is something that we all have to deal with in our own ways, but more importantly we need to find a way to prove to ourselves that people are just people, regardless of who they love, and treat them with the respect they deserve as people, not as homosexuals or heterosexuals, liberal or conservative, believer or non-believer. Good people are good people, regardless of belief or persuasion.

Most of these laws (including the one here in Iowa) are for products containing pseudoephedrine (a decongestant) which is generally used as the active ingredient in meth. I find it odd that benadryl, which is an antihistamine and not a decongestant and is not (as far as I know) used to make meth, would be sold behind the counter only.

One thing you could do is to pick up Tylenol PM, which has diphenhydramine in it as a sleep aid. Although depending on the age of your daughter, you may not want to do that, too much acetaminophen can be bad for anyone, especially kids.

Just a thought.

My oldest has been a pirate, Batman, A Jedi, a "boy bug" (that was his grandmother's idea), a ghost and will be going as Anakin Skywalker (pre-Vader) this year.

Fortunately, he has maintained solid interests in legos, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc... And while he has seen Batman Begins, I will not let him watch Dark Knight (or Temple of Doom either). But more importantly, I think the issue isn't the costume, it's what the costume means to the kid.

Halloween basically makes me really happy that I have two little boys, because the costumes they make for girls would never, ever be allowed out the door of my home.

The most important thing a child needs is to know that they are loved. Bad parents are bad parents (gay or straight), it makes no difference. In my experience, most people do not adopt children because they want to be bad parents.

The debate here should not be about sexuality, it should be based on whether or not the individuals are going to be good, loving, caring parents. Sexuality makes as much difference as to the quality of parenting skills as religious or political views.

The problem with the debate is that, not unlike most other controversial subjects, it has been co-opted by the religious side of the conservative aisle, the side that tells us that Gay marriage will destroy the sanctity of the institution, or that Harry Potter is teaching our children witchcraft.

While I do not know any gay couples who have adopted, and know that several of them would make very good parents, I also know several that would not make good parents. So, they're a lot like my straight friends.

People are people, regardless of their sexuality, straight or gay there are people who are meant to be parents, and people who aren't.

Gay marriage and gay adoption shouldn't even be issues at this point. As a heterosexual male, married with two kids, I don't see how gay men or women getting married can in any way harm the sanctity of my relationship to my wife. I certainly don't see how parenting has anything to do with sexuality and to be honest, I think that most of my gay friends would make much better parents than most of my straight friends.

Social conservatives need to come to the realization that they do not get to hold serve on morality and ethical behavior in our society. Nor should religious admonishments of homosexuality have anything to do with the laws that govern our country.

I'm really enjoying the posts thus far, great idea, great contributors, great posts.

Good god I hope Plurk isn't the MySpace of "Micro-blogging", which I personally find to be a woefully inadequate way to describe Twitter, Plurk, identi.ca, etc...

I have to admit I was surprised by the ambient negativity of the column, especially coming from someone who plurks more than anyone I've ever seen. It is no secret that I am not a fan of Plurk tying useability to Karma (which I see as little more than a way for them to identify their "power users") but people can do whatever they want, I don't have to see it.

Personally, I'm still on the twitter/plurk fence using ping.fm to update both a lot of the time. But I see in plurk the potential to become what Twitter can no longer effectively be, a place for conversation with a group of folks you get to choose. On twitter you can choose who's in your stream, but group conversations are nearly impossible, even with summize and quotably.

I am on both Twitter and Plurk and I see them as being useful for different things. Plurk at this point is a far more personal networking site (although it still has a fairly small user base compared to Twitter), yet with Twitter there is far more information being disseminated.

I think that most people will tend to stay with the network where their following is, for me at present it's twitter (600+ followers).

Plurk is a great idea, but at this point it doesn't have the community that Twitter does, yes, Twitter may not provide you with as much feedback, but the same could easily be said for Plurk, it's all dependent on the content you are submitting to the site. As with all social media, content is king.

I am on both Twitter and Plurk and I see them as being useful for different things. Plurk at this point is a far more personal networking site (although it still has a fairly small user base compared to Twitter), yet with Twitter there is far more information being disseminated.

I think that most people will tend to stay with the network where their following is, for me at present it's twitter (600+ followers).

Plurk is a great idea, but at this point it doesn't have the community that Twitter does, yes, Twitter may not provide you with as much feedback, but the same could easily be said for Plurk, it's all dependent on the content you are submitting to the site. As with all social media, content is king.

I initially signed up for facebook to get group messages from a friend of mine. And while I will say that the constant app. messages (lil' green patches, pokes, superpokes, etc...) can be annoying, they're no more annoying than junk email.

I don't use it too often, but it's a decent way to keep track of what people you know are up to. Think of it as a daily class reunion, where your class is made up of everyone you know and not just someone you went to school with.

I use twitter hourly, linkedin daily, and facebook whenever I get an email from them. It's all about finding the role that Facebook will play in your routine. To me it's not high priority, but still worth having.

I agree that who you are can change often within the 24 hours of a given day.

I disagree that everyone one is forward-thinking and open-minded when they're blogging.

Shouldn't it be more like the other 16? Unless you never sleep, which is possible I suppose, though not for very long.

Sobe Vitamin Water, Gatorade Propel Fitness Water, Powerade Option Fitness Water and any other imposter product out there. They're not water.

It's not unlike my issue with calling soy beverage milk, it ain't milk, it's soy juice.

It's not just the northeast. There is a very strong under current of racism in the midwest as well, especially in smaller towns and rural areas. However, at the same time, a lot of those same ignorant people would say the exact same thing about Hilary Clinton (if she wasn't a woman, she never would have gotten this much attention. If it wasn't for Bill she'd be another no-name lawyer from wherever she's from.)

Honestly, I was immensely surprised by Obama's victory in the Iowa caucuses, I thought for sure that he would suffer a bit of the racist backlash.

It's not regional so much as it is generational and economical.

Amazing stuff. Little different than what we've got here, makes you appreciate it a little more than normal.

Be safe Dan.

The question is why is it Apple v. Microsoft? Aside from the Zune/iPod war, the only place they truly compete is in software.

Why isn't it Apple v. Dell? Or Apple v. HP? Especially given that Apple pc's (that's what they are after all, personal computers) can and do run Microsoft products.

My first mp3 player was an RCA, I have had a Samsung and currently use an Insignia. I don't buy Apple because I refuse to pay more for branding (and I have no need to be able to access the internet via my mp3 player).

Apple has successfully sold itself as more than a tech company, it is a lifestyle brand. They have their walking billboard loyalists who fawn over every new product release, even when they treat them like garbage. They will be allowed to do so as long as they continue to make products that their faithful digirati will champion.

Microsoft is limited because they are a software company (for the time being anyway). They are not going to start selling computers, dvr's, etc... anytime soon. Apple casts themselves as Microsoft rivals more so than the other way around. Steve Jobs managed to convince people to buy into the iLife and until it becomes too hellish a place to exist, those who have opted-in will remain.

Personally, I will opt-out of the iLife. I spend 40+ hours a week in front of a computer, and that's plenty.

This is mostly an echo.

Sleep, hydration, handwashing are probably the top three.

I've found that a good sinus rinse (yes it is kind of gross) can help knock out the phlegm/drainage issues, but you have to be careful when you do it. Don't do it right before bed or it will just make it worse.

Multivitamins are great for normal everyday defense, but if you're traveling a ton I would suggest taken extra vitamin C in addition to your vitamin. Pick up some C pills that will give you an extra boost for traveling days. You can't OD on it, so go for the C with rose hips, gives you like 1666% of your DRV.

Good luck and stay hydrated.

-I am also not a doctor, but I do have two young children who bring home god knows what from daycare.

It was me. I was present for the popping of Tamboli's Creepy Sleepy cherry.

Well, in terms of the Yankees, I think that they should have kept Joe Torre. At the same time, I think that resigning A-Rod is a positive for the Yankees. Look at it this way, they will now have arguably the best player in the history of baseball (when he retires) for the rest of his career (or at least the remaining prime of his career).

A-Rod fell victim to Scott Boras more than anything (which is why he left Boras out of the loop when he contacted the Yankees directly). Boras is the bane of the sports world.

In terms of firing Torre, in my opinion it was a stupid move (I know they didn't officially fire him, but to give a hall of fame manager a one year incentive laden contract is a slap in the face, so they might as well have fired him.) This is not the first stupid move Steinbrenner has made, although hiring Joe Girardi was a good move.

lazier