What I have a problem with is the desire of other people to interfere with MY choice to abort an unwanted pregnancy, whatever my reason does not matter. I mean, the reason, my life, and my body are all MY business! I have been hearing this argument for decades now (never heard it the first 40 years of my life!), and I still just do not get it. You are against abortion, I ask? Well, why tell me or anyone? Just DON’T have one! Urge your children not to have one, if you must; but get off of MY turf! No, the subject of abortion should not be political. It is a private matter, not a matter of State! Scheesch! There are many excruciatingly important problems facing this nation and this world. These have the potential to bring down our nation and/or to destroy our world as we know it and our species specifically. Why in the hell we are wasting so much time, effort, zeal, money and words on abortion completely eludes me! Someone’s religious belief? Well, any given religious belief belongs ONLY to those who hold it. Our constitution forbids, FORBIDS, that it affect MY life and my private choices. I just don’t get it! Government wants to mess with My Body, but does not want to feed the starving, swollen-bellied children already here? If a god makes a conception (oh, come on!), and has a hand in everything we do, then that god makes war, murder, babies die, women and children get beaten up, toddlers get raped? It just does not compute, thank you very much!

Mahalia Jackson at the Newport Jazz Festival.

Chris Matthews was on Jay Leno the other night and was questioned extensively about that bias. He admitted to it with complete candor, explaining that when he met Barack Obama, he had never been so impressed with anyone as he was this Senator and he was completely sold on him being the man this country needs at this time to lead us out of the place we are now. Which is a horrible darkness of the soul. America needs to emerge into the light of Promise and Joy. Matthews is not anti-Hillary; he is pro-Obama. I have been a fan of Hillary Clinton’s since 1992 and have the cancelled checks from paying dues into the fan club that was formed for her in that year in Reston, Virginia to prove it. I adore her, and HOPE she wants and will get the Supreme Court. For President, I voted for her in the primary and then turned to Obama. There is just no helpful utility in bitterness and vitriol. Chris Matthews is totally without guile. Oh, and he Adores his wife and children! Has a very happy marriage!

No! No! No! No! No! Bonnie! It is not because of her being pro-life at all! Not one speck of that! It is because of the colossal IGNORANCE she displays every time she opens her mouth. Listen to her! She says a whole lot of NOTHING! Pure gobbledegook. She cannot answer a simple straightforward question. She knows NOTHING of what is really going on in this world. She is dangerous to the reputation of womankind and to the regard we wish other nations to hold ours in.

I like all of those things about Sarah Palin as well! Sadly, I very much fear it is her very LACK of factual information up there in the grey cells that fuels her seemingly unlimited optimism. If only (those so-sad words), if only she had a grasp of how things really are and how they really work!

Calm down. Open your eyes and unplug your ears, Galfriend. No lies here. No smear here. Palin is the Queen of Lies and Smears. Also of empty-headed know-nothingness which made our beloved nation A SOURCE OF RIDICULE AND LAUGHTER to the rest of this planet! THINK about it!

SUCH a relief to hear someone list some facts. A breath of fresh, real, BREATHABLE air! Anti-fact folk like Sarah Palin scare this old lady into locking doors and trembling.

I am crazy about Chris Matthews and want to throw up at reading of some faction wanting to color him nasty and bring him down. Hey, Clique of Mean Girls, call off your dogs! This is a really decent guy. He was, is and will be entitled to, as are we all, his team to root FOR. Leave him alone.

I understand everything you are saying, Liz, and love the manner of your presentation. Before you are done with this series, I hope you will include on your list of labeled dominos the current generations: Boomers and Generation X, as being irresponsible spenders. Seriously. Have been listening avidly to the news, the talking heads, the interviews, especially appreciating the people Charlie Rose has had on his show. Not one single one has mentioned the bad financial habits of these generations. I myself am a child of the Depression and WWII years (born in 1929), so I know frugality and sacrifice and still live that way. I use credit cards for convenience, but have never paid them one cent of interest, as I pay their bills in full each month and never, ever purchase more than I have money in the bank to pay for. I own no credit cards (well, I only have 2 anyway!) with annual fees. Hey, I am NOT going to pay someone to allow me to purchase! McMansions, SUVs, over-indulged kids (what happened to counting state license plates or cows or billboards on car trips? Why must they have their own DVD players and stocks of movies? Scheesch! And their own cell phones!), owning every new article of clothing or technological newbie; all of this has helped break the dam on the economy; the buying is great to keep the economy rolling, but doing it ALL on credit is utter ruin! I would like to hear just ONE public servant, and am hoping it will be our 44th president, point out that when there was no more money to lend OUT, one reason is that no one is SAVING any more! Families are not making sure they have at least 3 months, preferably 6, stashed away in their bank for “a rainy day” such as being laid off! Ergo, they are instantly losing EVERYTHING when they lose their jobs! If WE don’t have some savings in the bank, the bank has less money to loan out.

Daydream, read, daydream, listen to light classical music, daydream, listen to music from back in the day (the nineteen forties), read, watch & listen to college lectures on many subjects (from The Teaching Company) on DVDs, read, daydream, write poetry, enjoy the spectacular view of the Chesapeake Bay from my back deck, read, daydream. Walk in Quiet Waters Park and my own community while listening to audio books of The Portable Professor series (from Barnes & Noble).

Just about skin here, not beauty, as I own not an iota of the latter, but for skin, stay out of the sun and NEVER wear makeup. My dermatoligist and all who meet me tell me I have the most amazing skin for almost 80; I have never in my entire life worn makeup. Get those dreadful chemicals OFF of your skin! Use nothing other than a good mosturizer, and that only at night. Makeup looks atrocious, smells bad, and makes you look phony. Wash, apply a little lipstick, and off you go! Eye makeup will ruin not only your eyesight, but give you dry eye. Throw away the makeup and simply HOURS of your time will be freed up for things you REALLY want to do!

for BEVERLY LINENS: I know how you feel only too well. I was a Republican for the first 61 years of my life! Yes! And an active one, at that. I was so proud of my country and my party. Benjamin Franklin answered the question of the old lady in Philadelphia by saying: “A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it!” We do live in a Republic, not a democracy! To this very day. And Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation! Yes, I was proud to be a Republican. Then my beloved party became owned and operated by the seemingly obsessed haters, ranters, dividers. I could not believe what I was hearing! Oh, the Ugly! It broke my heart. When MY party invaded MY privacy in their PLATFORM, for crying out loud, in 1980, I could not vote for them any longer. I voted Democratic then and in following years, waiting in hope and in vain for a breath of fresh air and sanity to blow in. It did not happen. In January 2004, I finally changed my party affiliation. I am now a registered Democrat; that is how long it took me. I will be 80 years old in May. There is Hope in the Air in this wonderful young man. A young man with All Good shining forth from him like rays of moonlight, sunlight and starshine. It is mostly ignorance, sometimes mental illness, that spews forth so much venom. It is a natural reflex coming from the most disadvantaged, uninformed, resentful reptilian minds to use this venom defensively. It is especially difficult for those who have lived their entire lives listening to one cadence to suddenly hear the approach of a different drumbeat. They cannot find the adjustment levers. Look how long it took me! But I did it. God Speed Mr. Obama’s vision for America!

Happy Birthday, Whoopi Dear. I will never be able to describe how much you inspired and thrilled me in The Color Purple, and I have loved you ever since. Today is also my mother’s 105th birthday, or would be if she were still here. She was born on FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH of November, 1903.

Will happily leave that honor to others. Am a VPP, meaning very private person. Think I would not be able to breathe in the spotlight. Literally.

The difference is in this being just one of many, many instances of self-righteous hubris taking up the time and energies of so many people who could better serve our species by being out actually giving aid and succor to the hungry, homeless children right here in our own nation and throughout this world. The idea, of course, is not religiously inspired, but a power plan to keep the Faithful busy with their heads down and not reading the newspapers or listening to the news. My Mormon friends spend hours traveling to their nearest temples frequently and Salt Lake City at least once a year in order to complete their lists and their personal tasks of baptizing and entering into the rolls. The whole point is their not having time for getting into some kind of mischief that might lead them to stray from the fold! It is just SO obvious, yet people do devote themselves to these totally useless tasks and ignore real needs out there.