sttropezbutlersays
I know what you mean, I try not to watch local news, the national news is depressing enough.
I love the season, I do. I love the warmth, the giving and the sharing. It is a shame that it doesn't last longer than three weeks.
Well, I prefer to murder people with kindness. Depending on the individual, some might say that's a fate worse than death. 
xoxo
That would be a lovely Christmas present to the world, and so much more appropriate of a "Christian nation"!
That's one of the reasons I never feel entirely safe down there because guns, especially handguns are so ubiquitous.
I missed that article about the Hiv positive to negative, but it sounds fishy, or it could just be a very rare case. I've had friends try to convince themeselves they no longer have it, but that was just denial.
That's why I stick to reading my news--I can get comics and restaurant openings and baby panda updates and Sudoku games that my wife looks so cutely intense solving alongside the depressing crap. (I get the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today.)
I don't think anyone's completely out for others and not for themselves, but some levels of self-interest are surely more enlightened than others.
HI,
It is actually scary that people just think it is ok to shot someone because they don't like something they say. I am a teacher and at times worry about certain parents that I know are living on the edge.
When you talk about Texas I have to laugh. Houston was the first place that I had someone tell me that they were going to kill me. It was a crazy parent because her daughter was left off of a list by accident. It was the only time I had to teach with my door locked and shades closed in 18 years.
Let us hope that the next election cycle will bring us a change in the leadership at the House and Senate level.....
Mary
from this day forward i will be celebrating peacemas...
the tv has been off except for jon stewart because i cannot take the christmas advertising bombardment...it started before veterans day...soon it will be all year round, i suppose...
ciao
~ n
I know what you mean about feeling like there are more murders today than even before but they say that the murder rate is the lowest in 40 years and you know, if "they" say it, it must be true.
I wonder how many Republican candidates in 2006 are going to ask Bush to campaign for them? How many will be dis-associating themselves from their "leader"?
Shame on this entire administration....
Regarding murder..... many today are so self absorbed that they are totally lacking in respect for human life, and honestly I don't think the Christian Coalition is helping that situation one bit with their gospel of hatred, bigotry and hypocrisy.
Excuse me while I pull the covers over my head and re-surface "yesterday".
and where do our neighbors learn all this
casual sensless shooting?
the numbers are increasing here in the bay area
too.
i try smiling at everyone and just hope they don't
shoot me. but dang even that can be provoking.
today i read about a monk who in his younger years was drafted to vietnam, and because he
didn't believe in killing, he always fired over the enemys heads. he said other soldiers did the same.
a ray of light.
Bush taking all this flack is actually on par with historical trend for second term presidents. Even Saint Ronnie took some flack in his second term.
Christmas advertising started so early this year because retailers are not dumb: they want people to spend their money before they get their first heating bill for the winter. Except for a couple of odd days here and there the temps here in DC have been an *average* of 12degF above normal.
I think for the holidays the best thing you can give people is your time. Take a friend you haven't seen in a while to dinner. Offer to babysit so a single parent can have an evening away from the kids. Give your honey "free chore weekend" coupons so he or she can do nothing while you to the garbage removing and the cleaning and the laundry that you don't normally do.
But most of all, tell people who matter to you that they matter, they are important in your life.
In that spirit, thank you, STB, for all your encouragement these past few months, for your insight, and for just being you. My world would be a less vibrant place to be without you in it.
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