Open Forum Discussions and Debate

Dang! Ellié, and here I was about to wax lyrical about my poetry in motion(s)......

Hey Mary, I've just bought some lyrical wax, it sings a good tune.
Does anyone notice that every day several new members appear on the site. I have a suspicion someone is getting a little 'multi-personality syndromish' unless they tell me different. Just an observation, probably unfounded. I have been sitting on a plane for a while so my cells are shot to pieces.

Sleep, I need it.

Ellié.

Hey Ellié, lyrical wax is a fantastic resource...cheap too.....

Anybody out there?
OK...Obama has been in office for tenish months. He's already won the Nobel Peace Prize...what can/should he do next?

He went to his first college football game recently. It has been suggested because of that, he should now receive the Heisman Trophy. The guy's verneer is beginning to wear thin in some places.

Rosemary, do you ever take a peek into your forum page to see what is going on?

ellié, I think the memberships are real, since they're free. I do think that the 'craze' part of Sudoku may be past. I first started doing these Sudoku puzzles in July of 05, found this site in August, and probably posted a few times that autumn. I still do them, of course, but not with the fervor I once had. And sudoku is no longer a topic of conversation anywhere.

Of course, the membership numbers might be inflated for advertising or other reasons. It used to be easy to count the members, both free and paying, but now it would be very tedious and would take all afternoon without a special software program.

What strikes me is how few enter into any of the conversations on the easy pages, or elsewhere, for that matter. There are a few who are regulars on SA pages and never on Easy, but not many.

Jeb, I'll bet Rosemary quietly glides by every now and then. She does still post on Easy a couple of times a year.

As for our President, I think he is making a classic mistake of genuinely believing that it's a good thing he's in charge now, because all those things that all the dumb people who preceded him (for centuries) couldn't fix will be squared away in no time.

Some people get an education later in life than others.

I think that if he actually EARNS the Nobel Peace Prize he'll be doing ok.

That is certain, Mary. But it's a big 'if.'

Ian, I wasn't going to answer, with courteous regard to your comment, but some of the names; Shipman Jr and I think there was a name of a girl that had gone missing too if I recall, that leaves a lot to be desired in my book. I joined the site to do a bit of research for a private paper I am submitting. I have found some fascinating comments, both past and present. People have forged some special friendships, or so it seems. Quite a unique site in some respects. What makes it tick? I'd say more but, as always, I need some sleep. Travelling is the pips, and I need my bed. Perhaps you should give Obama a chance, he is between a rock and a...

Ellié - but you don't have to capitalise on that. Cheers.

Who was it that said "Educated beyond his intelligence"?

Hey Jeb, I was intrigued enough to google. It was James Brander Matthews who was describing a highbrow. Lovely phrase...I shall use it with aplomb.

'When you don't have an education, you've got to use your brains...' - I quite like that quote too. Morning Mary, jeb...

Outstanding, Mary! Someone who recognizes a rhetorical question and shows how to put it to use. Bravo zulu.

And thank you André for providing the other bookend.

jeb, you are more than welcome. It needs a bit of a scrub, but it has been well used...until I bought it secondhand...it has a lovely feel though. Old oak, fashioned from an acorn.

I bought a book recently; 5001 Books to Read Before You Die, or something like that. What book/s have influenced you in your past and/or continues to influence you in your present life? It could be many or few or none? It would be nice if people felt they could join in with the discussions here...

I have a small brain, containing only one cell, but I have a lovely set of microfiche...I read that somewhere too. It tickled me at the time.

Are you speaking for Fred, André?

I have not read a book in ages since the pleasure of reading was deminished by a change in vision some years back. What I had read with the exception of text assignments would have had no influence anyway. Two that I read over more than once were "Fate is the Hunter" by Ernest K. Gann and "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry. Both epic sagas, one fiction the other autobiographical. One assigned reading that did have an influence was "Journey to the East" by Hermann Hesse, sadly now out of print.

"Clevinger was one of those people with lots of intelligence and no brains..."

Jeb: I'm pretty sure that the Hesse book is still in print and readily available. His stuff generates too many doctoral theses for any of it to go out of print.

Gann's "Fiddler's Green" appeals to me a great deal, treeific story.

And I don't know where this came from:

"The more he learns, the more ignorant he gets."

Probably jeb. (But don't let Fred know...or I will be at his beck and call all day).

Ian, I find the older I get the less I know about everything or anything...but that is the beauty of life, discovering something new every day, even if I don't understand it...

Hey Jeb, I love getting my teeth into a good rhetorical question.
André, I have loved and reread Changing by Liv Ullman many times in my long-departed youth. It was a great friend to have when one was going through the trials and tribulations of that period. I must read it again to see if it is as comforting in the T and T of 'mature-age'.

I'm a terrible collector of books. I keep all I have and I like to re-read some of the old classics time and time again. I can't even put my finger on one particular book as each has merit. I do have a well-thumbed book called The History of Languages. A mamoth epic which I pick and read again and again. And I do have a penchant for dictionaries, the Reverse Dictionary is rather good for crosswords lovers - I've only just started learning the art of crosswords being a bit 'pea-brained' it takes me ages to work things out.

*mammoth - oops.
Mary how do you get your teeth out of a rhetorical question? Are you skilled in this art?
Love poetry too, I'm collecting old editions that I find in the local charity shops, there are some great finds to be had, and they are cheap too.

61,715 "views" of this page alleged.

Amazing. In the last 24 hours (according to the site stats), over 100 people have "viewed" this page.

And not a single one has seen fit to post a comment.

Perhaps the companies who advertise on this site would be interested in that little observation...

And four more in the last 30 seconds. My goodness, it's nice to be the center of worldwide attention...

Some of us just like to read.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.

Heidi....true words.
André,you prise them out with a pitchfork...it's a lost art.

A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country.
~~~
Well, there's a very simple answer.
~~~
Nobody bothered to check the oil.
~~~
We just didn't know we were getting low.
~~~
The reason for that is purely geographical.
~~~
Our OIL is located in:
~~~
ALASKA
~~~
California
~~~
Coastal Florida
~~~
Coastal Louisiana
~~~
North Dakota
~~~
Wyoming
~~~
Colorado
~~~
Kansas
~~~
Oklahoma
~~~
Pennsylvania
And
Texas
~~~
Our dipsticks are located in DC



Any Questions? NO? Didn't think So.

At the Brush Country Republican Women's meeting.
The topic was Texas concealed carry law. One of the speakers related the following story:


On the way to the previous monthly meeting an elderly lady was stopped by a highway patrolman. He asked for her driver’s license and insurance. The lady took out the required information and handed it to the patrolman. In with the cards he was surprised to see she had a concealed carry permit. He looked at her and asked if she had a weapon in her possession at this time. She responded that she indeed had .45 automatic in her glove box. Something, body language, or the way she said it made him want to ask if she had any other firearms. She did admit to also having a 9mm Glock in her center console. Now he had to ask one more time if that was all, she responded once again she did have just one more; a .38 special in her purse. The officer then asked her what she was so afraid of.

She looked him right in the eye and said, "Not a damn thing!"

Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc’-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of achieving, and where the members of society least likely to succeed or even to sustain themselves, are abundantly rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

Why the U.S. was downgraded:
• U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
• Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
• National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
• Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000
Let's now remove 8 zeroes and pretend it's a household budget:
• Annual family income: $21,700
• Money the family spent: $38,200
• New debt on the credit card: $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
• Total budget cuts: $385

Your choice is coming Nov. 2012.

QUESTION..........

You, who worry about Democrats versus Republicans- -relax, here is our real

problem.



In a Purdue University classroom, they were discussing the

qualifications to be President of the United States . It was pretty simple.

The candidate must be a natural born citizen of at least 35 years of age.

However, one girl in The class immediately started in on how unfair was the requirement to be a natural born citizen. In short, her opinion was that this requirement prevented many capable individuals from becoming president.

The class was taking it in and letting her rant, and many jaws hit the floor then she wrapped up her argument by stating "What makes a natural born citizen any more qualified to lead this country than one born by C-section?"

Yep, these are the same 18-year-olds that are now voting in our elections!

......and they walk among us..

Perspective: Losing our Sense of it . . .

By Mary Beth Hicks
Call it an occupational hazard, but I can't look at the Occupy Wall Street protesters without thinking, "Who parented these people?

"As a culture columnist, I've commented on the social and political ramifications of the "movement" - now known as "OWS" - whose fairyland
agenda can be summarized by one of their placards: "Everything for everybody.

"Thanks to their pipe-dream platform, it's clear there are people with serious designs on transformational" change in America who are using
the protesters like bedsprings in a brothel.
Yet it's not my role as a commentator that prompts my parenting question, but rather the fact that I'm the mother of four teens and young adults. There are some crucial life lessons that the protesters' moms clearly have not passed along.

Here, then, are five things the OWS protesters' mothers should have taught their children but obviously didn't, so I will:

Life isn't fair. The concept of justice - that everyone should be treated fairly - is a worthy and worthwhile moral imperative on which our nation was founded. But justice and economic equality are not the same. Or, as Mick Jagger said, "You can't always get what you want."No
matter how you try to "level the playing field," some people have better luck, skills, talents or connections that land them in better places. Some seem to have all the advantages in life but squander them, others play the modest hand they're dealt and make up the difference in hard work and perseverance, and some find jobs on Wall
Street and eventually buy houses in the Hamptons. Is it fair? Stupid question.

Nothing is "free." Protesting with signs that seek "free" college degrees and "free" health care make you look like idiots, because colleges and hospitals don't operate on rainbows and sunshine. There is no magic money machine to tap for your meandering educational careers and "slow paths" to adulthood, and the 53 percent of taxpaying Americans owe you neither a degree nor an annual physical.

While I'm pointing out this obvious fact, here are a few other things that are not free: Overtime for police officers and municipal workers, trash hauling, repairs to fixtures and property, condoms, Band-Aids and the food that inexplicably appears on the tables in your makeshift protest kitchens. Real people with real dollars are underwriting your civic temper tantrum.

Your word is your bond. When you demonstrate to eliminate student loan debt, you are advocating precisely the lack of integrity you decry in
others. Loans are made based on solemn promises to repay them. No one forces you to borrow money; you are free to choose educational pursuits that don't require loans, or to seek technical or vocational training that allows you to support yourself and your ongoing educational goals.

Also, for the record,

Also, for the record, being a college student is not a state of victimization. It's a privilege that billions of young people around the globe would die for - literally.

A protest is not a party. On Saturday in New York, while making a mad dash from my cab to the door of my hotel to avoid you, I saw what isn't evident in the newsreel footage of your demonstrations: Most of you are doing this only for attention and fun. Serious people in a
sober pursuit of social and political change don't dance jigs down Sixth Avenue like attendees of a Renaissance festival. You look foolish, you smell gross, you are clearly high and you don't seem to realize that all around you are people who deem you irrelevant.

There are reasons you haven't found jobs. The truth? Your tattooed necks, gauged ears, facial piercings and dirty dreadlocks are off-putting. Nonconformity for the sake of nonconformity isn't a virtue. Occupy reality: Only 4 percent of college graduates are out of work. If you are among that 4 percent, find a mirror and face the
problem. It's not them. It's you.

WHAT A HOOT!!!!

ABOUT THE WRITER: Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humor
columnist for the Miami Herald.

COLONOSCOPY JOURNAL:

I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an
appointment for a colonoscopy.

A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the
colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point
passing briefly through Minneapolis.
Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough,
reassuring and patient manner.

I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my
brain was shrieking, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR
BEHIND!'

I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for
a product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box large enough to hold a
microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it
to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America 's
enemies...

I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous.

Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In
accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I
had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor.

Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder
together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water.
(For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons).
Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because
MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and
urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon.

The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great
sense of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose, watery bowel
movement may result.'

This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may
experience contact with the ground.

MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but,
have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch?

This is pretty much the MoviPrep
experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the
commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the
bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you
figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of
MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the
future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.

After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep.

The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not
only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing
occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurts. I was thinking, 'What if I spurt
on Andy?' How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers
would not be enough.

At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and
totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a
room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little
curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital
garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on,
makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked..

Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand.
Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already
lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep.

At first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this, but then I pondered
what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom,
so you were staggering around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no
choice but to burn your house down.

When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where
Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the
17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I
was seriously nervous at this point.

Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began
hooking something up to the needle in my hand.

There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was
'Dancing Queen' by ABBA. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that
could be playing during this particular procedure, 'Dancing Queen' had to be
the least appropriate.

'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me.

'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for
more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am
going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.