Bungee Jumper

In other words, how a company decides to sell, not "what". Specifically, whether a company decides to use excessive market share to stifle competition. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and chalk up your earlier bad definition to foreign language skills (I'm not just being a smartass...I know enough foreign languages to know that "how" and "what" can be grammatically indistinguishable in translation in some languages.) And even in that case...it is NOT an anti-trust violation for Clear Channel to determine their own programming. It may be an anti-trust violation for them to exist controlling 80% of the market...but that has precisely jack sh-- to do with the Dixie Chicks.

Well...maybe in France it's different, but on this side of the pond "anti-trust" is not defined by what a company decides to sell...

Heavily implicit in your post is that the deciding factor in running is "Can I win?" That's arguably the biggest problem with our governmental process... As for Obama...gee, he said he wouldn finish his Senate term, now he's not keeping his promise. That would make him...a politician? Seriously, I wouldn't hold it against him (if he were my Senator, I might feel differently), as it simply sets him equal to everyone else. It would be nice, though, if just one elected official kept a promise just once.

Un. !@#$ing. Real.

Real men scratch until they bleed, they don't use Dove body wash. You drive a Honda Fit, too?

They say anything about Julius Jones?

I didn't even read Bill's post; I just had no idea where you were going with the post. So I took a guess.

On the one hand, while she may be nuts, Lisa Nowak at least cleans up decently. On the other hand...Rosie may be irrestible. In the tidal, gravitational sense, that is...

A teenager's plenty old enough to know better. The girl died because she was stupid. UP is paying because she was stupid. That's why, try as I might, I can't successfully file a frivolous lawsuit. I'm apparently not stupid enough.

And there shouldn't be. Again, common sense says DON'T RIDE YOUR BIKE HEADLONG INTO A MOVING FREIGHT TRAIN. You think it's better to spend our tax paying resources for cops to confiscate IPods from everybody in public, just because one girl was TOO STUPID NOTICE A MOVING FREIGHT TRAIN IN FRONT OF HER? I'm sure UP is. And that's what there ought to be a law against...being hit by a train is one thing, but your estate should not be allowed to sue a freight train operator if YOU hit the train and get killed.

Think hard about that statement, and get back to me on what's wrong with it.

That is complete horseshit. The First Amendment was NOT intended to cover the actions of private organizations, whether they cross state lines or not. Unless they found some sort of FCC involvement where Clear Channel was specifically told to boycott the Dixie Chicks (doubtful...but I've heard it expressed as a popular conspiracy theory), the First Amendment doesn't even begin to apply. And yes, the Senate hearings may have said otherwise. But anyone who's read my posts in the past knows what I think of Congressional investigations. All the hearings tell me is that they don't have even the merest understanding of what the First Amendment actually means.

Had business cards made up and everything. It was so much easier to get dates as a Nutrition Transportation Engineer than it was as "well...I deliver pizza...but I'm working my way through grad school...", to which the response was usually "You're 25, delivering pizza, and still in college? Call me when you grow up..."

Is the federal "crime" a First Amendment violation, or an anti-trust violation? Either way, it's bull sh--, as there's no federal law requiring the Dixie Chicks get air time. But let's at least be clear if our accusation is illegal censorship, or an anti-trust violation, shall we?

Uhhhh...no. There is no FCC regulation saying that a private, multi-state broadcast corporation must play the Dixie Chicks. Seriously...within the guidelines the FCC sets (i.e. decency standards, none of the "seven dirty words", all that nonsense), Clear Channel is well within their rights to set the playlists of their radio stations however they see fit. It may be censorship (one could also call it a freedom of speech issue protected by the First Amendment - specifically, Clear Channel's First Amendment right to decide themselves what they will and will not allow to be said on the radio), but it is company policy, and manifestly NOT a federal crime.

And such packages are high-margin, aren't they?

I thought I head that nearly every American concert of theirs sold out - usually rapidly. Now I have to see if I can confirm that. As though I hadn't wasted enough time on this topic today...

As far as I know, you do. Why do you think they push extended warranties and $500 underbody coatings?

Sure you can. Just look at Stanford's math web site...

Damn it, I had $10 on you calling him a liberal for that post. Thanks, bastard...

Particularly since the free advertising sent their CD, concert, and merchandise sales through the !@#$ing roof. They're such victims...

True enough. I was going to describe them to Coli as "Britney Spears with banjos."

As a former nutrition transportation engineer...$25 is a good tip, no matter how many pizzas.

That the Dixie Chicks are country is arguable, at best. Have you heard their music lately? Okay, stupid question...