Carlene

Nominate Rice.....I dare you.

I loved "Brokeback Mountain". It was a fantastic love story. I drug my DH to see it. The fact that he went is a huge testimony to his love for me...LOL We were surprised at the number of couples (man/woman couples) in the audience and the distinct absence of gay couples. My husband has a friend who is originally from Wyoming. He takes "Brokeback Mountain" as a personal affront to his manhood and refuses to see it. Homosexuality in Texas is not exactly well-received, that's for sure. Young gay men (high school age) are still extremely reluctant to come out of the closet. My stepdaughter has a gay stepson. Everyone could tell except his dad. It was the 800 pound elephant in the room. Finally, he came out when he was in his 20's. His very macho dad had a really hard time with it. Now he refers to Dustin as "living an alternative lifestyle". Once in a while he will crack a joke. At some family dinner my DIL said she was terrified that her son and his girlfriend would have sex and the girl would get pregnant. Dustin's dad said, "Not all of us would consider a pregnant girlfriend a BAD thing, you know."

I'm not gay and I don't have gay children, but I have a friend whose son loved to dress up in girl's clothes when he was 3-5 years old. He's in his 20's now and we love to tease him about it. His mom has some great photos, too. But he's not gay. I wouldn't worry about this "cross-dressing" or consider it an indication that your grandson might be gay. First of all, gay men and cross-dressing men are two different things. Secondly, a lot of little boys like to dress up. Maybe Cinderella was what was handy, but he might just as soon have been Superman. My middle son loved costumes. His brother used to beg me not to let Patrick wear his Underoo outfits outside the house. By the way, statistically only 52% of gay identical twins have gay twin brothers.

You would be in some pretty good company. Cher has been very supportive of her Lesbian daughter.

Pharmaceutical companies reported huge record profits after less than one year of Medicare Part D. Imagine that! Edited to add... And oil company profits have SOARED since Bush took office. But of course some fool will come along and claim that this is all Clinton's fault because the economy "adjusts" itself every 8 years. It sure as hell does! That's about the frequency with which we elect Republicans and their fat cat, big business bed buddies to the Presidency!

I'm worthless to you, as far as personal experience. However, my youngest son and his wife separated last spring. It looked to be absolutely over. He retained a lawyer. She had a new man in her life (that's what precipitated the separation). They fought about EVERYTHING, even though they were living apart. Bottom line is they are back together now. They have been married only 11 years, but they have two children and once the flame from the hot new romance died down, my DIL realized that they had a history together that would take her until she was almost 50 to re-create with someone else. Six months ago, I wouldn't have bet 10 cents that this marriage would survive, but it seems to be doing okay. They are in counseling. She agreed at first, then tried to back out, but my son stood firm on that. I have lived long enough to see people change - and I mean 180 degrees. They have to want it, though. They have to do it for themselves. Good luck!

If this new Democratic Congress doesn't push thru a bill to approve negotiated bulk pricing of drugs for the Medicare Part D plan, I am going to be soooooooooo pissed. There is just no good reason not to allow it. If it's good enough for our Vets, it's good enough for everyone else!

I agree....but wish it were otherwise. A Clinton/Obhama ticket would insure the biggest landslide victory we've ever seen....for the Republican party.

Are we talking gross income, or net? And just individuals, or businesses, too? I'm for an income tax of 10% of gross income, across the board. That means no deductions, no loopholes, no tax shelters. If you earn 100 K, you pay 10 K. If you earn 10 million, you pay 1 mil. No tax free munie bonds. No depreciation. No tax credits. No forms to fill out, either. :clap2:

No, you will have taken care of her because she's your mother and she took care of you before you could take care of yourself. I wish I could trade places with you. I got the inheritance, but my mother is dead.

But Clinton's lame duck Congress was neither vindictive nor petty, right? I guess it was the only thing that kept the whole damn country from going to hell in a handbasket. PLEAAAAAAASE.

And her DH.....FED EX

I seem to recall that 9/11 happened on Bush's watch and there were no bombs involved. Maybe you are referring to the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that Bush "saved" us from. Unfortunately, we don't have enough military support to protect ourselves from the ones who really DO have bombs, like North Korea. Everybody's in Iraq, on a liberation mission, since the WMD thing didn't work out.

I saw firsthand a life unfold that was, I am positive, gay from its very conception. A family who lived across the street from me for 25 years produced 4 sons. They were good Catholics. We went to the same church. Our kids attended the same schools. Three of their boys were as straight and unruly as any hetro male could be. Patrick, their 3rd son, was obviously different. I think I knew Patrick was gay even before he did. Before he had any sexual orientation at all. It was so obvious. More than anything else, Patrick wanted to be a cheerleader, but our school district didn't have boy cheerleaders. He practiced cheers in the front yard anyway and was ridiculed by all the other children. Every Halloween, Patrick dressed up like a girl. Sometimes he was a torch singer, or a Vegas show girl, or one year, a pregnant ballerina. By high school he was every girl's favorite girlfriend. But the boys detested him and made his life miserable. They smeared hate messages on his car and his parents' driveway. Patrick was a promising gymnastics star in junior high and high school, but he eventually grew too big to compete on a serious scale. He turned to acting and modeling. He even worked for a time as a male stripper. He was in college when he got sick. He died at age 20 from AIDS. His parents never accepted Patrick's lifestyle. They never understood why he didn't just conform. It would have been so much easier, they said. They just never got it.

Don't worry, Sunta...it's mostly for show. Fundamentalists love nothing better than to forgive a "reformed" sinner.

I'd be a candidate for immigration, Tommy if it weren't so danged COLD in Canada.

We already rule "the most powerful nation in the world". The men just don't know it. Shhhhhhhhhh

I pointed to Mrs. Reagan as an example just last night. She was totally devoted to "Ronnie", thru good times and bad. Some people have suggested that women are better equipped to handle these challenges than men. BS. The biggest problem with some men is that they have two heads and only enough blood to use one of them at a time. I recommend a rubber band, if that seems to be a continuing problem.

When I was researching WLS I looked into the so-called mini-GB. Dr Rutledge was the only one doing it then, and is still the guy in charge of the whole mini-GB movement. He owns all the mini-GB clinics. There was a lot of controversy about him and the procedure about 3 years ago. There must be a reason that only about 3 doctors in the whole world perform this surgery. And I agree....his hard sell approach just turns me completely off.

Carol, thank you so much for your kind words, but I think I must not have made myself clear. It was my second husband that died of Cancer. My current husband is still alive. My first husband was killed in an industrial accident. I was 27 years old and had 4 children, the oldest of which was five. I have also lost both my parents and a grandchild (to SIDS). I have a deep faith in God, but I really am hoping for a good explanation from Him someday.

Thank you, Suzanne, for sharing your story. I know it could not have been easy. It's amazing that your mom felt entitled to her righteous indignation, in view of her own past discretions. I guess people can justify anything in their own minds. You are obviously a bigger person than I am, Suzanne, to hope that your spouse would have another woman to escape to if you were ill. I'm afraid I am much less charitable. It just seems very disrespectful to me. I hope that doesn't sound too selfish. As for talking to Mr P about any of this - my DH would KILL me. I have been told in no uncertain terms that I am not to utter one single word to Mr P regarding his relationship with the caregiver. My DH talks to Mr P every day - sometimes several times a day. They have discussed it. DH has suggested (gently) that she and Mr P should be discreet and, specifically, that he (Mr P) should not move her into his house. Mr P's response was to tell my DH what a wonderful person L is....how they have a lot in common, etc. I think it's obvious that Mr P and L decided on a course of action some time ago. And I have decided on mine. I'm not going to be a false friend to L. I will be polite to her if we cross paths but I won't be going to "their" home or out to the movies with them. I certainly can't eat with them. Stress makes my band tighten up like a virgin on prom night. Ironically, my husband's ex-wife was a smoker and Mr and Mrs P abhor the smell of smoke. So they did not socialize with DH and ex Mrs DH, who were married for 20 years. I guess the stench of infidelity isn't as bad as the smell of cigarette smoke.

I'm a CW girl all the way, except for really old rock and roll, from my youth, back in the stone ages. I read a lot, especially biographies and historical fiction (more history, less fiction). I have really eclectic tastes in literature. I enjoyed Watership Down as much as Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett) I loved the Dune trilogy (Sci Fi) and I'm a Stephen King fan.

I took a lot....it didn't help.

Carol... I lost my mom in a very similar fashion, though she had been ill for years with Parkinson's Disease. She threw a blood clot that hit her lungs and caused pneumonia. I took her to the ER and they were treating the pneumonia, then she threw another clot, but they were able to revive her. The doctor had me fill out some forms, outlining what measures they could use to sustain her life, and which they could not. You check the boxes... yes__ no__ all down the list. It was awful. I felt like an executioner. She was in ICU, on a Heparin drip, and her doctor was standing next to the bed when she died. A massive clot hit her brain and she was gone in a second. Not 10 minutes before, she was complaining because they hadn't brought her Breakfast. The quality of my mom's life had been extremely poor for years. She left her house only when she had to go to the doctor. Before my mom died I thought that losing her would be the worst thing that could happen to both of us. Years later, when my husband's Cancer started to advance, I realized that I had been wrong. My mom's death was very sudden (and painless), and that in itself is a huge blessing.

Because they were creeps before they were exes, that's why.