It is important to note that I did not accuse my teachers of condoning shoplifting. There is a lack of understanding and a lack of will to enforce some pretty complicated laws on the school level. This requires more education--of both students and teachers. Once people are aware of what the law really is, we can deal with the enforcement issues.

Your comment has all the sensitivity of a paranoid member of the religious right and all the intelligence of a tea pot.

From what authority, divine or otherwise, do you draw your claim that "Being gay is a sin..." And what makes "this type of behavior" not normal?

I will be curious to hear your answer, but while you're pondering that, can you please tell me what kind of psycho-religious cult could possibly believe that these "sins" are killing our NATION?

I'm interested by your thoughts on a stylus as an input method. I've found that touch works nicely on the iPhone. Do you think that the larger screen makes a stylus more desirable? Would you be unhappy if there were no stylus?

That's a very good idea. I think getting as many people as possible to participate is great. Ideally, each group would have 6-8, but I suppose we can't hope for too much. What do you think the topic of the teasers should be?

Agreed. Civil marriage should be the only marriage that the law cares about. Everything else should be someone else's problem. And since civil marriage is essentially just a contract, it seems wrong to be restricting who can make that contract.

I'm not a religious scholar, but if the Bible does indeed call the Bible a sin, then the people who use the Bible as fact are even more flawed than I thought. I think it's insulting to say that being gay is a sin, regardless of the gravity attached to it.

It's most unfortunate that you're in a less-than-tolerant family. It's good to see that you're breaking the mold!

With regard to point A: You are right, I was simply addressing marriage here. The adoption/having of children was not addressed, but as that is generally part of marriage, it should certainly be allowed. The anti-equality people will just have to sit down and shut up.

With regard to point B: Unfortunately, no one can "own" a word. No one includes both the anti-equality people and the LGBT people. If the nuts want to use the word in their twisted religious rituals, then fine; that doesn't mean they own it.

Ron, good to see you commenting again! I have not thought about writing for a newspaper full time, but I could certainly see myself doing the occasional op-ed.

Our readiness for 9/11 wasn't really what I was trying to address here -- I think that mistakes were certainly made in several different administrations, but it's hard to find fault with one person when a whole confluence of errors and the overwhelming element of surprise was really at fault. I was more trying to address how we responded, and where we went wrong in preparing for future attacks.

CF

That's actually perfect. If teachers can see that a highly digital lesson can work, I think it would increase adoption. What about a 15-20 minute lesson followed by a "how we did it" section?

Thanks for the edit. It's been fixed! And, of course, thank you for the comment.