That’s for sure, right now. Do you ever get the buzz, like a feeling we’re marching to beat of a different drummer and the emperor has no clothes…and there’s a huge elephant in the room but no one but “us” can see it … I’ll bet they can smell it, though. Is the bus still going through the tunnel to Windsor?

The Faith-Based Adminsitration care about one another? That’s a new paradigm. I got out of the market with breastcancer - and he was in Austin, then, too. :-(

I’m not surprised, Mamacita G. In the US right now, the average income is nearly $2K below the Federal Poverty Level. That is a disgrace. Most Americans are slave labor, and yet all we hear is how important out-sourcing is to buffer the economy. It’s necessary, granted, but there’s no new money, same stash being swirled in the proverbial pool but counted each time around by you-know-who, and those at the top are way over-fed. When we hear that the GDP is doing “great,” no one mentions that its inflated by credit buying; Americans can no longer afford to live on their earned income, without buying on credit—so what is this GDP—yet no one has brought this out, save for perhaps Paul Craig Roberts. When we continuously move into a “master: servant” mode, the ego prevails. At this time, in this century, America’s ego has destroyed more lives than any other time in history. Women need to rule for a few hundred years, not that woman is perfect, but it’s the nature of women to communicate, and most of us who have been in any leadership roles understand the true mean of the term, “debate (the media doesn’t).”

Sure, Pat … you gave me a chuckle, but doggone it’s true. Like Borden’s - they always soar during recessions…people love to buy a bit of sweets to indulge in hard times, and the hemlines go UPPPPPPPPPPPppp then DOWWWNNNNNnnnnnn.

My sentiments exactly, Roberta! I love this solitude, although I miss Austin…but this free flowing time for myself is absolutely wondrous. After having a home full of children, 24/7, and hundreds of people to interact with professionally, breakfast briefings and banquets (with horrid food) from dawn to starlight, I cherish my self. Liz! Happy Birthday - by the way, my living room here is now my dining room! ;0))

I don’t hear Dr. L. period. It still shocks me that educated, supposedly responsible homo sapiens would involve themselves in others private lives. If Spitzer violated a law, he should be made to answer for his crime(s), but right now, who knows. That family is merely fodder for the unleashed egos of the masses.

It used to be the birds singing, now its hypoventilation from the late effects of Polio - nasty stuff for an aging body. But, I am now in love with my ventilator—we’ve bonded, proving bonding is instictive. After raising 5 kidlets to adulthood, and a career to boot, nothing much used to jolt me once I was asleep, but now the light cometh like the tide on the North Shore.

Yes, and it is helping thousands of women get through grad school who can’t earn over minimim wage in this country. Can’t you hear the 3 Houses debating legalization of prostitution, now? HA! Most of them would have to run across DC and purge their records with the local Madams. They’re all “doing it,” heaven forbid, such naughty people. I did have to wonder about the NY gov, though - indeed, he’s very ill, but what if … ever ask yourself those questions? What if he had found out a couple of years ago that his beloved spouse was having an affair with his best friend? Hmmm? Does anyone else think the media’s stooping too low on this one, yet letting Bush get away with his “crimes and misdemeanors” against America, and others…? hmmm unsettling, at best.

In the USA? Saints preserve us! Legalizing anything would only be met with another reason for the very minor “majority” to come swooping down to invade the airwaves, and with the present FCC chairman, the media groups would have a hay day. It isn’t the “oldest profession” for nothing - it’s still existing, and always will be. A friend who is now totally handicapped, has a male escort. Fabulous woman! She know what to do when she might miss something—he takes her to lunch, out to the high-end stores to window-shop, the theatre, all in her wheelchair, and she loves it. He’s strong, and really quite capable of appropriately assisting her where her grown off-spring haven’t got a clue how to deal with this poweful woman I designed a national program with, for women in the federal governement and Pell. I think many of us will have to look at such options carefully. There’s a new paradigm in this “escort” business, friends (no pun intended).

I’m just not spending, period, and trying to convince my brilliant, now-adult offspring, to stop spending, in spite of “The Hedge’s” urgings. Going “Green” and adding my insulation to R-82 has saved me $Ks over the past two years, and resorting to local “ride” programs helps avoid feeding the oil companies patriarchially-focused rip off of America.