Free Republic

Pull my finger!

Dubuquer here. I saw Bush in May, one of the biggest thrills of my life. I was no more than 20 feet from him. What a wonderful speaker. Anyway, I will be there for Kerry as well, the same way I was there a couple of weeks ago-with my Bush/Cheney signs held high. All though Dubuque is a big nest of democrats Bush had a bigger welcome and a much bigger turn out. Dubuque is democratic but in name not conviction.

Love it! The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was "our" song. No wonder the marriage didn't last. The song outlined the marriage!

I had the same gift card experience two weeks ago with JC Penny-only the $1 a month "processing fee" started after 1 year.

If it doesn't include a margarita it ain't a "happy" meal

What normal 7 year old boy WANTS to play with a 4 year old girl? I think my sons at that age would rather have had a arm cut off that play with a "baby" and especially a girl!

Experience here also. I have found you never get over it but you can, with time, get beyond it. I have never let it define who I am but I reconize I am who I am because of it. And it only took me 28 years to figure it out.

WOW! I thought it was just me that considered reading and books a total sensory experience. The way to my heart has always been through books. All though I like the internet and especially the Free Republic there is nothing like curling up with a new book and having all those fresh smooth untouched pages waiting for me to get lost in.

I think you forgot the barf alert.

My son spent January through May going to school in Caceres Spain. Needless to say I was worried sick about him when the war started. But he said the people there were more protective of him than I was. He never had a problem and didn't see any of the anti American attitude that he experienced in other countries he visited during that time. France was the only country he refused to visit. But he loved Spain and said the people there were extremely warm and friendly. And if you smoke you will feel right at home because with the exception of himself and about six other people the entire country smokes-and there is no such thing as a no smoking sign.

Doctors..Ethics?? Is this a joke??

Why should the church end the celibacy requirement? Men choosing the priesthood know that is one of the requirements. They either agree to it and abide by it or they don't. If you don't like the rule don't play the game.

Valpal1 You hit the nail right exactly on the head.

I taught 6th grade for one year and I had to get out. This was a great source of irritation for me (one of many) as a teacher and as a parent. The trend for so many years was to focus on the "content" and the "creativity" not the mechanics of writing because it will stifle them. Well what the hell good is creativity if no one can read what you have written? Fine, but the rules of writing were never taught. All though we seemed to have plenty of time for multi-cultural non-gender bias lessons. I couldn't stand all the wasted time in the school day on everything other than teaching. The act of teaching was pretty low priority. I had thought I was getting into teaching to TEACH-but did I get a rude awakening. My hat is off to the teachers who stay and continue to battle "progress".

It was inspiring. My son, a jr. at IA State, has spent this last semester in Spain studing. He had the opportunity to spend this last week in Rome. He got a ticket to the Pope's Easter Mass. As luck would have it he got to the very front of the church, he was about 20 feet from the Pope during the mass. He did say that the Pope was incredibly old looking and very frail but was still inspirational.

Wow. But I knew I'd be flamed when I posted. And most of the anger is deserved-but not all. It's very easy to hate telemarketing and I don't disagree with how most of you feel. I have a phone too. And I hate sales calls and interuptions as well. And there are some real sleezy scam artists out there. I too have been slammed, pi**ed off, and insulted. But if you're getting harrassing calls from the same place after telling them no, then THOSE are the companies to go after. Hit them hard and shut THEM down. Somebody mentioned that there should be a "do call" list actually that's not a bad idea. It doesn't seem fair that you should have to be the one to take action to stop something you didn't want in the first place. But there is a difference in telemarketing. We are not all sleazy scamers (it just seems like it sometimes) We all love the current poll ratings that President Bush and the war is getting (I know I do) where do you think that data is coming from? When the city I live in recently withdrew a stupid new tax hike because of the huge negative backlash, guess where that data came from? I know most of you are still going to hate me (and surveys/polls) no matter what I say. Politicans LOVE to hate telemarketing-it's popular and gets votes. But they have exempted themselves from the new regulations. You will continue to get political calls no matter how many lists you are on. Surveys, and Charity-fundraisers are also excluded. If you have a relationship with a company ie; you are a customer, they can call you as well. So my tip of the day is: if you want all the other types of calls stopped tell the next telemarketer to put you on the national list and ask to be sent a copy of their do not call policy, by law they must send it to you and must put you on the list, but be aware it may take up to 90 days to be processed. If they are legitmate the company name and phone number will be displayed on your caller ID or when you hit *69. They must tell you up front if it's a sales call, since we do market research here we will tell you this is a survey not a sales call and ask then we must ask for your permission to continue. Hope it helps.

At the risk of getting scorched here I would like to add my 2 cents worth. I am a market researcher and I work for a company that conducts telephone surveys. We employee about 1000 people and the majority of these people come to us as single parents with minimal education, few skills, and are former welfare recipiants. Most of our research is business to business but we also do some business to consumer surveys. The soon to be in effect national do not call lists will have major impact on my employer and the entire industry. But before you start throwing the confetti please consider this. If my company goes under it won't be easy but with my experience and education I can get another job. But the vast majority of our employees will be right back on welfare and you and I will be supporting them again. And there are hundreds of similar company's nationwide. Market research, charity funraisers, and political calls (politicians made sure to exclude themselves-but condeming us is a popular vote getter) are all exempted from the do not call lists, but most people don't know this. Do I get the sleazy siding sales calls, the long distance sales calls, and the time share calls, yes, but the power is in MY hand as I can hang up the phone. I don't need the goverment to babysit me! But to destroy the entire industry because of the fraud of some is ludicrous. As always we will pay for it in the form of ever increasing welfare rolls and unemployment benefits. Why not make the pentalies harsher for the scammers and go after them and put them out of business-why punish legitmate business? As always when you ask the goverment to get involved in something you can easily handle yourself (hang up the phone!) you inevitably create problems elsewhere. Thanks for listening and even if you don't like what I've said you can make the choice to move on to the next post without the goverment making your decisions for you.

What are you going to do, bleed on me??

After September 11 he has reason to fear GOD!!

This brings utterly no comfort to me. My freshman son (Iowa State) is in South Padre Island right now with 7 friends for spring break. NOW I hear all these horror stories. Anyone with a unused prayer laying around could send it to my dopey kid...