BJean

Staking political signs on private property without permission is a great way to ensure a vote for the opposition

Have any of you been to Alaska recently? Anyone want to guess what many of the folks up there generally think about global warming? Maybe all those melting glaciers are actually causing the snow in Iran, or wherever. I'm no expert but it makes sense doesn't it? For the record, I live in one of those locations mentioned as having an unseasonably cold winter and I must say, au contrare mi amigos. :thumbup:

smatyas: Not to worry. You can vote for Ralph Nader.

*** I really do appreciate your post L8RBloom. I think you are willing to give me the benefit of the doubt when I sound mean. You can't imagine how much your post meant to me.**** I am very, very impressed with the tone and content of West Coast Fat Guy's posts! You are one cool cat as Green would say!

Jodie, you never cease to amaze and entertain me. Btw, you must be doing well and are enjoying a healthy pregnancy. Good for you!

If you don't believe that this debate has much to do with Democratic vs. Republican alignment, why don't we take a poll here and see exactly who of us believes that global warming is a non-issue vs. those who believe it potentially an important issue? You Republicans here sure do hate me don't you? Or is it still not personal? I can't believe little ole' me can rile some of you up so much. I say what I think because we aren't in the same room. If we were across the table from each other, I wouldn't dare.

Whoo-hoo!!! Right on, Kat!!! I vote for your Dad! with you as VP. I think things often get way out of hang during discussions just because of political leanings - not due to the pros and cons of the real question at hand. Your point about what's wrong with living as if it were a problem is cool and one I wholly support. But the thing is, corporations do not want that. Big business will be hurt in the pocketbook if we do that. That's what all the shouting is about. That's what all the misdirection to Al Gore is all about. Republicans are experts at misdirecting our attention to a person or behavior that is not relevant to the real question. That's why they're so good at winning political races - in spite of their performance in office.

The question I originally posed was why do so many Republicans believe that Al Gore invented the term and theory of "global warming"? If you don't believe that, then ignore the question. If you do believe that, why do you? To me, it's like behaving as if Bill Clinton invented hanky panky in the White House. Thank you so much West Coast Fat Guy. It is easy to post items that are political propaganda and pass them off as the gospel. It is always great to have someone saavy enough to reveal the other side of the claim. No matter which side of the political debate we're on. Of course at Rants & Raves, it is often just about opinion. Or beliefs. That's what makes it important to have points on both sides of the question represented when "research" is posted. Otherwise one poster may feel ganged up on. Not that much fun, eh?

Fair enough, Elenation.

Hi Tommy! Haven't seen one of your posts in a long time. Glad to know you're still alive and kicking.

Kat: You said that SO much better than I. Thank you so much because that's exactly how I feel and it clearly demonstrates how one can dislike the message but not blame the messenger. You always come through, Kat, and I've always thought you are really sharp and that you must have a heart of Gold! Elenation, obviously the tone of my posts irritates you, as well as the message. That's too bad because I honestly do not post what I do to irritate you or insinuate that you are a bad person because we have differing viewpoints, politically. I know that sometimes my posts sound harsh, and believe it or not, you're not the first person to point that out to me. By way of explanation, I will tell you that I am almost always at work, pressed for time, when I get on LBT. So I'm not as careful with my wording as I probably should be - at least if I were here to make friends and have people think I'm a sweet person. Fact is, I enjoy the debate a whole lot on lots of different topics and lots of different threads at LBT. I learn a lot. I learned something from your post about Dr. Gray, in fact. But I can differentiate between someone's politics and the individual who is posting. If someone makes it personal, and they are accusatory and insulting to the individual who made the post, that's a whole 'nuther thing in my books. If I irritate you so much, please ignore me! But you don't irritate me, so I probably won't ignore your posts.

In fact, I didn't used to be so sarcastic. I used to actually use logic in a good way. But I got burned, bad, by an extremely conservative right winger one too many times. Now I have fun biting back. I've never understood why Republicans believe that Al Gore invented the term "global warming." I am glad you post things that you find interesting and that support your viewpoint. But I'm sorry if you have no stomach for someone disagreeing with you or trying to point out an opposite viewpoint. I guess I like you better than you like me. C'est la vie.

Ok. We're straight now. We may as well all get on board with this one because a well thought of meteorologist, who has a talent for predicting hurricanes, has spoken out saying that humans don't have an impact on the weather, at least global warming. And just to prove he's right, he says all the research that has been done by scientists, who are in agreement about the atmosphere and gobal warming, is all about grants. Really? How convenient. What I don't understand is what harm, exactly, will it do if humans live a cleaner, safer life? The only obvious harm I can see is that it will harm the corporations polluting our environment in the pocketbook. And we might all have to tighten our belts (so to speak) because of corporations having to spend money to comply. That's a huge sacrifice for something that Dr. William Gray says is no threat to our environment. Ok. I get it. Thanks for the heads up. I'll watch this space in 10 or 15 years and be awed by Dr. Gray's brilliance.

I've read most of this story, although I skipped some of it. Is it just me, but is it normal for a girl to bench press 450 lbs? The missing piece to the story of her being railroaded into LB surgery, might be that she was seriously ill with a bad case of diabetes and/or many other serious medical conditions that could have been life threatening. That doesn't make a lot of sense though because of her activity level. If she were seriously ill, how could she pull up fences, replace barbed wire and bench press 450 lbs? (All before breakfast, right?) Furthermore, if she really was gilding the boy cows, building the barn, making hay bales and all kinds of farm work, why the heck would she need to or want to lift weights? This story smells. It reminds me of some of the stories you hear people call in to talk radio shows. I know people who concoct stories just for the fun of it and my niece even wound up having one radio station send her prizes for having the most sad and moving story. She didn't want the prizes but was too embarrassed at that point to tell the truth... that she made it all up! I think I may have mentioned this in an earlier post. I saw that this thread was still going today and it really tickeled me. I'll bet Diesel is laughing his(?) a$$ off to see it still going.

Nazi's sought to control people, in every aspect of their lives. Outlawing women's right to choose is that same kind of self-righteous wanting to make people live by the rules you believe are right. As for men's right to control his partner's fertilized egg, once he jettesons his little baby makers out into the world he loses control of those little guys, who have one thing in mind. If he wants control, he should make sure he knows where every little guy is at all times. Once one of them has invaded a woman's egg, the woman's physiology is in the driver's seat. She owns the process of turning the fertilized egg into a healthy human being. Everything, every decision, every healthy or unhealthy process must be decided by the woman. Once the fertilized egg has been cooked to full term and it is a viable baby, then the father must take responsibility for one-half of the baby's welfare and the decisions involving the baby. That's life, folks. Or do you think that you can also tell women which vitamins she must take, whether she takes a sauna while she's pregnant, whether she goes skiing, or whether she hibernates in a quiet room? At what point do you really think your control of the baby making process ends?

You thought he sucked as a governor, until you saw him as president and now you KNOW he sucks? What that your point?

These are pubic service announcements! :smile2:

I meant to tell you, Jack, that your post directed at me earlier was actually spot on. As for the last one, you're hilarious! I don't think that Obama can be justly compared to Hannah Montana. I believe that Americans want to feel that they have the power to throw the bum (W) out and they want desperately to feel united with other Americans and they certainly do not want to feel disenfranchised like they did in the past two elections. If one man can step up to the plate and say all the right stuff, how is that a bad thing? I doubt that very many Americans expect very much from politicians anyway, so if he does let them down, it was fun while it lasted. Which is more than I can say for what we've been through with the current crop of ne'er do wells.

I quite agree, Chris. Everyone has a right to speak their piece here. I had no intention of making it personal. I thought I was responding in kind. luluc: The only channel where I heard a favorable report on Huckabee's appearances was on Fox and they claimed that at one of the places he spoke, the place was filled. They did not mention how many seats that particular place held. From the video, it looked very small. But that could have been wishful thinking on my part. It reminded me of the size of a church chapel only configured more in the round. For the life of me, I cannot understand why, after everything has been said and done, people still believe that going to Iraq and being in Iraq could be the proper course of action by the U.S. To insinuate that people who want us out of Iraq are unpatriotic is really unfair and inflammatory and quite the opposite of the truth.

green: wouldn't it be amazing if Obama were to run a clean race, all the way to the end? I've never seen it happen completely in this country. It always winds up down and dirty, but I'm going to cross my fingers! At the very least, this is shaping up to be a very interesting race to the White House. It will be interesting to see how Obama handles the suggestion by McCain that they limit their campaign spending.

luluc I went home early yesterday, turned on the TV and witnessed something that I've never seen in my life! They showed the 17,000 strong throng of people watching Obama and then they showed the outside of the building where thousands more stood, wanting to get in. They showed people from every direction pouring onto the streets trying to get to the building to get to see Barback Obama. It was, had to have been, record breaking this early in the race. I have lived through many presidential elections, the life and death of two Kennedy's, the life and death of Martin Luther King, the marches on Washington during the 60's, the Kent State massacre, the horrible marches all over the country in support of integration, and nothing compares to what I watched yesterday in support of one man. It is in a word, phenominal. I don't know what could possibly slow or stop this momentum, but it made me want to jump for joy at the possibility of this country coming together behind someone who has a good heart and a good brain. Hallelulah and Amen!!!

Chris: Please don't accuse the Democrats of being stupid for trashing Bush at this point - the Republicans are still trashing Clinton constantly and he's been out of office for a long time. They claim that it is because he's married to Hillary Clinton who's running. Well, grow up. They may have similar goals and political aspirations, but they are not the same person. Nor is McCain the same person as Bush even though they share similar goals and political aspirations. Head to head, McCain has no chance against Obama.

Good point, Grace. Although I do believe that people can change if they want to.

Thanks for asking about my bro and dad. My brother is fine. My dad passed away from complications after a surgery. (Not related to Crohn's) It's interesting too. They have come out with information just in the past couple of days, about a drug that is sometimes used during cardiac surgery that they've learned is killing people. Their kidneys shut down and it can happen years after the original surgery. My dad's kidney's inexplixibly shut down. He had to be put on a respirator and dialysis. He died a month later. My brother is checking to see if that drug was used on my dad. At the time, Dad's doctor was completely baffled (so he said) by the episode that killed him. He claimed that the surgery went perfectly.

virginian: thank goodness! You didn't mention any of the other symptoms so I had no idea if you had the pain that is also one of the first signs of Crohn's (besides the one you did mention). Crohn's is not something that many people are aware of athough it is not all that uncommon anymore, but it's definitely not something you want and I am so glad that you checked it out and are confident that you don't have it! :tongue2: