I believe there is a spiritual realm into which our spirits pass after our bodies stop functioning. I can’t believe anything else because I just don’t believe that the organic makeup of our physical bodies creates the essence of life. However, I don’t believe it has a damned thing to do with any organized religion. I think religion began as the only explanation for various phenomena when there was no science to explain them. It didn’t take too long for the opportunists to see this as a way to manipulate and control people, and organized religion came into being.

I think Iraq is a hopeless debacle and we should get out now. Even if I thought it was possible to police them into some form of peaceful coexistence between the sects, it would be temporary at best and therefore a tragic waste of American lives. There hasn’t been any time in the history of religion when there has been lasting peace in the middle east. They’ve been at war with themselves and their perceived enemies since before this country was even dreamed of. Why would we think we have any chance of forcing them to settle their ages old, apparently inherent, conflicts against their will? My biggest fear is that my grandsons will be drafted. We can’t let McCain get into the White House.

Richard Cohen is absolutely right but maybe not for the reasons he intended. People who have never had to deal with the problems that people in the inner cities and southern states have lived with have no idea what the racial issues really are. If people are basing their opinions on what they see or read in the media they’re not getting the true picture. They’re getting the “Politcally Correct”, ratings friendly point of view.

I’m not sure that I think polygamy itself should be illegal because that could be construed as infringing on freedom of religion. As long as all parties involved are consenting adults I don’t see why it should concern us. However, as I’m understanding what’s been happening in Texas, it seems tantamount to slavery. No one should be forced into a life that they don’t want and under no circumstances should anybody be allowed to abuse other people and particularly children for any reason.

“Jane Richards - 4/1/2008 12:31 PM How many others are longing for the day when we vote for a candidate based on their qualifications instead of the race/gender stuff? Probably won’t happen until the media quits scrutinizing every poll and primary that way.” Exactly. The media has been playing the candidates against each other by making everything about race and gender. As far as the racial and gender bias in the south, I see a lot of that and I also know people here in Virginia that only vote Republican to make sure the NRA stays in power. I’m not joking. That is the only issue they talk about or even seem to know about.

This is a great topic for me because I’ve been doing some thinking along these lines lately. I’m 58 years old and have lost my father but my mother is still with us. For nearly all of my childhood both of my parents worked but it seems like I spent more time with my dad than with my mom. Mom worked days and dad worked nights so he was the one who was home in the daytime. Mom seemed sort of remote at times because she was either at work or very busy at home doing all the things that 1950s and early 60s housewives were expected to do. My parents divorced when I was 17 and of course I went with my mom because that was what I thought I should do, but I actually stayed closer to my dad because he was easier for a 17 year old to get around than mom was. He was trying to be cool and get back into the dating scene, so he wasn’t watching what I did too closely. As soon as I got married though I wanted my mom and we’ve been close ever since. Right now it’s very hard for me to be 1200 miles away from here with her health failing her. I lost my dad a few years ago and I think it was harder on me, being the oldest because I remember more of the good times when he and mom were together than my younger siblings do. My brother who is next in line from me of course has his own unique memories being the only boy and old enough to remember some of the early days. My two younger sisters have fewer memories of the family unit being together. I would have to say overall that I’ve been closer to my mom because since my marriage and the births of my daughters and grandsons we’ve talked about more things that are more substantial in our lives. My kids never really knew my dad that well because when he remarried his new family became his focus. When my mom remarried her husband was the man that my kids called grandpa because he was always there for us. Things change.

Not tonight dear I have hot flashes, sleep deprivation, vaginal dryness, and oh yeah, the resulting complete lack of libido.

OK, I’m going to be dutiful in turning off my power for an hour so I should get to imagine that I’m living my fantasy while I’m in the dark. I’d love to entertain Steve Perry during that hour.

January 20, 2009 - the end of an error. As to rising prices, other than gas: milk, eggs, flour, bread, beef, all fresh vegetables, medicine, utilities, basically everything it takes to live.

I can’t decide whether it’s the ‘Garden of Eden, snake, apple’ one or the ‘Noah’s ark, animals, flood’ one.

I’ll vote for either of the Democratic candidates. I think Hillary’s embellishment of the details of her trip to Bosnia is completely insignificant when compared to the horrendous lies we’ve lived with with, and many died with, during the Bush administration. If the media doesn’t stop making tabloid type headlines out of the Democratic campaign by spinning, twisting and exacerbating anything they can possibly use to focus attention on everything except the real issues that the next administration needs to address we’re liable to end up with at least four more years of what we’ve got now. I’d really like to hear one reporter stick a microphone in Hillary’s face and ask her how she plans to put American workers back to work in living wage jobs rather than asking what she thinks about the latest spin they’ve put on a remark out of Obama’s camp and vice versa. It’s even more discouraging that so many of the American people are allowing their attention to be focused on that nonsense and forming opinions based on it.

I most certainly believe that global warming is a fact and like some others have mentioned I’ve seen evidence of it’s effects in my own area. I live in Virgina so while we’ve never had bitter winters such as in New England or the upper midwest, we definitely have had four distinct season up until about the last 5 years. Now the only thing we can be sure of is scorching heat and drought from June to September. For about the last 3 I’ve had spring blooming irises bloom in November. I’ve had petunias that wintered over. I had robins in my yard in February this year. I have blue birds staying all year round in the house in the backyard. There are species of birds here that nobody I know has ever seen here before. I got a bird book and it seems that this area is on the borderline of the natural territories of a couple of the ones I’ve identified. One other that I think I’ve identified shouldn’t be here at all but there’s no other bird in the book that looks like it. Frogs and snakes aren’t behaving the way they’ve always been known to around here either. There is something happening and I think the atrocities human beings have committed on this planet play a huge role in it.

I cooked dinner for my two daughters, sons-in-law, and grandsons. We had an egg hunt after dinner and since it was my youngest grandson’s first experience with “playing outside” it was a joy. He’s just 15 months old and only walking for four months. Once he caught on to looking for eggs and putting them in the basket though he was delightful and hilarious. He took a few tumbles in the grass but he laughed about that too. After the egg hunt my oldest grandson was swatting at some baseballs pitched by his mother and the baby wanted to participate so we had to stop the action while he ran up and pitched one of his eggs(the huge plastic snap together kind) at his brother. It was a wonderful day.

I voted yes, but that only applies when the government creats the conditions under which it has become necessary, which I believe is currently the case.

I’m sorry if my only sympathy for the people in that company are for the lowly grunts, but that’s the way I feel and I just can’t help it. The American manufacturing workers have been facing much worse financial devastation for at least 8 years now. These(3.2 million last I checked) were people who lived from paycheck to paycheck because that was the best they could do and then suddenly those paychecks were gone and there were no funds, hedge or otherwise, to help them. Oh they were going to be retrained and move into better paying, technical jobs. Yeah right, flipping burgers or stocking retail shelves are better paying? Oh and the technicality is mind boggling.