Tattoos and piercings

I have seen some disturbing things on the net as of late. People that have their entire bodies tattooed and pierced. Why do people do this? It looks incredibly painful to me! I have no tattoos and the only piercings I have are my ears. I have see some people get their eyes, nose, lips, belly buttons and even their genitalia pierced. Why? It does not make any sense to me. And I do not thinkl that tattoos all over the body are attractive at all. Even the tattoos all over the arms do not look attractive to me. I can understand getting a tattoo as long as you can keep it covered, but all over? Nope. Not for me. I understand that others may like it, but it just is not my cup of tea. I have not nor will I ever surgically alter my body unless I need it. I feel the same way about facelifts and breast implants. I don't need them and I wont get them. My decision.

Byetta

Today I went to the DLC and learned how to use something called Byetta. It seems that Byetta is pretty simple to learn how to use. The needles are very small and I can barely feel them when I inject the Byetta.I also tested my blood sugar this morning before I had my medicine and breakfast. Too high! Will work on getting that under control and starting a light exercise program. For some strange reason when I get home from work, I am just hard to get motivated. Oh yes, I have to watch my food portions too. My food choices are excellent, though. I have cut out the diet pop almost completely altogether. These days the main things that I drink are skim milk and ice water. That is really all I need for drinks. I don't drink alcohol at all. I did get drunk a few times when in college and a few times after wards, but I never really liked the taste of it. Need to work on getting more sleep, too!

Another good gem from Yahoo!

Political Preference Is Half Genetic Melinda Wenner
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com
Mon May 28, 10:46 AM ET



Whether you prefer Rush Limbaugh or Keith Olbermann has to do with your genes and your psychology, according to a new study.

People who are more conscientious and prefer order, structure and closure in their lives tend to be more conservative, whereas creative people who are open to new experiences tend to be more politically liberal, says John Jost, a psychologist at New York University who conducted an overview of previous studies involving a total of more than 22,000 participants from 12 countries.

But that psychological profile only pulls half the weight when it comes to determining people's politics, his review showed. The other half is genetic, as is revealed in studies of twins and their political bent, Jost says.

Politics in America

A number of sociologists have argued that political ideology died in America after World War II because both the left and the right wing were heavily discredited at the time.

Jost says the latest research shows the opposite, that politics in America today are very much alive. His previous research has suggested, for example, that more than 90 percent of college students can identify where their political beliefs fit on a scale running from the “left” (liberal) to the “right” (conservative), and that their affiliations strongly influence how they vote in elections.

Americans also appear to enjoy being involved in politics.

For instance, 44 percent of respondents to the 2004 National Election Study reported that they regularly listen to political talk radio.

Recipe for beliefs

Given our current political appetite, Jost next wanted to know whether liberals have different psychological traits than conservatives.

His “meta-analysis” of previous studies, including his own, showed that liberals seem to be drawn to chaos and novelty—for instance, they tend to support social change—whereas conservatives prefer reassurance and structure, and thus like to maintain the status quo.

Jost’s findings, detailed in American Psychologist, suggest that environmental factors, or the types of situations people encounter in their lives, determine approximately half of their political preferences.

For example, when people fear death or terrorism, or are in a state of uncertainty, they tend to become more conservative, he said. A study of World Trade Center survivors after 9/11 reported that 38 percent grew more conservative in the 18 months following the attacks, as compared with only 13 percent who became more liberal.

The other factor that determines a person’s political beliefs is biology. Research by John Hibbing, a University of Nebraska political scientist, showed that identical twins share more political beliefs than fraternal twins. They also, of course, share more genes.

“Forty, perhaps 50 percent of our political beliefs seem to have a basis in genetics,” said Hibbing, whose studies were included in Jost’s analysis. While genetics are unlikely to “hardwire” people into being liberal or conservative, Hibbing said that genes could make people more or less likely to have certain values or react to situations in a particular way.

This knowledge could pave the way to a more tolerant society, Hibbing said.

“If you think your opponents are not just being willfully bullheaded but rather have a kind of biological predisposition toward a set of beliefs, you might not spend as much time beating your head against the wall trying to get them to change,” he said.

Republicans Happier than Democrats
Democrats and Republicans Both Adept at Ignoring Facts
Brain Scans May Unlock Candidates' Appeal
Original Story: Political Preference Is Half Genetic
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Flim Flam people

I fell asleep last night about midnight. I am a fairly heavy sleeper.Well, I wake up at about 5 am to void, and as I am coming back to my bed the tv is still on. Well, what do you know is playing? One of those crazy as hell informercials. Not just a regular one trying to hawk some worthless kitchen crap, but this one is a tv preacher. He was trying to sell some sort of mineral water that is supposed to bring one health and wealth. Then he was trying to sell some sort of hanky. ( This gave me visions of Mr Hanky the Christmas poo dancing around in my head which made me laugh out loud and scare my dog) I laugh and think: why would anyone fall for this crap? I have subsequently found out that this preacher was brought up on charges of fraud and has filed bankruptcy. Why is this idiot still on tv? He and his wife sit there on tv with these asinine looks on their faces and the backdrop is so obviously phony. Who in their right minds would send this guy money? He and his wife are con artists. He claims to be a faith healer. If he really believed tat he could heal people, then why not have a tv show on primetime? Then again, check out his name: Peter Popoff.

DLC

Tomorrow I am going to the Diabetes Learning Center for a class on how to use something called Byetta. I have to use this penlike needle to inject myself then I must eat within one hour of doing it. Things have been going better for me personally. I am finally starting to kick this illness! On a much sadder note, a friend of my family (more a friend of my father) died on May 14. :(. He had health problems and had just been released from the hospital for heart trouble a few days earlier.

Dissent

It appears that I have a dissenting voice on one of my blog entries. Thats ok. I do not mind. I will keep up all responses, unless of course the responses are threatening or too graphic. This is what a blog is for, isn't it? And if the responders wish to remain anonymous, then I will respect their privacy.What I should have said on that blog entry is that I get sooooo tired of the CONSTANT complaining about the current administration and it just seems like every message board has some posters that blame everything that has gone wrong in their lives on the President. I don't mind reading the occassional complaint, it is the CHRONIC and CONSTANT complainers that get on my nerves.I just have no tolerance for whiners

News on the Lil Guy

Hello everyone. Hows it going? Update on Zorn: He got VERY ill early last month. We are not exactly sure what caused his kidneys to fail, but he was hooked up on an IV for a while and spent about a week going between hospitals.For a while we were not sure that he was going to make it. We got his kidneys flushed out, and now he is doing MUCH better and a boundless source of love and energy! He is almost 5 months old and getting to the happy, fun , yet awkward and cute big eared, long tailed, big foot puppy stage!

Youtube

I have just discovered(lol)by far the most bizarre thing on the web: YOUTUBE. Thats why I have not been posting here so much lately. I felt kinda nostalgic for those old classic retromercials and public service announcements. Some are just downright funny! I will post some here soon.

In my neighbor hood

There is a guy in my neighborhood that I see riding his ten speed bicycle around my city wearing nothing but a speedo.Not even a helmet. I have seen him many many times.Normally I think that speedos are goofy looking. He is not a bad looking guy. He wears next to NOTHING. I don't at all mind. I can even see that he is a rather well endowed guy. I think he may know that he gives the ladies in town a show.He has nice long brown hair and he is fairly well muscled and is pretty tanned. He disappointed me the other day while I was driving home from work the other day. He was on his bicycle as usual, but was wearing cut off shorts and a tee shirt. He was so close to me I wanted to yell 'Hey-BRING BACK THE SPEEDO'! But I didn't.I just look at him and smile really big:)

Still running on PISSED

I am still running on pissed from the last post I made here. I am sick and tired of the constant bitching by others on the AOL message boards about President Bush. I mean, I am not a huge fan of the guy either, but seems that some people want to blame Bush for every damn societal problem this country has. I just wanna reach through my computer and slap the ever lovin shit outta them and tell them,'hey if you are that miserable here in this country THEN YOU ARE FREE TO LEAVE IT'!I have told them that a few times, but they still whine and bitch, so I have to put them on ignore. My iggy bin is full of these whiny , bitchy morons. I am watching 'Mind of Mencia' right now. That guy is hilarious.

Fed up

I am fed up. Fed up with BOTH major political parties. I am sick of both of the parties giving boxed, pat, stock answers to serious political questions. For instance, when the Democrats are asked what should be done about our troops in the Middle East, they usually say something along the lines of ' bring our troops home'.Well, ok, EVERYONE wants that! But it DOES NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION! What would you do to solve the problems in the Middle East? I have yet to get an answer from them. I am a registered Republican, but I am almost as fed up with them as I am with the Democrats. Republicans 'stock' response: 'stay the course'! Ugh. I feel like banging my head against the wall.Stay the course ? Ok fine. But just remember that eventually, it may take years and years and years, but we might have to 'pull out'(ugh-another stock word). I say to the people who say 'stay the course': Then after we do that, then WHAT? They usually have no answer.Don't get me wrong, I love voting and I love being an American and I support the troops, but sometimes I feel like the major political parties are something like my folks, and each side is pulling me like taffy to their side because 'they know what is best for me'. I feel that sometimes the troops are in the same position I am. I know that when they get orders, they HAVE to obey them. Completely understand. Sometimes I get sick and tired of all of the political bickering. The Democrats (it seems to me anyway) try to blame Bush for all of society's problems, call him a hate monger, stupid, etc. I am just sick of that.It is just NOT true. And I am sick of the Republicans preaching at us about 'responsibility' especially when some of them do not practice what they preach. Ok, my rant is nearly over. LOL. Bottom line is, I guess that there are jerks on all sides .

From Yahoo.. and I could not agree more

Grieving parent: Remember our children By VICKI SMITH, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 22 minutes ago



BLACKSBURG, Va. - Peter Read wants you to make a choice.

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He asks that you turn away from the face of the deranged gunman glaring at the camera. Gaze instead at the face of a bright and bubbly brunette who smiled even when she was unhappy, a face always in the middle of a crowd.

It is the face of Mary Karen Read, the daughter he will now see only in scrapbooks.

Hers is just one of 32 promising lives cut short at Virginia Tech — the life of a musician, an aspiring schoolteacher, a doting big sister to five siblings. A 19-year-old freshman who had just filed her first tax return and learned, the day before she died, how to make a pumpkin pie.

When you think of the massacre that befell this quiet college town, those are the memories Peter Read wants you to remember.

"We want the world to know and celebrate our children's lives, and we believe that's the central element that brings hope in the midst of great tragedy," Read said Thursday, with his wife, Cathy, at his side. "These kids were the best that their generation has to offer."

As the Reads left Blacksburg on Thursday for their home in Annandale, they were exhausted, pale, heartbroken — and furious. On television, the overwhelming image of the tragedy was the face of Cho Seung-Hui — a killer whose name Peter Read cannot bring himself to speak.

"I want to issue a direct personal plea, to all the major media," he told The Associated Press. "For the love of God and our children, stop broadcasting those images and those words. Choose to focus on life and the love and the light that our children brought into the world and not on the darkness and the madness and the death."

Several networks have already heard Read's message loud and clear — from disgusted viewers. Fox News Channel announced it would no longer run the disturbing audio and images of the gunman. NBC, which aired the material first, and cable outlet MSNBC said they would "severely limit" their use.

Read hopes the focus will swing back to the children. Children such as Paul Turner's daughter Maxine, a 22-year-old chemical engineering major from Vienna who loved beaches, swing dancing and her close-knit circle of friends. She would have graduated soon, and she had already lined up a job in Elkton, Md.

At Virginia Tech, Maxine Turner co-founded a sorority and earned a red belt in Tae Kwon Do. She loved the German band Rammstein and signed up for a language class to understand the lyrics.

It was there that she died.

On Thursday, her body rested at a morgue in Roanoke, where state and U.S. flags were lowered and access was heavily guarded by police. A hearse will arrive sometime this week to carry her home, a scenario that will be repeated many times as parents hold funerals.

Like so many today, the Read family is blended: Peter Read, a 44-year-old Air Force veteran, married Yon Son Yi, of Palisades Park, N.J., who gave birth to Mary Read. But the couple later divorced.

Yi remarried and had a second daughter, Hannah, 4 1/2. Read remarried too, and he and his wife had four children: Stephen, 11; Patrick, 4 1/2; Brendan, 2 1/2; and Colleen, 10 months.

The Reads live in a quiet cul-de-sac in Annandale, where they moved in 2001 from Virginia Beach.

Mary Read made friends fast. She joined the French honor society, the National Honor Society and the marching band. She played lacrosse for two years and moved easily between the cliques that fill high school hallways.

She wanted to teach math and science to elementary school students, and she enrolled at Virginia Tech.

In her dorm room were scrapbooks filled with hundreds of photographs — at summer band camp, at Myrtle Beach, on the arm of her father as part of the homecoming court.

The end of her freshman year was just weeks away, and she had planned to spend the summer at home, working at a deli and helping care for her siblings.

She came home Easter weekend, staging practice egg hunts for her brothers. Then, the weekend before her death, she came home again.

She divided her time between her friends and her family those two days but was inseparable from her laptop. She sat on the stairs, where the wireless reception was best, to instant message and e-mail her friends. A brother sat nearby, toy computer on his lap.

"He wanted to be like Mary," Peter Read recalled.

On Sunday, Read's wife showed his daughter how to make her favorite dessert, a pumpkin pie. And when Read took her to the bus stop at 4:30 p.m., she had a slab of the pie and a container of Cool Whip in a plastic bag.

Mary Read never called to check in when she reached Blacksburg, but her parents know what she did that night: She had recorded her favorite TV show, "House," on DVDs and watched them on her laptop during the 4 1/2-hour ride.

The next morning, she had French class in Norris Hall, where gunman Cho Seung-Hui took her life.

When news of the shootings broke, Peter Read started calling his daughter, hoping she would pick up. Then he called her roommate. The hours wore on, without word.

When Read learned that the parents of his daughter's longtime friend Danielle Waters were driving to Blacksburg late that afternoon to find their daughter, he asked to ride along.

On the drive, Olga and John Waters learned their daughter was alive. Around 9:30 p.m., Read's cell phone rang. It was his wife, and the state police were at their door.

The Reads won't talk about their grief over these past few days. It's too painful, too personal. The time is not yet right.

But they share the photos and drawings from their daughter's dorm room, which was just as she had left it.

In a plastic bag was the empty container that had held her pie. And on her desk was a calendar Mary Read's grandmother had given her years ago, each day offering a quote from a famous woman.

On April 16, the words were from a teacher, Helen Keller:

"When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another."

___

Associated Press writers Sue Lindsey in Roanoke and Kristen Gelineau in Blacksburg contributed to this report.

Took a spill

After I had some xrays I went home for a bit then went to work. I took a pretty hard fall, scraped up my hands and hurt my knee. I cried, and two guys had to come and help me up. I was embarrassed! I cried, because of the physical pain. When my mother called later I told her what happened and we both laughed! I am going to have bruises and be sore for a few days. As far as the bloodwork and exrays go, I will know the results on Thursday. I will watch a comedy central show or shows tonight to take my mind off of being embarrassed!

Physical

I had a physical last Friday. Dr took a pap smear, pelvic exam, weighed in and such. I have to go back in for a chest x-ray on Tuesday. Glad that I got the bloodwork out of the way and should have the bloodwork tests then. The dr was nice and didnt lecture me like I was afraid he would. In a few weeks, I have to go to the dentist and then the podiatrist.

Zorn

Our new baby pup is very ill. He was not feeling well on Easter Sunday, but was still somewhat peppy. Monday he took a turn for the worst and my mother, who was frantic, took him to the vet. Turns out that his kidneys were failing . We did not know why. He was given an IV to clean out his kidneys which has helped a LOT. He was switched to a different hospital last night and I went to pick him up this am to take him back to the regular vet where he will stay for at least the next few days, and he was clearly feeling much better and was his usual peppy and active self. We don't know what he got into to cause the kidney problems( have not ruled out the dog food, but have not seen his food on the list of contaminated dog food) and he goes back to the emergency animal hospital tonight for observation and will go back to the reg vet in the a.m. I believe that Zorn will pull out of this. My family is cautiosly optimistic.

This is horrible

Unprovoked beatings of homeless soaring By TODD LEWAN, AP National Writer
Sun Apr 8, 7:20 PM ET



ORLANDO, Fla. - It was a balmy night, the sort that brings the homeless out from the shelters, when the police were summoned to America Street. On the driveway of a condo, just a few paces from the gutter, lay a man. A dying man.

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He looked to be 50-ish, and a resident of Orlando's streets, judging by the moldy jacket. And he'd been bludgeoned — so badly bludgeoned that he could hardly move.

Before being rushed to the hospital, where he died of his head injuries, the man, August Felix, described his attackers. Young fellows did it, he whispered to the officers who got to him first. Kids.

Within three months, two 16-year-olds and three 15-year-olds had been charged with second-degree homicide in the March 26, 2006, attack. The motive? "I don't think there was a motive," Sgt. Barbara Jones, a police spokeswoman, said, "other than, 'Let's beat someone up.'"

That high-schoolers had turned — allegedly on a whim — into executioners brought pause to city officials and advocates for the homeless, not just because the killing was unprovoked, but because it fit into a trend larger than Orlando: a nationwide surge in violence largely by teenagers and young adults against some of America's most vulnerable citizens.

A 2006 report by the National Coalition for the Homeless found 142 attacks last year against homeless people, 20 of which resulted in death — a 65 percent increase from 2005, when 86 were violently assaulted, including 13 homicides.

By comparison, 60 such attacks were reported in 1999, the year the coalition — the only entity to gather such data — began to study the problem.

And these numbers are likely low because they only reflect the most egregious attacks reported in newspapers or by agencies that serve the homeless and some victims themselves, according to Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the Washington-based coalition.

The trend is particularly troubling, he says, because such attacks no longer occur just in major cities on the East and West Coasts, as was the case in the 1980s.

In its most recent study, "Hate, Violence, and Death on Main Street USA," the coalition documented attacks against the destitute in 62 communities last year alone, in 26 states. Since 1999, such violence has occurred in 44 states and Puerto Rico, and in 200 communities nationwide.

An overwhelming majority of the attackers — 88 percent — were 25 or younger; 95 percent were male. No less than 68 percent of those accused and convicted in attacks were between the ages of 13 and 19.

This pattern of violence, in Stoops' view, hasn't gotten the attention it deserves from the public or law enforcement.

"Homeless people are the newest minority group in America that is 'OK' to hate and hurt," he said. "It's as though, somehow, they're viewed as less deserving, less human than the rest of us."

Americans did pay attention to the story of 58-year-old Jacques Pierre, a homeless man who'd been sleeping on a bench on a college campus when three teenagers woke him up, taunted him, then nearly killed him with baseball bats.

Why?

That Jan. 12, 2006, ambush in Fort Lauderdale was filmed by a surveillance camera, and broadcast worldwide.

"For once," says Sean Cononie, who operates a homeless shelter in that seaside city, "Americans saw with their own eyes how kids hunt down and kill homeless people as though it were a sport."

Such "sport" has occurred elsewhere:

_In Toms River, N.J., five high-school students were charged with beating a 50-year-old homeless man nearly to death with pipes and baseball bats — throwing hockey pucks at him for good measure — as he slept in the woods.

_In Butte, Mont., a 53-year-old homeless man was killed at a Greyhound bus depot because he refused to give another man a cigarette, according to court records. The victim's skull was fractured. The 22-year-old assailant received a 50-year prison sentence.

_In Spokane, Wash., a one-legged, 50-year-old homeless man was set on fire in his wheelchair on a downtown street; he died of his burns. Police charged a 22-year-old man with first-degree murder.

_In Nashville, Tenn., a 32-year-old homeless woman sleeping on a boat ramp was shoved into the Cumberland River, according to witnesses. Two men, ages 21 and 22, were charged with homicide in her drowning; authorities say the attack was unprovoked.

Cononie, who also publishes a monthly newspaper, "The Homeless Voice," reported another trend:

"Kids are even starting to videotape themselves hurting homeless people. That's something we never saw before."

He was referring to an February incident in Corpus Christi, Texas, in which a 22-year-old, a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old describe on camera how they are going to assault a homeless man, then do so.

On the tape, the attackers kick the man in the back, grab him, and flip him around to show off his injuries, according to police. The camera, which had been stolen, was recovered by the owner, who called police once she saw the footage.

Police have arrested one of the teens, and are looking for the other two suspects. The victim suffered a concussion but survived.

Some perpetrators are even younger. In late March, a homeless day laborer was walking at night through a neighborhood of Daytona Beach, Fla., when three boys on bicycles attacked him, striking him with a concrete block.

Two of the boys were 10 years old; the third was 17. Each has been charged with aggravated battery. "For a 10-year-old to pick up a cinder block and smash somebody's face with it, that defies logic," Michael Chitwood, Daytona's police chief, later told a reporter.

Though for the past decade assaults on the homeless have dotted the U.S. map, Florida is the state where such attacks are most frequent by far, the coalition's February report says.

Last year, the coalition documented 48 attacks in Florida, where 60,867 of the state's 17.8 million residents are homeless, according to federal figures. By comparison, 11 attacks were counted in California, where 170,270 of that state's 36 million people are homeless.

While some investigators believe the attacks are random, Sgt. Richard Ring, who investigated the murder of August Felix in Orlando last year, sees "a more deep-seated problem here."

As he puts it, "Our young people get prejudices from their parents in regard to homeless people. They don't identify with the homeless, and they don't seem to see them as important." With Felix, Ring adds, "the juveniles targeted him because he was easy prey."

Homeless advocates also link the trend to the popularity of "Bumfights," a video series created in 2001 and sold on the Internet. The videos feature homeless people battering one another for money.

A Bumfights DVD was cited as inspiration by a 19-year-old who pounced on a homeless man as he slept on a Los Angeles sidewalk, then pummeled him with an aluminum baseball bat. The 2005 beating put Ernest Adams, 56, into a coma for three weeks and cost him the sight in one eye.

Last July, a jury found his attacker, Justin Brumfield, guilty of assault; he is serving an 11-year prison sentence.

Internet site Bumfights.com, which sells the videos, says the purpose is to call attention to poverty and violence. "Please do not miss the point of these videos! Educate yourself. Help those who are less fortunate. Spread love not hate," the Web site says.

In 2002, Donald Brennan and Rufus Hannah, two homeless, army veterans, filed suit against the Las Vegas producers, alleging they were paid small amounts of money to bash their heads into walls, light their hair on fire, attack each other, and to tattoo "Bumfights" in bold letters across their hands and foreheads.

Later, the Bumfights producers agreed to pay an unspecified amount in damages and to no longer use Hannah and Brennan's images for promotional purposes.

The shock-video producers also pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to stage an illegal fight for their videos in 2003, and were ordered to perform community service. (In 2005, they were sentenced to six months in prison for having failed to complete the community service.)

The Associated Press sent an e-mail to Bumfights.com seeking comment for this story, but got no response.

A number of local governments have adopted ordinances that restrict where and when the homeless can sleep, stroll, beg, eat, bathe, or do laundry. And this trend may have an unintended effect — reinforcing negative stereotypes of homelessness, which contributes to the violence, some advocates say.

"When cities pass laws that target homeless people, they send a message to their communities that the homeless are not as valuable in the public eye as those with homes," says Tulin Ozdeger, a civil rights attorney at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

Of late, there have been signs that lawmakers may be ready to crack down harder on those who assault the homeless without provocation — one being a recent push to categorize such attacks as hate crimes.

Currently, gays, along with racial, ethnic and religious groups, are covered by various hate crime laws around the country; convictions under these statutes usually carry harsher sentences than other types of crime.

Brian Levin, a criminologist and hate crimes expert at Cal State San Bernardino, says attacks on homeless people "fit the category like a glove," and should be punished as severely.

Hate crimes, he says, bear similar hallmarks: stereotyped victims, offenders who act on latent prejudices, offenders who seek thrills or feel superior to their victims, and a mob mentality that sweeps away caution.

"And on all these points," says Levin, "the attacks against the homeless are really indistinguishable from other hate crimes except for one difference — there are a heck of a lot more of them."

Between 1999 and 2005, 82 people were killed in America because of their race, ethnicity, or religious or sexual orientation, according to the FBI, which has been collecting data on hate crimes since 1990.

There were 169 homeless people murdered during that same period, the National Coalition for the Homeless says — a statistic that Levin describes as "astounding." It has caught the attention of some lawmakers.

Twenty-six members of Congress have asked the Government Accountability Office to determine whether attacks on the homeless should be classified as hate crimes under federal law.

In the meantime, homeless hate-crime bills are moving through the legislatures of six states: Maryland, California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Texas and Florida.

Here

Hi there. Well, things are going well for me, I am finally starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel on my finances. I have no mortgage. I paid off my house about two years ago. I only have 6 more car payments and the Toyota is mine.I will have my credit cards paid off by the end of next month. Then I will start saving like mad for my retirement! I will start putting money into my Roth IRAs and such. I have taken a complete and total interest in the subject of finance. I have been posting on the finance boards on AOL quite a bit. Those are very interesting, and not too many trolls over there. I just kinda got tired of the abortion boards. I have made some new friends, and gotten some great ideas on how to save money. I think that most of the posters over there are older than I am, but I think that is cool. Money is a great subject, it always interests everyone.

Hello again

Something that I have been dreading, something that has been in the back of my mind lately which is this: I have a doctor's appointment coming up , and that is going to be a physical. Yuck, I can tell that the doctor is going to chew me out for being oevr weight. I just know it. I also have type two diabetes. I control it with meds and I stay fairly active, working alot lately(this week I will have worked about 60 hours) . The appoint ment is a week from Friday. It will probably include a pap smear , a pelvic exam, and bloodwork, at least. I will be glad to get it over and done with. On the bright side, my personal war against poverty, I am finally winning. I am nearly out of debt. By the end of this Spring, I will have all of my credit cards paid off. I already have some decent funds in the bank. By the end of this Summer, I will have my car paid off, therefore, I will be COMPLETELY debt free! I have been so intense about paying off all of my debt, and I see a light at the end of the tunnel. My debt was not as big as most peoples, but it will be nice to be completely debt free and not even 39 years old yet! I will certainly be a rarity . .. now if I could just find a man. On that thought, on attracting the opposite sex, I don't really have any problem in that area. I have not had any trouble getting dates. I would like to get married someday.

Dr Tiller is a hero

Effort against Dr. Tiller fails
Legislator says move to have abortionist criminally charged appears dead
By James Carlson
The Capital-Journal
Published Thursday, March 29, 2007
The legislative push for the attorney general to charge the state's most prominent abortion doctor appears dead, Rep. Arlen Siegfreid, R-Olathe, said Wednesday.

"To my knowledge you will not see it on the floor this year," he said.

The pronouncement came after a bizarre series of events, including a rarely used law, a rally in the Statehouse and a committee hearing many said broke House rules.

House leaders last week sent a letter to Attorney General Paul Morrison urging him to press charges against Dr. George Tiller, who runs an abortion clinic in Wichita. Tiller is one of a handful of doctors in the nation who performs late-term abortions.

On Monday, social conservatives announced they would invoke a statute allowing the House to direct the attorney general to proceed with a prosecution.

At this point, some Democrats said Siegfreid ran afoul of procedure.

A resolution on Monday was drafted ordering Morrison to charge Tiller. The House Federal and State Affairs Committee, of which Siegfreid is the chairman, then met and voted to send the resolution to the full House, said Rep. Ann Mah, D-Topeka.

"You just can't do that," she said. "You have to introduce it in the House first."

According to House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, D-Greensburg, a bill has to be introduced in the committee, then read in to the House, where the speaker of the House then refers it to a committee.

"It's so important that we keep following the rules because that's what makes the process work," McKinney said.

Siegfreid, however, said nothing was done wrong.

"It was read in the same day we took action on it," he said.

According to the legislative journal, the bill was read in Monday, but after the committee had already taken a vote to send it to the House. Siegfreid said the problem arose because a reviser of statutes wasn't at the hearing, and as a result no committee report could initially be read in to the House.

About whether the sequence of events matter, Siegfreid said: "Oh, baloney. That's how it's always done."

At that point, the measure was sent back to the committee and another hearing was held Tuesday, but no action was taken.

Also on Tuesday, Kansans for Life led a group of 100 advocates in a rally calling for Morrison to charge Tiller.

The Tiller case has been in the middle of a bitter debate for years. Most recently, it played a part in the attorney general campaign.

Former Attorney General Phill Kline filed 30 criminal charges against Tiller in December, a month before he left office. Kline alleged in his criminal complaint that Tiller failed to report the details of 15 illegal late-term abortions he performed in 2003 on patients ages 10 to 22.

Those charges were later thrown out by a Sedgwick County District Court judge.

Abortion opponents have since called for Morrison to resurrect those charges.

The statute Republicans hoped to use states that any branch of the Legislature can direct the attorney general to bring charges in state court. The Legislature used the same law in 2002 to direct the attorney general to sue the governor over Medicaid money used on abortions, and it was Kline who acted on that resolution in 2005.

On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Federal and State Affairs Committee said Monday's hearing was only meant to bring attention to the abortion debate.

"I think they just wanted to have something for the rally folks," Mah said. "I think they got all the press they needed and they're done with it."

Rep. Nile Dillmore, D-Wichita, said Siegfreid wanted to have "a moment of glory" for the abortion opponents.

"Instead what he got was a big embarrassment," he said.

James Carlson

Zornfaust!

Its TIME

Bubble bath time!!!!!!!!!!!!

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOORKKKKKKKKKKK!

Yes I know I have not been posting here lately, but I have been UBER BUSY! And when I am back in front of the computer, I relax by playing popcap games. I AM THE CHUZZLE QUEEN! And I am addicted to Welch's purple grape juice!

LUCK

pick up pennies every time I see them on the ground. One day I found almost twenty of them-along with a ten dollar bill by a trash dumpster at work. I was just carrying the trash to the huge dumpster out back when I happen to look down and see some pennies there. I bend down to pick them up, and then look along the fenceline to see what appeared to be a dollar bill. Actually there were two one dollar bills and a ten spot. JOY! One time, my mother, who is a fabulous antiquester, found a crumpled up fifty dollar bill on the floor of an antique mall years ago. Anyone else had experiences like this?

Camera

I finally have my camera figured out, and just when I get some pics down loaded to my computer, I cannot seem to get them added here. I can however send them in an attachement via email. So if you want a picture of my sweet baby Zorn, just ask and I will email it to you. Yesterday, he had to stay in a pen with one of the big dogs because if he came into the office, he would just make a mess of things and possibly get hurt because of all of the electrical cords. I let him out often and he just fluttered around my feet he was so excited to be with me.When I put him back in the pen he would whine and cry so loud. Poor guy. He has to get used to it though. He stayed home with mom and dad to day though. Thank GOD. One of the guys that I work with just discovered that he has gout, and does not need to listen to the whining and wailing from the lil guy.Zorn has a great big yard that he plays in when he stays at home with his mom and dad. He is already one spoiled little guy.

New baby

I am sorry that I have not been keeping up here recently! Been busy with work and the new furbaby..

Good article, Yahoo!

While I do not completely agree with this Yahoo! Article, I thought it was a good one:
Posted on Thursday, March 1, 2007, 3:00AM
"Maxed Out," a documentary that opens nationwide next week, examines the dark side of America's love affair with debt.


By turns humorous and heartbreaking, "Maxed Out" exposes the targeting techniques of credit card companies (the most profitable customers are broke); the gold rush mentality in the business of debt collection; an influential credit scoring industry riddled with errors; and the power of the credit card lobby at the highest levels of government. (MBNA, the biggest campaign contributor to President Bush, was behind the restrictive bankruptcy legislation of 2005.)


Submerged in Debt


"Maxed Out" is directed by filmmaker James Scurlock, a Wharton business school dropout and entrepreneur. Scurlock also wrote a book based on the film, which is due out next week from Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster.


Scurlock says he started out hoping to do a lighthearted riff on consumer irresponsibility, but was shocked by what he found: College students and housewives committing suicide over their credit card debt, and the nation's biggest banks involved in predatory lending schemes.


In one case, the film shows Citigroup's lending arm foreclosing on a Mississippi shack owned by developmentally impaired woman and her severely retarded 44-year-old son after they were refinanced into a loan they couldn't afford.


"I wanted to know why people are living so close to the edge," says Scurlock. "A lot of people just haven't been able to keep pace with expenses like health care, education, and housing. Credit cards become the life raft that people don't even have to reach for -- they're just there." Scurlock points to new "medical" credit cards, for example, which invite consumers to dive deeper and deeper in debt.


Conservative Consumer Advocacy


This indictment of the industry comes from a 34-year-old who was voted "most conservative" by his business school peers at the University of Pennsylvania, and who worked on the election campaign for George H.W. Bush.


"It's not in anyone's interest to have a financial industry that behaves like a used-car dealership," says Scurlock. "I think it's conservative to expect that credit will be regulated in this country. People need to have to have a strong financial industry that's trusted -- and to the extent that that erodes, that's very bad for the country and the economy."


In the film, Scurlock interviews the two young founders of People First Recoveries, a Minnesota collections and debt purchasing firm, who purport to represent the "kinder, gentler" side of the debt collection business. And yet they describe themselves as "pirates" -- using swashbuckling techniques like calling neighbors and relatives to intimidate debtors into paying.


In another interview, Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren recalls a presentation she did for financial services executives in which she discussed how many bankruptcies could be prevented simply by eliminating those customers on the financial edge. A member of the firm informed her that those consumers comprise the most profitable part of the business.

The Personal Accountability Gap


Unfortunately, Scurlock never directly addresses the personal-accountability aspect of debt in his film. I was hoping he would ask at least a few hard questions about the consumption choices that lead people into the red.


"A lot of people we talked to said, Gee looking back at the level of debt, there should be a Mercedes or a Ferrari in my driveway, but I have nothing to show for it,'" Scurlock says. "Most Americans are very optimistic. They think things will always get better from here, they'll make more money, they won't have any emergencies. Credit has become so ingrained in the culture that so many people can't imagine living without it. Once you decide you're never going to be out of debt, you can afford anything."


Other than my mortgage, which is fixed for 30 years at a low interest rate, I don't do debt. No revolving credit card debt, no auto loans, no home equity borrowing. Would I like to bust out the back of my home and create a designer kitchen and family room? You bet. Am I going to sacrifice my children's college savings or retirement goals on the altar of my extreme makeover? No way.


I had the good luck to have wise parents born during the Depression, who drew a very clear line about debt. They taught me that you buy things you can afford -- not things on which you can afford a monthly payment. You don't shop for recreation. And the only thing you should borrow to buy is an appreciating asset that will very likely, over time, pay you back more than you put into it, such as a home.


Anything But Maxed Out


Here's my problem with taking on debt: I have a profound respect for the unknown. For instance, my husband and I work for ourselves. This is an excellent way to avoid ruthless bosses and layoffs. But if one of us were to get injured or become ill, it would be pretty hard to keep business hopping.


Meanwhile, I'm optimistic that if I work hard, my income will continue to rise. On the other hand, I have dozens of friends and acquaintances who, despite their hard work, were downsized or squeezed out after a merger, spent long periods unemployed, and/or returned to jobs that paid less. The rosy scenario of a steadily climbing income that peaks just before retirement is the stuff of economic models -- not the real life of the middle-income Americans I know.


Here's the other irony: Credit card companies market their products by claiming they offer you a world of choices -- take that dream vacation, buy the 60-inch television. But by steering completely clear of credit card debt and saving on a regular basis over time, I found myself with much richer options -- choices about how I would balance work with family, health, and friendship. That satisfaction is more enduring than anything I could have purchased with plastic.


Buying with Blinders On


Why, I asked Scurlock, don't people understand this? Why do so many consumers buy things on credit and then pay double for them over time? Why do they sacrifice what they want most in life for what they want this very second?


It's pretty simple, Scurlock says: "I think there's a lot of denial. Most people can't do the math. There is very little, if any, focus on the balance sheet side of the equation."

My dream

Last night . It was a really, REALLY wierd one. I dreamt that I went on a vacation with my family and we went to some national wetland/marshland place to take pictures of birds. Well, my maternal grandmother,(who in real life has been dead for years) was driving. She was not doing a very good job of it, and she ended up driving us into some sort of pond or marsh. We all somehow got out of the car ok, but I lost all my credit cards and cash at the bottom of that pond! At the end of the dream, The car was being pulled out, and no purse of mine was find. I was fretting on how to get my money back, and then the caymans came into the pond! It was creeeeepy because it seemed so real! Anyone ever had a dream like this?

Hey VERIZON WIRELESS!

I am a little bit irked at Verizon Wireless now. Yesterday when I got home from work, I picked up my mail, and see this very thin envelope from Verizon wireless. Oh JOY! I think it is my fifty dollar rebate ! Finally HERE! NOT. Turns out it was just a letter letting me know about my account at Verizonwireless.com. Something I already have anyway. Those assholes! How could they toy with me this way! THEY KNOW that when they sent this out that I was going to think this was my check!!They are sooooo going to hear about this from me..just kidding about the last sentence lolololol

Sick of it

I do not wish to speak ill of the dead at all, but I am so sick of hearing about anything even remotely that deals with Anna Nicole Smith. I am sorry, but not shocked to her of her and her son's death. I do feel very sorry for her new baby, little Dani Lynn. But I have had my fill of hearing about the custody case of her body and who is the father of her baby. I get to where I just change the channel on the radio station when I hear her name. Seems that in regards to her, everyone on the tv/radio (ok almost everyone) has their hands out for a dollar. That is ALL I AM GOING TO SAY ABOUT HER.

Forget

Forget the last post I made. The link takes you to the wrong place! Some foreign website. I just typed a question into Yahoo!questions and got an answer . I will post it here later!

Lifelong question FINALLY ANSWERED!

http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/d... If the link does not work, just type into your browser!

February 17, 2007

My income tax refund came in the mail today. I won't say how much the refund is, but lets just say that I have changed my withholding status and I will never loan the money out to the government again. I am not one that normally complains a lot about the way that our government spends and invests our money, but I will say that the government does not do the best job in the way that they handle it. Yes, there are taxes that have to be paid. That is just part of being an American. This year, I am making some serious financial changes. My car is almost paid off. By the end of this month, I will be almost debt free, as my credit cards will be paid off. I really want to owe NO ONE any money, other than daily living expenses. There will always be taxes, just a part of life.A few years ago, I started funding a Roth Ira, but I kinda let that slide for a while. After the end of this month, I am really going to 'hit the bricks', and start saving more for retirement, as I see that Social Security will probably not be around anymore by the time I am ready to retire. I am only 38 years old, and have no kids,so this might make saving money a little easier.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, every body! Yes, I know I know.. need to update. Will with my next post!

Has it been so long

Well my folks have finally started on their trip to Atlanta this week. By the time you read this, they will be gone. There is a rental show going on in Atlanta and my folks chose to drive. No matter where the show is, they prefer to drive. If I go, I prefer to fly. Less expensive for me to fly anyway. Every year, different people get to go to the ARA show, and I am really glad that I get to stay home. I am in charge of payroll and the bills and books. So I kinda have to stay this year anyway.But this week, I will be back and forth between the stores quite a bit. Thank God that my cell phone and my Toyota are tough little bastards. Huh.

Ok, I am posting again dreams 2

Ok, I have returned. It has been a while since my last post. I have not heard anything from Dennis, and if I don't hear from him again. He is still on my buddy list, though I am not sure why. I still go to the movies with Jeff on occasion. I like him, but he is a little wierd. He gets into health foods. I am so happy.! I finally FINALLY got the w-2s done today and gave them to the employees. The rest I will mail out tomorrow. I got a LOT done tonight. Unloaded then loaded the dishwasher, carried out the trash,ran a few loads of laundry, fed the dog, and filed my income taxes. Now the only thing that I have to conquer is not eating dinner tonight. My sugars were too high this afternoon, and they are dropping. I can feel it. Getting a little shaky feeling, but I am determined to control my diabetes. I am watching Discovery channel right now while typing this. I am going to have some juice if I get too shaky. But no dinner tonight. I promised my father that I would not eat dinner tonight, and I am determined to keep that promise.

Vividity

Hello. I am going to tell you about the dream I had this morning. I say this morning because I woke, then went back to sleep. I dreamt that I went to some sort of hotel that had a nice, large indoor swimming pool. I swam alone. Then when I got out of the pool, I went to a locker room, got dressed, then I discovered that the locker room was attached to what appeared to be an airport. I thought this was pretty cool, and I look out the windows and see planes landing and taking off. Then I walk down a hallway where I come to a room that has a ride in it and this ride consists of the main body of an airplane, the part where the passengers ride, where you can get in and pretend like you are taking off and landing. Like one of the virtual reality machines for those poor folks who can't afford to go anywhere.So I get in, and at the end of the ride, I get out, and I am transported to some place along the beach.I see hippies EVERYWHERE. They are taking MASSIVE amounts of drugs.I see couples everywhere, having sex on the beach and they appear to just be tripping out on acid everywhere. The colors are so bright and clear and vivid. The hippies are friendly, asking me if I want some 'acid' with a great big smile on her face. I back away, in fear, and say 'no thanks. I have never tried the stuff, and I have no interest in doing it now'.Then she laughs aloud. My heart is pounding, thinking that she must be on some really bad acid trip.I run up the beach, their voices behind me getting louder. I turn back, but they are not following me. I find a road, and then run back to the hotel with the pool

Yahoo News

Fri Jan 19, 4:18 PM ET



PARK CITY, Kan. - Thieves or souvenir hunters caught with pieces of BTK serial killer Dennis Rader's former home will be prosecuted "with glee", the mayor said.

Earlier this month, Park City bought the suburban Wichita house from Rader's ex-wife for a little less than $60,000 with plans to tear it down and build a park access point.

Rader and his family lived in the home for 25 years before he pleaded guilty to killing 10 people between 1974 and 1991. He is serving 10 consecutive life terms in prison. Rader called himself BTK for his preferred method of killing, "bind, torture and kill."

The city would not disclose when demolition would begin or where the debris would be buried or burned. "This is not meant to be a spectacle," Mayor Dee Stuart said Thursday.

On Friday, at least one seller on eBay offered to ship a box full of wood purported to be from the interior walls of Rader's home. The online auction site also had a posted picture of a demolished structure, though Rader's home is still standing.

The auction was to end next Wednesday, but eBay posted a notice Friday afternoon that said bidding had ended with no bids received.

It was not immediately clear whether eBay or the seller stopped the auction.

Catherine England, an eBay spokeswoman, said eBay prohibits auctioning so-called "murderabilia" out of respect for the families of murder victims and as part of its policy on offensive material.

Shortly after Rader's arrest in February 2005, people tried to use eBay to sell tickets Rader had written as an animal control officer, Stuart said. The auctions were eventually removed, she said.

Feeling better

I am feeling better today and looking forward to going back to work. The only thing I don't like now is the pile of work that is no doubt going to be on my desk. I did not work yesterday-as I was still sick. I did not get any sleep last night or the night before, but I did get some yesterday morning. Tonight when I get home, I am not going anywhere. My butt is staying home every night, at least for the next 5 or 6 nights. I am probably still contagious. I think I would go crazy if I did not have my internet service and my Heidi. She has been wonderful for the entire time. Best dog ever. I did not sleep last night, so this afternoon is probably going to drrrrrrag. Tonight I will try to go to bed around ten pm. Try to get some sleep.

Biological Terror alert

Bronchitis: Do not ever get it. I reccommend that you stay away from it as much as possible, esp if you are diabetic. It will cause you to cough up greenish yellow phlegm, give you horrible coughing fits, and cause you to get so sore from coughing, that your muscles will start to ache. I have had it before, and I suspect I have it now. My Doctor prescribed a strong antibiotic, and it seems to be working, but today I was off of work because I felt really sick. I am taking robitussinDM for the coughing and for the first time in about 3 days I will finally get some decent sleep!

The Duke Rape Case update from Yahoo! News

Judge orders paternity test in Duke case 2 hours, 8 minutes ago



DURHAM, N.C. - The judge in the Duke University lacrosse case has ordered a paternity test to determine the father of a child born to the woman accusing three players of sexual assault.

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Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III requested the paternity test in a written court order filed Wednesday.

Defense attorneys had first requested the test in December before the child was born to eliminate any paternity question. The woman said she was attacked by the players during a team party in March.

Smith approved the paternity test during a hearing in December, but didn't make the order official until Wednesday.

The accuser gave birth to a girl last week at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, a person familiar with the case has told The Associated Press. The source spoke anonymously because the information had not yet been made public.

Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong has said the pregnancy is almost certainly unrelated to the night of the team party. Both sides agreed the test should be conducted to silence any doubts about a connection to the case.

Rape charges were dropped against the three players last month though they still face charges of sexual offense and kidnapping. All three maintain their innocence.

Smith also ordered that attorneys be given transcripts from a closed-door hearing they attended in December to discuss sealed records in the case. The transcripts were ordered sealed, and no details were provided about what was discussed during the hearing.

Defense lawyers have asked for records detailing the accuser's military service, social services interaction and medical information.

Frustrated

My computer is giving me fits. Rather, I think it may be something I am doing. I am frustrated. I have to exit windows at least two or three times a night. Really is starting to piss me off. My dsl is supposed to be lightning fast, it is, but some things are still ssssslllllooooowww to load. I do a windows clean up hich seems to help a little bit, but somehow, if I leave my computer on all day, and when I get home from work, I have been kicked off line. My Tower is from Emachines, my DSL is from Yahoo(as well as my internet service) and my monitor is a Gateway. I have had the same monitor for seven years. I have had the Emachines tower for about two years. Get this: My old tower fizzles out. I take my old Gateway tower in to Best Buy to see if they can fix it. They can't so I buy a new Emachines tower from Best Buy. Ok so far no problems, right?. I have no problems with Best Buy. The people that helped me out were super. Ok here is the strange part: I get home, hook up the tower, everything works ok. I get this thing called a REBATE. This is where it gets hairy. I fill out the appropriate info, and I wait about a month to get the thirty dollars that the factory said they would send me. Nothing happens, so I call and then they tell me that the product I bought must have already been purchased by someone else because the rebate number on my certificate was already used,a nd they cannot issue rebates in those cases. I told them the item was new when I bought it and even sent them the info. Waited another month, I called again and was told that I was not getting the thirty dollars I was promised. Nothing on the reciept I had said anything about not getting the thirty dollars. It just said send proof of purchase, the copy of the reciept and they would send the thirty dollars. They look for any excuse to NOT send the rebates.

Booo rah!

I am bback! I was posting on the internet news message boards on the first of the year, now I am taking break for a few weeks from it. Loving life soo much. I went shopping the other night and spent about 300 dollars of my Christmas money. I have more to spend. Money is fucking good.I have spent every waking day, sans one , with my girl Heidi. She is eleven years old. Man, do I love her. Raised her since she was just an 8 week old pup.Today, as I post this, afterwards I am going to get the sqaulling baby of the group, Schatzii.She is growing up very nice and sweetly. I will get more pics up as soon as I can figure out the this new confangled camera works. Bye for now:)

Yahoo on Saddam

Grainy cell phone video of Saddam Hussein's execution triggered international criticism Tuesday, with Britain's deputy prime minister calling the leaked images "unacceptable" and the Vatican decrying the footage as a "spectacle" violating human rights.

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Meanwhile, the Italian government pushed for a U.N. moratorium on the death penalty, Cuba called the execution "an illegal act," and Sunnis in Iraq took to the streets in mainly peaceful demonstrations across the country.

The unofficial video showed a scene that stopped just short of pandemonium, during which one person is heard shouting "To hell!" at the deposed president and Saddam is heard exchanging insults with his executioners. The inflammatory footage also showed Saddam plummeting through the gallows trapdoor and dangling in death.

The grainy video appeared on the Internet and Al-Jazeera television late Saturday. On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an investigation into the execution to try to uncover who taunted the former dictator, and who leaked the cell phone footage.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ran into trouble on his first day of work when he failed to state the U.N.'s official stance opposing capital punishment and said it should be a decision of individual countries.

"Saddam Hussein was responsible for committing heinous crimes and unspeakable atrocities against Iraqi people and we should never forget victims of his crime," Ban said in response to a reporter's question about Saddam's execution Saturday for crimes against humanity. "The issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide."

His ambiguous answer put a question mark over the U.N.'s stance on the death penalty, although Ban's spokeswoman said there was no change in policy.

British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said those who leaked the footage should be condemned.

"I think the manner was quite deplorable really. I don't think one can endorse in any way that, whatever your views about capital punishment," Prescott said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"Frankly, to get the kind of recorded messages coming out is totally unacceptable and I think whoever is involved and responsible for it should be ashamed of themselves."

The Holy See's daily, L'Osservatore Romano, lamented that "making a spectacle" of the execution had turned capital punishment into "an expression of political hubris."

The execution "represented, for the ways in which it happened and for the media attention it received, another example of the violation of the most basic rights of man," L'Osservatore wrote.

The office of Italian Premier Romano Prodi said Italy would seek the support of other countries that oppose capital punishment to put the issue of a moratorium to the U.N. General Assembly. Italy and all other European Union countries ban capital punishment.

Italy, which is one of the rotating members of the U.N. Security Council, has lobbied unsuccessfully for U.N. action against the death penalty.

On Monday, a crowd of Sunni mourners in Samarra marched to a bomb-damaged Shiite shrine, the Golden Dome, and were allowed by guards and police to enter the holy place carrying a mock coffin and photos of the former dictator.

The shrine was bombed by Sunni extremists 10 months ago, an attack that triggered the current cycle of retaliatory attacks between Sunnis and Shiites.

Communist Cuba, which allows capital punishment, called Saddam's execution "an illegal act in a country that has been driven toward an internal conflict in which millions of citizens have been exiled or lost their lives."

The Foreign Ministry statement Monday said the island nation "has a moral duty to express its point of view about the assassination committed by the occupying power."

The U.S. military had held Saddam since capturing him in December 2003 but turned him over to the Iraqi government for his execution.

The bastard is dead

Saddam is dead. Good riddance to piece of human debris. He was a piece of shit. Too bad that Kim Jong Il(sp?) and Castro didn't have the same thing happen to them.

As sung by TACO

Puttin' on the Ritz - Taco
If you're blue and you don't know where to go to
why don't you go where fashion sits,
Puttin' on the ritz.

Different types who wear a day coat, pants with stripes
and cutaway coat, perfect fits,
Puttin' on the ritz.

Dressed up like a million dollar trouper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)

Come let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks
or "umberellas" in their mitts,
Puttin' on the ritz.

Have you seen the well-to-do up and down Park Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare with their noses in the air
High hats and Arrow collars white spats and lots of dollars
Spending every dime for a wonderful time

If you're blue and you don't know where to go to
why don't you go where fashion sits,
Puttin' on the ritz.
Puttin' on the ritz.
Puttin' on the ritz.

GOOD

Looks like lil saddam is gonna get his just due. GOOD. What a worthless piece of shit dictator he was. I will be so happy and elated when saddam hussein dies.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Well it is Christmas Eve as I am writing this. Today was a beautiful day. Got to sleep in. Don't have to go back to work until Tuesday. I love life. I went to a movie today with Jeff. Have not seen him in a long time! He is doing great. We saw 'The Good Shepherd'. It is about the beginnings of the CIA. As I am typing this, I am wrapping presents. Yes I know I am waiting until the last minute, but I only have 3 to wrap. I have already recieved most of my presents, got TONS of moolah from my pop. Cool. My brother and sister in law got an SUV from my folks, and my folks in turn gave my sister and I money. I am set. I really want nothing else for Christmas. I did buy just a few presents myself. I got my mother some nice wool house slippers. I got my sister( who lives in Arkansas) a gift card( I know I know)and some cologne. I got my brother a compact disc( Office Space) and I got my father a musical disc ( Cafe Berlin) of German Music. My sister's gifts I have mailed to her, and so I did not have to wrap them. Well, I am getting sleepy now.. laters!

SuperTramp!

Give A Little Bit
Supertramp
Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
Give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my love to you
There's so much that we need to share
Send a smile and show you care

I'll give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my life for you
So give a little bit
Give a little bit of your time to me

See the man with the lonely eyes
Take his hand, you'll be surprised

Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
I'll give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my life for you

Now's the time that we need to share
So find yourself, we're on our way back home

Going home...
Don't you need to feel at home?
Oh yeah, we gotta sing



back to my

Today I am ANGRY, then HAPPY!

Today started off kinda rough. I had one of those days where you sent the payment in on November 30th, you call on December 9th , and the check you wrote to the Company(who shall remain nameless) has cashed. Now, on December 17, Sunday night, said company calls you and asks you if you have mailed your payment in. Yes, I did, back on November 30. 'Well, we have not recieved it, ma'am'. Thats impossible. You check with your bank, and yes it did cash. Now, the company tells you that you must mail them a copy of the check, front and back. So you ask your bank for a copy of the check and you have to pay a thirty dollar processing fee to get a copy of your check. Oh joy. So you do so, grudgingly. They tell you that this will take 6 to 8 weeks to process. Whatever. You feel like hitting someone.Really hard. I just had a thought. Try telling your utility company when the bill comes that you will need to peruse the bill, and you need to get approval from your 'corporate headquarters'(home) and that the check will arrive to them in about 6 to 8 weeks . See what they say after that. Try making THEM wait for a change. Somehow I doubt that they will see any humor in this. Oh yes, be sure to keep them on hold for AT LEAST 15 minutes when ever any of them do call you. Better yet, keep them on hold for at least fifteen minutes while making them have to listen to some sort of crappy music, or some sort of irritating noise. Today did end on a better note, however. I got paid. And then some more money came in. MUCH MUCH more money. Bonus money. Good . Talk about a rollercoaster day.

My favourite Christmas song

Rocking around the Christmas Tree
Brenda Lee



Rocking around the Christmas tree
at the Christmas party hop

Mistletoe hung where you can see
every couple tries to stop

Rocking around the Christmas tree,
let the Christmas spirit ring

Later we'll have some pumpkin pie
and we'll do some caroling.



You will get a sentimental
feeling when you hear

Voices singing let's be jolly,
deck the halls with boughs of holly

Rocking around the Christmas tree,
have a happy holiday

Everyone dancing merrily
in the new old-fashioned way.




Wishing you the Happiest
Holidays and New Year

Thanks, Glenn

Maybe next year I can see one of your shows! Greetings From Florida!

What—it’s not 75 and sunny where you are on this December 13th? Oh, that’s a shame—it’s balmy here in the tropics as I wrap up the Tampa stop on my Christmas Tour. Even though I used to live here, it’s still a little strange being here around the holidays…to see a Christmas tree tied to the roof of a car while the people driving it are wearing shorts and t-shirts. But it’s been a great homecoming and a wonderful chance to get a little sun. (Though don’t worry—I’ve not bared my pasty flesh to anyone. The only thing whiter these days than my spindly legs is Santa’s beard.)

And while the weather has been fantastic, I’ve found a place even hotter—the inside of my suit. As it turns out, thick blue velvet may drape beautifully, but it retains heat like an oven. Fortunately, the additional heat thrown off by my new rock star light show only makes the stage slightly warmer than the surface of the sun. But it's not all bad, because I think that I’ve discovered a new weight loss plan—just tour the country encased in a dark, leaden fabric and rant around a stage for a couple of hours a night and…presto! The pounds just melt away!

Truthfully, I can’t even pretend that I’m not enjoying every minute of this tour. Even though I miss my family, it’s thrilling to meet so many fans of the TV and radio programs and spread the message of my Christmas show. People are really responding to the simple notion that this time of year isn’t about food or presents or even the baby in the manger—it’s about the man that baby grew up to become and the way he lived his life. Every performance is inspiring to me, and I believe that the audience feels the same way. If you’re thinking about grabbing up one of the few tickets left for the last few cities where we’ll be stopping, you won’t be disappointed. I’ve talked to people after the show and they’ve told me how they’re reminded of the true meaning of Christmas…they leave filled with a spirit that can’t be found at the mall. As for me, my amazement is renewed each and every night. It’s a glorious show and I’m proud to be able to share in the experience with you.

I hope to see you there. Tonight…get ready Worcester, MA. Oh, it’s on.

Enjoy these days—I pray they’re merry and bright.

--glenn

PS For more on what it’s like day-to-day on the tour, be sure to check out the blog that’s being updated by my blue velvet suit. He’s pretty insightful for a piece of high-end menswear…

Feeling much better

Feeling much better this afternoon. Very frustrated cause my car is not fixed yet. I will get it back Monday afternoon, which means that I will have to take a taxi to work early Monday morning, which also means that I will have to leave my pup Heidi at my house Monday morning. She will be totally alone. Poor thing. I will try to get away Mon afternoon to come and get her.

Not feeling well

Yesterday afternoon, I started feeling very nauseous and dizzy. Also dehydrated. So, I am feeling better today, but stayed home from work anyway. I am trying to heal today. My pup is staying with me this weekend. There is little food in the cupboard, and I cannot go to the store because my car is still in the shop, and I am not feeling well enough to go out anyway. So I ordered some pizza delivery. Pizza Hut. My pup loves it , too. I ran out of the purple grape juice I love so much. Diet Pepsi isn't much of a subbstitute, but it will work.

Pearl Harbor Day from Cjonline.com

Survivors honor Pearl Harbor victims with moment of silence, wreath laying in Hawaii

AUDREY McAVOY
Associated Press Writer
Pearl Harbor survivor Jack E. Jorgensen, 87, of Olathe, Kan., reminisces Thursday, Dec. 7, 2006, during a gathering of veterans, family and friends at the Sylvester Powell Jr. Community Center in Mission, Kan., marking the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It was to be the last observance by the Kansas City Metro Chapter III of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. Jorgensen, a former Navy ship fitter, was aboard the U.S.S. Detroit during the attack. (AP PhotoTammy Ljungblad/The Kansas City Star)
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — One by one, aging survivors from ships sunk 65 years ago Thursday in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor laid wreaths under life preserver rings honoring their ships.

Nearly 500 survivors bowed their heads at 7:55 a.m., the minute planes began bombing the harbor in a surprise attack that thrust the United States into World War II.

"America in an instant became the land of the indivisible," said former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw, the author of "The Greatest Generation," who spoke at the shoreside ceremonies. "There are so many lessons from that time for our time, none greater than the idea of one nation greater than the sum of its parts."

The veterans, most in Hawaiian aloha shirts, were honored with prolonged applause at the solemn ceremony near where some of the ships remain rusting and moss-covered under the harbor's waters.

Many were treating the gathering as their last, uncertain if they would be alive or healthy enough to travel to Hawaii for the next big memorial ceremony, the 70th anniversary.


Flanked by two conch blowers, the Rev. Kahu Kauila Clark bows his head in a Hawaiian prayer at start of the ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Thurs., Dec. 7, 2006 in Honoloulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
"It is because of you and people like you that we have the freedoms we enjoy today," Capt. Taylor Skardon said after relating each ship's story at the end of the ceremony.

A priest gave a Hawaiian blessing and Marines performed a rifle salute.

For many it could be their last return to the World War II attack site.

"Sixty-five years later, there's not too many of us left," said Don Stratton, a seaman 1st class who was aboard the USS Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941. "In another five years I'll be 89. The good lord willing, I might be able to make it. If so, I'll probably be here. I might not even be around. Who knows. Only the good Lord knows."

Stratton and other survivors were boarding a boat to the white memorial straddling the sunken hull of the USS Arizona, where they will lay wreaths and lei in honor of the dead.


Pearl Harbor survivor Bob Seeley, right, and his granddaughter, Ashley Seeley, of California, await the start of the ceremony honoring the 65th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Thurs., Dec. 7, 2006 in Honoloulu. Seeley served on the the USS California. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
"We thank those who lost their lives 65 years ago, and we honor the survivors and their families who are with us here today," said Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle.

The Arizona sank in less than nine minutes after a 1,760 pound armor-piercing bomb struck the battleship's deck and hit its ammunition magazine, igniting flames that engulfed the ship.

More people died on the Arizona than any other ship as 1,177 servicemen, or about 80 percent of its crew, perished.

Altogether, the surprise attack killed 2,390 Americans and injured 1,178.

Twelve ships sank and nine vessels were heavily damaged. Over 320 U.S. aircraft were destroyed or heavily damaged by the time the invading planes were done sweeping over military bases from Wheeler Field to Kaneohe Naval Air Station.


Former Japanese Naval pilot Takeshi Maeda signs his autograph for guests at a Pearl Harbor symposium held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort, Monday, Dec. 4, 2006, in Honolulu. Maeda was an aviator that saw action at Pearl Harbor as a crew member aboard a torpedo plane that bombed Battleship Row Dec. 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor veterans, historians, survivors and scholars came together to share ideas and remember the events that took place 65 years ago. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
Japanese veterans who participated in the attack as navigators and pilots will also pay their respects, offering flowers at the Arizona memorial for the American and Japanese who died.

Japan lost 185 men, mostly on dive-bombers, fighters and midget submarines.

Some Japanese veterans and American survivors have reconciled in the decades since.

Japanese dive bomber pilot Zenji Abe has apologized to American survivors for the sudden attack, ashamed his government failed to deliver a declaration of war in time for the assault.

The Japanese aviators who carried out the attack thought the declaration had already been made by the time they started bombing, Abe has said.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights

Emergency Vets

For some reason, I can watch emergency(people) but I have a really hard time watching Emergency Vets. I have a much harder time watching an animal suffer than I do a human being. I have seen the commericals for the ASPCA, and just looking into their eyes just makes me want to cry. Maybe it is because the animal is always innocent. Humans can communicate much better. We have cell phones.Stories like these just strike me in the heart. They are always innocent, the horses, the pups, the kittens , the bears are. Yes, I know that human beings are animals. We can analyze. We We can figure our way out of things. We can yell, scream, and fight back. They can, but not like we can. Ocassionally , the animal wins. Ever hear the story(true) of the goat that killed it's abusive owner? That is poetic justice. Food for thought

More from Cjonline.com

In Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. women warriors are taking on high-profile battlefield roles

SHARON COHEN
AP National Writer
Capt. Christine Roney prepares to go on patrol in Bagdad with members of her company in this undated file photo provided by Roney, who served with the Armys 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad and commanded a logistics company that conducted more than 500 missions. (File Photo/Courtesy Christine Roney)
A goodwill mission to deliver kerosene heaters to Iraqi schools erupts into the fiery chaos of a roadside bombing — and Maj. Mary Prophit shields a comrade so he can rescue a critically burned Iraqi soldier.

A convoy outside Baghdad is ambushed by machine-gun wielding Iraqi insurgents — and Spc. Ashley Pullen races down a road to save an injured sergeant.

A Black Hawk helicopter is struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq — and co-pilot Tammy Duckworth, bloody and severely wounded, struggles to stay conscious until the damaged aircraft is down and her crew is safe.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, women warriors are writing a new chapter in military history, serving by the tens of thousands, fending off enemy fire and taking on — and succeeding in — high-profile roles in the battlefield and the skies as never before.

"The American public is beginning to realize that women are playing an equal part in this war and that they are facing the same risks," says Duckworth, who lost both legs in the 2004 insurgent attack. "This is the first time in our nation's history ... when it's normal to see female names as part of the war wounded or those killed in action."

More than 155,000 women have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002, according to the Pentagon, nearly four times the number during the Persian Gulf War. Females now account for 15 percent of the active duty force.

The number of women casualties — 68 dead and more than 430 injured — represents a tiny fraction of the total. Still, by one estimate, the deaths exceed the number of military women who lost their lives in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War combined.

The public, long accustomed to seeing disabled male veterans and grieving widows clutching folded U.S. flags, has adjusted to a new set of somber images: women soldiers coming home with life-changing injuries and tearful farewells to mothers, wives and daughters.

In just two weeks in September, bombs killed four military women in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among them: Sgt. 1st Class Merideth Howard, a 52-year-old former firefighter with a master's degree in marine biology, and 2nd Lt. Emily J.T. Perez, a 23-year-old West Point graduate of the "Class of 9-11" who played the clarinet, spoke fluent German, read the Bible daily and helped start an AIDS ministry at her church.

There is no shared experience that binds together the women of war. Each has a different story, a reason why they're in uniform, an explanation of how their lives have changed.

Some feel pressured to prove themselves as women. Others don't. Some never fire their weapons. Others engage in life-and-death battles. Some are professional soldiers. Others enlist for college money. A few are grandmothers; many more are in their 20s.

Almost all serve anonymously, though a few have captured headlines back home. Former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski made news as the highest-ranking officer punished in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Jessica Lynch, the former prisoner of war, rocketed onto the nation's TV screens when she was portrayed as a guns-blazing, all-American heroine — a depiction she herself disavowed.

But Lynch's job — Army supply clerk in a maintenance company — illustrates one of the realities of the war: No place is safe. As the insurgency took hold, that grew even more apparent. Front lines don't exist. Combat troops still face the heaviest losses and while women are mostly in support roles, a mortar or bomb can strike anywhere from a mess hall to a supply convoy.

"My dad has friends who constantly tell him, 'Oh, your daughter's fine in Iraq. She's not in harm's way or she's not involved in combat,'" says Capt. Mary Caruso, who served two tours in Iraq, one as a platoon leader in the 194th Military Police Company.

"I don't think the general public really sees what females are doing over there," she says. "We don't have a linear battlefield anymore. The enemy's everywhere."

Women are barred from units assigned to direct ground combat — the infantry, armor and artillery, for example. While many remain in traditional jobs, such as health care, they've also served as translators and mechanics, commanded police companies and support battalions, flown jet fighters and attack helicopters.

They've been heroes, too.

In the Kentucky National Guard's 617th Military Police Company, Army Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester became the first woman since World War II to win the Silver Star for heroism. After a supply convoy was ambushed, she and others counterattacked, killing more than two dozen insurgents.

Spc. Ashley Pullen, another member of the unit, received a Bronze Star for valor, risking her life to help save a wounded soldier in the same attack. In recommending her for a medal, her company commander praised her "incredible courage."

"We now know women can hold their own, they're brave, they do have the physical and mental stamina to face combat-like situations," says retired Navy Capt. Lory Manning, director of the Women in the Military Project at the Women's Research and Education Institute in Washington, D.C. "We now know that men don't go to pieces and the American public doesn't go to pieces if women are killed. And we know that women, in fact, can defend men."

Manning says that represents a change in perceptions.

"I used to get a lot of guff that women can't do this, that women are weakening the military, women are feminizing the military — that's gone with the wind," she says. "The debate about whether they belong there seems to be over."

Not quite. Though women are widely viewed as essential with the nation's fighting forces stretched thin and they perform jobs off-limits to men for cultural reasons — searching Iraqi females, for instance — the critics have not been silenced.

"Engaging the enemy in this uncivilized thing we call war is a job for men, not women," Kate O'Beirne, a conservative pundit and Washington editor of the National Review, said in a radio interview this spring. She likened it to a man sending his wife or daughter to check out a possible home break-in.

Martin van Creveld, a prominent military historian and Iraq war critic, argues the contribution of females in the conflict has been dramatically exaggerated. "They're not occupying any particularly important positions or fighting in the front ... If there were not a single woman (deployed), the war would be the same," he says.

The Center for Military Readiness, a conservative think tank, contends that the Army has ignored its rules that prevent female soldiers from being in units that "physically collocate and remain with" ground combat troops.

Elaine Donnelly, the center's president, says that creates the potential for romantic involvement, morale problems and physical hazards. A woman, she says, might not be strong enough to rescue a wounded male soldier.

"All these social issues do matter," she says. "Cohesion is what lives depend on. It's all about survival. If you start causing doubts, you make the job more difficult or dangerous for everybody."

Last year, some members of Congress tried to curb the role of women in combat zones, but retreated after running into opposition from the Pentagon and lawmakers from both parties.

Capt. Christine Roney was tangled in the debate in 2004 when she was about to take command of a forward support company that would accompany a combat battalion.

She says she was told several male captains fired off e-mails to members of Congress and the Center for Military Readiness opposing the move. One captain, she says, messaged one of her peers asking: "What are you guys doing sending a female over here?"

When plans changed and a man was chosen to take command, Roney says she was disappointed at first, then reconsidered. "I probably did think having a female would have been disruptive in some sense," she says. "They might think they have to act differently with a woman."

Roney, who ended up commanding a logistics company that conducted more than 500 missions in the streets of Baghdad, thinks gender walls will crumble as more women and men work together.

"Sometimes," she says, "they need to get females in the unit to see they have some of the same abilities, the same competencies as the male soldiers."

Some of that already has happened.

Capt. Tara Stiles was a platoon leader in the 194th Military Police Company supporting the First Marine Expeditionary Force. "At first, they were kind of leery," she says. But after a few weeks "they'd rather have my platoon vs. one of the others led by males. .. They needed their backs covered and we were there. And vice versa."

Stiles' company was commanded by Capt. Terri Dorn, who says she noticed some Marines were uncomfortable dealing with females, but she didn't detect resentment.

"I never felt like someone was trying to tell me we're in the wrong place," she says. "It was, 'Oh my God, what do we do?' ... Really what you're doing is teaching that person how to deal with a female."

Dorn says when men would tell her they'd never had a woman in their unit, she'd reply: "Don't think of them as females. Talk to them as soldiers."

It was advice she, too, found useful. "I wasn't a female," she says. "I was a company commander."

Dorn says some Iraqi military leaders proved a far bigger obstacle. There were those, she says, who refused to shake her hand. "It didn't hinder our conversation," she says. "It didn't hurt my feelings ... I proved myself by not allowing them NOT to speak with me."

For decades there have been questions about men and women bunking in the same quarters and whether they could serve together without distractions. While problems such as sexual harassment and assault remain, some say that gender lines blur when lives are on the line.

"Traditionally, the front is the most sexless place in the world. Behind the lines is where trouble happens," says Joshua Goldstein, a professor emeritus of international relations at American University and author of "War and Gender."

Lt. Col. Cheri Provancha, who commanded a Stryker Brigade Support Battalion in Iraq with 700 soldiers, says she didn't detect a gender gap among her troops.

"It didn't matter if you were male or female," she says. "You're going through the same thing as your buddy. That creates a bond."

Provancha also says she has noticed firsthand how attitudes toward women have changed in her 23 years in the Army.

"In the 1980s when a male soldier walks in the door, the expectation is they are competent. The woman on the other hand, it was 'I've got to see what you have before I give you that level of confidence,'" she says. "Now when I walk in the door, I feel like the guys do."

But other officers say the military is far from having an even playing field.

Janis Karpinski, who was demoted to colonel after the scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison, says she was a scapegoat — and she blames many of her problems on being a woman.

When the prison conditions started unraveling, she says, "there was not a good ole boy network to support me. They wouldn't let me in. ... There was not a male commander to say, 'Hey, Janis, you better watch out.' Had I been a man, I would have been aware of it all along."

Karpinski says the military is still regarded by many men in uniform — especially the older ones — as the "last bastion of male dominance and they're very reluctant to give up this turf to women."

And yet, some see progress, partly because younger men are moving up in the ranks along with women.

"Gender integration is not perfect by any stretch, but it's a heck of lot better than it was 30 years ago when women entered the military academy," says Mady Wechsler Segal, professor of sociology at the University of Maryland and an expert on the military.

Women have a long history of military service going back to the Revolutionary War, when they sometimes disguised themselves as men to defend their country. Through the many wars, they've been spies and soldiers, nurses and pilots — and prisoners.

Relatively few, however, have fallen from enemy fire. In World War I, for example, nearly 360 servicewomen died, mostly nurses stricken by influenza, according to the Women's Memorial Foundation.

And in World War II, more than 330,000 women served both domestically and abroad, and more than 540 died, mostly from vehicle accidents, air crashes and illness, according to the foundation. Sixteen Army nurses died by enemy fire, the group says.

In the Persian Gulf War, about two-thirds of the 15 women who died lost their lives in non-hostile incidents. (In Iraq and Afghanistan, more than a third of the deaths have been non-combat fatalities.)

After the Gulf War, the Army opened thousands more jobs to women, including piloting attack and scout helicopters.

Maj. Tammy Duckworth — who recently lost a bid for Congress — says when she joined the Illinois Army National Guard, she picked aviation because it was a combat position open to women. "I wanted to be treated equally to the males in my unit ... and I felt part of that was accepting the same kind of risks," she says.

Early on, she says she adapted to being a woman in a man's world. "I tried to be one of the boys, to be tough or tougher," she says. But her attitude changed as she was promoted. "I knew I was a good enough officer on my own and I stopped trying to be extra-macho," she says.

Besides, she adds, some of the guys were already teasing her that she had "ovaries of brass."

But other women say they're mindful of being a minority and feel pressure — some of it self-imposed — to demonstrate their physical strength and their mental toughness so no one thinks they'll crumble when bullets start flying or bombs start exploding.

Alicia Flores says she earned the respect of male comrades in the Army's 92nd Chemical Company by hauling bodies, cleaning up feces, doing everything men did. "I had a lot of guys look up to me and say, 'How could you be out here doing this?' "

Flores says she was determined not to show weakness.

"I saw a lot of guys break down," she says. "Most of the times I did a lot better than they did. ... I wasn't going to break down and cry. Crying wasn't going to get me anywhere. It was just going to get me dirtier."

Aneta Urban stood out as the only women in her Marine police company during training in Camp Pendleton, Calif. She could feel all eyes on her.

"When it's 100 guys and you're the only girl, it's like proving yourself every day," she says. "When you're doing rifle training, close combat training, they're looking at you a lot more closely. They're wondering: Can she do it? Can she handle it? You don't want to be laughed at."

Two years later, when she was deployed, she felt she had measured up.

"They knew they could depend on me," she says. "They knew I could pull my own weight. They knew they could trust me if something happened."

Even so, Urban, a native of Poland who served as translator on a second tour, says she would never complain about "stupid girly issues" such as the lack of bathrooms.

"We were under enough stress as it is ... without worrying about finding a place to go pee," she says.

Some women say hygiene issues, whether it's going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground or not being able to wash your hair for a month, tend to be harder on females than men. Some find creative solutions.

Maj. Mary Prophit, for instance, secured her own shower, trading a Benchmade knife in exchange.

Prophit was part of a four-member Civil Affairs team and one of three women among a task force of 700. If that didn't set her apart, her age did. "I was old enough to be their mother," says the 42-year-old mother of three who is a library assistant in Glenoma, Wash. "I thought it was kind of cool."

Despite two decades in the Army Reserve, Prophit says she felt internal pressures to be a good model. "I knew if I screwed up, someone would say, 'That's why we shouldn't have women in the military,'" she says. "I want to make sure that no one thinks the mission dragged on because I'm there."

In January 2005, Prophit demonstrated her skills when the convoy she was in was attacked by a roadside bomb, ripping into the truck behind her that was carrying Iraqi soldiers.

With ammunition exploding from the blazing truck, Prophit used her body as a shield so a medic could tend to one of the badly burned Iraqis. Later, she laid down fire at a mosque where insurgents were hiding.

Prophit then propped up the critically wounded Iraqi with her body in the tight quarters of the Stryker armored vehicle, placed his head in her lap and tried to keep him conscious as they raced to the hospital.

"My performance was a testament that women can be in combat," she says. But she draws a line. "I definitely don't think women should be in the infantry. It's not because they're not mentally strong enough or physically strong enough. If you mix genders, that alters the dynamic of the group."

After the war ends, the military and Congress will evaluate these kinds of experiences and there will be renewed discussion about what combat is, but any changes will probably be incremental, not dramatic, says Manning, the military expert.

For now, though, she says, "the public accepts that women are in the military, that there are going to be shootings, that they're going to be dying, and that's fine — with most people."

Copyright 2006 The Associated