Whoops. Posted this anonymously first.

When did this happen? When did it become a fad to insulate and infantilize one's offspring for as long as possible? The outrage, and to further extension later in life, the so-called helicopter parents who interfere with their children's college education and employers... where did it all come from? I think it started in great numbers with my generation.

I grew up in Phoenix during the 70s and 80s, only child and single parent home during the day. After second grade, during summer vacation, I was supremely bored off my ass so I put my big jar of change in my backpack and started riding city buses during the day. I ended up going all over the valley, or at least where Phoenix Transit went, which admittedly wasn't all that expansive at the time.

When I told my mother about it, in sort of an oh-by-the-way sort of reference a few weeks later, she was horrified for about five minutes. And then she realized she could have me run errands, do a bit of grocery shopping or whatever throughout the day, doing things that made life easier for her.

Further adventures in teenhood met with friends and others who were equally horrified or mystified that I would just go off and do things on my own. It seemed as if most of my peers were incredibly confused that I could be so independent and now they're the ones with kids in high school or heading off to college, many of them unable to cut the apron strings.

Good for this woman, for recognizing and affirming her child's need for independence. It's the best possible gift a parent could give.

So this is basically an early Monday morning geek version of I Am Blacker Than You?

Ah, well. Thanks for the link to the anthology, it's been preordered. Looks like a fun read.

Those people are stupid. Not dumb. You can fix dumb, but this is willful, forced and deliberate stupidity.

Actually, Jerry Brown clarified that the oath didn't require her to take up arms and at the same time verified that Cal was within its rights to fire her for altering the document based on previous court rulings. The resulting media shitstorm and faculty/student body/public uproar probably contributed to her rehiring.

Yeah, this doesn't mean the company is dead -- yet. I believe they're doing this as part of a condition to get a $60 million cash loan from Wells Fargo.

However, I'm predicting that they'll be a catalog-only outfit within 2 years. If they were smart, they'd try to muscle in on SkyMall's turf by getting their catalogs into the seatback pockets of airlines.

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."

#17, I believe one of the reasons we don't see full frontal nudity or other, more explicit, acts on commercial cable television is that the channels are only willing to push the envelope as far as their advertisers will allow. This is why HBO, which does not depend on ad revenue, can get away with more than Comedy Central.

Yes, vending machines are a novelty. We may certainly sit in front of our keyboards and agitate otherwise, but regardless of the other precautions taken, Those In Charge are going to believe that this can't be taken seriously when it's using a somewhat more intelligent version of a coin-operated Pepsi dispenser. We don't need that sort of perception at this point.

It seems counterintuitive for a movement trying to get the government to treat marijuana as a serious medicine (alternative or otherwise) to embrace the novelty of vending machines.

Heh, yeah, we had that stereo hookup. Closed circuit radio from the cable company, and it had great sound. So much so that when regular stereo televisions were being produced, I was very disappointed with the sound quality.

To correct myself, apparently this was in San Mateo county, just south of the San Francisco city/county hybrid. So I must retract my scorn for the SFPD in this specific incident; they are apparently still not doing much of anything about everything.

The SFPD have got to be fucking kidding me -- and everyone else with this.

Apart from the fact that we've got almost daily fatal shootings, apart from the fact that we've got more quality of life crimes than you'd think possible for a city of this size, there is an acute illegal gambling problem in Chinatown that is (sources say) run by the City's organized criminal elements... and these Keystone Kops bust a small-stakes poker game? Well, small in comparison. But if this isn't the vice squad going for the low-hanging fruit, I don't know what is.

On the other hand, our local DA will almost certainly drop or bargain down the charges.

A laser? Seriously? Where are these people celebrating Christmas, 2002?

All things of this nature being predictable (or perhaps inevitable?), you just know the little shit who came up with that slogan will, eventually, wind up being Sheriff.

Great advances in miniaturization were made the following year, when a wristwatch version weighing only 300 pounds was offered for sale.

From where I'm sitting in San Francisco, you can hardly turn around without coming face to face with an international visitor. Same in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Oh, and Chicago, Seattle, and Minneapolis, too.

Actually, I only have anectdotal data to offer for San Francisco and New York. The other cities I just pulled out of my butt to flesh out the paragraph -- much in the way the "news story" linked does the same for dramatic impact.

Cory, I think we get your opinion regarding the U.S. at this point. When you're reprinting something that's essentially a press release for the special interests quoted within, it makes you look a bit foolish and petty, and somewhat hasty. There's lots of credible news that can validate your viewpoint, perhaps a five-minute foray into Google News could help?

Oh, thank goodness. I was 3/4 through my Google Reader feed today and had yet to find the obligatory Sky-Is-Falling blog post from someone. Thank you, Cory, for keeping my world dependable.

Glenn who?

Daleks in Manhattan was stinky, but a Dalek wearing a pinstripe suit was sufficiently absurd enough to sustain my interest in the two-parter.

"Hello, how long does it take to build a cable car?"

I'm not sure, but it's probably less time than it'll take San Francisco to implement municipal wifi.

But Judge, I wouldn't have committed fraud if I knew I was going to get caught!

Novel defense, to be sure.

I always knew there was something suspicious about Kris Kristofferson.