Your Opinion: Week of 7/28/2011

This is a post I'd like to try from time to time, getting just plain feedback and answers on some large, looming questions that have been bugging me lately. It may work better once (or if) more people start reading this blog, but I'm full of questions now, so we might as well start! Please leave any and all opinions you have in the comment section. So, in no particular order...

1. With the lack of compromise now fully displayed in the federal government over the debt ceiling between Republicans and Democrats, will this finally give the opportunity for a third or independent party to make a significant advancement in the 2012 elections? 
2. With the recent death of Amy Winehouse, why is it that once a celebrity dies, it's suddenly almost blasphemous to say anything negative about them? And why do people feel the sudden need to go out and buy her album?
3. Is a wedding just a large party and the bride and groom the hosts? The reason I ask this is that I comment on a lot of forums on wedding etiquette and there seems to be a great divide. Some people think that it's the responsibility of the bride and groom to do whatever necessary to make the guests happy ("I wouldn't even consider going to a wedding if I didn't get a plus one. I don't care if they can't afford it. I won't enjoy it if I was alone.") while others fall into the camp that the guests need to accommodate any decision the bride and groom make ("I love my matron of honor, but hate her husband. Do I have to invite him?"). What's the line and where does it fall.
4. How long of a vacation do you need to go on before you suck it up, pay the fee, and check a bag? Is it ever worth the hassle with current air travel?
5. Does banning children under a certain age at places like restaurants improve the atmosphere? Should more places instill this policy? Is it discriminator? Or, should most, if not all, places institute a policy where management can ask someone with a misbehaving miscreant to step outside?

Ok, so PLEASE let me know what you think. I know you have opinions so let them fly!