I wouldn't classify the movie as a comedy. Nor did I see the movies with other nominees Emily Blunt, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, or Meryl Streep. But after seeing Silver Linings yesterday I completely understand why Jennifer Lawrence won for "Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical".

Washington - Yesterday a U.S. Army spokesperson backed the decision by the Association of [Fort] Bragg Officers' Spouses to deny membership to the wife of a lesbian Army officer. Yet just days before, the Marine Corps Commandant instructed clubs at all Marine bases to welcome same-sex spouses as a condition of continued operation on Marine installations.

"It makes no sense that the spouse of a service member can face discrimination in one branch of the Armed Services yet be protected from discrimination in another.  This situation would not have occurred if the Pentagon was not dragging its heels on updating military regulations to include the families of gay service members," said HRC President Chad Griffin.  "While there are many regulations the Pentagon needs to update to support the families of gay service members, we call on Secretary Panetta to immediately issue military regulations that will allow the spouses and partners of gay service members access to a military ID.  This benefit is crucial to accessing many of the benefits and services offered to military families."

Initially, the Association claimed that the spouse of the Army officer did not qualify for membership because she did not have a military ID card. Stunningly, the Association now claims, with the Army's backing, that they can deny the officer's spouse membership because federal law allows them to discriminate against gay individuals. link

But when it comes to Gregory's own kids, however, they are secured every school day by armed guards.

The Gregory children go to school with the children of President Barack Obama, according to the Washington Post. That school is the co-ed Quaker school Sidwell Friends.

According to a scan of the school's online faculty-staff directory, Sidwell has a security department made up of at least 11 people. Many of those are police officers, who are presumably armed.  

But then the NRA had had a change of heart. The organization's strategists came to worry that if gun law enforcement was handed to the Secret Service, one of the few federal agencies with a reputation for competence, gun owners might actually have something to fear. And, they feared, that if the agency did become part of the Secret Service, they'd lose an easy target.
...
Once the NRA had saved the ATF, it focused on how to neuter it. Four years after bargaining for the preservation of the ATF, the NRA helped Congress formally handcuff the agency, in the form of the 1986 Firearms Owners Protection Act. The law, which included a handful of token regulations (such as a ban on machine guns), made it all but impossible for the government to prosecute corrupt gun dealers. It prohibited the bureau from compiling a national database of retail firearm sales, reduced the penalty for dealers who falsified sales records from a felony to a misdemeanor, and raised the threshold for prosecution for unlicensed dealing.

Perhaps most glaringly, the ATF was explicitly prohibited from conducting more than one inspection of a single dealer in a given year, meaning that once an agent had visited a shop, that dealer was free to flout the law. link

... But what about the claim that Sidwell Friends has 11 armed guards, which some Web sites have depicted with images of armed police with binoculars?

This is based on the fact that the online directory for Sidwell Friends lists 11 people as working in the Security Department. Five are listed as "special police officer," while two are listed as "on call special police officer," which presumably means they do not work full-time. The directory also lists two weekend shift supervisors, one security officer and the chief of security.

 Under the District of Columbia General Order 308.7, a special police officer is a private commissioned police officer with arrest powers in the area that he or she protects. They may also be authorized to bear firearms -- but it is not required. Security officers, by contrast, cannot carry firearms and in effect are watchmen. So five to seven security personnel in theory could be licensed to carry firearms.

But we spoke to parents who said they had never seen a guard on campus with a weapon. And Ellis Turner, associate head of Sidwell Friends, told us emphatically: "Sidwell Friends security officers do not carry guns." (Note: this includes those listed as special police officers.)

Sidwell Friends, by the way, has two distinct campuses, a lower school in Bethesda and a middle and upper schools in Washington. So given shift rotations and three different schools, it appears that the 11 "armed guards" is really just one or two unarmed guards per school at a time. link

Earl hated bunting, the hit and run and playing for one run at a time.  He firmly believed in defense, pitching and the virtue of a 3 run home run.  He was elected to the baseball HOF in 1996.