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    marye
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    When our previous topic hit the 1,000-response mark, sleazy behavior by politicians was eliciting a certain amount of non-astonishment.

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  • johnman
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    I thought about that nuclear weapon thing myself...
    but with all the books, CD's, video and audio tapes, DVD's and records I have...I dunno where I'd put the damn thing. I think the intent (and from what I have read) was that a militia, made up of citizens, was needed because a standing army was not wanted, for fear it could be used against the citizenry. And then, I'm reminded that all the OTHER amendments refer to the rights of INDIVIDUALS, so why wouldn't the 2nd? Another thing I think that needs to be addressed is the increasing number of violent criminals that are released from prison, while some poor schmuck who's only crime was smoking a little herb is kept locked up for God knows HOW long, while that rapist, or murderer, or armed robber, is out on the street, pulling his bullshit, and giving me cause to require an ability to defend myself...WTF?? Cookies and beer....I may have to indulge this evening, as the Mouse will be gone to Seattle to attend a...."formal" rave.....(yeah, I don't get it either), so Ben the dog and I will have the house to ourselves.... I've enjoyed this...rational discourse is so refreshing, rather than finger pointing and hate speech ...which BOTH sides are guilty of.....
  • gratefaldean
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    2nd Amendment
    "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed". I'm still one of those who get hung up on this wording. I've always read the "right" statement as referring to the "well regulated Militia," -- otherwise, why is the militia part there at all? My perhaps muddled understanding of this was that the individual colonies/states didn't have standing armies to protect themselves, so folks needed weapons in their possession in order to heed the call when a threat of force was brought to bear against the well-being of the "free State We aren't dealing with that today, and our current activist Supreme Court (how I love, as a liberal, to use that phrase in relation to a Conservative-dominated court) has ruled that I'm just plain wrong in my thinking. So throwing my interpretation out the window, the right to keep and bear Arms "shall not be infringed", given a lack of definition of the term "Arms", given a literal reading would mean to me that yes, I indeed do have the right to (getting back to the extreme) possess my own personal nuclear weapon. So this was the intent of the framers of the Constitution? But Johnman, I do like your checks and balances argument, for what it's worth. It's just apparent to me that the "intent" of the framers is unknown in this case, and given the advance in weaponry since its writing, probably irrelevant. Which leaves us where we are today: a country where the overwhelming majority of gun deaths are not related to defense of home and life, but to murder and accidents. Again, condolences to all who have suffered violence in their lives, whatever the source. And pass the cookies and beer -- I can use some right now.
  • johnman
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    and yet......
    this doesn't bring back those innocent lives........nor heal the wounds......
  • johnman
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    Ok, I'll agree..
    except that I firmly believe that the 2nd amendment is one of the checks and balances that the people have against a complete totalitarian government...so, another extreme....if the government has access, the people should have access. I still believe this is the main reason that the amendment was included in the bill of rights, without the 2nd, you may not have the 1st, or the 4th....and while I'm on the bill of rights...what's up with it now being illegal to film or tape police in the....ahem..."performance" of their duties?...........if the rapture DOES occur on May 21, I'm pretty sure the mean, greedy people will be left out since they are mostly likely the type that have warped and distorted Christ's teachings of loving one another, into hating those that are different.............can I have a cookie?
  • JackstrawfromC…
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    I agree
    I totally agree about the ridiculously easy access the general public has to military/police-style guns can play a large roll in all this madness and helps make the situation much much worse. "It's got no signs or dividing line and very few rules to guide"
  • gratefaldean
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    Johnman
    Maybe the mean, greedy, selfish people will be the ones who disappear from the earth on May 21. We can only hope. IMHO, strict gun laws only work if they are universal in nature. As long as every state does its own thing, and that own thing varies as extremely as it does in the US, then anyone who wants a gun will be able to get one. That's painfully obvious. And...let's see. I look at it this way. And I'll carry the analogy to the extreme. 90,000-160,000 people died as a result of the US dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima during WWII. Is this just people killing people, or does maybe the potency of the weapon play some role in the results? If the nutcase in Tuscon had "just" a .38 revolver with a 5-round capacity in his hand as opposed to a Glock with a 30 round magazine, a lot less carnage would have ensued. So to get back to the extreme, if the potency of the weapon is irrelevant, then why are we all so hyped up over the prospects of Iran obtaining a nuke? That's what I'm referring to when I ask the question: where do we draw the line?
  • johnman
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    I think that at birth
    children should be given two cookies, and taught to share one, then, maybe, everyone would have a cookie and not have to steal someone else's cookie.....
  • johnman
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    Tiger
    That's why I specified "states that require ". I am aware of AZ not having a requirement, Alaska, too...and i think maybe Vermont. But still, in order to make a purchase, a background check is required. In DC no one is allowed a permit (at least not regular folks like you and I) and until the supreme court decision, if you had a weapon in the house (in DC), it had to be disassembled, effectively making it useless, however, in the states where permits are allowed or where a permit is not required, crime percentage is perceptively lower than it is where criminals know that there is less chance of people fighting back. Unfortunately, this doesn't stop the random nutcase like the shooter in AZ, who, again, ruined the lives of innocents and himself. I wish this all wasn't necessary....wish we could all just listen to music and enjoy life...wish all the mean, greedy selfish people would just go the hell away.....I wish........
  • marye
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    I live in Oakland
    which has shooting deaths a go go every year (and while historically much of this has been no-goodnik-on-no-goodnik violence, more and more innocents are getting caught in the crossfire these days, from babies to grannies). It also has a county sheriff whose policy is to make it essentially impossible for any resident of Alameda County who's a regular civilian to get a concealed carry permit. Stringent laws on the books don't necessarily have the intended result.
  • JackstrawfromC…
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    There's always been guns and knives
    But the difference now-a-days is the general lack of respect between people. At its worst is the lack of respect for our gift of life. When I was growing up and going to elementary and hgh school, if you had a problem with someone you confronted them and at the worst you duked it out "after school under the flag pole on the black top" and that was usually the end of it. You would go home with a black eye and that was it. Even during a playground fist-fight, there was respect for life (i.e. no one pulling out a weapon). Now kids have decided to skip the confrontation part and go straight to the solution - bring a gun to school and shoot the place up (lack of repsect for other's life) and then turn the gun on themselves (lack of respect for own life). I don't know about you all but we had just as easy access to weapons back then as kids do now, maybe even more so, but no one ever pulled out a weapon back then. I just wonder and ask myself - when, how and why did we shift over to a state of such hopelessness that murder and suicide are the only solutions?? "It's got no signs or dividing line and very few rules to guide"
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When our previous topic hit the 1,000-response mark, sleazy behavior by politicians was eliciting a certain amount of non-astonishment.
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So the empty suit in the WH is afraid to expose himself, and express his honest opinion about the hugely insensitive plan by Rauf, the Ground Zero Islamofascist, yet in the Gates case, he couldn't wait to tell us the white cops "acted stupidly..." I guess they belong under the bus along with his "typical white" grandmother...and now Nutsy Pelosi wants to "investigate" me, and the other 70% of Americans who know what our enemy is up to...hmmm, I wonder if she's including Harry Reid...???
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as non-judgemental and informed as ever, I see.********************************** By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean. Mark Twain
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Yesterday I commented on how much I'd have hated being on Blago's jury, boldly proclaiming that I'd prefer an armed robbery or murder trial anyday. In a "reap what you sow" moment, I arrived home last night to find a summons to jury duty in our stack of mail. I'm 55 yrs old, and this is my FIRST-EVER jury summons. This cannot just be a coincidence. Can it? I at first thought this was a case of cause-and-effect: I wrote this thing down, then out of the blue (postal uniforms are still blue, aren't they?) something quite related happened . Thinking about it some more, I realized that the summons was already in the mail when I was spouting off, so it looks less like cause-effect and a little more like clairvoyance to me. One shot deal, or the start of something new? How can I use my new-found power to do good, or at least to win scads of money?
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Congrats. Mr. Dean. You are about to find out what one of your sacred duties as a US citizen is. America needs more people on juries like yourself. I hope you serve honorably. I think you lose money an a jury, unless your vote is for sale. As it is said: "In America, we get the best justice money can buy." (More directed at the lawyers, I believe)
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Just cuz you're summoned doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up serving jury duty-I THINK anyhow! But congrats on being given the opportunity to do your civic duty!! Always wanted to play 12 Angry Men, but the summons never came :(********************************** By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean. Mark Twain
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I'm 54 and have never been summoned myself. Like you I've been somewhat disappointed by that. You may find that the attorneys really don't want discerning folks on the jury and you may not get to serve anyway! Best of luck. Let us know how it goes!
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My preferring a murder trial statement (as it relates to clairvoyance, that is), but I might get disqualified if I get questioned about the death penalty. As I'm anti- , I'd have a hard time voting conviction for someone who might end up on death row. I liked it much better when I lived in a no-death-penalty state...
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indeed a dilemma, and I would have the same problem!********************************** By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean. Mark Twain
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I figure how would be asked my opinion on the death penalty and automatically disqualified by the prosecutor. If I actually got on the jury I think I could determine guilt or innocence independent of that but if I the jury determined sentence I could never vote to put someone to death.
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Unless you are unemployed and have nothing better to do. As far as the death penalty goes that is about as controversial as it gets. If someone harmed my daughter or any family member for that matter I'd have a hard time feeling sorry for them being put on death row. But yes I know in the grand scheme it is a very touchy subject. Don't worry - you may not even be picked for one thing and the chances are if you are picked it will be a snoozer trial for shoplifting or something. "The dire wolf collects his due while the boys sing round the fire"
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Watching the news on Friday is always interesting. They put stuff on that would otherwise get buried. They know that a lot of people aren't paying attention. Last Friday the news about the flood was frightening. They took a plane over the flood and there was nothing but water (with small islands) for 25 minutes. The worst thing was the sound bites. I've never heard people who are starving begging for food before. OMG! I'm making a small donation today. My wife dug up a picture on the internet some time ago of buzzards following a starving child in Eritrea (N. Africa). The photographer committed suicide shortly after taking the picture, some time after the child just fell over and died. These images can haunt you. I guess some things should be censored from the news (and I thought I'd never say that). Not the fact that people are starving, but the live images.
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German news was talking last night about how aid reaction is so small and so late. They showed some heart-rending scenes as well. Now cholera is breaking out. The Pakistanis are soo desperate they accepted aid from their arch-enemy India. One tiny ray of hope in that awful situation, I suppose; if neighbor India is reaching out in Pakistan's hour of need.********************************** By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean. Mark Twain
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that 1/3 of Pakistan is underwater.....I just can't imagine that. why are we not seeing more in the news? I've always had a problem with the media, but this is ridiculous.
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The Pakistan government turned their heads on their own people before, during and now after the floods. It's sad but I can also understand why the people there are ready to start a revolution. "The dire wolf collects his due while the boys sing round the fire"
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They are supporting all kinds of dark things, including the Taliban. They see India behind every tree, trying to take over their country. The governments of the world have thus far contributed $800,000,000, including Nepal, the thirteenth poorest country in the world. Still, it is nothing compared to the cost of rebuilding most of the country's infrastructure. No wonder Gandhi was so pained by the partition of India in 1947.
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The 110 (not the Harbor Freeway in LA) has been backed up for more than 10 days. It is taking drivers three days to get through. The traffic is backed up all the way to Inner Mongolia. The jam is expected to last another 30 DAYS!! Jeez, how do you explain that one to your significant other? "Uhhh, honey? Yeah, the trip to Mongolia went well but I've got a small problem now... I just cleared the Great Wall and won't be home for three days because of traffic." The Chinese are blaming everything but the real reason, there are simply too many cars and lorries for the road to handle. They are getting strangled by their own prosperity. This is not just a problem in China. It is all over the developing world. China is a more than interesting example of an economy run amok on unbuckled capitalism. Where will it all lead? I think the winter weather patterns this year may give us part of the answer.
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I have searched for good news can find nothing we got floods bp afghanistan and the rest of the shit.Old lady in sheffield uk got a hip replacement free on the nhs thats all igot. I will take this opportunity too say hell send you good blessings and wish you peace. Smiles.
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Found alive in Chilean cave-in. That's the great news!! The I-can't-imagine-it news is that it could be 4 months before they can be rescued. FOUR MONTHS!! That mining company must be a BP subsidiary.... Sorry, Gonzo, the best I could do this morning.
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2This August marks the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four’s debut 48-night stint at Indra, a strip club on Große Freiheit, a notorious side street that runs off the Reeperbahn, Hamburg's infamous red-light boulevard." The Local (Germany's news in English) ********************************** By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean. Mark Twain
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And the Midwest baby....also Red ROX!!!!!♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥ Twirly Banner
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Will continue looking for good news to bring here. Happy for miners, Beatles & Furthur coming to Chicagoland.
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You dear folks know I'm EXTREMELY non-partisan (hate' em all, greedy bastards), but I'm wondering why Pelosi wants an investigation into who's funding the anti-mosque ads in New York, but doesn't seem concerned with who is funding the cultural center itself? Is dissent now illegal? Doesn't that put the shoe on the other foot? And why is the cost of chocolate going up? Dang...i need a cookie
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...you might seem to be in league with Rauf, the Ground Zero Islamofascist, along with Nutsy (Pelosi) & Harry -- characters to which Dewlover has introduced us. (Sorry, couldn't resist that :) :) :)) Actually, we got your cookies, J'man. The good ones. We give'em out in the parking lots of churches after AA meetings. The first one is always free!
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but i think what's good for the goose is good for the gander, so to speak.......er.................uh....but really, shall we silence dissent that we disagree with? are we only going to allow opinions that agree with our own?................AA meetings?......hmmmm...Deadheads anonymous, mebbe!!....heeheeeee!! Hi....my name is johnman...and I have Dead tapes at home.....
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( & ) ; ~ }
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London uk weds this week woman filmed picking up a cat a locking it in a dustbin.I am naming and shaming this bitch Mary bale 45 from london.Poor pussy was in the bin for 15 hours but is well now. Mary said and i quote i really dont understand what people are getting excited about its only a cat.
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What are those wild and crazy guys in Iran up to these days? I mean besides celebrating the making of fissionable material to make nukes with? They are copying the US military's drones. Instead of coming up with a cool name like "reaper" or "predator" they came up with: Ambassador of Death! You know, I'm beginning to believe these sand flea bitten Persian camel jockeys are obsessed with death. Not that I wouldn't be if I was going toe-to-toe with the US & Israel. Yikes!! I think Obama needs to draft the Dalai Lama and launch him as an Ambassador of Peace...
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Maybe they just need some acoustic Dead? 10-10-80 Warfield Theater, San Francisco, Ca. (Fri) Acoustic: On The Road Again, Roses, Monkey & Engineer, Jack A Roe, Dark Hollow, To Lay Me Down, Heaven Help The Fool, Bird Song> Ripple Electric-1: Half Step> Franklin's, Me & My Uncle> Big River, Candyman, BIODTL, Row Jimmy, Minglewood, Althea> Jack Straw Electric-2: Scarlet> Fire, Samson, Big RxR Blues, Estimated> Eyes> Drumz> Truckin> Nobody's Jam> Black Peter> Around> Promised E: U. S. Blues "Jack A Roe" appears on "Dead Set" - last "Nobody's Jam": 08-13-79 [98] ♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥ Twirly Banner
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~ let there be songs to fill the air ~ somehow I don't think ahdmadhinejad is listening though - but we can hope!!
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When he sayed "Imadinnerjacket" ahmendinasomething lol♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥ Twirly Banner
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A copy of reckoning and the dalai lama may help maybe we should introduce some white widow too this party.Seriously they are beyond help.I wish them all peace.
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DL: So, Ahhdie, whats up with the ambassadors of death?AHD: It's kind of a status symbol in our part of the world Really? Yeah, reigning down death and destruction on your enemy when he least expects it is all the rage these days. Well, uhh, do you think you might tone down the names a bit? What do you suggest? How about "Messenger of Gentle Persuasion" with a non-exploding warhead? No, no, no. In Iran we're all death to this and that and mother of all them and those. Ahhdie, whats this macho posturing all about? Death to infidels, Dolly! Maybe you guys just need to unleash your inner lambs Nahh, we kill them too - delicious!
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My wife asked me this morning "Is marriage the end of hope?" -- I turned to her and said, without missing a beat, "No, Glen Beck is the end of hope!" We both got a good laugh on that one! Seriously, this former morning commute DJ doesn't deserve demagogue status, he deserves a freakin' Oscar for playing the role to the 9s. I do not believe this guy actually believes a word that is coming out of his mouth. He is rich beyond anyone's wildest imagination because he was in the right place at the right time. I don't blame him a bit. However, this vitriolic hyperbole about Obama is just plain dangerous. The lunatic right-wing fringe has descended on Washington DC en masse along with a lot of well-meaning people concerned about the defecit who are along as normal window-dressing for the crazies. They will rally at the Lincoln Memorial in DC tomorrow. If any rally ever deserved to be stink-bombed it is this one. The danger is that some freak will try to end Obama's life. And, Glen Beck is like the dog that told Berkowitz to do the killing. Chilling, isn't it?
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Picture two skeletons walking down a beach into a glorious sunset. We sure had a great time this summer. Hoping you are too! Enjoy!!
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How you been? Vid is great btw! :) ********************************** By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean. Mark Twain
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"Iranian newspapers have been banned from publishing the names or photos of the leaders of Iran's green movement, according to a confidential governmental ruling revealed by an opposition website. The move is part of a new round of censorship, which follows the recent closure of a newspaper and the suspension of two magazines." Guardian.co.uk ********************************** By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean. Mark Twain
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The meeting of 12 government ministers was held in scorching heat Friday in Gashuunii Khooloi, a sandy valley in South Gobi province, about 670 kilometers south of Ulan-Bator. GASHUUNII KHOOLOI, Mongolia – Top Mongolian officials donned dark green baseball caps reading "Save our planet" and set up chairs and tables in the sands of the Gobi desert for a Cabinet meeting aimed at drawing attention to climate change. The meeting of 12 government ministers was held in scorching heat Friday in Gashuunii Khooloi, a sandy valley in South Gobi province, about 415 miles (670 kilometers) south of Ulan-Bator, the country's capital. The ministers, dressed in suits and ties, arrived in the desert in jeeps after a 15-hour journey. Officials planted a Mongolian flag in the ground, set up long tables and chairs in the fine, golden sand and discussed climate change against the backdrop of a vast expanse of desert and a bright blue sky. "Mongolia is feeling the impact of global climate change," Prime Minister Batbold Sukhbaatar said at the one-hour meeting. Batbold pointed to the recent winter as an example of problems Mongolia faces. The winter was the harshest in decades and a fifth of the country's livestock died. The government blames global warming for a decrease in rainfall and says that rising average temperatures have caused many rivers and springs to dry up and snow cover to melt. It also says the frequency of natural disasters and drought has jumped. The site for the meeting was chosen because parts of it used to be arable land, said Badarch, head of social policy for South Gobi province, who like some Mongolians uses only one name. "Five years ago, there used to grow many edible plants in this valley and there were fewer sand dunes. Now look here," he said. "The valley is completely covered with sand. The sand dunes are moving and taking more space each year." Minister of Natural Environment and Tourism Gansukh Luumed said Mongolian herders' traditional way of life is under threat. "Global climate change accelerates the desertification process in Mongolia. Currently, 70 percent of Mongolian land is affected by desertification." In December, Nepalese officials held a Cabinet meeting at Mount Everest to highlight the danger global warming poses to glaciers. It followed an underwater Cabinet meeting in the Maldives in October to underline the threat of rising sea levels. The government said it hoped that delegates attending global climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, in November would reach a decision that is "favorable for landlocked, developing countries ... very much affected by climate change and desertification." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * What a spectacle! The poorest people in the world are holding meetings to point out the obvious to developed countries whose wealthy titans obfuscate and dither. The horror, the horror...
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The Glenn Beck Magic Revival Hour is over now. The concession stands have sold out of "Freedumb Pop," while Believers shout hosannas and praise the "Word" as revealed to Beck from the burning sagebrush of John Wayne's sacred spirit. The great Oz Media has analyzed, punditized, commercialized and celebritized the Archie and Veronica of moral mediocrity, proving once again that if it sparkles like shallow water in sunlight it must be worth ratings. There is nothing new here, nothing even original. Joe Pyne did it in the late 1950s, Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple McPherson did it in the 1920s, and my friend's dad, Cleon Skousen, warned all of us, America's children and parents, that creeping Communism and Sputnik and rock 'n' roll would bring about the downfall of America unless we joined the John Birch Society. The country is awash in Commies and Sinners. The End Times are upon us. Again. Sing a hymn. Say a prayer. And send a dollar for God's profit - Glenn. The great American stupid goes on and on. People died in Afghanistan today. Equipment at a construction site for a new mosque in Tennessee was set on fire. Americans continue to lose jobs and houses with little relief on the horizon. The GOP plans to hold probes into possible impeachable offenses by the Obama Administration if they win the midterms. Or at least shut down government. But hey, a bible-thumping millionaire bunko artist set up his Chautauqua tent on television and spoke in tongues and that is twice as cool as life and death. God bless America. In the name of the Holy Trinity: Larry, Curly and Moe - Amen.
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Thanks Lamagonzo, that has always been one of my favorite episodes of the 'Three Stooges'....I channel the spirit of Niagra Falls at least once a year and people look at me like I'm some kind of fool,heh heh....