I guess I'd just caution people to blame the abuser, not the abused. Lots of "round these crazies up and lock them away!" talk going around that's bothering me.

Sure, reading their blog commentary or signs can make my blood boil, but at the end of the day they're just extremely impassioned about issues important to them. Those issues may be the result of buying into heavy propaganda, but the people are obviously in agony about the perceived death of their country.

7 years ago, this was us -- showing up at rallies and conferences with red paint on our hands and Bush=Hitler placards. Remember how hopeless it all felt?

We were right, of course, but even idiots have the freedom to protest. I just hope something reaches these people before anybody else gets hurt.

I don't know if WGBH's shows give you the option, but Prairie Home Companion will allow you to donate online to support their podcast service -- or you could donate to their producing company, American Public Media. Another worthy target is Public Radio International, who distribute the BBC World Service and This American Life while producing Studio 360.

It is a little difficult for you since your local affiliate actually produces content you enjoy... I wonder if you'd have any luck e-mailing a few of the hosts you mention to get their advice on supporting their shows directly?

In short, this agreement will result in the public, both as insurance purchasers and as taxpayers, paying ever higher rates to insurance companies.

I get the impression that most of the left-leaning voters in my age group are more sympathetic to far-left candidates but still support Democrats because of Bush-era mismanagement.

We want the repeal of DOMA, we want to stop invading and interfering with other countries, we want to end the war on drugs, we believe health care (and adequate salaries + housing) are human rights, and so on. The Democrats pay lip service to some of that, and so they get our votes by virtue of not being Republican.

Electing Obama was our victory -- finally, for the first time in our voting history, the good guys win!

...And then they do nothing substantial.

As the Bush era recedes into memory, that Bush anger isn't going to drive our votes. We'll be looking more and more at the parties who actually advocate for causes important to us, parties less "dogmatically diverse" than the Democrats.

We already saw a shift for conservative voters in the Ron Paul fanatics in the past cycle. Paul's largest group of supporters were 18-24 year olds, a cohort more likely to self-identify as libertarian than republican. (Why they didn't support Barr I can't say, but Paul isn't exactly a regular Republican either.)

The internet will continue to give non-standard candidates wider exposure and larger followings. I can't see that resulting in anything other than the diminishing power of the Big 2.

I didn't expect seismic shifts from the Obama administration, and only a few of his nods to the center have legitimately surprised me. I'm content to see any marginal shift to the left as a good thing. To people less patient, however -- well, the Democrats look entirely ineffective, or even worse, conservative.

The Democrats are going to lose an entire generation.

McIntyre described the philosophy behind [RealClearPolitics.com] as based on "freedom" and "common-sense values." Said Bevan, "We think debate on the issues is a very important thing. We post a variety of opinions." He further stated, "we have a frustration all conservatives have", which is "the bias in media against conservatives, religious conservatives, [and] Christian conservatives."

Roughly since the start of the baby boom, US policy has assumed that four-year colleges provide more to society than two-year ones. Maybe this is correct, but the reasoning is muddled. Four-year college degrees were correlated with membership in the ruling class. So politicians have thought that, if only we could get the entire population to spend four years reading Foucault, name-dropping, learning to tell a Poussin from a Titian and passing out at beer parties, then everyone would earn a ruling-class salary. US society, in this utopian view, would resemble Latin American armies as they exist in comic novels, with 10 generals for every private.

I just don't understand why they're OK with training people to do necessary manual labor jobs and then abandoning them to $8/hr, no bennies, with a stern admonishment of, "Go chase profits, not pensions!"

In addition, 59% say his proposals involve too much spending, and 52% say the proposals call for too much expansion of government power.

Basically, America has its head up its ass and conservatives have better propaganda machines.

All I can offer to thomasjasen is that each successive generation tolerates the degradation of others less and less. My hope is that as more and more people get connected on the internet, we'll finally see interaction and integration that goes beyond the barriers of color, geography, society, and someday maybe even language.

Despite the commonness of such claims, little evidence has ever been presented for a left bias at NPR , and FAIR’s latest study gives it no support. Looking at partisan sources—including government officials, party officials, campaign workers and consultants—Republicans outnumbered Democrats by more than 3 to 2 (61 percent to 38 percent). A majority of Republican sources when the GOP controls the White House and Congress may not be surprising, but Republicans held a similar though slightly smaller edge (57 percent to 42 percent) in 1993, when Clinton was president and Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. And a lively race for the Democratic presidential nomination was beginning to heat up at the time of the 2003 study.

Partisans from outside the two major parties were almost nowhere to be seen, with the exception of four Libertarian Party representatives who appeared in a single story (Morning Edition , 6/26/03).

Republicans not only had a substantial partisan edge, individual Republicans were NPR ’s most popular sources overall, taking the top seven spots in frequency of appearance. George Bush led all sources for the month with 36 appearances, followed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (8) and Sen. Pat Roberts (6). Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Secretary of State Colin Powell, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer and Iraq proconsul Paul Bremer all tied with five appearances each.

Yes, NPR is fairly centrist.

This is it, yes. I mainly took issue with the subjectiveness of saying it had an effect on happiness, achievement, or personal fulfillment. But, as you say in a subsequent comment,

You're right that it's all speculation

Society has a tendency to focus on the burnouts because they are the easiest users to spot. It's pure self-selection bias. Consider that in addition to the guy who spends his weekends glued to Spongebob Squarepants, users have included the past 3 presidents, great thinkers like Carl Sagan, world-famous artists of every imaginable discipline, and so on -- and those are just the people with the freedom to admit to current or previous use.

Perhaps we should criminalize 7-11 or Seinfeld instead?

What about criminalizing Krispy Kremes, Will Ferrell movies, trashy romance novels, or Windows' Solitaire?

Just because overindulgence in a product can result in a 'loss of fulfillment' (who sets that standard, by the by?) should that require legislation against said product?

Whether it results in a slap on the wrist or a felony, the fact that humans lack self control shouldn't be a motivating factor in how we view marijuana legislation. Does marijuana classify as a Schedule I substance, yes or no? If no, then it needs to be rescheduled or unrestricted.

How many Nedas don't we see from Iraq, Gaza, Pakistan, the Sudan, and yes, even Tehran? It's wonderful if her sacrifice has helped people see the protests as being about more than just the election, and it's good that people apparently care. I just wonder if seeing a young girl's snuff video is really what it takes for people to get it.

She wasn't the first person in the protests to be killed, her death wasn't the first to be caught on tape, and she wasn't the last. Hopefully people don't stop paying attention after Neda's story has been relegated to the CNN archives.

Whichever sort of gay it is, I think the scarf actually suits Hillary quite well.

There is a significant libertarian movement in young people, anecdotally prevalent in those who work in IT/engineering.