Visitors Planet

Do we need to create our own liberty? Liberty cannot be caged into a charter or handed on ready-made to the next generation. Each generation must recreate liberty for its own times. Whether or not we establish freedom rests with ourselves. – Florence Ellinwood Allen. Do you agree with Allen?

Talking about evolution, anybody read this before? Is a religious opinion. Updated: 6:12 p.m. ET Nov 18, 2005 VATICAN CITY - The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms, the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States. The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was "wrong" and was akin to mixing apples with oranges. "Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be," the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. "If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science." "If they respect the results of modern science, and indeed the best of modern biblical research, religious believers must move away from the notion of a dictator God or a designer God, a Newtonian God who made the universe as a watch that ticks along regularly." Rather, he argued, God should be seen more as an encouraging parent. "God in his infinite freedom continuously creates a world that reflects that freedom at all levels of the evolutionary process to greater and greater complexity," he wrote. "He is not continually intervening, but rather allows, participates, loves." The Vatican Observatory, which Coyne heads, is one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world. It is based in the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.

What's your opinion about this issue...? The second part is me...the pet grooming is a complaint I received. Dog E Do's Pet Grooming 2990 Highway 49 # N Florence, MS 39073 Brandon Mixon Florence, MS Brandon, I don't know where your pet was groomed at but what you put on craigslist is slanderist! You are not in our data base nor does anyone that works there have ever seen you before! (your picture via myspace) I had a customer emailed me of your response to them placing there positive posting! You must from delete this posting and refrain from using our name in any content. Or i will not hesitate to further legal action against you. You have never been in our store period. This must be done now and I am filing a complaint with Craigslist. Dog E Do's Go ahead all you want I hold the freedom to say what I want and will say it in person make no mistake about that. I have noticed from outside sources that this particular place of business does not treat animals properly nor would I myself ever trust anyone in Florence with anything much less a dear animal friend. So your threat means nearly nothing to me past the simple fact that if I receive another one it will not be taken as lightly as I am going to be to you as I am now. You should know better than this than again I may be assuming too much of you. Not to mention rants and raves on craigslist is exactly that where ppl can rant and rave. Nor am I the first on here to say such a thing towards this place of business. So I simply and strongly suggest that we come to an understanding about this before you take into action because you have far more riding on the line than I do. Not to mention you could have stated this email you have sent me far better and I might would have complied in a way. Think of this as your second chance and use it wisely because they do not come often. Nor do I take kindly to those whom come out straight of the stable fired up and ready. Your southern and more than likely raised to be polite and generous so behave in such a manner that is becoming of it. You must simply except the fact that not everyone is going to like your business and as such must not get in an up roar every time something like this comes along. My associates run businesses and this is just part of it and can not be avoided by the most part. Simply roll with the punches and rise above the occasions when they present themselves. Not to mention wouldn't legal action poorly represent not only the both of us but also the current times that we live in. Not to mention show a gross misuse of finances during this apparent down economic times? The ball is in your court in a way and I will watch for your reply and hope that it will be one of true Americanism and understanding, but do not keep me waiting for I am not a person with great patience with others that present themselves as such as you have done, although I do hope that you are a greater person than what I am currently thinking of. Oh and helpful fact since your business is in Florence this is a very small town and no one keeps anything to them selves. I have never been a customer and more than likely never will be due to the simple fact I have a trained pet groomer in my family. I had simply restated what had been previously stated from another individual. I will not give their name because I have no right to. Just as I would strike no one down because I disliked what they said now matter how badly I disagreed with them. Freedom is something this country's ppl has forgotten. So go ahead and drive us to another marker on the pole of the states with the most lawsuits. Mississippi ranks pretty damn high in the number of lawsuits it has per year granted they are mostly in the medical field, but the fact still remains that ppl can just use legal action and nothing else when there are far more resources at their very own disposal and cost far less than legal action. Granted in some cases it is needed but in most others this is not so. So can you be more cordial or would you rather go the other route sullying me, yourself, and your business? Also I am posting this email onto craigslist for others may have a look at it as well for simply their own particular point of view on this subject. I have made it apparent that they can freely contact me letting me know their opinions about it. So I hope to hear from you again soon and may it be a more pleasant experience than what it has been so far. The big part of this is mine the above part is from the complainer

Do you think something is "fishy" here? Although this may be a little lengthy, I cannot think of one sentence I should leave out, can you? http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070505102257AALU2XL&r=w&pa=FZptHWf.BGRX3OFMhjxWWIRXQuKM2k_6LGSjqb13Kdrw..fSQg--&paid=answered#HqdxXUr1VkhTLvjMHqrT (The first response was taken by permission of writer) Just a quick refresher course lest we forget what has happened to many "friends"of the Clintons.

1-James McDougal - Clinton's convicted Whitewater partner died of an 
apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a key witness
in Ken Starr's investigation.
2 -Mary Mahoney - A former White House intern was murdered July 1997 at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown. The murder happened just after she was to go public with her story of sexual harassment in the White House. 
3- Vince Foster - Former White House councilor, and colleague of Hillary
Clinton at Little Rock's Rose Law firm. Died of a gunshot wound to the head,
ruled a suicide.
4- Ron Brown - Secretary of Commerce and former DNC Chairman. Reported to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the 
investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown's skull
resembling a gunshot wound. At the time of his death Brown was being
investigated, and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with 
prosecutors. The rest of the people on the plane also died. A few days later
the Air Traffic Controller commited suicide.
5- C. Victor Raiser II. Raiser, a major player in the Clinton fund raising
organization died in a private plane crash in July 1992. 
6-Paul Tulley - Democratic National Committee Political Director found dead
in a hotel room in Little Rock, September 1992. Described by Clinton as a
"Dear friend and trusted advisor".
7-Ed Willey - Clinton fund raiser, found dead November 1993 deep in the 
woods in VA of a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled a suicide. Ed Willey died
on the same day his wife Kathleen Willey claimed Bill Clinton groped her in
the oval office in the White House. Ed Willey was involved in several 
Clinton fund raising events.
8-Jerry Parks -Head of Clinton's gubernatorial security team in Little
Rock. Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little
Rock. Park's son said his father was building a dossier on Clinton. He 
allegedly threatened to reveal this information. After he died the files
were mysteriously removed from his house.
9-James Bunch - Died from a gunshot suicide. It was reported that he had a
"Black Book" of people which contained names of influential people who 
visited prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas.
10-James Wilson - Was found dead in May 1993 from an apparent hanging
suicide. He was reported to have ties to Whitewater.
11-Kathy Ferguson- Ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, was found dead in May 1994, in her living room with a gunshot to her head. 
It was ruled a suicide even though there were several packed suitcases, as
if she were going somewhere. Danny Ferguson was a co-defendant along with
Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones lawsuit. Kathy Ferguson was a possible 
corroborating witness for Paula Jones.
12-Bill Shelton - Arkansas State Trooper and fiancee of Kathy Ferguson. 
Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancee, he was found dead in June,
1994 of a gunshot wound also ruled a suicide at the grave site of his 
fiancee.
13-Gandy Baugh - Attorney for Clinton's friend Dan Lassater, died by jumping out a window of a tall building January, 1994. His client was a convicted drug distributor.
14-Florence Martin - Accountant & sub-contractor for the CIA, was related to the Barry Seal Mena Airport drug smuggling case. He died of three gunshot wounds. 
15- Suzanne Coleman - Reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was
Arkansas Attorney General. Died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head,
ruled a suicide. Was pregnant at the time of her death.
16-Paula Grober - Clinton's speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until 
her death December 9, 1992. She died in a one car accident.
17-Danny Casolaro - Investigative reporter. Investigating Mena Airport and
Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He slit his wrists, apparently in
the middle of his investigation. 
18- Paul Wilcher - Attorney investigating corruption at Mena Airport with
Casolaro and the 1980 "October Surprise" was found dead on a toilet June 22, 1993 in his Washington DC apartment. Had delivered a report to 
Janet Reno 3 weeks before his death. 
19-Jon Parnell Walker - Whitewater investigator for Resolution Trust Corp.
Jumped to his death from his Arlington, Virginia apartment balcony August15,
1993. He was investigating the Morgan Guaranty scandal. 
20-Barbara Wise - Commerce Department staffer. Worked closely with Ron Brown and John Huang. Cause of death unknown. Died November 29, 1996. 
Her bruised, nude body was found locked in her office at the Department of 
Commees Meissner -Assistant Secretary of Commerce who gave John Huang special secrce.
21-Charlurity clearance, died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash.
22-Dr. Stanley Heard - Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care 
Advisory Committee died with his attorney Steve Dickson in a small plane
crash. Dr. Heard, in addition to serving on Clinton's advisory council
personally treated Clinton's mother, stepfather and brother. 
23-Barry Seal -Drug running pilot out of Mena Arkansas, death was no
accident. 
24-Johnny Lawhorn Jr. - Mechanic, found a check made out to Bill Clinton in
the trunk of a car left at his repair shop. Lawhorn was found dead after his car had hit a utility pole. 
25-Stanley Huggins - Investigated Madison Guaranty. His death was a
purported suicide and his report was never released.
26- Hershell Friday - Attorney and Clinton fund raiser died March 1,
1994 when his plane exploded. 
27-Kevin Ives & Don Henry - Known as "The boys on the track" case. 
Reports say the boys may have stumbled upon the Mena Arkansas airport drug operation. A controversial case, the initial report of death said, was due to boys falling asleep on railroad tracks. Later reports claim the 2 boys had been slain before being placed on the tracks. Many linked to that case died 
before their testimony could come before a Grand Jury. 

THE FOLLOWING PERSONS HAD INFORMATION ON THE IVES/HENRY CASE: 

28-Keith Coney - Died when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a truck,
7/88. 
29-Keith McMaskle - Died, stabbed 113 times, Nov 1988 
30-Gregory Collins - Died from a gunshot wound January 1989. 
31-Jeff Rhodes - He was shot, mutilated and found burned in a trash dump in April 1989.
33-James Milan - Found decapitated. However, the Coroner ruled his death was due to "natural causes". 
34-Jordan Kettleson - Was found shot to death in the front seat of his
pickup truck in June 1990.
35-Richard Winters - A suspect in the Ives / Henry deaths. He was killed in
a set-up robbery July 1989.

THE FOLLOWING CLINTON BODYGUARDS ARE DEAD:
36 -Major William S. Barkley Jr.
37-Captain Scott J . Reynolds
38-Sgt. Brian Hanley
39-Sgt. Tim Sabel
40-Major General William Robertson
41-Col. William Densberger 
42-Col. Robert Kelly
43-Spec. Gary Rhodes
44-Steve Willis
45-Robert Williams
46-Conway LeBleu
47-Todd McKeehan

Quite an impressive list! Pass this on. Let the public become aware of what
happens to "friends" of the Clintons! Source(s): http://www.eco.freedom.org/articles/bail... If you hit the "star" feature, you can copy this. Also, If there is a book, what is the name of it.

OBAMA speech in full? “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.” Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787. The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations. Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time. And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time. This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren. This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story. I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible. It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one. Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans. This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well. And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn. On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike. I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed. But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam. As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all. Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS. In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity: “People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.” That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America. And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years. I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe. These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love. Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias. But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality. The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American. Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students. Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities. A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us. This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them. But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings. And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races. In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time. Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism. Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding. This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union. For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny. Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change. The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper. In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well. For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies. We can do that. But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change. That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time. This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together. This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit. This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned. I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election. There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta. There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there. And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom. She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat. She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too. Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice. Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.” “I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children. But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins. http://www.drudgereport.com/flashos.htm After read this, how in the world are people still hating on this Man??? There is really no hope for us, if we continue to be sheep, unity should be our mission

Have You Read George W.'s Latest 10 Attempts At Speaking English? 10) "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." --LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000 9) "Let me put it to you bluntly. In a changing world, we want more people to have control over your own life." --Annandale, Va, Aug. 9, 2004 8) "I've reminded the prime minister -- the American people, Mr. Prime Minister, over the past months that it was not always a given that the United States and America would have a close relationship." --Washington, D.C., June 29, 2006 7) "The truth of that matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were the president of the United States, and the world would be a lot better off." --Second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004 6) "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." --Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005 5) "They misunderestimated me." --Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000 4) "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" --Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000 3) "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." --Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004 2) "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." --Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 1) "There ought to be limits to freedom" -- Response to a parody web site, May 1999.

How did Constantinople and all in union with Constantinople fall? There were several foreshadowing’s of the downfall of Constantinople. The council of Florence was one. On at least two other earlier occasions Constantinople desired union with the Latin’s and for much the same invalid reason(s). “Constantinople finally splintered, and its manifold accomplishments fell in the shadow of the Italian Renaissance” When Constantinople was faced with the largest invading Islamic army yet “The West finally promised help, but at a fearful price: submission of Byzantium's Holy Orthodox Church to the Church of Rome.” “God had punished the Greeks, Russians piously observed in 1453, when the Turks took Constantinople. For betraying their faith by submitting to Rome, He withdrew His protection and their empire fell” [1] pgs. 709, 755, 762. The Russians “turned their backs on apostate Byzantium, since she had forfeited all claims to leadership in the Orthodox world by betraying the true Faith.” In Constantinople “Papal commemorative services commenced on November 12, 1452. On December 12, 1452, the union of the two Churches was solemnly commemorated in the Church of Aghia Sophia.” Then, “Greeks who refused to understand the decree of union were to be sent to Rome for re-education.” Also, “Makarios Melissenos records that every night a fire descended from the sky, stood over the City and enveloped her with light all night long... (Then, on the evening of May 27, 1453) the heavenly sign descended in its customary manner but did not envelope the City. The light appeared to be distant, and then it scattered quickly and vanished at once. This filled the Sultan and his court with malignant joy. They interpreted the sign, saying, ‘God has now abandoned the Christians forever!’” Finally, “on the last night of the City's freedom, clergy and congregation, whatever they might feel about union, came together for a final liturgy in Aghia Sophia... Having put aside all bitterness, barely a citizen, except those watching the walls, stayed away from this desperate service of intercession. Those priests who maintained that union with Rome was a grave sin now came to the altar to serve with unionists. The cardinal was there, and beside were bishops who would never acknowledge his authority. All came to confession, so they might take communion, not caring whether Orthodox or Catholic administered it.” [2] pages 476, 503, 504, 518, 521. Iosif of Volokolamsk (the Father of Medieval Russia) soon wrote, “Behold, today apostasy is come.” Andrei Kurbsy, a prince of 16th century Russia and defender of Orthodoxy, is noted for saying that the fall of Constantinople was truly destruction along the lines of the apocalypse, that it was then that “Satan was loosed from his bonds.” Time and again we can see how it is that the Greeks and those in union with them, like the Antiochian’s, were understood as apostates, ever since the fall of Constantinople. When the Antiochian Patriarch Makarios visited Russia in the 17th century “the foreign envoys did not even have a right to attend Russian church services.” [3]. (I would note that Makarios smoked hash at liturgy.) There have been certain Greek judgments against the union of Florence, but these were too little too late, the damage is done. The Greek capital remains in the hands of the Infidel. This is when the saying, “Better the Infidel…” began. The compromise of Orthodoxy had become second nature and was not corrected by such sayings. The Greeks have been bereft with continual compromises ever since, such as the “Protestant Patriarch” (also known as the Calvinist Patriarch) Cyril Lucaris and also his cousin Alexandrian Patriarch Meletios Pigas before him. This “unionist” thinking continues today as we see such things as the lifting of the anathema upon the Latin’s and the likes of Orthodox presidency of false church councils started by Protestants. In actuality all of Eastern Christianity was at a theological standstill after the “Orthodox Confession” of seventeenth century Kiev, which embraced much Latin ideology. During the two centuries after the fall of Constantinople there was communion between the Latin’s and the Greek’s. The Orthodox Church, 1972 Ware p. 108 see p. 107 also. Prince Ivan I said, “Since Constantinople and (its) emperor are no more, we must do what we can. God depends on us, the Russians, to carry on his kingdom. We are his Church and what remains of the Roman and Byzantine Empires.” The Russians’ Secret, Page 50 Notes: [1] National Geographic, December 1983 [2] Lives of the Pillars of Orthodoxy, Holy Apostles Convent 1990. [3] http://ecumenizm.tripod.com/ECUMENIZM/id22.html

What do you think of this speech that Barack Obama made? The Scripture tells us that when Joshua and the Israelites arrived at the gates of Jericho, they could not enter. The walls of the city were too steep for any one person to climb; too strong to be taken down with brute force. And so they sat for days, unable to pass on through. But God had a plan for his people. He told them to stand together and march together around the city, and on the seventh day he told them that when they heard the sound of the ram's horn, they should speak with one voice. And at the chosen hour, when the horn sounded and a chorus of voices cried out together, the mighty walls of Jericho came tumbling down. There are many lessons to take from this passage, just as there are many lessons to take from this day, just as there are many memories that fill the space of this church. As I was thinking about which ones we need to remember at this hour, my mind went back to the very beginning of the modern Civil Rights Era. Because before Memphis and the mountaintop; before the bridge in Selma and the march on Washington; before Birmingham and the beatings; the fire hoses and the loss of those four little girls; before there was King the icon and his magnificent dream, there was King the young preacher and a people who found themselves suffering under the yoke of oppression. And on the eve of the bus boycotts in Montgomery, at a time when many were still doubtful about the possibilities of change, a time when those in the black community mistrusted themselves, and at times mistrusted each other, King inspired with words not of anger, but of an urgency that still speaks to us today: "Unity is the great need of the hour" is what King said. Unity is how we shall overcome. What Dr. King understood is that if just one person chose to walk instead of ride the bus, those walls of oppression would not be moved. But maybe if a few more walked, the foundation might start to shake. If a few more women were willing to do what Rosa Parks had done, maybe the cracks would start to show. If teenagers took freedom rides from North to South, maybe a few bricks would come loose. Maybe if white folks marched because they had come to understand that their freedom too was at stake in the impending battle, the wall would begin to sway. And if enough Americans were awakened to the injustice; if they joined together, North and South, rich and poor, Christian and Jew, then perhaps that wall would come tumbling down, and justice would flow like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. Unity is the great need of the hour -- the great need of this hour. Not because it sounds pleasant or because it makes us feel good, but because it's the only way we can overcome the essential deficit that exists in this country. I'm not talking about a budget deficit. I'm not talking about a trade deficit. I'm not talking about a deficit of good ideas or new plans. I'm talking about a moral deficit. I'm talking about an empathy deficit. I'm taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother's keeper; we are our sister's keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny. We have an empathy deficit when we're still sending our children down corridors of shame -- schools in the forgotten corners of America where the color of your skin still affects the content of your education. We have a deficit when CEOs are making more in ten minutes than some workers make in ten months; when families lose their homes so that lenders make a profit; when mothers can't afford a doctor when their children get sick. We have a deficit in this country when there is Scooter Libby justice for some and Jena justice for others; when our children see nooses hanging from a schoolyard tree today, in the present, in the twenty-first century. We have a deficit when homeless veterans sleep on the streets of our cities; when innocents are slaughtered in the deserts of Darfur; when young Americans serve tour after tour of duty in a war that should've never been authorized and never been waged. And we have a deficit when it takes a breach in our levees to reveal a breach in our compassion; when it takes a terrible storm to reveal the hungry that God calls on us to feed; the sick He calls on us to care for; the least of these He commands that we treat as our own. So we have a deficit to close. We have walls -- barriers to justice and equality -- that must come down. And to do this, we know that unity is the great need of this hour. Unfortunately, all too often when we talk about unity in this country, we've come to believe that it can be purchased on the cheap. We've come to believe that racial reconciliation can come easily -- that it's just a matter of a few ignorant people trapped in the prejudices of the past, and that if the demagogues and those who exploit our racial divisions will simply go away, then all our problems would be solved. All too often, we seek to ignore the profound institutional barriers that stand in the way of ensuring opportunity for all children, or decent jobs for all people, or health care for those who are sick. We long for unity, but are unwilling to pay the price. But of course, true unity cannot be so easily won. It starts with a change in attitudes -- a broadening of our minds, and a broadening of our hearts. It's not easy to stand in somebody else's shoes. It's not easy to see past our differences. We've all encountered this in our own lives. But what makes it even more difficult is that we have a politics in this country that seeks to drive us apart -- that puts up walls between us. We are told that those who differ from us on a few things are different from us on all things; that our problems are the fault of those who don't think like us or look like us or come from where we do. The welfare queen is taking our tax money. The immigrant is taking our jobs. The believer condemns the non-believer as immoral, and the non-believer chides the believer as intolerant. For most of this country's history, we in the African-American community have been at the receiving end of man's inhumanity to man. And all of us understand intimately the insidious role that race still sometimes plays -- on the job, in the schools, in our health care system, and in our criminal justice system. And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community. We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them. The scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community. For too long, some of us have seen immigrants as competitors for jobs instead of companions in the fight for opportunity. Every day, our politics fuels and exploits this kind of division across all races and regions; across gender and party. It is played out on television. It is sensationalized by the media. And last week, it even crept into the campaign for President, with charges and counter-charges that served to obscure the issues instead of illuminating the critical choices we face as a nation. So let us say that on this day of all days, each of us carries with us the task of changing our hearts and minds. The division, the stereotypes, the scape-goating, the ease with which we blame our plight on others -- all of this distracts us from the common challenges we face -- war and poverty; injustice and inequality. We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing someone else down. We can no longer afford to traffic in lies or fear or hate. It is the poison that we must purge from our politics; the wall that we must tear down before the hour grows too late. Because if Dr. King could love his jailor; if he could call on the faithful who once sat where you do to forgive those who set dogs and fire hoses upon them, then surely we can look past what divides us in our time, and bind up our wounds, and erase the empathy deficit that exists in our hearts. But if changing our hearts and minds is the first critical step, we cannot stop there. It is not enough to bemoan the plight of poor children in this country and remain unwilling to push our elected officials to provide the resources to fix our schools. It is not enough to decry the disparities of health care and yet allow the insurance companies and the drug companies to block much-needed reforms. It is not enough for us to abhor the costs of a misguided war, and yet allow ourselves to be driven by a politics of fear that sees the threat of attack as way to scare up votes instead of a call to come together around a common effort. The Scripture tells us that we are judged not just by word, but by deed. And if we are to truly bring about the unity that is so crucial in this time, we must find it within ourselves to act on what we know; to understand that living up to this country's ideals and its possibilities will require great effort and resources; sacrifice and stamina. And that is what is at stake in the great political debate we are having today. The changes that are needed are not just a matter of tinkering at the edges, and they will not come if politicians simply tell us what we want to hear. All of us will be called upon to make some sacrifice. None of us will be exempt from responsibility. We will have to fight to fix our schools, but we will also have to challenge ourselves to be better parents. We will have to confront the biases in our criminal justice system, but we will also have to acknowledge the deep-seated violence that still resides in our own communities and marshal the will to break its grip. That is how we will bring about the change we seek. That is how Dr. King led this country through the wilderness. He did it with words -- words that he spoke not just to the children of slaves, but the children of slave owners. Words that inspired not just black but also white; not just the Christian but the Jew; not just the Southerner but also the Northerner. He led with words, but he also led with deeds. He also led by example. He led by marching and going to jail and suffering threats and being away from his family. He led by taking a stand against a war, knowing full well that it would diminish his popularity. He led by challenging our economic structures, understanding that it would cause discomfort. Dr. King understood that unity cannot be won on the cheap; that we would have to earn it through great effort and determination. That is the unity -- the hard-earned unity -- that we need right now. It is that effort, and that determination, that can transform blind optimism into hope -- the hope to imagine, and work for, and fight for what seemed impossible before. The stories that give me such hope don't happen in the spotlight. They don't happen on the presidential stage. They happen in the quiet corners of our lives. They happen in the moments we least expect. Let me give you an example of one of those stories. There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organizes for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She's been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and the other day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there. And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom. She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat. She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too. So Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children. But it is where we begin. It is why the walls in that room began to crack and shake. And if they can shake in that room, they can shake in Atlanta. And if they can shake in Atlanta, they can shake in Georgia. And if they can shake in Georgia, they can shake all across America. And if enough of our voices join together; we can bring those walls tumbling down. The walls of Jericho can finally come tumbling down. That is our hope -- but only if we pray together, and work together, and march together. Brothers and sisters, we cannot walk alone. In the struggle for peace and justice, we cannot walk alone. In the struggle for opportunity and equality, we cannot walk alone In the struggle to heal this nation and repair this world, we cannot walk alone. So I ask you to walk with me, and march with me, and join your voice with mine, and together we will sing the song that tears down the walls that divide us, and lift up an America that is truly indivisible, with liberty, and justice, for all. May God bless the memory of the great pastor of this church, and may God bless the United States of America.

This whole business of blocking is a bit of a rum do is it not? This is rather following on from nasty Nicholas Cotton’s query the other day about being blocked from answering a question. Well it now appears that I have fallen victim to such sharp practices as well. The irony of it all is that the very people who would appear to be my sworn enemies - the anarchists, commies and anti-royalists - are quite happy to allow me to answer their questions. It is the very people that one shares a natural affinity with - the pro-royalists - who are blocking me. These people are supposed to be my allies yet they have spurned me. They do say that war makes for strange bedfellows but rest assured - Lucan is not about to turn to the dark side just yet - he will soldier on defending Elizabeth Regina and her wonderful family. I will not mention the names of the people who have blocked me as a file is currently on its way to the Crown Prosecution Service containing a dossier of all of their nefarious activities on this site. It is up to the British justice system to decide the next course of action. Now, I would not dare to block anybody from answering my questions even if it may cost me my life, metaphorically speaking. The very people who answer my questions with vitriolic and scurrilous contempt for yours truly are also the people who report my questions, yet one would not dare to block them because I for one believe in good old fashioned British fair play. It’s what has made this country great and I will stand up for freedom of speech as much as one possibly can. So, I salute people such as Florence, Nicholas, Dode, Hilda Ogden et al because they may be untrustworthy traitorous oiks who take every opportunity to demean our wonderful Royal Family but at least they believe in a democracy where one is entitled to air one’s opinion without fear or favour. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN! My dear NOJJ: I did not mention Dude, I mentioned Dode. You know the chap, he's a most delightful chimpanzee. Far more sagacious than this 'Dude' fellow one has mentioned.

Which is a good book to read? I need to choose an outside reading book for my class and I need some recommendations/opinions of these books. * 1984 * A Death in the Family * A Personal Matter * A Thousand Splendid Suns * All The Pretty Horses * Angela’s Ashes * Blood Meridian * Brave New World * Cat’s Cradle * Catch 22 * Ceremony * Chronicle of a Death Foretold * Crime and Punishment * Crying of Lot 49 * The Da Vinci Code * Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? * Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close * Fathers and Sons * For Whom the Bell Tolls * Frankenstein * Go Tell it on the Mountain * Heart of Darkness * Hiroshima, Mon Amour * I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings * In the Country of Last Things * Invisible Man * Journey to the East * Labyrinths * Lord Jim * Madame Bovary * Maus * Metamorphosis * Mrs. Dalloway * No Exit * On the Road * One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich * One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest * One Hundred Years of Solitude * Parable of the Sower * Pattern Recognition * Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man * Pump House Gang * Reservation Blues * Siddhartha * Slaughterhouse Five * The Alchemist * The Brooklyn Follies * The Cherry Orchard * The Children of Men * The Death of Artemio Cruz * The Good Earth * The Handmaid’s Tail * The Hours * The Man in the High Castle * The New York Trilogy * The Old Man and the Sea * The Once and Future King * The Plague * The Fall * The Second Sex * The Sound and the Fury * The Sun Also Rises * The Trial * The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle * A Wizard of EarthSea * To the Lighthouse * Unbearable Lightness of Being * Waiting for Godot * White Noise * Depths of Glory * Girl in Hyacinth Blue * Hiroshima * In the Company of the Courtesan * Lust for Life * Roots * The Agony and the Ecstasy * The Birth of Venus * The Girl with A Pearl Earring * The Passion of Artemisia * 1421 * Art and Physics * Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture * Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee * Devil in the White City * Galileo’s Daughter * Guns, Germs, and Steel * King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism * Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling * Ten Years of Madness: Oral Histories of China’s Cultural Revolution * The Creators: A History of the Heroes of the Imagination * The Interpretation of Dreams * The Feminine Mystique * The Power of Myth * The Stones of Florence * The World’s Religions * Ways of Seeing * A Long Way Gone * Black Boy * Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival * Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance * I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings * Gandhi An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth * Kaffir Boy * Long Walk to Freedom: Autobiography of Nelson Mandela * Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak * Survival in Auschwitz * The Good Women of China * They Poured Fire On Us From The Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan * Walking Stars: Stories of Magic and Power * We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be KilledWith Our Families: Stories from Rwanda * Don Quixote * Dream of the Red Chamber * Hamlet * Jane Eyre * Midsummer Night’s Dream * Oedipus Rex * Plato’s Republic * Pride and Prejudice * Tale of Two Cities * The Aeneid * The Art of War * The Canterbury Tales * The Iliad * The Odyssey * The Overcoat * The Prince * The Ramayana * War and Peace * Wuthering Heights It's a list of books I could read in my Humanities class.

Here's my Fall reading list. What do you think? Robin Lane Fox--Alexander the Great Robert Aspery--Napoleon Bonaparte, 2 vols. Miles Unger--Magnifico: Life of Lorenzo de Medici Sarah Bradford--Lucrezia Borgia Christopher Hibbert--Florence: The Biography of a City Robin Lane Fox--Pagans and Christians W. Bruce Lincoln--The Romanovs Robert Massie--Peter the Great Robert Aspery--Frederick the Great Thomas Pakenham--The Boer War Thomas Pakenham--The Scramble for Africa D. Morris--The Washing of the Spears Noel Mostert--Frontiers: The Epic of South Africa's Creation David McCullough--1776 Peter Ackroyd--London: A Biography John Julius Norwich--The Normans in Sicily Joan Haslip--The Crown of Mexico: Maximilian and Carlota Benita Eisler--Byron Benita Eisler--O'Keefe and Stieglitz Antonia Fraser--Cromwell Saint-Simon--Saint-Simon at Versailles Hugh Thomas--Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom Anthony Beevor--The Spanish Civil War Frederick Lane--Venice: A Maritime Republic John Gribbin--The Scientists Jean Edward Smith--FDR Max Hastings--Retribution: The Battle for Japan Mark Stein--How the States Got Their Shapes Simon Winchester--The Man Who Loved China Laurence Bergreen--Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu Noah Andre Trudeau--Southern Storm: Sherman's March Gareth Sampson--Defeat of Rome in the East Philip Ball--Universe of Stone: Chartres Cathedral Mark Mazower--Hitler's Empire Kim MacQuarrie--Last Days of the Incas Nancy Goldstone--Four Queens Adrian Goldsworthy--Caesar: Life of a Colossus Rebecca Fraser--Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III Jasper Ridley--Garibaldi David Levering Lewis--W.E.B. DuBois, 2 vols.

Is this funny or not? Just read, and laugh! Anagram Hall of Fame Attributions for anagrams (if known) are shown at the end of each anagram. Internet Anagram Server = Isn't rearrangement rave? Dormitory = Dirty Room Dictionary = Indicatory Schoolmaster = The classroom Elvis = Lives Listen = Silent Clint Eastwood = Old West Action Madam Curie = Radium came A telephone girl = Repeating "Hello" Western Union = No Wire Unsent The country side = No City Dust Here Evangelist = Evil's Agent Astronomers = Moon starers / No more stars Postmaster = Stamp Store A telescope = To see place The eyes = They see The cockroach = Cook, catch her Waitress = A stew, Sir? The centenarians = I can hear ten "tens" Desperation = A rope ends it I run to escape = A persecution The Morse Code = Here Come Dots The Meaning of Life = The fine game of nil Slot Machines = Cash Lost in'em Conversation = Voices Rant On Disraeli = I lead, Sir. Clothespins = So let's pinch Mr. Mojo risin' = Jim Morrison (from the Doors song, "L.A. Woman") The Great New York Rapid Transit Tunnel = Giant work in street, partly underneath Florence Nightingale = Nigel, Fetch an Iron Leg / Flit on Cheering Angel (Richard Stilgoe in "The Richard Stilgoe Letters") MacDonalds = Clam and Sod Darling I love you = leaving your idol / Avoiding our yell Butterfly = Flutter-by Heavy Rain? = Hire a Navy! Tom Cruise = So I'm Cuter Animosity = Is No Amity Mother-in-law = Woman Hitler Funeral = Real Fun Protectionism = Nice to imports A domesticated animal = Docile, as a man Tamed it The Railroad Train = Hi! I Rattle and Roar The Hilton = Hint: Hotel A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss = Stroller on Go, Amasses Nothing Sunshine and Shadow = Show in Sun and Shade The Check is in the Mail = Claim "Heck, I sent it (heh)" The United States Bureau of Fisheries = I Raise the Bass to Feed Us in the Future Snooze Alarms = Alas! No More Z's Vacation Times = I'm Not as Active Software = Swear Oft Sycophant = Acts phony (Stephen Jones) Silicon Graphics = A Long Chip Crisis / Can logic ship, sir? / Gosh, sir, I can clip! Alec Guinness = Genuine Class (Dick Cavett) The Detectives = Detect Thieves The Hospital Ambulance = A Cab, I Hustle to Help Man Semolina = Is No Meal The United States of America = Attaineth its cause, freedom Christmas tree = Search, Set, Trim A Gentleman = Elegant Man Presbyterians = Best In Prayers = Britney Spears The Public Art Galleries = Large Picture Halls, I Bet A Decimal Point = I'm a Dot in Place The Earthquakes = That Queer Shake Salman Rushdie = Read, Shun Islam Martin Scorsese = Screen is a storm (the director of movies "Taxi Driver," "Mean Streets," "GoodFellas," "Cape Fear," and "Age of Innocence.") Barbie doll = I'll bare bod / Babe I'd roll / Liberal bod Student Information Processing Board = Computation Transgression Forbidden (MIT) Statue of Liberty = Built to Stay Free Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one Patrick Stewart = A Crap Trek Twist Mel Gibson = Bong Smile Admirer = Married Indomitableness = Endless ambition New York Times = Monkeys write / Monkey writes (by Andrew Glines) Television programming = Permeating living rooms (by Dan) David Letterman = Nerd amid late TV Howard Stern = Retard shown Contradiction = Accord not in it (by E. Tyron) Debit card = Bad credit (by Mike Morton) God save us all = Salvaged soul (by Dawn Amos) abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz = Cwm fjord bank glyphs vext quiz (a pangram) "Be Like Water" = We break tile [a well-known quote attributed to martial-arts expert Bruce Lee] Quote by Vonnegut: Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the universe. = A masquerade can cover a sense of what is real to deceive us; to be unjaded and not lost, we must, then, determine truth. Quote by Oscar Wilde: There is only one thing worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about. = Wilde died broken, beaten 'n' total nut. Hate being sunk in that rotten gaol. Shh, gay is taboo. From Hamlet by Shakespeare: To be or not to be: that is the question, whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. = In one of the Bard's best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten. Rate this from 1 to 10 (1=the worst 5=so-so 10=the best) Ok, but some things are funny.And by the way, this is froma site http://wordsmith.org/anagram/hof.html go there and you will see.Thx! As I said, I did not make these.These are from a site (shown up).Thanx to everyone who had time to read, at least 5 of these.

George W.'s Latest 10 Attempts At Speaking English? 10) "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." --LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000 9) "Let me put it to you bluntly. In a changing world, we want more people to have control over your own life." --Annandale, Va, Aug. 9, 2004 8) "I've reminded the prime minister -- the American people, Mr. Prime Minister, over the past months that it was not always a given that the United States and America would have a close relationship." --Washington, D.C., June 29, 2006 7) "The truth of that matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were the president of the United States, and the world would be a lot better off." --Second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004 6) "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." --Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005 5) "They misunderestimated me." --Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000 4) "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" --Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000 3) "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." --Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004 2) "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." --Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 1) "There ought to be limits to freedom" -- Response to a parody web site, May 1999.

Travel tips for Italy? I have 16 days to travel around Italy with a husband and three kids ages 17, 15 & 10. I would like to travel from Rome to Florence(or vice versa) and would like to know how long we should stay in each(major) city to see all the major sites w/o wasting time. Should we drive ourselves around to save money? Should we find one central location to sleep, cook, shower, etc. and venture out from there daily? Cost isn't a HUGE issue but we will be on a budget(don't know how much yet). Hostels are not an option having the kids with us. I am not that concerned w/luxury, pampering, etc. only comfort, convenience, privacy,etc. We certainly don't mind cooking most meals at 'home'. We are not mainstream tourist types and like freedom to do as we like; ie schedules, tours, etc. Any suggestions on where to stay, car rental, good sites to see,best time to travel, do's and don'ts, kid friendly,precautions and the like. Thanks a lot for any ideas you have!