O'Reilly is pragmatic enough to straddle the common sense perspective on some issues, but he does it in such a smug & arrogant manner that I can't stand listening to him for more than a minute.

Outside of a true Independent Party, the best we can hope for moving forward is to perpetuate split govt. Both parties always over-reach in an effort to maintain/grow power or silence the opposition.

"The bus came by and I got on, that's when it all began
It was Cowboy Neal at the wheel on a bus to never, ever land"

Can someone help me understand what the shootout was before he was caught in the boat? Was Zokar (don't have time to spell correctly) actually engaging the police in a gun battle? If so, how was he doing this from the boat? Was he wounded during the shoot-out or the night before? If there was blood on the boat, that must have occurred from the night before. If he was that wounded, could he really engage in a gun battle.

After they caught him, I kind of moved on & have not captured all of the details.

"Suspects are Chechnyan Muslim Terrorists"

Dang it, why couldn't it be a white guy???
- Doc Sarvis and MSNBC

Doc represents the white guilt portion of the left. Small minority, but obviously a little unhinged. The white guilt faction of the left is kind of like the "Govt is coming to take our guns" portion of the right. They are nutty, make claims that are supported by a small, vocal minority but ultimately don't represent the vast majority of normal folks.

This too shall pass

How's Eddie Haskell doing these days?

Great finish. Even my son, who thinks golf is borrrrriiiinnnngggg, loved it.

So a bunch of 20 something, non-working socialists/marxists are protesting Thatcher's death...wow, how newsworthy. Look at England in the 1970's under Labor's leadership (GDP, taxation, inflation, world standing) and then look again at the late 80's after she her term. No comparison. So, she took on the unions? What a meanie! How dare someone question an automatic 40% pay raise

CalifChris, I thought you were pretty level headed. Shocked at your response to her death. Everyone else is par for the course.

I grew up with Mike Rice, although he is a couple years younger. Good kid, but it looks like the pressure or stress of the job caught up to him. I played D1 sports & coaches definitely ratchet up the pressure, but I never saw a player have something thrown at their head, pushed from behind or called a [...] Lots of cursing & yelling, running, sitting, sent to the locker room etc...but not that kind of abuse that seemed very personal.

Have you ever seen Petraeus' wife? What would you do if some hot biographer wanted to get to know you better

If animals are smarter than we think, then why does my dog always lick her privates and chase the stupid mail truck?

I just spent 4 nights @ Fontainbleu. Very nice place, but Miami in general is a 3rd world country. The whores walking through that place are pretty easy to figure...and when they suddenly come up and talk to you, you know that they want to get their hands on your wallet (or jewelry).

RINO

When Muslims blow up other Muslims, is it still the United States fault?

I like Bill Maher. The right hates him and sometimes he irritates the left...which I think is fantastic. Sometimes I think he throws things out there to see how his panel reacts. I am sure that Rachel Maddow wasn't prepared for this reaction, or his statement on taxes. Is it possible that he doesn't always think left or right, but just states his mind on things?

Pakistan, where Sunni's Bomb the Shiite of out their Muslim Brothers while moving toward democracy.

I will admit that I was wrong, not that anyone really gives a crap. When we first decided to invade Iraq, my initial reaction was "why would we do that"...it just didnt make sense to me. Ultimately, as a good conservative (at the time), I figured that some really smart people in Washington must have a legitimate reason to invade Iraq & therefore began to support the cause for war, whatever the justification was from one month to the next. Many, many heated arguments with friends who couldn't understand my perspective ensued, and I doggedly supported the re-election of Bush in 2004.

By the end of 2005, I realized what a mistake the war was. I realized that you need to trust your gut, and not what your political party of choice is feeding you. I was so disgusted with the ongoing attempt to spin the war that I became a registered Independent.

Many people are in the same boat as me on the war, they just are too prideful to admit they were wrong. 53% is not an accurate reflection of how people truly feel about the war. The 42% that think it was the right decision, largely believe that because their party tells them to.

You stated that the North imported cotton from countries that supported slavery? I asked what countries they imported from. What slave countries did they trade with? Plural...as you stated earlier

Speculators & greedy businessmen were the primary drivers of the trade between the North-South. Much like today's commodities traders.

"The money, after all, was very good. By the fall of 1862 a combination of an initial Southern embargo and a tightening Federal naval blockade created a scarcity that inflated cotton prices. Behind Confederate lines the staple could be purchased at 10 cents a pound, but was worth 70 cents or more in Northern or overseas markets. Given that differential, efforts to prevent North-South trade were as ineffective King Canute's orders to hold back the waves."

I don't quite get your "hypocritical" argument that you seem to be trying to make. Union speculators purchased cotton and re-sold it overseas since the conferecy couldn't trade with Europe. You call it hypocritical, I call it opportunistic. Lincoln couldn't stop it. All the matters is the end result. Your confederates got pummeled, fighting for a lost cause, losing the right to own slaves & ultimately falling back into line. I thought relics like you were all dead. Are you really Jim DeMint from S. Carolina?

Ron Paul,

Which countries did the North import cotton from? The south?

William Tecumseh Sherman was the man! He pounded Georgia and South Carolina into oblivion...South Carolina especially so because "they started the whole damn thing". Sherman easily could have run for President, but had no desire to get into Politics. He continued on in the military for the remainder of his life. Sherman met Lincoln in 1861 and was underwhelmed. 4 years later, he spoke of Lincoln in almost god like admiration. If have never watched Ken Burns Civil War, it is well worth the $ 30-35 download from ITunes.