BJean

Sanjaya my a$$ - look at TRICIA!!!!!! wow!!!

Well Peaches, a good portion of your post describes very well how I would like to define the "viability" of a human being. It wasn't a purely scientific interpretation that I was thinking of, but one that is definitely all about nature. I'd just like to say that your post works for me. Thank you.

Actually if I had known what I stumbled into back then, I would have enjoyed the fray. I don't know whether I'd have taken the Cheddar side or the aggressive side, but I'd like to think I would have waxed poetic on the characteristics of a nice, ripe GOUDA!!

Way more! My DIL has done an incredible job of making the "real" living for them. Now that he's out of the music biz, they had twin boys and it still made more sense for him to work out of the home and keep track of the kids than for her to quit her very lucrative job. As the mother, it was only fun during the gigs. Between gigs, being the mother wasn't all that much fun either.

Dynamo: I would love to know how the whole record deal thing is structured for the Idol contestants. My son used to be in the business and we know that the music industry is full of sharks! The artists used to have all the clout and became rich. Now more often than not, the producers, et.al., are making all the money and the artists are their slaves. If the starving musical artists weren't all wanting to be stars so bad, they might ban together and turn it around at least so that things are more equitable.

Thanks Funny for taking the time to clue us in~! When I was first posting at LBT, and didn't even have my band yet, I somehow (you know poor innocent me :nervous ) incurred the wrath of one particular person. I tried to gracefully bow out but she wouldn't stop and her pals joined in. It was just bloody awful. I was stunned. Right after that I learned that she and some of her cohorts in crime were banned. I hardly knew what hit me. Several really nice folks PM'ed me and that kept me from fleeing forever. I wouldn't be surprised if now they regret that move since I'm so opinionated. But the R & R section is pure therapy for me. And I've been able to correspond with so many very smart, clever and nice people. I've learned a whole lot! Thank goodness they established the R & R area. It definitely seems to be doing the trick. If any of us get too het up and out of line, everyone jumps in and diffuses the situation by talking nice. It's cool. Limburger anyone?

Not much worse for a country than to be hit in the pocketbook. Unless it's to be hit by bombs. Come to think of it you guys better shape up or Dubya might decide you are in need of a Democratic government patterned after our own. Anyway he'd claim he needed to bomb your cities because your country was a direct threat since you sent those damned terrorists over to kill us. Then he'd proudly announce that his actions have prevented anymore terrorist activies on our soil. I miss TOM. Any clue what's happened to him?

Sounds like you have trouble with the logic of some so-called Christians too.

Would you believe we TVO'ed it and because it ran over, we missed the end and announcement of who won!!! We watched the news that followed and found out that way. I didn't get to see the relief on Blake's face. Maybe this means he'll be a little freer to control his own recordings instead of the Idol people making all the decisions.

Wow I'm impressed with the sense and sensibilities of a lot of you Cannucks!

Tommy you're a sweetheart but how do you conjur up some compassion for a guy who played dirty politics and attributed it to God's will? If he was really hearing voices and believed everything he said, I would indeed feel compassionate for him. I don't know what he thought about the illegal aliens but he probably thought they should be rounded up and deported, that is unless he owned a business that would be impacted by it. However I stopped listening to him years ago. I heard that he mellowed some, I just never saw evidence of that.

My first husband was too stoopid to evade the draft and move to Canada. Like the chump that he was, he left college, trooped off to boot camp, guerilla warfare training and Officer's Candidate School, and then to 'Nam. He and one other young man were the only two in his original outfit that weren't either killed or severely wounded. They claimed they got a case of tick fever once, but I figured it was some STD they picked up on R & R. We were both stoopid, but one of us not quite as stoopid as the other. I'm with you guys... if someone passed a law that said I had to go to Iraq, believe me, I would head for Green's place.

Way before my time, obviously. But oooh, you've got me curious now...

Perhaps Peaches doesn't feel much compassion for these "babies" because they are not viable human beings. To characterize abortion as an exceedingly difficult decision and that women agonize over the decision and that it is a life-changing event, is undoubtedly true in some cases, but certainly not in ALL cases and I would submit probably not even in MOST cases. Many women are thrilled beyond belief that there exists a medical procedure that will prevent them from having to endure the major life-altering event of a pregnancy and potentially giving birth to a child. The least possible change in a woman's life who is extremely distressed by an unwanted pregnancy, would be by having an abortion, not by choosing not to have one. I know most everyone considers abortion to be traumatic and horrific, but if a woman is in the position of having been impregnated without her consent or without a workable plan for handling pregnancy and possibly a child, or who is in a life threatening situation due to a pregnancy, an abortion would not be traumatic, it would be a welcomed procedure and it could be life-saving for her. (Please don't take issue with my phrase, "possibly or potentially a child." Two young women in my family have endured full term pregnancies and normal labor, but unfortunately delivered babies who had died in their wombs.)

Devana- I actually knew a couple once who supported him financially - and they had lots of ways and means to do it. They never missed a broadcast and actually moved to Florida to be near him. Believe me, Benny Hinn will have the last laugh... always! I'm pretty sure he came by his talent accidentally one day. He pushed someone down who was in his way. Frustrated Benny said "Oh Christ!" When the bumpee got up he realized that his hemorhoids stopped hurting at the very moment he heard Benny utter the word, Christ, and the rest is history. Once Benny realized his good fortune, he managed to acquire all the accouterments for a magic troop, the church setting, the costume, the rest of the dog and pony show and now he's laughing all the way to the bank.* *It is quite late and I am merely entertaining myself. I actually have no ill feelings toward such a successful entrepreneur.

Peaches I do understand your logic. I do also empathize with you about your nightmares. In fact I have never been able to understand the thinking of people who rant and rave about the killing of innocent children and the horrific verbal pictures they paint of sissor-wielding heartless maniacs puncturing and sucking the brains out of little babies (who never had a "choice"), the blood, the baby killers, the poor innocent children, more blood and killing, etc., ad nauseum, because they don't believe in killing poor innocent children, and yet they have no compassion for or even apparently begin to comprehend the suffering and potential death of a woman who is faced with but one decision as far as she's concerned: abortion. Plus the fact that every anti-choice person I've been able to ask the question about the right to bear arms has said that they need their guns to "defend" themselves and that they would have no other thought but to kill someone who might threaten them or their families. It's some Jerry Falwell logic that makes absolutely no sense to me.

Oh geez. I thought I must be the only "evildoer" who actually said, Yea, Amen! when I heard Falwell died. You people are going to hell, you know. (In your tinky-winky outfits and dead squirrel rugs.) The thing that I've never understood about Falwell's followers is why they didn't see that he was a mean, hateful, black-hearted, greedy, fear monger and that just because he called himself Christian didn't make him a good man. His money raising tactics were devious and self-serving but he preached that it was for the glory of God. Hmmm. Similar tactics of some presidents. Benny Hinn - now that's just pure theatrics. He deserves all the money he can bilk outa people. He is extremely obvious and even openly laughs at some of the people who let him "cure" them. It's all in fun, down to the clown suit and cotton candy hairdid. So if he can get peeps to give him money, by damn he deserves it. That's not an easy act! At least he isn't phoney in his solicitation - he wants a plane so cough it up people. giggle, snert. :heh:

Cutting the cheese = thread killer.

Mark, you are quite right, of course. If I were a woman who found herself wholly burdened with an unplanned, unwanted, impossible pregnancy, and abortion were illegal, I would break that law.

Mark once again, you have spoken what I feel. I wish I were as eloquent as you! Lord knows I try, but I think I just get way too emotionally invested.

Mark if it weren't for the likes of you... I'd leave here screaming and heading for the hills. God bless intelligent and wonderful you! Jeninco it isn't solvable here, but unless we stand up for what we believe in, we can certainly feel trampled and will probably eventually be trampled.

Ok, ok, go Jordin. ahem. What did you think of Taylor Hicks' performance? Like Blake, he is a good entertainer, but not such an overly talented singer. Maybe that's one reason Blake was outa there. Overall I thought this was their best final show so far. As for Sackajaweea -- far F$@#*&^%+$# out! They put some cash into that production. I think it makes it look pretty obvious that the Sanjaya thing was staged from the get-go. Ya think?

I know what you mean lethea! I can understand the government intervening if they were excluding some legitimate members of society because of government funding for roads, etc., but how does banning illegals make them the bad guys?

Cheeeeese!

Lucy I'm not sure I understand either. If you do not break the laws, even though you disagree with them, how can you condone those who do? I disagree with certain laws too, like marijuana and prostitution. But I don't smoke dope and I don't earn money turning tricks and I don't condone the behavior of those who do, even though I think that prostitution and smoking marijuana only harm the perpetrators. Breaking the law is breaking the law. As far as I'm concerned one shouldn't choose to run through a red light even if no one is within 10 miles of you and it is safe to run it, because it is against the law. It might not make sense on the face of it at that second, but it is against the law and one should be in the mindset of always obeying the law. When I disagree with a law I do become vocal about it and I am quite sure that I vote for candidates with my values (or at least who say they have similar values.) Otherwise as long as we have laws on the books that decree that we must not run red lights, that we must not smoke, grow or deal in marijuana, or practice prostitution or come across the border without legal documentation, that is what I will do and what I expect all of the other citizens to do. Yes that may be naive of me and too simplistic but with millions and millions of us bumping elbows at every turn, it is the only way we can peacefully and fairly live together.