There seems to be no consensus growing (ha!) - I am losing faith in the wisdom of crowds.

I like the webcam option, at some point the identification will become obvious. I'm leaning towards "inedible weed" myself.

If I believed that the worst that might happen will happen, what should I be doing to hedge? Buying gold? Foreign stocks? Buying large goods (car, house) before hyperinflation kicks in?

That's some sweet action. Double floppy! Printer! Tape Drive! Modem! And the rotary TV on channel 3, good times.

OK, it's time to see if the Constitution is still alive. This is the point at which those checks and balances should kick in. Who has the authority / responsibility to act? Congress? The Justice Department? Ideally, it wouldn't be necessary, but might it help if "We, The People" encourage them to act?

Seems to me, aside from oil and gold, everything is still cheap. Inflation is (relatively) low. Assuming that's going to change soon, what should I be buying?

I wanted to buy gold and Euros over the past year, but I'm with Sharebuilder and was "forced" to buy stocks that proxy those markets instead. I bought NEM (Newmont Mining) and ADRU (Europe 100 Index Fund) - they are both down since November. I guess I needed to do more research, or just have bought gold and Euros directly. Too late? It sounds like, maybe not.

"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". Have you ever tried to buy bubble wrap? Or foam peanuts? And everyone has read about the horrible problems caused by plastic bags. So I save it all. Someday it'll come in handy for someone I know.

And window envelopes, they can't possible recycle as well as plain paper, right? So I've saved all of my junk mail for 3 years, until I find a place that FOR SURE will be able to handle it. I tried cutting out the windows manually but that was going to take forever.

There's no way I'm going to "throw out" any of this stuff now, after separating & saving it so carefully for years.

I thought we were freeing the Kurds from the atrocities of Saddam? And protecting Israel from an imminent threat? And that anyone who suggested otherwise was suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome?

This would all still be acceptable behavior if you were to believe that what's best for Big Oil is best for America.

"Shame" is an inconvenient emotion to have in a capitalist society. If you can manage to wean yourself of it, your potential for profits increase dramatically. Maybe someday someone will come up with a way to counter all the economic incentives that lawyers have to ruin everything for the rest of society.

But that begs the question, was this family just being accommodating, or were they lazy / sloppy caretakers? If the former, then this is an example of the unintended consequences of being nice to a neighbor. You might be setting a legal precedent. If the latter, well then, it sounds to me like we are seeing a rarely-used but sensical legal tool in action. And the activist neighbors would then be misguided in their passion.

.11 acres not enough for you? Then buy a bigger lot elsewhere. Why criticise the dreams of others?