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FULL TITLE: Just popping out for some milk: Shoppers snap the eccentric characters who roam the aisles of their local supermarkets Ah the supermarket aisle: a mundane catwalk of everyday life. But every so often, we come across characters so out of the ordinary that reality is briefly suspended. These images, rounded up from across the world, showcase the shoppers so out-there, they simply had to be captured on camera. In America, the sheer volume of these snaps is so great that a website exists to document them, the wildly popular People of Walmart. Here, MailOnline presents a selection of...

That said, I am entirely convinced that same-sex marriage will again be legalized in California, the 52 percent vote notwithstanding. Just as the courts overrode the will of the majority in ordering desegregation of public schools and public accommodations, and just as the courts ignored the demands of the electorate by opening voting to people of color and the right to marry to mixed-race couples, so, too, will the courts, in defiance of the majority, however slim, reopen the doors of marriage to the gay community. The Sturm und Drang with which society greeted these courageous and controversial court rulings...

Given the gas-guzzling behemoths that so many of us in the West feel entitled to, it would seem hypocritical to begrudge people in poor countries an affordable car. Much like the hypocrisy of the dealers who have resisted Tata’s bid for Jaguar on the grounds that Indian ownership would erode the brand’s prestige. The sad fact is that the world has changed since Americans celebrated the egalitarian breakthrough of the Ford Model T. We know now that gas-driven automobiles do terrible damage to the environment, and the notion of loosing millions upon millions of new carbon emitters on our planet...

The Rome and America comparison is very much in the air these days -- you have only to cock an ear. It's invoked by those who yearn for a worldwide Pax Americana, and also by those who wring their hands about an impending "decline and fall." In truth, ancient Rome and modern America differ in a thousand ways. But a handful of parallels hold up. One has to do with the way we view the outside world. Imperial Rome often knew little about the people beyond its frontiers. Disparaging those people, it underestimated their capabilities. America's motives in the world...

Apology aside, it's a matter of arrogance That seems pretty clear-cut. But the ever-evasive Sen. Kerry, who voted for the war in Iraq before he voted against it, angrily denied that he was questioning the intelligence of our fighting men and women. According to Sen. Kerry, it was a botched joke that was aimed at President Bush. ... Several key Democrats said Sen. Kerry should apologize for his remarks. But the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee couldn't find the humility to admit that he was wrong. Finally, he offered a quali-

Knoll & Rendell: Disgraceful remarks Tuesday, July 26, 2005 Sometimes politicians need to stop while they're behind. Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll did a little politicking and offered some political commentary Tuesday last, uninvited, at the Carnegie funeral of Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich. The Marine, 32, of Westwood, was killed in a mortar attack in Iraq on July 10. Mrs. Baker Knoll began talking to Sgt. Goodrich's aunt during the Communion service. She handed the aunt a business card; Knoll called the funeral a "function." Then Knoll told the aunt that the state government was "against the war." Outrageous. Visiting...

Lt. gov. crashed Marine's funeral, kin say Saturday, July 23, 2005 By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau The family of a Marine who was killed in Iraq is furious with Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll for showing up uninvited at his funeral this week, handing out her business card and then saying "our government" is against the war. Rhonda Goodrich of Indiana, Pa., said yesterday that a funeral was held Tuesday at a church in Carnegie for her brother-in-law, Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, 32. ... Then, suddenly, "one uninvited guest made an appearance, Catherine Baker Knoll." She sat down next...

In the annals of feckless non-apology apologies, the one just served up by PA Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll scrapes the bottom of the barrel. Check out the article below, and note this turn of phrase: "If my regard for his family's grief was seen another way, it is thoroughly regrettable." In other words, what is regrettable is not her awful behavior, but the way the Marine's family saw it. Sickening. -------------------------- Slain Marine's Family Gets Apology For Funeral Comments POSTED: 11:44 am EDT July 25, 2005 PITTSBURGH -- After being criticized for attending a Marine's funeral, Lt. Gov. Catherine...

Written apologies will be sent to a fallen Marine's relatives angered by Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll's uninvited appearance at the soldier's funeral and her criticism of the war in Iraq, Gov. Ed Rendell said Sunday. Rendell said he will send a personal letter to the family of the late Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, of Westwood, and will ask Knoll to do the same. Goodrich, 32, a police officer and infantry unit leader, died July 10 in a mortar attack in Hit, Iraq. Rendell said he hadn't spoken with Knoll about the incident, but was disturbed by the family's...

Note: where you see "a_ _ _ _ _ _", choose a 7-letter word beginning with "a" that you feel is appropriate for Pennsylvania Lt. Governor Catherine Baker Knoll (hmmmm....what word?...amateur?...artiste?...athlete?...hmmmm) MIDI - PROUD MARY They said goodbye to a hero Sgt. Goodrich served his nation selflessly Catherine Baker Knoll had not been invited Quite a spectacle they soon would see Anti-war stuff she's saying While mourners had been praying Knoll is...Knoll is...Knoll is such an a_ _ _ _ _ _ Knoll is such an a_ _ _ _ _ _ Why was this woman so heartless It was...

Hands out business card, tells family 'our government is against this war' When the family of Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich gathered in Pittsburgh for the fallen Marine's funeral, they expected a large crowd – after all, they've lived in the area for generations and Joseph had been a police officer before becoming a leatherneck – but they didn't expect to see Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor show up, hand out her business card and tell them "our government" opposes the war. Goodrich, 32, and fellow western Pennsylvanian, Lance Cpl. Ryan J. Kovacicek, 22 – both second-generation Marines – were killed in Iraq...

Saturday, July 23, 2005 By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau The family of a Marine who was killed in Iraq is furious with Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll for showing up uninvited at his funeral this week, handing out her business card and then saying "our government" is against the war.

The power of negative thinking is greatly underestimated, especially in politics. Leaders often define themselves by what they are against, and political movements often discover their affirmative purposes when they engage in principled battles against ideas and institutions that they believe are wrong, even evil.

December 7, 2004 -- GEORGE Carlin ended his relationship with the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with a devastating diss the other night. The caustic comic finished his four-year run with a dark set that included riffs on suicides and beheadings, and made it clear that he couldn't wait to get out of "this [bleeping] hotel" and Sin City.

A small but significant, because articulate, sliver of the Democratic Party seems to relish interpreting the party's defeat as validation. This preening faction reasons as follows: the re-election of George W. Bush proves that 51 percent of the electorate are homophobic, gun-obsessed, economically suicidal, antiscience, theocratic dunces. Therefore to be rejected by them is to have one's intellectual and moral superiority affirmed.

Half the audience who showed up last week to see John Edwards' first South Carolina appearance since he won his home state's primary in February walked out before he arrived - two hours late. And in another sign of trouble in paradise, the state's Democratic Senate candidate - whose campaign the Edwards visit was supposed to boost - declined to be seen on the same stage with him. Democrat U.S. Senate hopeful Inez Tenenbaum "has gone to great lengths to distance herself from the national party," reports the South Carolina newspaper, The State. Edwards "is about as close as she’s...

I don't agree with the dad placing the kid in this position, but come on . . . Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va. Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards (news - web sites) made a brief stop at the airport as he concluded his two-day bus tour to locations in West Virginia and Ohio. (AP Photo/Randy Snyder) http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/040916/480/wvrs10309162250&e=1&ncid=1756

Former president Bill Clinton, the principal reason why I became a conservative, recently visited my home city of Portland, Oregon for a Democratic Party fundraiser. The event was held at a downtown hotel and was well-attended by an eclectic group of supporters. Being black and conservative, I'm painfully aware that I'm a minority within a minority. My treatment outside of this extremely liberal event made me pause and wonder about the "tolerance" of those who claim to be so accepting of everyone.A small group of activists who support the campaign of incumbent Republican Senator Gordon Smith, which included myself, were...

August 7, 2002 9:15 a.m. Do Senate Democrats really intend to kill the judicial nomination of Priscilla Owen? It's impossible to say for sure. But consider their latest move in the battle over the Texas state supreme court justice who is President Bush's choice for a place on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals: Republicans long complained about committee delays in holding a hearing for Owen, who was nominated on May 9, 2001. After more than a year of waiting, Owen finally got her hearing two weeks ago, on Tuesday, July 23. As is customary at such sessions, Democrats not...

Confederate Museum won't leave building Joyce Howard Price THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published 7/28/2002 Officials of the Confederate Museum in New Orleans vow they will not vacate the building they've called home for nearly 112 years until all legal appeals are exhausted. Last week they got a setback: A judge ruled they do not own the historic red brick structure at 929 Camp St., which houses thousands of Civil War artifacts, most of them donated by the Confederate veterans who used them, or their families. "Unfortunately, [New Orleans Civil District] Judge C. Hunter King ruled for the other side. So we...