Diedra Moose

acutally, the Boy Scouts are banned from meeting at schools. After the Supreme court upheld thier right to discriminate gays, Boy Scout troops are no longer allowed to meet in buildings designated as "non-discriminatory zones" (or something to that effect.

Got 'im!

Cool

First, I highly doubt that any school would teach how to give oral sex; and if they are, they are TOTALLY out of line. Sex education (as in teaching safe sex methods and abstinence) is no longer even allowed in the school system where I live...and then they wonder why kids think they can use sandwhich bags as condoms. If people think that not teaching sex education will stop kids from having sex, they obviously have not been to a high school party lately. No eucation just means that we'll ahve more kids with more diseases and more pregnancies... On the second thing... Removing a picture of the president is neither a liberal or conservative thing. School whould be a place where ideas are open, but if the moderator of those ideas is obviously parrtisan either way, it can intimidate students that are on the other side of the spectrum. Not to say that teachers shouldn't have their opinions, they just need to temper them in the classroom.

I didn't mean that we deserved to be attacked at all. What I meant is that the American public chose to turn a blind eye to waht their gov't has done in the world. Some people, in fact, arrogantly deny that the US had any role in some of those actions. My point was that it was our turn to reap what our gov't had sewn. Did those almost 3,000 families deserve to lose a loved one? Absolutely not. Was the American public brutally shaken from the "we're America the all-powerful, untouchable, unstoppable country" dream to realize that our own gov't has been lying to us and bringing harm to us? Hopefully.

I was wondering if the confederate flag is really aobut heritage and not implicitly aobut hate. Maybe that heritage is hate. I'm glad to hear that your wife's ok. Life can be so scary sometimes... My mom keeps getting infections. It started witha kidney infection, then she got a gum infection (which is near impossible for her ai would have thought because she brushes, flosses, and gurgles listerine twice a day) and now she's throwing up again...all of tihs is over the last 3 weeks. weirdness...

Abortion as a political issue is not about morals. The political issues centers around the role that governemt should play in our decisions. Does gov't have the right to tell pepole waht to do with their bodies? Can a governing state tell us we cannot end an unwanted pregnancy? Can it tell us we can't peanut- butter and banana sandwhiches on the second Tuesday of every month? religion is a very personal thing, and that is why the seperation between church and state exist. This explains Abortion as a POLITICAL issue. Abortion as a MORAL issue is very different. I am pro-choice, but personally would probably not have an abortion. But I never say never because you really never know waht can happen. The world is jsut too crazy to say 'never'

Sometimes I jsut have to wonder...

Nice quote on Marvin the robot, but on the issue of terrorism... Let's face it: the US created Osama bin Laden. Granted, it helped that he was and remains a religious fanatic; but the US gave him the knowledge, means and the rhetoric for his terrorist machine. 9/11 was horrible beyond any doubt. No one deserves to die such a horrible death. However, we cannot in good conscience say that we didn't have it coming. The US has made meddling in foreign governments a policy starting with the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. That's not even fifty years after we declared indpendence!!! Since then we wrote ourselves into the Cuban constituation (PLatt amandment), tried to invade China (Korea), invented pretense to go to Vietnam (Gulf of Tonkin), toppled socialist governments in Central and South America which lead to some of the bloodiest civil wars in history. And then there's Israel...by no means do I mean to say that the Israelis didn't desrve a state, or don't deserve a state, but Palestinians do have a point when they say they deserve access to their religious homeland too. You can't jsut carve up a nation and expect everyone to do little jigs aobut it. It's kind of like when we took half of Mexico's land in the 1840s. People fought and continue to fight over the land that is left (Chiapas and the Zapatistas). (To add insult to injury, gold was found in California like a week after the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed which gave CA to the US in 1849). Violence is definitely not the answer to all this mess. But waht is? I found bin Laden's message less a threat and more an appeal to our better sense. Israel and the US should treat Muslims and the Muslim world with little more dignity and respect. That said, those Muslims who take it upon themselves to get children to go blow people up should get with the picture as well. This is a cycle of violence...how do we end it?

there! got it!

i think that is a great idea! I jsut wish that someone (other than ourselves), preferably someone in a postions of power, would honor that sense of justice and do something about it.

Of course, if you feel that she's lying, and what she actually believes is that the parents should not be told, then I would suggest that what you actually have there is another reason not to vote for Betty Castor, because she'd be a liar. I prefer to believe she's telling the truth. Note that I'm also voting for her, because I liker her positions better than those of her opponent. Oh, I misunderstood what you were saying. I thought she was voting against the amendment, as in she believed that the decision should remain private...Got it. I do feel rather passionate abot this because *sigh* I am a high school studetn and I see these things every day. That said, I don't mean to come off as militant, and if I do I apologize ...sometimes I get a liiiittle carried away.

As for the long lines at the voting places, I'm not sure I understand why people don't just leave and come back on a different day. It seems very odd to me that someone would wait five hours to vote, when they can just leave and come back another time. It'll be the same on any other day. I'm going to try aigan on Monday at the downtown site, but I was told it won't be much better...considerign I'm supposed to be in class on Monday, I will proabably jsut vote during a lull on election day since I'm working the polls

A procedure to make sure that the safety of the mother would be ensured? In any case, it's still an infrigment of a person's right to privacy. This amendment is basically like the government coming to tell you that what you're are doing is wrong and we're going to stop you... As Americans, we are very lucky to have a right to privacy. Are we willing to change our consitution (albeit as state one) so that gov't may impinge on that right?

Early voting is an incredible tool that should be utilized by more counties in FLorida and other states. It enables people who work all week to vote on Saturdays, and allows the voting system to be tested among other things. Hillsborough County, however, is not totally reaping the benfits. Only 2% of all voting machines were distributed to voting sites, leading to 5 hour lines at polling places like the one I went to in Tampa. One might ask why more machines were not distributed after the first week of early voting as the number of voters incresed? Any comments or suggestions about this, early voting, or voting in general? AND WHAT DO YOU SAY TO PEOPLE WHO AREN'T VOTING?!?!?!?! ...I'm jsut a little ticked

The other argument made in favor of lawyer caps is that frivolous lawsuits are causing our health costs to go up. In reality, lawsuits only encompass 2% of the higher costs...

It's a hard call all the way around... The thing with award and lawyer caps is that the less money that is involved, the less likely a lawyer will take the case in the first case. That means NO punitive damages in cases of REAL malpractice. Caps would hurt people on a lower socioeconomic strata since they would not be able to entice these lawyers to take their cases like richer people might be able to. If their is no incentive, there is no lawyer; if their is no lawyer, there is no case

By the way, thanks guys! I'm glad to behere

unfortunately, it isn't a "ridiculous cop-out" (I still can't figure out how to use that quote thing!!! Thanks for trying to teach me tho...). When a law is in place, unless there are stated exceptions within the law (which in this case there aren't), there can be no exceptions made. Here's the thing aobut amend. 1: is it really truly the gov't's resposnibility, place to tell you waht to do with your family? It's common sense that the kid should tell oyu she's having an abortion! Pro-lifers are using amend 1 to push their morals onto the rest of us by prmoting a pro-life culture. And they are using our constitution to do it. There's a reason seperation of church and state exists...

I know this is pretty common knowledge, but how do you isolate an elemnet like oxygen, for instance, from the other elements that make up the air we breathe? I was just reading your posts, and I think what you guys are striving to do it pretty cool.

I really need to learn how to use this quote thing...any helpful hints?

I couldn't have said it any better myself...The senate campaign has been nothing but mud-slinging, and the media hasn't heled a bit

It's getting late, so I'll deal with the other amendment I was going to talk about on the morn