So the Republicans' new strategy is the same as the old one: whine, bitch, obstruct, dither.

Fuck yeah---You can see how cursing improves Slog every day.... It solves all kinds of problems here!

Ugh... "cuss-free." They didn't actually use the deep-south, banal version of the word "curse" to ban swearing, did they?

"Beggin' yo'se pahdon, suh... but dey's no cussin' round hee'ah."

Ugh. It's curse, not cuss. Cursing, not cussing.

They should have just called it "Fuck-Free Week."

@ Hilary Mantel, bestselling author of _Wolf Hall_ (which sounds like a bodice ripping fantasy adventure with a plucky teenaged heroine who no one understands): She's right.

There are lots and lots of very young biological adult human females who know enough about things to responsibly happily hausfrau. They can cook, they can clean, they can shop, they can even balance a checkbook. Lots and lots of them make spending money sitting with older women's babies. And in a purely biological sense, a woman hits her peak as a baby-making engine a very few years after menarche, somewhere around 14-18 depending on nutrition and other factors.

Of course, no 14 year old is capable of handling the pressures of being a 21st century single mom; juggling kids, the full-time job necessary to provide for them (let-alone the 2+ full-time jobs required if all you're qualified to do is work at Burger King), car payments, a mortgage, dating, sex drugs and rock-n-roll.

But wouldn't it be nice if she didn't have to?

Wouldn't it be nice if there was sufficient public service left in this country to see to it that every kid has what he or she needs to grow up happy, healthy, and loved?

Wouldn't it be nice if there weren't this huge social stigma still attached to unconventional reproduction such that it's almost always a bad choice for people who choose it?

Wouldn't it be nice if we could evolve enough compassion and respect for girls who think it's a good idea to get done with parenting while they're still in their thirties and then move on to career and public service that they could have a career and do public service?

Wouldn't it?

@3--Growing up speaking Standard English here in Columbia, "cussing" was always my most hated slang term.

What? Is just the very idea of cursing so offensive to these Strom Thurmond worshipping, Rebel flag flying, teabagging sphincter clowns that they have to dress it up with a cutesy little quaint bit of regional dialect?

Fuck that shit.

""Got to Reach 200": Woman has sex 191 times with 12-year-old boy. Journals about it."

Uh shouldn't that be "molested" or.... "sexually abused"?

I was born in Washington, D.C. and lived in suburban Maryland, less than an hour south of the Mason-Dixon line, but still technically the South. "Curse" and "swear" always sounded kind of pompous, like a bizarre attempt to make cussing into something refined.

Anyhow, fuck California.

Hmm... how do we go about solving the problem of medical identity theft?

What could the solution possibly be?

Oh I don't know.... could it be... SINGLE PAYER!?!?!?

/church lady

@5,

No, because most of those girls would simply continue reproducing until they hit menopause. And I can't even begin to figure out how the government would provide everything a child needs to be happy and loved. For one, how does the government force a 14-year-old girl to mature to the point that she's not an immature, selfish shithead like all teenagers?

One incredibly important factor in the success of a child is the age of the mother when the child was born. Children of teenagers are almost universally fucked. Even children born to adult mothers who started reproducing as teens are universally fucked. Nothing can compensate for teens not having the slightest clue how to be a real parent.

re: Let's Call Them 'Harvesters': Chilean army struggles to keep looters from collecting supplies in Concepcion, where 500,000 inhabitants are without food, water, or electricity following Saturday's earthquake.

When natural disaster strikes in Australia, the government promises shop owners a reimbursement for supplies given to those in need. The result is an orderly line of people coming into the stores and being given free provisions, with the business owners sending a bill to the government and being compensated for their lost stock.

Why pay for riot cops instead of supplies?

I grew up in Seattle. Everyone I ever knew said "cussing."