It’s my b’day and what a lovely b’day to have. When I was growing up in a small town where everybody knew everyone, the toy store owner and the drug store owner would tell me they were putting up decorations because it was my b’day. A sweet thing to carry around. Whatever else it may connote, it is a day to remind us to think about love, who we love and how we love, and even why. A day to celebrate love in its purest form is a sweet thing to have in the calendar… and the chocolate is good too. ^_^

Sexuality is a conversation I have been having a lot with my kids lately. How, why and who. They are both teenagers. From my observation, there are a few people who are born non-negotiably gay, and others no-negotiably straight and the rest of us are on a continuum between the two and make our choices based on our experiences. Dear lady friends who were abused by fathers would not consider a man, men who have been raised by awful mothers who take years to trust women even as their friends. My choice was to follow my feelings as much as I could and that led me to lovers on both teams, … ultimately my marriage broke my heart and now I am alone and rediscovering joy in myself. I tell my children to let themselves love who they love without fear. Trust that as best they can. I knew (for whatever reason) that Anne Heche was using Ellen to get ahead. I don’t get the same feeling about Portia de Rossi. I wish them so much luck because marriage seems to be the hardest thing to get right.

If you are an entertainer your job is to entertain. While Ms. Simpson’s abilities as a singer are at best questionable, she and her father have put her out in the world as an entertainer. She has been given opportunities that far more talented people would give their right arm for, and this is what she does with them. Rolls up into a self-pitying ball and cries. She is a singer who doesn’t learn lyrics, and an actress of extremely limited range. She plays blonde superbly but little else. Having struggled with weight all my life I know that battle well, but it does not interfere with me doing my job. Being paid to entertain people is an unimaginable gift and as far as I am concerned she treats it as if it is her due. Her audience didn’t come there (or maybe they did) to be a part of her current drama, they came to be entertained and relieved of their own dramas for a couple of hours. May I suggest she try a week of working at a Mickey Ds or a Walmart, then she MAY have something to cry about.

One of the coolest things about being an Aquarian is that the most interesting info comes to us unasked. My favorite piece, (the one I actively work with) is the tale that Einstein’s last serious project was the proof that there is no such thing as time. One piece of that is the idea that man (men) grew uncomfortable with the infinite unwinding of the seasons and had to cut it down into chunks small enough that they could wrap their minds around them. That is when the infinite unwinding spiral became a closed wheel which was called a year. What I tell my dear aquarians is that really, there are no such things as years (except in the minds of men). What we truly are is ageless godesses, and as soon as we wrap our mind around that it becomes our reality. Have the cake, presents and adulation, but don’t take the years they are meaningless, a manmade social convention. Happy Life Day Liz I have enjoyed you forever.

I would add Phyllis Wheatley the first published African American poet(ess), and Eartha Kitt, primarily for her courage in speaking truth to power at a time when it was a career killer for a woman, let alone an African American woman.

Although it was a rather slower lesson than many in my life, I realized that my two children were my most important work. I spent a large part of my single life pursuing singing and acting as my work, and was blessed to make it as far as supporting myself for a few years in New York with my singing. That time was a gift. I have spent their entire lives being their mom, their father while an excellent “provider”, ran away from being part of the family, I am still trying to grasp why, two years after his death. I taught my kids to read, think, make music, choose honorably and laugh. I taught them not to whine, lie, hurt people intentionally, or quit. And I have told them from a very young age that if i do not raise them right, (to choose to be the best people they can be) it doesn’t matter whether I win a Grammy, star in a movie, write a best seller or sing on Broadway (all goals I am once again working toward) I have failed in my most important work. It took me a long time to honor the hardest work a woman will ever be expected to do… raising children well and with love.

re deber B: wow politics as usual, instead of doing what’s best for the country… what a surprise from these guys

I think the democratic leadership thought that with Mr. Obama’s positive numbers they could throw a pork party for themselves and their favorite special interests and no one would notice. If he REALLY wanted his “stimulus bill” to sail through Congress he and his economic team would go through it with a wide tooth comb and remove the sops and payoffs which are making people mad. And yes I mean a wide tooth comb… the fact is, the garbage in the bill is so obvious even the media is reporting on it. He really should wake up to the fact that he ran on a platform of being different from the other politicians. The media believed him, much of the country believed him and what they have all seen in the last 2 weeks is SSDD. If he thought that the media wasn’t going to call him on it, he is in for a surprise. He’s their candidate because they trusted him, they will turn on him faster than lightening if they find he has made them look stupid.

If Daschle was “uniquely equipped for the job”, then perhaps it is not a job worth doing. It seems to me that what Daschle is uniquely equipped to do is schmooz with currently elected politicians for companies that want favors from the government. He is also uniquely qualified to suck up tons of money from lobbying firms for lobbying “under the radar”. He is also uniquely qualified to raise taxes on the “small, small people” while evading the paying of his own. It seems to me that Howard Dean would be remarkably qualified to begin the exploration of how to fix healthcare in America. Far more so than Tom Daschle. He started out in the trenches as a healer, and if what I have read here is correct his wife is a doctor as well. That is the kind of person we need working on changing healthcare in America. Someone who has been actively involved and knows what the problems are, not someone who is a “player” and knows “everybody who is anybody” in both big pharma and insurance and HMO ranks. The biggest problem with our healthcare system is that government involvement in the first place, led it away from a field whose purpose was to heal individuals, into a field whose sole purpose was to make a profit for shareholders. That’s what government intervention tends to do, take the caring out of a field and replace it with greed. The government’s money looks like a free lunch to companies instead of the sweat of the working class. The fact that we have permitted this interpretation to continue is our responsibility as taxpayers. It is also our responsibility to try to change this perception. I am really disappointed in the nastiness of the tone of some contributors as exhibited on this thread and others. While I may not agree with your opinion I respect your right to have it, and I love America with all her flaws for making that possible. And I root for you and wish you well as part of my community of choice. Why do any of you feel that you have the right to treat anyone on this website differently?

My mom taught me to love food and hate exercise, which made my weight a constant battle. At 48, because of a serious fight w/ undiagnosed Lyme disease I hired a personal trainer for the first time. to my unbridled shock i found that I loved the feeling of working out. Endorphins are amazing. The elliptical cross trainer and bench pressing are my favorites for some reason. but I wouldn’t go without the trainer because he is the one who keeps me from getting bored. I do so few things which are just to be kind to myself this is the one that I will not do without. I still have a weight problem but as I tell people I have a perfect six pack hidden under the pudge.

Thank you Kay Sara, for saying what I have been thinking but am often reluctant to say here. (Although on more than one occasion I have tried). I did not vote for Mr. Obama but when he was elected I wanted to believe he was for real. But it is hard to believe him when he appoints Eric Holder for Atty Gen. And Geithner, and now Daschle. I am tired of hearing these guys say, “I am soooo sorry, but I REALLY learned from those mistakes and now I will be able to do this job better.” And Mr. Integrity, Mr. “Change we can believe in”, goes along and says these are the best men to fill my administration. Shame on him. And Hillary Clinton is in charge of foreign policy after her husband has been raking in MILLIONS in foreign speaking fees. The list of opportunistic political hacks he has hired just gets longer and longer. There is nothing new here. And his finger wagging at Wall Street looks pretty hypocritical with all of these law breakers fixing their “little tax problems” so they can take jobs in his cabinet. He will prove no different in the long run, smoother, slicker, and able to wear Hart, Shaffner and Marx with the best of them, but just another politician out for the $$$$

It doesn’t take a Republican to see the same old Washington hacks back in office. Holder intimately involved in the pardoning of Mark Rich. Geithner a money man from waaaay back “forgets” to pay $34,000 in taxes. And now Daschle, same games different cabinet post. Rahm Emanuel a bare knuckles politico from the Chicago machine. Why is THIS okay? How is this change? Why do you just accept that these guys ALL of whom have engaged in corrupt activities are going to behave differently now? It is dishonest not to pay taxes which are owed, it is corrupt to pardon a man because he is very rich. This is not a one party is good and one is bad kind of deal anymore, this is an emerging class of professional politicians, all of whom want to keep themselves and their friends’ noses in the trough which is being filled with our tax dollars. And to pass access to that trough down to their next generation. It takes more than changing the man at the top, to fix a broken culture steeped in self aggrandizement, self indulgence and intellectual dishonesty. It takes throwing ALL the incumbent rascals out and starting over with citizens who haven’t spent the last 40 years CREATING the Washington subculture. Watch Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden maintain all of the ways in which Darth Cheney strengthened the offices of the executive branch. Watch them keep the Patriot Act articles in place.

Desperation comes from an inability to cope with the circumstances one finds oneself in. those circumstances are different for each of us. It is not for simply the poor and middle class who find themselves stripped of their security after working all their lives to create it. It is also a perception available for the well to do who know no other way of living and find themselves broke with no skills to pick themselves up and start over. It is not only our “American Dream” that has been lost in the last 50 years of dumbing down and creating a victim mentality. It is the “American Ethos” of hard work, disciplined spending and personal responsibility. Is ANYONE responsible for their actions in America these days? Certainly Bernard Madoff is responsible for stealing the future of thousands of people, and yet he is walking around under “house arrest”. Is that really how thieves should be held responsible for their thefts? Richard Fuld allowed his ego to get in the way of what was best for a company trusted by millions of Americans, he walked away without consequence. George Bush started a war based on lies and disinformation, one that was planned before the events used to justify it. His decision cost the lives of over 4,000 Americans and billions if not trillions of tax dollars which went into the pockets of war profiteers. He was supported by a Congress which should have curbed his power rather than enlarged it. No one is looking at any form of consequence for these choices for anyone. If no one is responsible for the choices which have cost America so much who is to be blamed for desperation when faced with no money, no integrity in their country, and no hope of change. There is no one left to trust and no solid footing on which to start over.

Mr. Henley, why is it necessary to take the harsh and unpleasant tone, while expressing your opinion? Although I appreciate the Biden clips, (having lived in DE I have watched him for years and KNOW that he’s stupid, at least when he stops plagiarizing) I really hate the pisstivity you bring to these discussions. Truth is I tend to disagree with some of the more liberal ladies in this forum but damn I appreciate the civility of the discussions. And very often they give me ideas i wouldn’t have thought of for myself because my thoughts move in a different direction. This is the only forum I have actually signed in to engage in discussions and it is because of the civility. I don’t use my computer to vent my frustration, I use it to learn things I didn’t know. You may very well be right in your opinions, but you will never convince anyone by calling them stupid for holding theirs.

I always tend to read foreign papers and listen to foreign news these days to try to get a clear picture of what is really going on in America right now. The only honest news source in America these days is “The Daily Show” and it just doesn’t have time to cover everything. I am curious though why the rudeness in these posts is permitted when i have read the 10 Commandments of posting here on a couple of other threads. To be honest, I find J Henley’s tone offensive. And i don’t find the quality of his opinions, justifies his unpleasantness