green

Jack, you have made some excellent points. Thanks. Of your American politicians, I have no idea who would make a great president. I don't know them anywhere near well enough. Of the two teams who are running for the top positions, I do prefer Obama and Biden. This would admittedly be because Obama's politics are more readily understandable by my foreign way of thinking. His values seem, well, more Canadian and thus I am much more comfortable with him. And thus you have my bias. Of course I believe that life up here runs pretty smoothly for the most part. And, yes, JFK was cool.

It would be more logical to pay for birth control meds than for abortions.

Well, Warren Buffet has made for himself and those lucky or wise enough to invest in his financial vehicles gadzillions of bucks. Other than that, he has no street cred. He is another private individual, just like you and me. As for Palin, well, of course I am no fan. I find her, though impressively energetic, still very ordinary and I think that there should be extraordinary individuals who who are in charge of your very large, complex and globally important country. In this belief, yes, I am an elitist. I also don't agree with some of her core beliefs. I mistrust her religiosity. I believe that these people often mistake their own wishes for their God's desires and will act erroneously as Bush has done with his jihad in Iraq even though the international community did not sanction this and your congress was advised by the head (a Dane, Dr. Hans Blix) of an international team which had been in Iraq and monitoring it ever since the end of the first Gulf War that there were no WMD. I strongly believe that religious passion must be separate from all affairs of the state and that there only cool-headed reason and knowledge of worldly affairs must rule. This might come under that business of rendering unto Caesar what is his.... Palin, like George Bush, is altogether too passionate, I believe. And, on a personal note, I am one of them pro-choicers. I believe that a woman must have the right to decide whether to proceed with a pregnancy or not. I was pregnant once due to a failure of birth control. I was mature, in my early 30s, and knew that I never ever wanted motherhood. I had an early abortion and have never regretted this. As we know, Palin's beliefs on this run counter to mine. I would have been trapped in an unwanted pregnancy for 9 months and my body would have never returned to its childless state. As a post-menopausal woman I would be suffering some fall-out with respect to my physical health. And finally, Couric was not harsh on Palin in her interview. Palin simply came apart like wet paper tissue. As for nasty interviewers, there is nobody nastier than Limbaugh and O'Reilly are on Democrats and other liberals.

Hey! I don't think that it is a question of Maggie's age. She is simply quite conventional in her comfort level and thus doesn't get it. Maybe she is religious. Remember that I am older than she is and that I have done a 3-some and a 4-some. I have done a lot of other interesting stuff, too. I was always quite a curious grrl. Some folks are more curious than others is all.

I saw Katie Couric interview Sarah Palin and thought that Palin messed up badly even though Couric had a soft manner with her. Let us face it: Couric is no Limbaugh or O'Reilly; she doesn't not shriek and badger. Palin was at times inarticulate and incoherent. And yes, Joe Biden blew his facts on the stock market crash of 1929 badly. That was a real shocker! I always thought that that info came under the category of general knowledge that everybody knew.

Thanks for your concern about my health, NukeChick. It is slowly getting better.

Yep, my sibs and I were raised to be fairly conservative in our spending habits. We were taught to pay cash for everything except property and that every grrl should own herself some property. We were also taught to have savings for that rainy day. I love shopping and I have some nice stuff (thanks to bargain hunting) but I paid off the property first and I have a nice bunch of savings. At the moment though I don't want to enquire about the health of my savings/investments. Although I live in Canada I know they have been negatively impacted by the mess south of the border. I guess I am in denial; I don't want to know the gruesome details of the shrinkage!

My brother is a doctor who has worked under both the Canadian and American health systems. He said that when he used to work up here in Canada he simply ordered such medical tests and procedures as he felt his patient required; south of the border he was required to consult with the financial bottom line before making medical decisions. His medical freedom was actually greater up here in universal medicine Canada. Don't forget, we don't have to feed the businessmen and the shareholders. Canadians pay approximately $3,000 per person per year less in health care costs than do Americans and everyone up here is covered. Of course our government is largely run by beaurocrats, not incompetant politicians.

Hey, you could call him stumpy dumpy because he is kinda short in the body, too.

She was a controversial member of Obesity Help who was discussed at great length here at one time.

I inherited a bunch o bucks from my mum. This allowed me to take a very early retirement. I hope I am not going to end up eating cat food for the next 30 years. Oh, yuck!

She thinks that Obama is a Muslim because his middle name is Hussein. That is like thinking that I am christian because I was baptized. (I am an atheist.) Pretty low level thinking.

Most of the eminent scientists cited in this list were alive and doing their work during previous centuries. A great many of them were Victorians. What these individuals would believe if they were alive now might be very different. As it happens, they had the beliefs common to their times. This list does not make for a compelling argument for Creationism.

Kat, those women sound very unpleasant. Let them know, perhaps through their husbands, that you were on IV for a week and that you are fully aware of their unkind speculations. Yep, they definitely qualify for the bitch label.

I watched that show last night and I, too, was wondering what I would have done had I had a child as fat as Gaby's four year old. I was solid but never in that league. The casting of that child is quite interesting. The kid really is a fat child and she can look quite malevolant, quite defiant. It is difficult to like her. She really plays her part very, very well. So much so that one wonders what the kid is like in real life. One also wonders what the writers have in store for her. Perhaps we will come to very much empathize with the child. The deglamourization of Gabby is another fascinating plot twist. She is losing her looks and is feeling this loss keenly. This will give rise to plots/commentary hinging on the problems we have with our identities: looks and self-love/self-loathing. Bree hasn't changed, eh? Actually, none of the other women have, just their circumstances. I love the show. By the way, Fairy, congratulations on your weight loss.

Actually, Senator Obama is very Canadian in his style and his beliefs. This is not necessarily a bad thing to be. Canada is doing well these days. The net worth for the median Canadian family has exceeded that of the median American family: Canada - $122,600 to U.S. - $93,100 (all figures in U.S. dollars). Per capital personal debt: Canada - $23,460 to U.S. - $40,250. Percent of annual household expenditure spent on housing: Canada - 19 to U.S. - 34. It should be noted here that the average size of an American house is bigger: 2,000 square feet to 2,520 square feet. And as for universal health care, per person we pay $3,326 per year as contrasted with your $6,401 per year, a per person cost which doesn't even cover every American and yet is almost twice the price of our universal system. I can also cite figures that will show that we have a higher life expectancy, a lower infant mortality rate, a significantly lower obesity rate as well as rate of individuals with diabetes if you are interested. These are all reasons why Canadians do not find Obama scary. Hell, a recent poll indicated that 40% of Canadians would vote for him for our Prime Minister. He is polling better than any of our local guys. (We are currently having an election up here.) We also know that, should he win the presidency, many of his more creative initiatives would be blocked by special interest groups. They will never ever come to fruition.

Congratulations! That's a fabulous goal to have achieved.

Green is sniggering........

Why does he scare you? Because he is intelligent and well-educated and you are used to a moron running the state?

An angry ailing old white man and a woman who made the rounds of a bunch of second rate universities or a Harvard educated half-black man who was involved in service to the community. Gosh.

There are clubs. There is at least one in my city. And I believe one can advertise in the personals. If you live in a small town you may wish to read the personals and possibly advertise in the newspapers of the nearest big city. Yep, I did this with friends and it was kind of as a favour to my girlfriend. It wasn't something I had initially planned on or even wanted to do. The pair of them talked me into it but it was an interesting experience and I sure don't regret it. It was just that neither my friend nor I are the least bit bi-sexual and so we tended to find ourselves lining up for the male's attentions. Such activities as we did perform on each other were done at his direction. The experiment didn't harm our friendship, however, and that was a good thing. You will likely be better off, though, with a genuinely bi-sexual stranger.

Didn't like Izzy's new hair. Am bored with Alex's rage issues. Loved the army guy and hope he is back. I figure Christina can use herself some. Tee hee. Don't get why the girls fall for George. He has no sexual charisma. He is much more best friend material.

I live in Toronto. It is a great place to live but you are right! It is expensive for most people, especially the housing. Only Vancouver, I think, is worse. Food and clothing and books aren't so bad once you have lived here for awhile and have learned where the bargains are. Still, it is a fun place to live. Very multi-cultural. Lots of festivals going on throughout the year. A big variety of ethnic restaurants and some pretty good shopping.

This being scared to death is not good for you. The chances are excellent that you will survive and thrive. You have, after all, a secure property and a secure job and you are only 32. If you confine your choice of dairy products to fresh milk and yogurt and icecream and such cheeses as are made in America, Canada or in Europe, you will certainly not ingest melamine, the product which has been added to Chinese milk. As for the choice in presidents, well, you survived Bush for the previous 8 years and so your country will likely survive whatever is on offer during the next four. My advice is the same with respect to the economy. Good or bad, the economy doesn't kill off too many of us and you do have that job and that house. This brings me to your level of anxiety: it is excessive and makes me wonder whether you should see a doctor. The cause could be organic - faulty neurochemistry - or your anxiety over these issues could be masking other, different and more personal concerns entirely.

Yah, why vote for the same thing again when you didn't like what has been happening for the past 8 years? That doesn't seem logical. Why not change?