'HAPPILY out of New Haven' writes: "Since some of us had a few laughs last Christmas season - let's see what answers we get to the question:

WHAT WAS YOUR FUNNIEST CHRISTMAS GIFT?"

Have you seen the commercials and interviews lately with oilman T. Boone Pickens? He's been all over the place in the past few days talking about his plan to get America off foreign oil and develop energy plans based on natural gas, wind and solar.

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In our main Open Mic thread, Mick poses this question about the president and vice president:

Everyone knows that Bush & Cheney lied to get us into Iraq and the majority say that if that's true, they should be impeached. The majority seems to oppose the torture, extraordinary renditions and warrantless wiretaps too. So why not impeach one or both of them and appoint a special prosecutor to see what happened and then have the Senate sit in judgement of the facts? Do you really think defending our Constitution and system of government is a waste of time?

Actually, Someone has tried. Last week Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced articles of impeachment against President Bush. The plan was, as CNN reported, "kicked into legislative no-man's land...."

If you're a parent one of the questions you're asked most is "WHY?" But we also have to explain things like the concept of money and why, like the Rolling Stones sing, you can't always get what you want. So here's an e-mail that we got recently that poses an interesting question:

I was in the check out line at the local grocery store, a small local 'mom and pop' grocery with a butcher, and a small child asked her mom "What is 'Tax'?" How do you explain what "Tax" is to a small child? They cannot see it. It's not tangible. It costs' them their paper route money yet they get nothing in return for this thing called "Tax."

Following up on our other Open Mic post "Repurposing lottery, casino revenue" Daniel wrote:

What are the ODDS of the play 3 coming out 3 times in a row # 695 and the play 4 twice in the same day 4882 ?

Good question, so I asked the lottery folks for a little info.

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How much faith do you have in your local police department? As someone suggested to me today:

"Recently we have seen police corruption in New Haven and Madison, and individual police officers and supervisors being arrested for criminal activity in Norwalk and Hartford....
"How have these recent events affected your perception of those we hire and trust to 'protect the public'? Is there a difference in the duties of a 'city' police force and a 'suburbial' police force?

Disclaimer; my brother-in-law is a Connecticut State Trooper.

"Steve" has suggested this, and because I have seen this asked many times over the years, I think it makes for a great first topic. He writes:

This state is making a killing both with it's lottery system and with the casinos. Why is all that profit going into the general fund instead of education like it was supposed to? Schools are struggling with funding as usual and here we have monies that were supposed to go to them being used for God knows what by our state legislature.

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Regulars and lurkers around here (you know who you are) have noticed how one topic can quickly drift into another, and there are times when you want to talk about a subject we haven't thought of or started. With that in mind, I've set up this area as if it's 'Open Mic Night'. If there's a particular topic you want to opine on and we haven't already started the topic, send me a note and I'll get things going. The mic is open.