Archived for Your Pleasure - the Longest Thread in Hit and Run History

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Ohio State v. USC - Betting

The line (via VegasInsider) on Ohio State vs. USC is -4.5. How would you bet, and why?

Highlight for how I would bet:

I would definitely take USC to beat the spread.

UPDATE: I considered the typical "3 points" for home-field advantage, but I think that's unwarranted in this case. If I were crafting the line, I would give USC -6.5 or -7.

Immaturity > Intolerance. OR The Lesser of Two Evils

Dan Savage responds to a person asking if there is a community out there for people who want to have sex with enlarged earlobe holes.

Once upon a time, I was a "live and let live" quasi-libertine, but some aspects of our free-and-open sexual society seem a little...immature to me.

Well, better to have fetishists openly talking about their silly psychological issues than to have this going on.

When the Left Eats Itself (Part I in a continuing series)

According to this Washington Post article, the allegedly "tiny" portion of the Administration's health care reform, the public option, has "taken on a life of its own" among the left of the left.

You have lefty vanguards like Howard Dean and the entire Progressive Caucus basically stating that any plan without a public option is not worth enacting. The Progressive Caucus ratcheted the pressure when they sent a letter (PDF) to the Speaker of the House stating that they could not vote for a bill that did not have a public option. That represents 57 potential "no" votes from the representatives of the Administration's base. That would be a killer PR disaster.

One of the more interesting aspects is how the Tea-Party activists and down-and-out minority party somehow managed to put a popular President, whose party owns the Congress, on the ropes.

One can only hope that America continues to be opposed to the public "option", which, to anyone paying attention, is a stalking/Trojan horse for single-payer health care. Anyone who claims that it is all about "competition" is lying to you.

Crushed by the Juggernaut

The one place in Columbus that refused to knuckle-under the outrageous statewide smoking ban, Zeno's, is being sued. Of course, the fact that anyone with half-a-brain knew that Zeno's allowed smoking means that the market should have worked the way it was meant to work: people who didn't like smoking in bars did not go to Zeno's.

I would not blame them for settling. Like Ayn Rand said:

A forced compliance is not a sanction. All of us are forced to comply with many laws that violate our rights, but so long as we advocate the repeal of such laws, our compliance does not constitute a sanction. Unjust laws have to be fought ideologically; they cannot be fought or corrected by means of mere disobedience and futile martyrdom.

and:

One does not stop the juggernaut by throwing oneself in front of it. . . .

Full Story Here.

UPDATE: Zeno's has countersued. Good for them.