How does one effect “the unintentional burning of Korans”? “Unauthorized” I could understand, but “unintentional”?

That alleged Thomas Jefferson quote has been debunked.

We have been down this road before. President Obama will wait until some more spectacular event distracts the public and captures the media’s attention, and then he will sign his approval. Then his defenders will weep and wail about how he was “forced” to do it by Republicans. Same song, 137th verse.

Thanks, BoxTurtle. :-) The ghosts of John Adams and Millard Fillmore (and a couple more I can’t remember) doubtless forgive you!

Sure enough, BoxTurtle; I missed TarheelDem’s post and BoxTurtle’s apology. Now I am the one who is an idiot. Mea culpa; mea maxima culpa… :-)

:-) Not by UU’s. We’re not into all that “sin” stuff.

But we are a real church, old enough that four (?) US presidents were members. Somehow, BoxTurtle has mistakenly attached the acronym for Unitarian Universalist to a mail-order denomination. I haven’t been to church for a while, but the last time I looked, we meet in brick buildings like most denominations. (Frank Lloyd Wright designed the building for a well-known Chicago UU church.)

BoxTurtle, how many times do I have to tell you: The UU church is NOT in any way related to the Universal Life church! Would someone please disabuse BoxTurtle of this notion? What you are alleging is offensive to UUs everywhere. Please stop it!

What peterboy said. It is Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA).

BoxTurtle, please do not conflate “Universal Life Church” with UU (Unitarian Universalists). They are not even remotely similar. You owe the real UU’s an apology. Thank you.

Thanks for the link. I utterly deplore the abuse by police described, but I’d rather know than not know. Goodbye to the First and Eighth Amendments; they were great while they lasted.

Please do not start firestorms without first ascertaining that adequate firefighting equipment and personnel are on hand! (I suppose Teddy and Peterr qualify as such…)

My excellent primary care doctor is almost certainly gay. I am not.

My PCP’s former nurse was very, very Christian. I am not.

Guess which one hit on me to “convert.” Right… it wasn’t the gay doc. Happily, he apparently let the nurse go while I was away for a month. Whew!

People who care what their medical providers do in their private lives need to find something to do with themselves besides gratuitously making trouble for professionals.

So, someguy, in order to “equalize” states, we make some citizens’ votes worth more than others through unequal representation in one of the two houses. And you’re going to try to justify that?

I live in a large and populous state, so my vote is already worth less than yours in terms of influence in the Senate.

I live in a major city, and the laws in this state have the same effect on urban and rural areas as between large and small states, so in a state where people’s votes are already worth less than those of people in (say) your state, my vote is also worth less than my neighbor’s vote across the county line.

And my state is a net contributor of income taxes; i.e., it pays more in aggregate federal taxes than it gets from the federal government. Why am I not surprised.

Explain to me again… why should I bother to vote in your wonderful elections rather than simply sitting at home and watching the same result as if I voted? I am sorry, but the deal you tout so highly is grossly unfair to a lot of us.

(For the record… I did NOT flunk any courses in American history or government.)

I don’t observe the level of competence

Indeed. The late Molly Ivins used to respond similarly when confronted with most conspiracy theories.

Late-term abortions are performed only when the mother’s life is in grave danger. Nobody has a late-term abortion because they “just forgot” to have one earlier.

If you want to inflict additional cruelty upon a woman already suffering and quite possibly dying due to her pregnancy, I believe you need to review your values that allow you to come to that conclusion.

Thank you, AitchD. I logged in to make that very point. For some reason, people who use “comprise” for “compose” are always trying to impress someone with how well-educated they are, and of course they always fail to impress. Mittens is no exception.