Creative?  Well, maybe.  But my humor is so lowbrow that my nipples have eyelashes.

The frightening thing about US Politics is that because Religeon is so wide spread every one has to been seen to be promoting it, to avoid being labeled ‘anti american’.  ‘Atheist’ is a pointless insult in Britain.

And DoF- if you continue to lower the tone we will let Neil loose on you with a tin of peaches in syrup.  He sounds a creative lad…

Bare buttocks pelted with lightly salted asparagus?  Hmmm…I knew that our founding fathers were men of vision, but the prescience of this insight amazes me.  The couldn’t have known it, but that is the very thing that would put me in my place.  Any mention of licorice whippings for petty offenses, or allowing females to duel by way of jello wrestling?

A little less fat in one’s diet reduces the chance of floaters.

This information is accurate and useful.  It would be even more useful if posted on the bathroom door of every Greyhound bus in the fleet.  Those floaters can get dangerous if the driver has to slam on the brakes.

As far as Fuckabee goes, I know that candidates do a lot of grandstanding and say lots of silly things to get noticed, but it is still a distressing thing to see such anti-constitutional claptrap getting the spotlight.  I’m still waiting for Chuck Barris to ring the gong and the audience to break out in derisive laughter; the longer it goes on, the more I doubt that any such moment is coming.  I don’t care how likeable or mild mannered Huckabee is, he seems to honestly believe that there is a pressing need for more God in our politics, when it’s already so God-soaked you can hardly sense any other issues except the reek of the pious.

He might swing back to center a bit if he gets the nomination, but it would take one hell of a swing to land him anywhere near the center. 
I think his only change would likely be AWAY from center and his “christian charity” social views, so as to line up more closely with the fiscal conservatives of his party.  In my opinion, the only thing keeping him from greater popularity among repubs is his seeming friendliness.  The war hawks, corporate interests, and law & order fanatics probably don’t think he’s tough enough to kill all the people who need killing.  If he can get over his christian conscience and take the Republican mantra of “might makes right” to heart, he might just prove to be the guy for the job.

aren’t you already doing that? Punishing people who earn higher incomes by taxing them more?

I think the difference is that with the UK, if someone enters a new, higher band, the higher rate only applies to what’s above the minimum of that band – so different sections of your income is taxed at different rates, rather than the whole of it.

LH – Notice the graduated system is like lots of flat lax levels – one flat tax rate for those in a certain range, another flat tax rate for those in another range – it’d be fairer to have a slope than a staircase

They usually move back to the centre to catch the floaters.

A little less fat in one’s diet reduces the chance of floaters.

Neil- not enough content about the thread title in your last post, so under the US Constitution (the bits they don’t admit to) you have to have your bare buttocks pelted with lightly salted asparagus. Don’t blame me, blame John Hancock- he put it in, but his writing was too big to fit in the essential clause “if your name is Thomas Jefferson.”

The problem is that US Primaries are notorious for candidates drifting to the extremes to capture the ‘Core vote’.  They usually move back to the centre to catch the floaters.  The problem is of course if the candidate doesn’t do this.  It makes sense for the other party to drift that way to to pick up those left behind.

No worries, and no thread nazi here!  I wasn’t trying to take anyone to task(except maybe myself), I was just truly surprised at how quickly the subject changed into something more comfortably sane. 
The press has been taking it real easy on this nutter.  Any journalist could, with a minimum of effort, expose a book’s worth of insanity straight from Huck’s mouth, and at least ask some pointed questions about his theocratic ambitions.  Instead we get some perverted Fox-style fair and balancing act, where any joker who can sway a few loonies gets automatic respect and positive coverage. As long as
he’s attatched to one of the two parties that get covered, of course.  If this asshole were an independent, we could have safely laughed his ass back to the pulpit by now. 
He has a serious race going, on a platform that USED to keep people out of consideration.  This stuff was the domain of the Pat Robertsons and the Jerry Falwells, now it is becoming mainstream.  The republican drift to the right has done enough damage over the last two decades or so by appealing to divine authority and human prejudice-now they don’t even feel the need to hide their dishonest tactics or imperial ambitions.
When we do take the final crap on reason by electing our first American Ayatollah, how long before we start hearing about the “divine right of presidents” or some such?  How many men of faith does it take to tear down the standards of a secular government to the point where the damage is permanent?

Neil, thread drift is a fact of life, as is the fun of getting back to the topic – yeah!  The crazier each one gets, the saner the crazy ones between them and sanity appear to be to the vast numbers of American Idol watching, global warming denying, pastoral politics pursuing walking advertising demographics who make up the bulk of voters.

Okay, Hussar, that was a bit exaggerated

Does I was right song and dance.

I forget how far north Europe is.  Southern Spain is 36 North- Thats approximately the Virgina/North Carolina border.  New York is a few miles south of Rome, and LA is down with Lebanon.

Course the upside is longer summer days.  I remember an interview with a rep from the Icelandic tourist board, saying how German Tourists complain about the fact they can’t get to sleep, because the sun is still up!  I think I would happily live in Vienna, South facing windows on a courtyard and all.

Heard on the Radio this morning Fred the Actor was calling another Rep (poss Huckabee or Romney) a LIBERAL.

Okay, Hussar, that was a bit exaggerated.  I looked it up, and Amsterdam, at 52° North (a couple degrees south of Edinburgh), has a bit more than seven hours of what they jocularly refer to as “daylight” in the winter.  But it seemed pretty dismal to me, the three months I spent there.  It’s not much better here in Vienna, at 48° North, especially if the south windows in your apartment just face across the courtyard.

But we’re getting a new apartment, hoorah! with windows and a balcony to the south!  Maybe we’ll be able to grow lemons!