Good post, Chris.

He used to be a resident there, I believe, when he was a Congressman

I agree with you deber as well. There was no excuse. She is, as I cited, diplomat in chief. Everyone has their breaking point, but to lose her cool over something so petty, doesn’t reflect well on herself or the United States.

She’s also our Diplomat in Chief! And that role requires managing one’s emotions and actions. I suspect Obama would have used humor to put the person, who asked the question, at ease and still managed to make his point. Hillary’s smart and often means well, but even in this role, where she has received accolades for a job well done, she hasn’t been able to shake the chip on her shoulder.

Stacy,

I love that "sort of like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die" — wonderful! I may borrow that expression and use it myself sometime! :-) When you read V’s posts, many are intelligent and insightful, but she reminds me of a certain someone, who I believe was tossed off the site. I can’t take her seriously.  When someone disagrees with her, she gets snarky and feels the need to personalize her attack — smacks of a woman, who is extremely frustrated, unhappy, and doesn’t feel she is getting the acknowledgement she believes is her due — so her pathetic response is to insult you! – something she has taken others to task for. I just choose to ignore it.  

 

LC

I can’t understand why you and Victoria have such extreme responses to what was truly a pretty benign article.  We should all save our energy and emotion for far more important subjects.

   

De B,

I thought they were doing a story on the trafficking of women.  If they did deliberately cross the border, I agree with you.  It just amazes me how many people actually believe they don’t have to abide by the laws of a country where they happen to be a guest — and then expect the US to swoop down and extricate them from their difficulties. 

When it comes to the young English woman, she certainly was resourceful — how on earth did she ever become pregnant in prison?  Now there’s a story!  She, however, also sounds like another foolish young person, who didn’t think the rules/laws applied to her.  Somehow she was never taught that there are consequences for one’s actions — no, you can’t just go and hit the reset button every time you make a "mistake"!  

CT,

I can’t agree more! Starbucks coffee tastes burnt!  I do love a good cup of coffee though. I pour about 1/3 cup of cold milk into the cup (don’t love the flavor hot milk gives coffee) followed by hot coffee (blends better that way) — perfect! But only once a day! More seems to turn my stomach! but I do look forward to it each morning!

Even after I charged them for "cost of goods sold," i.e., the brownie and lemonade mixes, my son and his friend walked off with $80 for about two hours’ work. An entrepreneur was born.

I remember the first time I charged my daughter the CGS — she was stunned! "But, I made all this money! You can’t take it!" was her cry. When I explained to her that every business has to take into consideration the raw materials (I wasn’t going to charge her for the water, eggs, & use of the oven! and she was the labor!) before they calculate their profit, a light bulb turned on in her brain!  I think it is one of the best lessons kids can learn.  The Obama children sadly won’t be able to operate a lemonade stand on the Vineyard either — hopefully, they’ll have an opportunity to learn the fundamentals of business somewhere along their life journeys — and if not they’ll become academics or senators! :-)

Al Gore clearly has no clout —

I hope Bill is successful, but one never knows — North Korea is a sticky wicket and I don’t believe it and its leaders are all that interested in working with the Unite States at this time — they should be reminded however that in 2007 when a North Korean merchant vessel was attacked by Somali pirates, U.S. Navy ships saved the North Korean seamen and provided medical treatment to the wounded Koreans.

Happens to me all the time! :-)

Elizabeth,

A  níspero is a loquat.

Lucinda,

I did not change my name when I married, but my husband (who has a sense of humor) said he didn’t know what to make of it when we received invitations and holiday cards from clients of mine to Mr. and Mrs. His First Name My Last Name!

I find now after many years of marriage and 2 children that I use my last name officially and professionally, but his last name socially.  I’ve determined that it is easier and more expedient with kids for a family to be known by one last name — just as it was more expedient for me when I married at 32 to keep my name than have to clarify who I was everytime I made a business call.  I have since taken on a variety of community and PTO responsibilities that have required that I collect checks — that are often signed by women whom I know by a completely different name.  So clearly, they too kept their names, but opted to use their husbands’ names in the community.  In fact, one woman I know is a NY news anchor and my daughter, when she was little, heard her name announced on the television and she turned to me and said, "Mom, that’s Mrs. ****, why are they calling her ***** *****?"  I cracked up and told her that she was like me and wasn’t it great that women could have different aliases, depending on what they were doing.  She got it!  I wonder what my daughter will choose to do when the time comes!

There are also complications when one keeps one’s name. My son went to pick up his laptop without me at the Apple store that had been refurbished.  It had been purchased by me and therefore the warranty was also registered under my name. He was told I needed to be there. He explained that I was his mother, but his driver’s showed a different last name and the computer was not released to him. I had to make the trip to the mall to get it.  My son then ranted, "This is ridiculous! My wife is changing her name!"   It’s never easy! :-)

Elizabeth,

In Spain and throughout Latin America, it is customary for a woman to keep her name (father’s name followed by mother’s name), but when she marries she adds "de husband’s last name" — (for example Elizabeth Parrish Jones de Brown) in other words despite keeping the name she now belongs to the man she married.

I have had success with Weight Watcher’sin the past because it allows you to live a normal life. Recently’ I’ve heard people talking about South Beach and I wonder if others have had success with it and why.