FlaSoxxJim

Brando, I'm sending a too-looong reply to you on medical ethics, human overpopulation and, yes, even large testicles because it is getting off the God track (not that you shouldn't feel free to share it and respond here, just trying not to hijack...). Certainly it is worthy of a thread of its own, and should one begin I'm sure I'll be chiming in.

I have also lost family members to cancer, and can readily empathize with any who have. And I concede that the self interest perspective on the issue is a real part of all of us. The "somebody else's problem" rationale is no good though, because those "somebody elses" are my kids, your kids, their kids, etc.

1977 Hitmen. I was 10, and we went to a ton of games that year. So much offense and soooo little defense.

Allow me to translate: The Japanese have some major freaky in their national closet.

Why do people kill each other over dirty dishes? (Just happened yesterday here in Florida). Why do otherwise sane people get hooked on heroin? Why do people start dealing drugs? Why do people cheat on their spouses? The simple answer is that were pretty stupid and fallable when you get down to it. There was an offer of money to make a video, and he agreed. Your asking price might be higher, but there IS an amount of money that would get you - or anyone - to do exactly the same thing.

It mostly is a comment on how sexually screwed up Japan is. They have laws that ensure that pubic hair in adult magazines is airbrushed so as to be inoffensive, and at the same time have these seemingly nationwide fettishes like the need to have young women (girls?) in schoolgirl outfits that permeate their culture right down to the anime cartoons ostensably made for kids. The society sees prostitutes and live sex shows as a valid form of sex education, while at the same time they essentailly ban a promising pitching prospect because of an appearance in an adult film. Further... Androgyny and homoeroticism abounds in ukiyoe art, trans-sexuality/fluid sexuality is prominent in kabuki theatre, androgynous boys boys are the norm in Japanese film/anime/manga comics, and yet this kid is forced out of Japanese baseball because of something he did to make a few dollars and which would otherwise seem acceptable in the culture given all the other assorted kinkiness. Some of the dichotomous and schizophrenic sexual identity in Japanese culture is explored in Akiyuki Nozaka's "The Pornographers" - a very good (if disturbing) novel for Japanese lit enthusiasts. [/rant]

Yep, it's a little phallic - and a bit limply so at that... But if it works for you, rock on. I kid because I care® But more importantly, why the hell are you singing into anything other than a Shure SM58 or a KSM44??

I agree, and I gotta share a Blues Brothers story... I was best man at a friend's wedding at a fancy inn in New York. I had over the course of the previous several years indoctrinated him and several other friends into the world of craft beer, and so we had a cooler full of special beers (10 year old Aardy's Ale and whatnot) stashed behind the open bar. The bartender had to come up with a way to know which wedding guests should get the good stuff and which guests were still among the unwashed masses. We all decided that anyone in the know would signify his/her status by giving the bartender a quote from the Blues Brothers. It was a lot of fun and worked until the grooms older brother - who we had not yet brought up to speed on the code - saw one of us walk away with some of the good stuff and tried to get some for himself. He asked for something and the diligent bartender kind of waited for a BB quote that didn't come. After a few seconds the bartender (who was a big fan of the movie and thoroughly enjoying himself at this point) leaned in and asked, "Well, what do you think about Illinois Nazis?" The brother kind of stared blankly and the bartender repeated the question, whereupon the brother grabbed a cheap beer and slunked away. When he found us he said, "hey the bartender is really wierd - he keeps asking me about Illinois Nazis and he's freaking me out..." Needless to say, we were rolling on the floor for several minutes.

YOU'RE the Good Ol' Boys?!? Then who the F@#*! were those guys? Bluegrass is most triumphant. Old-fashioned, my hounddawg died truckdriver divorce country is as genuinely American as blues, jazz, or bluegrass. Most of the "Hot Young Country" being churned out today needs to die a thousand deaths and infect the airwaves no more.

I am a one-sport person and follow exclusively baseball due to the fact that I need 5 months in the off season to catch up with the stuff I slacked off on during the summer. But I realize I am the exception rather than the rule, and there are a lot of hardcores who follow 3 or more pro sports and lots of college stuff as well. If the Sox organization wanted to maximize their exposure and their potential attending audience, I'd think they would pick the weekend before or after the single most-watched sports event of the year for a fan convention.

Conceited much? He was talking about PA Ingalls of the Prairie. Duh.

I also agree with his opinion that holding Soxfest on Superbowl weekend was not exactly genius marketing strategy, the Saturday sellout notwithstanding.

Kudos to casting then for getting the right people for the roles they can shine in. As far as the subtlety comment on Murray, I do agree and I would have never predicted I'd ever consider him to be capable of subtle delivery based on the Caddy Shack/Meatballs era work. (Then again, I didn't predict big things for Tom Hanks after Bachelor Party either... although seeing Morgon Freeman as "Easy Reader" on Electric Companyas a kide, I knew he was going places... )

Serenity Now!

Kerry first, Dean second.

New hampshire is very important. Sadly, everyone takes it for granite.

Less sex and violence? Or was that sax and violins?

I am a big Burton fan, but that notwithsatnding, Big Fish was really superb.

Did ed Wood come out before or after Rushmore, because I though Mill Murray was quite good in that.

But, boy, you gotta like those double-reed girls Sorry, I must sound like a complete and utter basoon...

What are you doing wrong if you are still only "practicing"? If you need any pointers, just give a shout. As far as the original question, I don't see that gender should have anything to do with collecting a legitimate debt (I assume you would not really come to blows with a male friend over money). If she agrees she legitimately owes you money, remind her gently, giver her some time to make good, and then maybe guilt her somehow into repaying you.

Baggio, I got so wrapped up in responding to the mountain fossil part of your post I really did not pay enough attention to the rest of it. If you have a version of the OT that talks about hatred between Jews and Muslims, you had best chuck it and get a more accurate translation. Mohammad's first revelation did not occur until 610AD, and the Muslim calendar does not begin until 622AD, the year of the Hijra (emigration) from Mecca. There was no Islam and hence no Muslims in OT times. If your version of the OT says something about animosity between Jews and other Semitic tribes, that is another matter. Your reference to much of the Holy land being located on major fault lines is true enough. There is actually some serious investigation into the realities of Sodam (sp?) and Gamorah (sp??), the whole pillars of salt business, etc., and the geologic activity of the area figures prominently. The presumed location of these two fabled cities on the banks of the Dead Sea makes the pillars of salt pretty easy to explain. Odd, organic-looking salt formations appear quite rapidly in and around this hypersaline water body, and someone happening upon a roughly human-shaped salt pillar could have been the beginning of the story. The fact that the area is also tectonically and volcanically active is also important, because the biblical "rains of fire" then become accounted for, right down to the presence of good, sulpher-smelling brimstone rocks to be found by letecomers to teh scene. Add to that the known history of the area in which very advanced and prosperous merchant civilizations pretty much disappeared almost over night (likely due to exodus stemming from bad runs of luck including earthquakes, droughts, etc.), and you do have the key ingredients for the stories about the Holy destruction of the two fabled wicked cities. There was a great PBS production on the shrinking and imperiled Dead Sea I caught about a month ago that went into a lot of this. Good stuff.

I knew the term would get me in hot water once I posted, but what are ya gonna do? The term is usually meant to imply basically the same thing as brown-noser, only moreso. Said people, in my interpretation, will do anything and everything in their power to get what they want, and have no integrity.

Alex. First off, no offense is taken by your questioning my statements, so no worries. As for my digs at 'Family Values,' please note the quotes as I refer only to the very real use of the term as code words for the Christian Right in their ongoing attempts to separate an "Us" and a "Them." When Dan Quayle was released on the public in the second half of Papa Bush's term, he hit the motherlode of Conservative Christian voter support by saying the kinds of things that group wants to hear. I am simplifying the scenario, of course, but for someone to get all riled up about fictional single mother Murphy Brown as an example of the decay of family values, to have the Conservative Christian camp eat it up, AND to have the media pay attention to any of it was surreal. The truth was and still is that this is one of the three most important Republican voter bases (the others being the fiscal conservatives and those pushing for ever larger defense spending). Here in an election year, we are hearing Baby Bush pandering to the same group with talk of reviving the pursuit of government funded faith-based social programs, expanded pro-marriage counseling services, and the possibility of a Constitutional amendment banning gay unions. When 'family values' start to look like a Christian Conservative special agenda, I call a spade a spade. I'm sure you and I both have more personal commitment to true family values (no quotes) than any 10 Newt Gingrich's combined. With the exception of the emphasis on the guiding role of God in daily life, you very accurately depict many of the things I think are important in raising my family. For that matter, God is not a taboo subject with my kids. I'm the product of 12 years of Catholic schooling, and I simultaneously thank and blame the damn Jebbies of St. Ignatius for demanding that I question my religious beliefs and the viewpoints of the religious establishment I was born into. As I have said my 4-year old is currently enrolled in an Episcopal school, which I guess makes him the spiritual authority of the family. In terms a 6-year old and 4-year old can understand, I tell my kids that I am not an authority on God, that I think this world is a mind-blowingly amazing place, that Love will kick hate's ass 10 times out of 10, and that sometimes it's really hard to do the right things but that doesn't mean they are not the right things to strive to do. Love and Do What You Will