Of course it is. I just put that in to be a smart ass, since some men are so rabid over this entire subject. Soooo, I always say "sex for procreation only." Then there wil be no need for these abortions that are inflaming so many…especially men. Statistically it has been proven that abortions are not primarily used for birth control and most women seeking one are older, and the necessity for this is their need, and none of anybody’s business but the afflicted woman. People seem to get more incensed over abortion than they do over child abuse, which is rampant. Their energy would be better placed into working to protect the children who are born who will have no chance at a decent life, rather than meddeling into another’s life and trying to deny their actions.

Here is an interesting editorial by Paul Krugman. Pay attention to the last 2 sentences.

 

Don’t laugh at GOP’s angry right — fear it Opinion by Paul Krugman NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE Last Thursday there was a rally outside the U.S. Capitol to protest pending health-care legislation, featuring the kinds of things we’ve grown accustomed to, including large signs showing piles of bodies at Dachau with the caption "National Socialist Healthcare." It was grotesque — and it was also ominous. For what we may be seeing is America starting to be Californiafied. The key thing to understand about that rally is that it wasn’t a fringe event. It was sponsored by the House Republican leadership — in fact, it was officially billed as a GOP press conference. Senior lawmakers were in attendance, and apparently they had no problem with the tone of the proceedings. True, Eric Cantor, the second-ranking House Republican, offered some mild criticism after the fact. But the operative word is "mild." The signs were "inappropriate," said his spokesman, and the use of Hitler comparisons by such people as Rush Limbaugh, Cantor said, "conjures up images that frankly are not, I think, very helpful." What all this shows is that the GOP has been taken over by the people it used to exploit. The state of mind visible at recent right-wing demonstrations is nothing new. Back in 1964, historian Richard Hofstadter published an essay titled "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," which reads as if it were based on today’s headlines: Americans on the far right, he wrote, feel that "America has been largely taken away from them and their kind, though they are determined to try to repossess it and to prevent the final destructive act of subversion." Sound familiar? But while the paranoid style isn’t new, its role within the GOP is. When Hofstadter wrote, the right wing felt dispossessed because it was rejected by both major parties. That changed with the rise of Ronald Reagan: Republican politicians began to win elections in part by catering to the passions of the angry right. Until recently, however, that catering mostly took the form of empty symbolism. Once elections were won, the issues that fired up the base almost always took a back seat to the economic concerns of the elite. Thus in 2004, George W. Bush ran on anti-terrorism and "values," only to announce, as soon as the election was behind him, that his first priority was changing Social Security. But something snapped last year. Conservatives had long believed that history was on their side, so the GOP establishment could, in effect, urge hard-right activists to wait just a little longer: Once the party consolidated its hold on power, they’d get what they wanted. After the Democratic sweep, however, extremists no longer could be fobbed off with promises of future glory. Furthermore, the loss of both Congress and the White House left a power vacuum in a party accustomed to top-down management. At this point, Newt Gingrich is what passes for a sober, reasonable elder statesman of the GOP. And he has no authority: Republican voters ignored his call to support a relatively moderate, electable candidate in New York’s special congressional election. Real power in the party rests, instead, with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin (who at this point is more a media figure than a conventional politician). Because these people aren’t interested in actually governing, they feed the base’s frenzy instead of trying to curb or channel it. So all the old restraints are gone. In the short run, this may help Dem-ocrats, as it did in that New York race. But maybe not: Elections aren’t necessarily won by the candidate with the most rational argument. They’re often determined, instead, by events and economic conditions. In fact, the party of Limbaugh and Beck could well make major gains in the midterm elections. The Obama administration’s job-creation efforts have fallen short, so that unemployment is likely to stay disastrously high through next year and beyond. The banker-friendly bailout of Wall Street has angered voters, and it might even let Republicans claim the mantle of economic populism. Conservatives may not have better ideas, but voters might support them out of sheer frustration. And if Tea Party Republicans do win big next year, what already has happened in California could happen at the national level. In California, the GOP has essentially shrunk down to a rump party with no interest in actually governing — but that rump remains big enough to prevent anyone else from dealing with the state’s fiscal crisis. If this happens to America as a whole, as it all too easily could, the country could become effectively ungovernable in the midst of an ongoing economic disaster. The point is that the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter. Something unprecedented is happening here — and it’s very bad for America.

Where do I find this dr.?

I have always been pro choice, especially having been young before they were legal, if that is what you can call it now. Women have always had abortions, they always will, and nothing will stop them. The consequences of illegal abortion were terrible, with many women bleeding to death from self-induced or improper procedures by amateurs looking to make easy money from a desperate female. I recently read a book written by a dr. who does abortions, and it was quite illuminating, as contrary to the myth that women chose this over birth control, that is not the case at all. Most of the women she wrote about were older women with various sad reasons why they chose to have an abortion, and the choice was their own difficult problem to deal with. The violence that has been done to these clinics is unbelievable, with angry mobs trying to interfere with the women’s choice, which is none of their business. What the dr. observed was that the most violent of them all were men. Her feelings were that she felt men wanted control over women, which is why they act this way. I totally agree, as it always seems to be the men that protest the loudest…and kill to make their point. Isn’t a vasectomy done to prevent a child from ever being conceived? Think of the lives that are being denied by this act.

Initially I occasionally watched John & Kate, and it was a lot different than it revolved to what it has become…a slick production with Kate all galmned up, and not there a lot of times, being on the road. She used to talk so awful to John, like he was an idiot, so what it has become does not surprise me.

As for Rush. He must think he is so cool, and he can never be cool. The no socks bit was an ugly embarrassment on him, whereas on some others it does look cool. Being close to my dermatologist I can tell you he looked like he has visited his for facial work. The lack of any lines in his brow, plus a rather expressionless face shouts Botox. He also looks like he might have had a fractional laser treatment with his pink shiny skin, also fillers could have aided the total smooth look. I think he looked a bit overdone, but probably nobody else noticed it.  I am always looking for "work"on public persona. It’s always easy to detect.

I am so non photogenic it makes me sick. I wonder if I really do look as terrible as I do in my pictures? The only heartening thing is my daughter-in-law looks just awful in her pictures too and she is really a very pretty woman in person.

Yes, he was a surfer (still is at 56) and lived in a commune at Taylor Ranch on Kauai. They wore no clothes, lived in tree houses & grew their own weed. My husband was still in the military & on a trip to CINCPAC on Ohau took a side trip to Kauai to see our son. Needless to say, what he saw was quite shocking…all these nude women walking about.

We had a wooden icebox in our kitchen with a large compartment on the left where the big block of ice went. There was always an ice pick (do they even have them anymore?) sitting on top the ice so we could chip off hunks of ice to suck on. Our first refrigetrator only had a small compartment with  3 ice cube trays stacked on top of each other. That was when going to the ice cream store was a special treat, as we never had ice cream in the small refrigerator. We had a milk man for years. Don’t think they even sold milk in the grocery stores, as opposed to supermarkets which didn’t exist then. They were locally owned & the man who owned it would get what you wanted & put it in a bag. The butcher shop was right next door, where he cut the meat & packaged it right there. I can remember as a little girl going to the store with a quarter getting meat for my mother…asked for a quarter’s worth of round steak ground, and he ground it & no tax either…enough for our dinner. This was the depression & my dad worked 2 jobs to support us then. We had street cars then. Are there any left anyplace? Our mailman came twice a day & we actually got mail, as people wrote letters to each other, and NO junk mail. One time a Hurdy Gurdy man  or Organ Grinder came into my neighborhood - a never to be forgotten experience. He had this large music sort of box which he played by turning a handle on the side & he had a costumed monkey on top…quite a heady experience for a child. I’m remembering things I haven’t thought about for years. It actually was a lovely time to be a child, as life had a sort of innocence about it.

OMG - it’s a fashion magazine. They all have $$$$$ clothes etc..  They also have covers with lovely women who have all been photoshopped, but Michelle seems to be getting crucified again for her cover shot. She is the first lady…like it or not. I suspect the real deep down feeling a lot of you have is because she is black, and that will always have you criticizing anything she does. This is a holiday issue, and what better than to have her dressed in holiday red? Give her a break.

My  oldest kids were adolescents during the "sex. drugs, rock & roll" period. My oldest son  started on pot when he was a counselor at Boy Scout camp and it was the start of his love of pot. I never saw him not stoned for over 4 yrs. & he graduated from high school by a slim margin. He went to Hawaii & lived on a commune on Liz Taylor’s brother’s  ranch, where they grew their own pot. My daughter was the same way. Only way I could tell was by their dilated eyes most of the time. They were not alone in this, as everybody seemed to be in the same boat during those days.  Well, my son got tired of it all as he matured. He went to college - gradualed Summa cum laude, and now is a pastor with his own church. My daughter is married with 2 chldren and 2 grandchildren. All of their "druggie" friends are now college graduates, professional people. I would rather be around people smoking pot than drinking, although I do neither, but they tend to be more mellow. My youngest son’s drug of choice was alcohol as it was the popular "drug" during his adolescence. He ended up in treatment and ultimately kiled himself driving when drunk. I am in favor of legalizing pot, as never saw any terrible consequences from the recrerational use of it, but have seen very bad consequences of alcohol. A school bus driver here recently had an accident while driving the bus intoxicated. If you have lived with it in your home you will. soon learn it is no more terrible than alcohol , and probably less so.

 

I think the strangest part of Liz Taylor’s life was her marriage to John Warner, or maybe the strangest marriage. All of her other marraiges had been to totally different sorts of men, and then along came him. Her living at his large "farm" in Virginia seemed so out of sync with her past glamorous marriages with their loud publicity. She had to go with him to his various campaign stops, where people flocked because of her, and she often ate fried chicken and "down home" food. It always surprised me it lasted 6 yrs……….One of my favorite films she made with Burton was "The Sandpiper"

I think technology will be the dividing factor. I’m 81 and use my computer, but not too many my age seem to want to use a computer, or if they do they are so "duh" over what to do. As for all the rest, I don’t text message, or do all the other things that are now done by seemingly everyone. I don’t have the time to do much, but everybody else seems to find time, and I wonder what I am doing wrong. My children, in their 50s, say they have slowed down on so much that their own children do, and their grandchildren will be waaaay ahead electronically than any of them at the rate they are developing new things constantly. I was in the Apple store recently and was amazed at the huge number of people there - almost wall to wall. I feel quite proud of all I actually can do for my age, and I really don’t care to text message, Twitter, or go on Face Book, although I actually am there, but not active.

Dang…I missed the white umbrella sale again!