rocky rocky, I’ve always wondered if the reason I’ve never questioned that I was important and mattered in the world, much more than friends in grade school or high school, might not have come from the fact that because of being nearsighted I didn’t really understand how big the world really was, By the time I understood I was a small cog in a huge world the habit was set in concrete. I just wondered if being near sighted had the same effect on you?

You are welcome, but how about being important in your little world when you were young?

Merrell, I have another must read, todays NYT editorial titled Undermining Justice. It’s not quite so long but even more important. I’m embarrassed to be a life long Republican. Also there is a column printed in our local paper today called Bush’s Presidency, The wayward trail of a rosy optimist., by David Ignatius of the Washinton Post. I don’t know if it was in the Post yesterday or today. He has an explanation about the last 8 years and a possible peak at the future that is about the best I’ve seen. Enjoy. Bev. ps, I e-mailed that Vanity Fair article to every body I know including all the Republicans,

Ha, Ha, Ha!

Duck, If you don’t have anything to contribute go HOME.

Look in the mirror, that is who they are talking too!

Donald Duck, It is dangerous to go by a name that isn’t your own because you begin to sound just like it, Donald Duck!

I was near sighted for my entire life. I think that is responsible for me thinking I was important in the world. Because of being nearsighted my world was smaller than everyone else’s. As an adult I finally got contacts especially during those years when you could leave them in for weeks. That was during the years I needed reading glasses. Like everyone else they were always where I wasn’t. Times changed again and we were told if we left the contact in all the time we’d lose our eyesight. I have my limits to what I’ll do for vanity so I got myself a pair of those huge glasses. The kind you can hide behind. My daughter said I looked like a beetle. Then a few years ago they came out with those glasses you almost can’t see and I got some of those without bifocals. Now to read I just take them off. I tell myself reading without glasses is my gift for the years of having to wear them. However yesterday while trying to pull the hair on my chin, I discovered maybe I’m not nearsighted enough anymore. Oh well!

Jim, since you are such a scholar you might be able to answer a couple of questions. I know info is now coming out about Bush’s work in Africa on aids. Do you know if any effort was made to get condoms to the wives of truck drivers who frequent prostitutes and go home and infect their wives with aids. I know Bush stopped all birthcontrol he could by withholding funding for the UN. I just know if these married women can’t protect themselves they, will have to use drugs for aids for the rest of their lives. I’d sure like to have access to a source to answer that question. I stop with just that question for now if you could get back to me with that, I’ll have another one. Thanks.

Merrell and Patty, It got pretty ugly here for a while. You are both relatively recent and maybe weren’t around for the ugliness. That is why we now have rules to guide the discourse.

Merrell, I went from wowowow a few minutes ago to the NYT and discovered an editorial about Bush’ s people trying to dismantle the judicial system before his term is over. In this case they were attacking civil rights, yours and mine. I’m so tired of ideologues attacking the constitution and laws of our land. I don’t care what party they belong to, that appointed government officials would work to undermine the law is disgusting.

merrell. I’m reserving judgement about Bush’s aids work in Africa, because he also was responsibile for withholding funding for birth control through the UN. That would include access to condoms which is one of the only protections married women have against catching aids from their husbands. I know this sounds convoluted, but treatment without protection isn’t good enough in my book. Sorry.

deber, I agree calling Laura Bush a co-dependant is unkind and unfair, from what I’ve read she laid the law down to George W. But he is an alcoholic, he’s admitted that and it is not something that is cured but controlled.

merrell. Hopefully! Civility seems foreign to them.

Who are these crazy people? Where did they come from? Talk about looking for a fight!