Chitchat

Well, I am sorry that FC and Luca have decided to leave.

I know that FC and I disagreed on almost everything, but it was never ever personal. I tend to have very strong viewpoints and I love to debate. It never means I don't like the person. Now I'll have nobody to talk about Jared with here!

I am a person who comes from a world where you're in a screaming deathmatch with someone one minute and going to a movie with them the next. I am also a person who, if I sense a problem with someone, will want to talk it out even if it leads to confrontation. I find that many friendships end because people are afraid of confrontation. That is sad to me. Like most things, you might have to do something unpleasant to get to the good fun part!

If I'm opposed to something someone says, I"m no wallflower and will state my opinions. Strongly. I like to feel I can express my views freely and frazz, you have always made this a board where that is encouraged, so thank you. So many boards practice censorship so much that you don't know when you're crossing the line and warnings are issued for sneezing. So thank you.

Luca, well I loved hearing her point of view. She seemed like someone else who could express her views so well.

As for re-vamping the board, I think it's great. This thread in particular has been a very good forum for expressing viewpoints.

I have one idea for the board. You know how on "The View" they bring up different topics and then everyone discusses/debates? It may be good to have daily discussion points on the news of the day. Maybe have some at the ready and have us bring over subjects we want to discuss.

That's just one suggestion. I think it's great you're re-vamping and going with the flow!

I'll watch with interest any changes that are made. I'm not much of a politcal debater, so don't look for me there. I live with a hubby who will debate anything and everything, it gets old after a while.

Are you married to someone with an opposing politicial view? Oh my!

Yes, I would imagine living with someone who wants to debate everything all the time would get old really quick.

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Our dear Firecracker has left us, mostly, gone on to start her own board somewhere. I suspect most of you know this.

No. I did not know this.

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In any case, this place is going to evolve into something different now that they are gone.

I know I am most interested in things political, and in things mega-personal to do with being a woman, to do with aging.

I don't have any brilliant ideas of how or whether to expend, invite, reorganize, but I do want to put it out there that this board is changing.

I hope you will post obliquely or directly, about what you might like from this board in the near future.

Here's a topic. I have been reading "The Fall of the House of Bush" and I am learning the gross and terrifying extent to which the Bush administration deliberately disseminated wrong or misleading information about Saddam Hussein in order to justify the Iraq war.

It is not merely that they saw the world in an insistent spectrum of black and white, with us as Good and Saddam as Evil; the Bush administration took it upon themselves, with the alliance of the Religious Right, to be the arbiters of Good for the entire world, in a very limited view of what they meant. They wished to turn the Middle East into a vassal of America, and saw subjugation of Iraq as a means to that end; Dubya wanted revenge on Saddam ever since his father ceased to put him away. Also, they thought if they took control of Iraq, and the Iraq people welcomed them as liberators, we would have control of their oil reserves and a foothold as a permanent power in the middle east to oppose the Evil Of Islam.

To that end, they deliberately and systematically falsified documents that they presented to Congress as proof that Saddam was the Mastermind of 9/11. They never had any evidence of that at all; it is not merely that they were mistaken, but that they deliberately used the 9/11 crisis to further the agenda in the Middle East they wished to follow.

They always knew about Osama Bin Ladin. When Clinton was accused of wagging the dog by bombing aspirin factories, he was going after Bin Ladin's operatives. The GOP used the Lewinsky scandal to scuttle Clinton's attempts to shut down Osama so the GOP could take control of the country, but Clinton did more to combat Al Queda than Dubya has.

Katherine Harris very systematically and carefully refereed the election results in Florida to ensure a Bush victory. That election WAS stolen.

And the guy at the bottom of it all? Cheney. He's been running the show all this time. I also didn't know just how deeply unhappy Bush Sr. is with his son's foreign policy. It's caused a real conflict between them. It's also really scuttled Jeb Bush's career.

My husband and I pretty much agree about politics.

You are very lucky that you both share political interests.

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When Clinton was accused of wagging the dog by bombing aspirin factories, he was going after Bin Ladin's operatives. The GOP used the Lewinsky scandal to scuttle Clinton's attempts to shut down Osama so the GOP could take control of the country, but Clinton did more to combat Al Queda than Dubya has.

That's funny I read a Vanity Fair article a little over a year ago that said Clinton had multiple oppurtinities to do something about Bin Laden and did nada. Did not heed the warnings. You know i've come to the conclusion that after reading tons of political stuff there is usually a biased in there somewhere. The truth is somwhere in the middle. Nit that I am taking up for Bush or Cheney by any stretch.I did read that Billl Clintin could have prevented some things and did not.

For your amusement..........Bill Murray does a tandem skydive with the Golden Knights. It doesn't get any better than that!

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw9VIXX6RJY

http://www.comcast.net/articles/entertainment/20080816/People.Murray/

Landing video....

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=UpxqpTkebKw

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I did read that Billl Clintin could have prevented some things and did not.

It is very possible that this is also true. If he did ANYTHING, he did more than Dubya, and that does not mean he did enough. Since 9/11 happened, presumably he did not do enough.

Sky wrote:

For your amusement..........Bill Murray does a tandem skydive with the Golden Knights. It doesn't get any better than that!

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw9VIXX6RJY

http://www.comcast.net/articles/entertainment/20080816/People.Murray/

Landing video....

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=UpxqpTkebKw

Goodness gracious. I got dizzy and panicky just watching that!

ANd Sky, you said tandem jumping was no big deal.

HAH!

Boo! Hey there.

Just reading a little bit (I try to do that once in a while). On the subject of the Bush administration, Cheney and the Republicans, etc., I find that the best and most thorough analysis has been in my Rolling Stone magazine. If you all don't have access to it, the articles are available online at www.rollingstone.com. The author of most of their political stuff is Matt Taibbi; you can do a search for his name. But they have other writers doing political stuff too.

The one from the latest issue is: "Without a Prayer: John McCain can't stand sucking up to the Christian right. Is this the end of the GOP's unholy alliance?" http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/21896154/without_a_prayer


The Great Iraq Swindle
How Bush Allowed an Army of For-Profit Contractors to Invade the U.S. Treasury http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16076312/the_great_iraq_swindle

He also has stuff to say about Democrats: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18349197/the_chicken_doves


Anyway, just thought I'd share because you can't find much of this information in your local newspaper. Itr's really quite interesting, although in that disturbing way that makes you want to throw things.

Hope you all are well. We are, except that my 19-year-old cat appears to be dying and it's very sad. She moans and creeps from one spot in the house to another. She lies on her side and stays very quiet, then she'll start "yelling." Unfortunately we should have brought her in today, but didn't. My daughter's birthday is Monday and she's having a sleepover starting tomorrow afternoon, and I'll be running around crazy all morning. The vet's office is closed, but I would assume we can find an emergency one. I just don't think there's anything that can be done. We last brought her in a few months ago and nothing was wrong with her really, just old and very thin (almost skelatal).

Oh well, I did go on, didn't I?

Thanks for listening.

frazzle wrote:

Sky wrote:

For your amusement..........Bill Murray does a tandem skydive with the Golden Knights. It doesn't get any better than that!

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw9VIXX6RJY

http://www.comcast.net/articles/entertainment/20080816/People.Murray/

Landing video....

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=UpxqpTkebKw

Goodness gracious. I got dizzy and panicky just watching that!

ANd Sky, you said tandem jumping was no big deal.

HAH!

I doubt I ever said tandem jumping was no big deal. It has danger as well as a solo jump. It is an amazing experience. The Golden Knights are some of the best skydivers there are.................to jump with them must be quite an honor. Skydiving isn't for everyone, but it's a life changing experience.

Austin.....................my thoughts are with you and your cat. Huge hugs.

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On the subject of the Bush administration, Cheney and the Republicans, etc., I find that the best and most thorough analysis has been in my Rolling Stone magazine. If you all don't have access to it, the articles are available online at www.rollingstone.com. The author of most of their political stuff is Matt Taibbi; you can do a search for his name. But they have other writers doing political stuff too.

Hey Y'all she is dead on right about these articles. Matt Taibbi rocks and nails them! That article about the chicken hearted Dems infuriated me. Sorry about you cat Austin. Hope your little one has a Happy birthday!

Great to hea fom you, Austin!

So sorry about yur cat.

Thanks for the Rolling Stones links.

Thanks. Our cat died during my daughter's party. It actually happened in the car while my husband was driving her to the pet emergency room. If we had brought her in on Saturday I'm sure they just would have put her to sleep - there was nothing to do to save her. But my DH is a little mad at himself that he didn't bring her in. She was really "his" cat - she was always near him in the house and just loved being with him and vice versa. Hopefully she wasn't in too much pain yesterday.

Austin, I am so sorry. It is always so difficult to lose a family pet. I can understand your Hubby's feelings, but he will realize that there was nothing that could have been done had he taken her in on Saturday. He's just grieving. Hugs to all of you.

So frazz was talking about how the way she thinks of herself looking on the inside does not match the outside.

I do have this picture of myself in my head that gets a huge shock when I look in the mirror. Probably having to do with body image, etc.

Cool! Got a photo you can post that looks like what you think you look like in your head? (As far as I am concerned, that is reality).

So, frazz, I thought you'd be interested in this. I just started dogsitting for this lady who has a parrot. Today the parrot did a pitch-perfect imitation of me saying something I had said a day or two before.

To those of you this has never happened to: You will never freak out as much as hearing your voice come out of a bird's mouth.

Other than that, a very sweet bird. She let me pet her. We got a long really well.

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Cool! Got a photo you can post that looks like what you think you look like in your head?

http://www.hollywoodyesterday.com/Katharine1.jpg

Hey, it's my fantasy and I'll stick to it.

Oh, wait a minute. I forgot. My real self is in my avatar.

Ahhhh Katharine the great! I would like to BE her, not even just look like her!

Little story Ted Neeley (Jesus Christ Superstar) told me long ago:

He went to see a play in NY. Turns out he got the seat next to Kathrine Hepburn. All sorts of people were rubbernecking, and she determinedly pretended not to notice any of them. Ted just sat still, while quivering in awe.

When the play ended, she turned to Ted and said: "Now, why can't everyone be as cool as you."

Frazz, that is such a cool story! I have a friend who will so wanna hear that as JCSS is her favorite movie of all time. When she had the video, she wore it out. We even went to see the show together when they revived it with Ted starring in it!

So, no comment on the bird story? You being a bird lover, I would have thought you''d find that funny. Do you have parrots? Have they ever imitated you?

abrahammy wrote:

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Cool! Got a photo you can post that looks like what you think you look like in your head?

http://www.hollywoodyesterday.com/Katharine1.jpg

Hey, it's my fantasy and I'll stick to it.

Oh, wait a minute. I forgot. My real self is in my avatar.

Oh, and what a great fantasy..............I love Kate!

I get a little freaky about birds. Nice to look at, listen to, but I don't want one on me or flying around me. Don't ask me why, I don't know....maybe it stems from the Hitchcock film "Birds"......I don't know. If I'm in a house and there is a bird flying around, I'll be the one dodging it!

This one can't/doesn't fly. She just comes out and perches on her cage. I would kinda freak out if the bird flew all over. This one doesn't. Just bows her head to have me pet her. Quite charming and sweet.

She also does a mean imitation of the telephone and house alarm.