Aside from the name of the product (which looks like it was created with a grater), I found this sentence in the product description odd: "Unlike other graters that are dull and tear food, this grater features incredibly sharp blades that virtually glide through food, preserving its fresh flavor."

Does tearing food instead of slicing it really change the flavor? Is flavor skittish? Do you have to sneak up on it or it'll fly away?

Still, I do really want one of these. It just looks a lot easier to use than other graters and zesters. Santa, are you listening?

Fact: The CA Supreme Court ruled this year that CA voters have the right to amend the state constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Conclusion: The CA Supreme Court believes that it’s okay for CA voters to legalize sexual discrimination.

The system is broken.

I have two requirements for this system. One, that it not be boring. I could sit there and play Red all day. Whee! No.

Two, it should have some chance of making some big bucks. If I'm just sprinkling $1 chips on 2-1 odds all the time, that's not very interesting to me. I'm up $5, down $6, up $3, down $5, etc. I want people to scream in envy when my $20 bet on 8 pays off at 35-1!

An example of a fun system would be to sometimes arrange the chips in a smiley face pattern, with the nose being the big money. Or place the chips in a straight line that hits some numbers and also the little side bets.

I'd like to just chuck the chips over my shoulder and see where they land, but I don't think they'd let me do that.

I think this is an important question. It's fine to express a dislike of something, but if nothing bad will ever come of it, I would have a hard time justifying enacting legislation to stop it.

I did read an article that expressed the feelings of a married couple who felt that marriage should be about having babies. They claimed to not have any problems accepting gay couples, but they felt that marriage should only be between a man and a woman because its purpose is to create offspring. I don't agree with that opinion, but I would still like to hear them word their opposition to gay marriage in terms of possible bad future consequences.

If the purpose of marriage is to create offspring, then maybe they are concerned about the human population? If so, do they really think that the human race will be wiped out if some married couples do not produce children? I just don't get it.

Please name some bad things that could happen if gays are given the same opportunity to marry as everyone else.

I would like to see what my life might possibly be like 20 years in the future. I invent a time machine, set it to the year 2028, and go there. When I arrive, I find that no one has seen me for 20 years. I realize that I have skipped all of those intervening years with the help of my time machine, so no wonder they haven't seen me.

In order to be able to meet my 61 year old self, I go back to 30 minutes before I left and watch my younger self prepare the time machine for the trip to the future. When he isn't looking, I sabotage his time machine so that it no longer works.

He is visibly upset, but eventually he leaves the room, presumably to continue on with his life.

I set my time machine for 2028 again and look up my 61 year old self. We have a conversation about how the past 20 years have gone for him. Things have gone well, but he's upset that he never got a chance to time travel. I tell him that I'll set that right -- I just wanted to meet my 61 year old self once and learn about a few of the pitfalls I need to watch out for.

I thank him and head back to 35 minutes before I had originally left. I wait for 5 minutes until I see a previous version of myself show up -- the saboteur.

I sneak up on him and tap him on the shoulder. He's surprised to see me, but I tell him that I've already gone into the future, and met the 61 year old version of ourselves. I tell him about the things I learned.

"So now you don't need to sabotage his time machine," I say. He agrees and we both watch as that version of ourselves gets in his time machine, and disappears, on his way to 2028.

Fear the Silence (mp3) by randomlife

I just want to know how to properly chastise smokers when they throw their butts on the sidewalk.

I have 10,000 songs on my iPod.

Next, I actually rub the bristles of the toothbrush against my teeth. I know it sounds odd to use my teeth to clean something, but I find that it actually works really well for toothbrushes. Because teeth are arranged in nice little semi-circles on both the top and bottom of the mouth, I can easily clean my toothbrush from just about every possible angle. It's important to rub the toothbrush against each and every one of my teeth, because this keeps the bristles from wearing down in any one particular direction.

Also (and I kind of discovered this accidentally) toothpaste actually has kind of a nice, minty taste! I've hardly ever come across cleansing agents that don't taste like soap. Do not try this with Comet! Most brands of toothpaste are pretty good for this method of cleaning.

Next, I run the toothbrush under water to get the excess toothpaste off of it. This usually involves rubbing the bristles a little with my thumb, too, because sometimes there may be some food particles from my teeth that accidentally make their way onto the brush. I should probably clean my teeth before cleaning my toothbrush, but I rarely have time for that.

Lastly, I make sure that I rinse the toothpaste out of my mouth. It tastes okay, but I'm not exactly sure it's edible. It is technically a cleanser, after all.

Next week: How to clean dental floss. Also with your teeth!

It seems to me that if a bunch of people living in a certain area want to claim to be their own country or part of another, why shouldn't they be allowed to?

I don't understand the whole momentum phenomenon. How can momentum be a deciding factor for a voter? And yet if a candidate starts emerging as a winner, it does seem that people start jumping on the bandwagon. Sometimes it seems that it's of utmost importance to some people to have voted for the winner. It's almost like a bet. They consider their vote to be a guess of who's going to win, not an endorsement of a candidate that represents their values.

"I picked him because I saw a lot of his supporters jumping up and down with signs today." Nope. Disqualified.

"I voted for him because a lot of the early states seem to be going his way." Sorry.

"I voted the way I did because I want the war in Iraq to end, I believe that every adult should have the right to marry the person they love, and I want universal health care." Okay then.

I was reading the above article on CNN about a sheriff's deputy in Wisconsin that shot and killed six people, when I came across this part of the story:

Is that something that we really need to watch? Obviously the woman consented to having her grief videotaped, so maybe it's just the wording of that link that gets to me. Gather around, everyone, and be entertained by grief!