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God bless the NHL. Other professional sports could learn a thing or two from them.

In point of fact, Mother Nature is not taking their land. Mother Nature is taking the state’s land, and the state is then taking their land to compensate for what they lost.

This is, therefore, by definition, the government taking land for public use. Doesn’t matter why they’re taking it, it just matters that they are. Eminent Domain and just compensation thus clearly apply.

If memory serves, it includes all but the Missouri Synod.

Apparently they never read the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.

Key quote:

The Lutheran churches and the Roman Catholic Church have together listened to the good news proclaimed in Holy Scripture. This common listening, together with the theological conversations of recent years, has led to a shared understanding of justification. This encompasses a consensus in the basic truths; the differing explications in particular statements are compatible with it.

In other words "there's not enough of a difference for us to call it a difference."

"That being said, I’ve got both MAC and Dell laptops and I still use the Dell more for business. Maybe I’m just not hip enough to really like MAC or I haven’t made enough effort to have it ‘grow’ on me."

A lot of it seems to boil down to comfort level. I started out as a kid in the early 80s doing a bit of programming on an Apple ][. Some of the programs were my own, others came out of PBS Electric Company magazine, which used to publish the code for you to write your own games. Anyone remember that?

I've been using Macs for as long as I can remember. I'm no longer a MacMac and don't begrudge anyone their decision to use Windows. As long as I don't have to use it myself.

My wife emailed me this article. Wait till you see who it is that couldn't get Vista to work.

Meanwhile, her 4-year old iBook runs Leopard 10.5.2 just fine; the only thing it won't do on hers is the translucent menu bar (which she can't stand anyway).

Take your pick:

Mom doesn't care. Or maybe mom cares but works 3 jobs and has no time. Either way, you spend most of your time in an area where those who work hard and play by the rules are constantly struggling, while drug dealers and gangbangers are seemingly living it up.

The most heartbreaking are the kids whose parents desperately want them to do better than they did, but don't have enough education themselves to know what to do. There just aren't enough role models available in these areas. Kids literally don't know what success is supposed to look like. They don't know how to behave in a normal civilized setting because it goes completely against what they live in every moment they're outside of school.

Many have never seen the world outside of the few blocks around their house. They don't even know what opportunities are available just a half mile away. All they see is death, and a system which rewards sloth and punishes work.

Also that shooter was 14! How does one get an F the world ‘tude at that age???!!!

I teach in an urban school. Such attitudes are fairly common in 4th grade and above, and not at all uncommon earlier. In many areas it's the rule rather than the exception.

Unfortunately, various studies done on this have found no measurable difference in distraction level between cell phone users with or without the hands-free unit. The distraction lies in carrying on a conversation with someone who is outside of your situation, thus reducing your situational awareness - not in actually holding the phone itself.

Most laws which ban the use of cell phones specifically exempt those with hands-free units, even though, from what I have read, it's just as dangerous.

Quite the opposite.

You'll recall, that by asking Snape to kill him, and making sure that Snape was the one to do it, Dumbledore was trying to insure that he was never defeated.

If Snape had killed Dumbledore before Malfoy got to him, Dumbledore would have remained the master of the Elder Wand. Since Snape was just carrying out his orders, it wouldn't be a defeat for him. The wand's power would have died with him.

Malfoy, by getting the drop on him, gained the Elder Wand for himself. Thankfully, however, he never knew it until it was too late.

Remember, Malfoy actually disarmed him. Malfoy used expelliarmus on Dumbledore the moment he arrived at the tower. Malfoy actually did win it by force, just by getting the drop on him.

Amen to that.

My parents own a big fancy gas grill. The last time they were over I threw some hot dogs and burgers onto my Weber kettle grill with good old fashioned lump charcoal. My dad spent the whole time talking about how he needed to get one of those himself.

Does anyone know what the front cover of the American version is supposed to be? I don’t know if I read it too fast or just need more fish oil for my memory!

I'm guessing, considering Harry & Voldie are both there, surrounded by debris and a large number of (silhouetted) onlookers, that it's their final showdown in the great hall, with both of them appealing to the crowd - Harry for them to stand back, Voldie for them to stop having faith in Harry.

And use of Unforgiveable Curses on innocent sentient targets would seem to be morally wrong whether or not such targets were human.

This is, in fact, one of the central themes in the books. Many wizards, like Umbridge, see nonhumans as subhuman. They don't really believe them to be fully sentient, or belonging on the same level as humans. At best, they are things which need human protection to keep them from hurting themselves.

Contrast this with someone like Hermione who fought for (what she believed was) the well-being of house-elves. Contrast this with other Wizards who treated non-human sentients as equals. In many cases, the way a Wizard treated non-humans was used to demonstrate their character.

As far as Harry goes, I see him using the methods he did at Gringott's only as a last resort. Destroying that horcrux and vanquishing Voldemort topped off everything else. He couldn't allow anything to stop him. I'm sure using the Imperius Curse and releasing the dragon were the last things he wanted to do. He knew innocent people might be hurt. Then again, if he failed, all those people would end up dead anyway.

In Goblet of Fire, the fake Moody points out that the use of any of these curses on "another human being" is unforgivable. Goblins, it appears, do not have any more protection under wizard law than centaurs or house elves; though they are all sentient beings, they are considered just barely above animals.

BUT, HP never used dark magic knowingly

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He used cruciatus on Carrow when Carrow spat in McGonigall’s face.

Mrs VS

And notice how she didn't bat an eye about it. She tells him it was foolish to come back to school and then to defend her. At no point does she have any problem with him using one of the three unforgivable curses on a Death Eater. In fact, she proceeds then to use another unforgivable curse on him.

Since there's no talk about any sort of bad consequences for either of them, Rowling actually makes a pretty strong statement about what must be done in time of war.

We don't see any good wizards using Avada Kedavra, but I'd love to know what the fsck Mrs. Weasley used on Bellatrix. Loud, messy, and just slow enough so that they know they're being killed.

My favorite line of his, however, especially when I was a kid, was in the movie, during the battle with Unicron. As he transforms and attacks Unicron from the hindquarters, he shouts "Me, Grimlock kick butt!"

It wasn't as effective an attack as he wanted, but it was enough to send a 7-year old into a fit of the giggles.

My wife & I use Innertube several times a week. Most of the shows we follow (NCIS, Jericho, How I Met Your Mother, etc) are CBS shows. Instead of taping when we missed them, I’d just plug my MacBook Pro into the TV and watch from there. There would be the occasional slowdown (Particularly in Numb3rs) but it would just kick down to a slightly lower quality setting. The picture was almost always very good, and it never once failed to load for us.

Here's the money quote:

"It is unclear whether boomers are really sicker or are simply more health-conscious by dint of being better educated and having better access to information. They may also have higher expectations, making them more likely to notice and complain about aches and pains that earlier generations would have accepted as just part of getting older."

In other words - are they really in worse health, or are they just spoiled whiners who expect life to be handed to them with no pain or consequences?

Oh, and the article also has a priceless typo:

"His bong was set at $70 thousand."