One of my favorite of Dr. King's quotes:

That old law about "an eye for an eye" leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing. (He was quoting Mahatma Gandhi who said, "An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind."

and

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

Among my favorite long pieces: Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam and Letters From Birmingham City Jail.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

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Some SOPA changes, but still not enough. It's still a censorship bill.

A judge has refused to add Newt, Perry and Huntsman to the Virginia ballot.

What else happened today? This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

For those of you not interested in Joran van der Sloot's sentencing, and with BTD out for a few more days, here's an open thread. All topics welcome.

I'm busy at work and BTD will be away for a few days.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

A world without Twinkies? Or Hostess Cup Cakes ? The day may be coming as Hostess filed for bankruptcy. Maybe someone can buy it.

Hostess has about 19,000 employees and operates in 49 states. Annual sales are about $2 billion.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

One of these days I'll start writing about stuff again. Today is not that day.

In the meantime, read David Brooks. Seriously. An interesting, although not novel, premise. There is some truth in what he writes.

Open thread.

You've all been waiting with bated breath for my pick in tonight's BCS championship game (wait, what?) featuring Alabama and LSU. I like Alabama (7 units). The line is pick.

I got some props as well - Trent Richardson to score the first TD (3/1 1 unit), Alabama QB McCarron under 15 1/2 completions (1 unit) and he throws a pick before he throws a TD (1 unit.)

Open Thread.

Busy.

Open Thread.

I've got a lot of errands to run before a big TV nite: the premiere of John Grisham's The Firm, the series finale of Desperate Housewives, the season premiere of Shameless and new episodes of Pan Am and The Good Wife.

For those of you watching football or with other things on your mind, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Last night's open thread is about to hit 200 comments, which triggers our automatic thread closure. Here's another one so you can keep the conversation going. All topics welcome.

Looks like we need another open thread. Here it is, all topics welcome.

Afghan President Karzai has ordered that the prison at Bagram AFB be turned over to Afghan control within a month.

A presidential statement said that keeping Afghan citizens imprisoned without trial violates the country's constitution, as well as international human rights conventions.

President Obama outlined the new Pentagon budget today.

I am so done with the massive advertising on mainstream media sites. Over New Years, I installed a security program called Kaspersky Pure on my computers and I haven't seen an ad or pop-up or under-pop since. It even blocks affiliate ads on blogs (unless you tell it not to.) [More...]