#28 The usual joke is that the aisles are so wide to stop opposing parties from punching each other in the face.

I once read that the distance between the benches is equal to two sword lengths, based on ancient British parliamentary tradition to prevent opponents from slashing each other to ribbons. And green is supposedly the dominant color of the floor and seats in honour of the first British parliaments being held outdoors on grass.

#2 Actually, it's Sheela (not Sheila) Basrur (not Sheila) and she died of a rare form of cancer called leiomyosarcoma that had nothing at all to do with SARS.

According to UPI, the baby (Michael Tony Futi) was held in a locked room for 30 minutes and later died in a medical center. The baby was born with a hole in his heart. Perhaps they thought he was hiding something dangerous in there :(

Alone. Proved man IS an island

Heywood Broun would be proud of the idea, but until the project is up and running, he'd probably agree with much of the skepticim expressed here.

I wonder if Beck was referring to a scattering of big name actors/actresses in the fire zones. Sean Penn, James Cameron, Cindy Crawford, Olivia Newton-John and others have burnt or threatened property. Since Beck and many of the lunatic right equate most "Hollywood types" with America-bashing leftism, Beck's remark may have been aimed at them. Or, maybe he is a simpleton and isn't aware of the voting demographics of the region.