Yea! for The English Teacher! Not only should you keep up the good work of keeping the facts about health care coming, but keep reminding that back end of the horse what’s coming out of it! I’ve heard and seen enough of IT to last a life time. We’ve stepped in what she’s put on the screen for too long now! Clean up (of mess left by horse) is warranted on this thread please.

Good Morning, Marjorie,

Problem is, the Democrats have lost their bearings, they’ve become the Party of Excesses.  Excess spending, excess unemployment, excess taxation, etc. etc.  Who needs it?  Who needs a party that cannot control their appetite for excesses.

I truly believe you didn’t do a spell check with your above statement. I’m sure you meant to substitute "Republicans" where you inserted "Democrats". And when you added all the excesses mentioned, in re to "Republicans",  you left out "an excess for war" and "an excess for torture".

Hi ya, James! Glad you’re up and typing. I agree with your statements and I agree Sonia should be confirmed!

Margo, I agree both with what Jim said and what you said. The basic needs of all humans are food, shelter and clothing. We try out best (I think and hope) to provide those needs for our own people in our country, but not all countries have what they need for their people. Those basic needs remind me of a scene from "A Christmas Carol" with the Ghost of Christmas Present:

"At last, Scrooge and the ghost come to a vast and desolate expanse. Here, the ghost shows Scrooge a pair of starving children who travel with him beneath his robes—their names are Ignorance and Want. Scrooge inquires if nothing can be done to help them. Mockingly, the ghost quotes Scrooge’s earlier retort, "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses ?"

The Ghost warns Scrooge to be fearful of Ignorance and Want. I believe we have to realize that we’ve got to consider other countries and know they want and need the same basic needs met for their people that we already have (or at least strive to have). I see no problem with your government friend’s analogy to football. We, as in "we the people of the world", all want to play and all want to win. Ignorance and Want: things we need to understand better about ourselves and other countries’ needs, and things to which we had best pay attention.

“Now this what I really call THE VIEW!”

I agree with you, Beth, who cares?

Yes, C, your explanation of how you know what to keep "close to the vest" via your husband’s job is totally sensible. It could be that this woman has just cost her husband his job. No matter the reason, she truly has sabotaged her husband and his ability to help pay the bills.

C Hardy, I think you could be right…. but maybe more to the point… maybe she blew his cover because she just doesn’t like him!

Rain, what you said may be true and I think is true about most people. On the other hand, Shakespeare had something to say about death and what people think:

Marcus Antonius:
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar.

Julius Caesar Act 3, scene 2, 74–77

What you said just reminded of me what Shakespeare said. I have no thought of how this matches or doesn’t match with MJ, nor am I saying that your comment is more applicable to MJ than Shakespeare’s. My best to you.

Rocky, I know what you mean about John Lennon as the artist whose death affected you because it did affect me also. The people here who were brought up listening to MJ’s music have a right to their memories, as we have a right to ours too. I wasn’t in the era of Frank Sinatra, but his death affected me also. Sometimes, it’s not even the artist but the songs they made that remind you of events in your life. Music will always have an effect on me. It’s a basic soul issue for me.

Oh, Candice, how right you are about your children’s struggles as well as joys being part of us as parents. I so admire the relationship you have had with your daughter. I continue to wish nothing but the best for you both!

When are you going back into either a movie or a t.v. series? Don’t be gone long, please!

Joan, I could not possibly be as eloquent as you on the subject of Whoopi Goldberg. I can write that I watch everything she’s in. And I am an avid watcher of The View mainly because of her. I want to know what Whoopi thinks and I love the way she guides the show back to center. She once gave a tour on The View of her place in Vermont (I think) and it was absolutely incredible. Thank you, Whoopi, just for being! And thank you, Joan, for being the awesome writer that you are.

Now, Sandbee, THAT WAS FUNNY! A great pun!

I love Austin too and agree with you that it’s the only place I’d live if I had to live in Texas. Margo, they don’t want us in Austin or in Texas in general… they’re going to secede, remember?

Ok, James. I realize if anyone were to have first dibs at recruiting the NC Quarterback, it’d be you and your Michigan State. I’m not sure anything can ever help UNC anyway. They are more into basketball, anyway. That’s fantastic that your dad played cornerback for the Spartans… guess he was fast, huh? So, I’ll give up… let ND be and glory be to MSU too!