I'll also support the suggestion for use as a media server. My dad did something similar with one of his old boxes. Jack in your cable input to that thing and you have a free, no-subscription-required DVR

I think the award wasn't necessarily for supporting the Phelps protest, but the technicality that the police used to get them.

There are other ways of protecting those families. Harassment suits, disturbing the peace or incitement to riot.

And I doubt the protesters wanted to convince anyone; they're just a bunch of attention whores. First Amendment means we have to let them speak, but we also have other rights to consider (right to privacy, for instance)

I definitely can't agree with the Jena Jefferson award, though. Not all speech is protected. Hate speech is a gray area, but threats are not. (And if you think those nooses didn't constitute a threat, there's something wrong with you)

he obesity epidemic is going to destroy the American medical system. There are/will be so many fat people with problems like diabetes and cardiac issues that the system will fail to serve anybody. Take cover, it's coming.

I call BS. Heart disease isn't a tax on the medical system; people living 'till they're 100 are a tax on the medical system. They're the ones that collect Medicaid, Social Security (okay, that's not really a "medical system" thing) for years, and they're the ones that keep going in for mammograms/prostate exams (which only result in a net savings for the medical companies if the person develops cancer. It's like insurance for insurance companies, except they really should know better), and the ones that end up in the nursing homes forever.

People dying early of health complications is *good* for the medical system (in that it deals in more $$). Same deal with smoking, actually.

So quit with the panic-mongering and do something productive. Like actually support the reduction of the obesity epidemic for the sake of the people suffering, not your own wallet.

@SimpleHuman: It may be heartening, but it is self-deceiving as well. All we really know is that our _current_ attempts at self-harm are not causing significant harm _in the short run._

And is anyone as freaked out as I am that this is on the History Channel? Talk about depressing...

I'd like to second the call for citations on the accusations of corruption. Given that the issue is (as usual) essentially a few lines of a 750-page document, who knows who's responsible for it.