Public Option Except …:

Senate majority leader Harry Reid has a brilliant idea: put the public option back in the health care bill but let individual states refuse it. This way those southern whites who rule their southern right wing states can continue to deny health care to … you know, (stagy whisper) people they don't like.

President Obama wants you to stay home if you're sick, but your boss won't pay you if you do. He might even fire you! Quick, what do you do? A.) Go to work and sneeze on your boss; B.) stay home and update your résumé; C.) thank your lucky stars because you work for a company that provides sick leave; D.) kick the dog because you foolishly used up your sick leave this summer going to major league baseball games and lying about it.

In California Judge Vaughn R. Walker asked the following question in a gay rights trial about same sex marriage: "The last marriage that I perfomred involved a groom who was 95 and the bride was 83. I did not demand that they prove that they intended to engage in procreative activity. Now, was I missing something?" (See The New York Times story.)

The judge was responding to the argument that marriage should be reserved for those people who wish and are biologically capable of reproducing. My daughter tells me she sees nothing wrong with two men marrying, but she's completely disgusted by the thought of a couple of geezers looking into honey moon accommodations.

Once this gets to the Supreme Court, we can expect Justice Antonin Scalia to inform us about the founding father's intentions: Let's see, George Washington: no kids, slept around a lot; Tom Jefferson: no kids by his wife, but one or more with his slaves. Yeah, we can look to those guys for what to do.