It's something like this that makes it a bit hard for me to understand the American system. :-O

Same sex marriges have been allowed here the past 16 years.

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"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

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Account frozen...

Not wanting our laws changed to suit a MINORITY of the population in no way, shape, or form, means the MAJORITY of Americans are scared of homosexuals.

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You know what I LOVE about all of these cartoons?

How TRUE they are? SAD, but TRUE... ;)

No, how they often are intentional lies or half-truths.....like how you only quoted half of my post for instance.

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Kinsey's Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale

Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats. It is a fundamental of taxonomy that nature rarely deals with discrete categories... The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects, (p 639).

While emphasizing the continuity of the gradations between exclusively heterosexual and exclusively homosexual histories, it has seemed desirable to develop some sort of classification which could be based on the relative amounts of heterosexual and homosexual experience or response in each history... An individual may be assigned a position on this scale, for each period in his life.... A seven-point scale comes nearer to showing the many gradations that actually exist, (pp. 639, 656)

Kinsey, et al. (1948). Sexual Behavior in the Human Male.

Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953) reported that:

* 37% of males and 13% of females had at least some overt homosexual experience to orgasm;
* 10% of males were more or less exclusively homosexual and 8% of males were exclusively homosexual for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 55. For females, Kinsey reported a range of 2-6% for more or less exclusively homosexual experience/response.
* 4% of males and 1-3% of females had been exclusively homosexual after the onset of adolescence up to the time of the interview.
* Kinsey devised a classification scheme to measure sexual orientation. It is commonly known as the Kinsey Scale

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Reality Internet Personality

Both U.S., Iran accentuate the 'positive'
Washington offers nuclear incentives

By Ali Akbar Dareini and George Jahn
ASSOCIATED PRESS

June 7, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran and the United States had a rare moment of agreement yesterday, using similar language to describe “positive steps” toward an accord on a package of incentives aimed at persuading Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.

Diplomats said the incentives included a previously undisclosed offer of some U.S. nuclear technology on top of European help in building light-water nuclear reactors. Other incentives included allowing Iran to buy spare airplane parts and support for joining the World Trade Organization.

Tehran is under intense international pressure to accept the deal in exchange for putting on hold a uranium enrichment program that the West fears is leading to the development of nuclear weapons.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said there were “some positive steps” in the proposals but that talks were needed to clear up ambiguities. Iran promised to study the proposals seriously, but gave no time frame for a response.

Bush, echoing Larijani, said Iran's initial response sounded “like a positive step.”

“We will see if the Iranians take our offer seriously,” he said in Laredo, Texas. “The choice is theirs to make. I have said the United States will come and sit down at the table with them so long as they are willing to suspend their enrichment in a verifiable way.”

One diplomat in Vienna described the U.S. offer of nuclear technology as particularly significant because it would, in effect, loosen a decades-long U.S. embargo on giving Iran access to “dual use” technologies – equipment that has both civilian and military uses.

The deal does not demand that Iran give up its uranium enrichment program – only suspend it, although probably for a long time. Two earlier diplomatic initiatives by Europe and Russia crumbled over the past year because each demanded Iran scrap enrichment completely – a stumbling block because of the program's wide popularity with the Iranian public.

Iran's leaders fiercely defend their nuclear program as a source of intense national pride, and say the purpose of the enrichment program is to create fuel for electricity – not nuclear weapons, as the U.S. claims.

Enrichment is the centerpiece of a nuclear program that the Iranian government sees as a technological achievement, proving Iran is on a level with highly developed nations. Iran has dismissed past demands that it give up its right to enrichment as an arrogant insult from Western nations afraid of a high-tech Muslim nation. But it also has signaled it would accept some limits.

But the West fears Iran's intentions. Enrichment can produce either material for a nuclear warhead or fuel for a nuclear reactor.

The latest proposal was revealed a week after Washington changed strategy on Iran and – in an apparent acknowledgment that it lacked support for sanctions against the Islamic republic – conceded that the U.S. would be willing to enter into direct talks with Iran under certain conditions.

The latest proposal appeared to be even more of a concession on the Bush administration's part – a major attempt to sweeten the package for Iran in a bid to win concessions over its nuclear program.

The United States is now offering to provide Iran some nuclear technology, diplomats in Vienna said on condition of anonymity.

It had been known that the deal included European offers of help in building light-water nuclear reactors for a peaceful energy program. But there previously had been no suggestion that the U.S. would also agree to help build a nuclear program for a country the Bush administration frequently paints as a threat to world security.

John Wolfsthal, a nonproliferation analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said any such offer would be tied to strict monitoring conditions.

“Iran has to be fully compliant in terms of inspectors on site, cameras and tracking equipment,” Wolfsthal said. “All that is standard operating procedure with countries with light-water reactors.”

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me@rescam.org

Generation Me has to learn about failure

RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR.
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

June 7, 2006

You can be anything you want to be. Never give up on your dreams. Believe in yourself, and anything is possible. Yada, yada.

Repeated in popular culture and reinforced by parents, this is the self-empowering mantra of Generation Me. That's the label that psychologist Jean Twenge has affixed to those born in the 1970s, '80s and '90s.

While it's always dicey to try to generalize about an entire generation, there are usually shared experiences for those who came of age at the same time in history.

An associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University, Twenge has spent more than a dozen years examining differences between the generations. Her research includes comparing studies on the self-esteem of more than 60,000 college students across the country from 1968 to 1994. As a result of all this, and the feedback of a couple hundred of her own students, Twenge thinks she has a good fix on young people today – what they're like, what they value, how they got this way, and what it means for the rest of us that they are this way. It doesn't hurt that she's one of the tribe herself, born in 1971.

She spells out her findings in her book, “Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled – and More Miserable Than Ever Before.”

You could say that Generation Me was special before it was even born. As Twenge points out in her book, reliable birth control and legalized abortion helped make it one of “the most wanted generations in American history.”

Many of these little treasures were raised in protective bubbles with nanny-cams and decals on car windows that read: “Caution, Baby on Board.” From there, it was off to public schools, where in the early 1980s, building self-esteem had become nearly as important as teaching math or English.

Parenting experts, child psychologists and educators agreed: Boosting students' self-esteem would make them more confident and more successful. Some school districts did silly things such as discouraging teachers from using red pens to correct assignments. Red, it was said, had a negative impact on a student's self-image.

Twenge notes that members of Generation Me have gone through life feeling as if the world revolves around them because, well, for much of their lives, it has. A lot of them have a sense of entitlement. They think they're too good for menial jobs or even blue-collar work, and, when they do step into an interview for white-collar employment, they're ambitiously eyeing the vice presidency. They want to make an impact on society, do something fulfilling, and if along the way they become rich and famous, then all the better. They're notoriously impatient, and they won't hesitate to quit if a given job or project doesn't live up to expectations.

They cruise through life just fine until they hit a brick wall – as when they're rejected by their first-choice college or don't get their dream job, or get the job and discover it's not so dreamy after all. When that happens, watch out. Disappointment can turn to disillusionment, which can turn to depression. It's no wonder that, according to Twenge, one of the more popular drugs of choice for young people is Prozac.

But what these kids are really hooked on is individualism.

“Focus on the self and doing what's right for you rather than following social rules or rules of the society,” Twenge told me in an interview, “that's the cardinal trait of Generation Me.”

Of course, people also said that about baby boomers, one of the most self-absorbed generations in recent memory.

Twenge insists that Generation Me isn't self-absorbed, but self-important. Here's the difference. Boomers have spent almost 40 years trying to convince the rest of society: “This matters to us. So it should matter to you.” Me-ers don't feel as if they have to convince anyone of anything, and just accept it as fact that: “We matter.”

So why does this matter to the rest of us? There's the obvious answer: These are the workers and taxpayers of the future who will, one day, have to keep society afloat.

They'll find that easier to do if they don't constantly throw in the towel at the first sign of roadblocks or adversity. These kids have always been told they would succeed. But along the way someone should have told them that there is a lot to learn from failure.

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me@rescam.org

This doesn't mean the satire/observations are correct.

But they usually are... Otherwise, the comedy would be more stupid than funny... ;)

I still remember the first time I saw one of those DARWIN fish emblems on a car. I thought to myself, "That is highly offensive to a lot of people, but it's also funny as hell." (pun intended)

No one proposes that there was ever such a walking fish creature, but it's still funny.

Personally, I don't find the feeted fish to be offensive nor funny, just plain stupid... ;)

Is that any way to treat a cute little Mudskipper?

Well when you put it that way... I suppose it is a tad bit funny... ;)

Let me explain this for the very stupid who may not understand the estate tax.

You pay taxes on everything you earn either in the form on income tax once a year, or wages withheld from your check. There are also various other taxes you pay for you assets such as your car, your home, the property you home is built upon, etc.

So explain to me why on Earth someone should have to pay taxes again simply because they inherited an "estate". You will already have to pay taxes on it a second time because it will be considered income, but forcing someone to pay additional taxes because a relative was generous enough to include you in their will is just stupid.

Anyone who supports this tax either works for the government or is a stupid foreignor who not only doesn't understand the American tax system, but doesn't even have a dog in this fight.

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World leaders drop demand that Iran cease uranium enrichment
Suspension during negotiations sought

ASSOCIATED PRESS

June 8, 2006

VIENNA, Austria – In a major concession, world powers no longer are demanding that Iran commit to a prolonged moratorium on uranium enrichment and are now asking only for a suspension during talks on its nuclear program, diplomats and officials said yesterday.

The proposal and a connected offer to allow continued uranium conversion are part of an effort to avoid a showdown over international concerns that the Iranians are trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Backing off the previous stance on enrichment signals a possible readiness by the United States and its allies to accept some limited form of enrichment by Iran, despite years of warnings from Washington that Tehran wanted such technology to make nuclear warheads.

Iran insists its nuclear program is intended only to produce power, arguing it needs enrichment technology to produce fuel for reactors that would generate electricity.

Since talks between European nations and Iran broke off in August, the public stance by the European negotiators and the United States has been that Iran must commit to a long-term halt in enrichment as a precondition for talks.

Still, a diplomat said that despite the concession, a long-term moratorium remained the preferred goal of the six nations – the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany – that approved a package of incentives for the Tehran regime last week.

Beyond that, the talks are meant to reach agreement on what kind of nuclear activities Iran can conduct under conditions that dispel fears that it wants a military program.

European Union foreign-policy chief Javier Solana, who presented the offer to Iranian officials this week, said yesterday that the issue of enrichment would have to be reassessed once talks were completed.

“In principle . . . they will have to stop now; we will have to negotiate with no process of enrichment in place,” he told reporters in Germany. “After the finalization of the negotiations we will see what happens.”

Solana said the incentive offer came with no specific time frame, but that he expected Iran's answer within weeks.

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me@rescam.org

Dear Friend:

I recently wrote to you about my efforts to ensure the establishment of a Comprehensive Combat Casualty Care Center at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego. I am writing again to tell you the good news that the United States Navy has announced its plans to open this “West Coast Walter Reed” and begin accepting wounded service members as early as this summer.

Below you will find my letter of thanks to the Navy for its efforts on behalf of our brave service men and women.

Sincerely,

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator



June 6, 2006

Rear Admiral John M. Mateczun
Deputy Surgeon General of the Navy and
Vice Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
2300 E Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20372-5300

Dear Admiral Mateczun:

Senator Daniel Inouye has informed me of the great news that the Navy is establishing a Comprehensive Combat Casualty Care Center (C5) at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, making it the “West Coast Walter Reed.”

This fulfills the commitment I received from Chairman Ted Stevens and Senator Inouye during consideration of the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill to ensure the necessary funding for this important project. I am so pleased that all parties dedicated themselves to helping our brave service members, who are facing unprecedented physical and mental health challenges.

Your letter to Senators Stevens and Inouye confirms the establishment of this facility which will provide comprehensive care, not just for the physical injuries our soldiers have sustained, but also for their emotional needs, rehabilitation, and transition back to military service or civilian life.

While I lament that even one more service member will be wounded in combat, the reality is that approximately 25 percent of all combat casualties come from the Western United States. This C5 facility will allow our combat-wounded service members to receive treatment and recover from their wounds closer to their loved ones.

I thank the Navy for their commitment to this project and look forward to continuing to work with you to ensure that our service members receive the best medical care possible. Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

Sincerely,


Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

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me@rescam.org

Being ever mindful of the rules on the left......how about the 5 states ok'ing the death penalty for repeat child sex offenders?

CNN LINK

I think it's a bit over the top and probably unconstitutional.

Opinions?


...discuss

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Being ever mindful of the rules on the left......how about the 5 states ok'ing the death penalty for repeat child sex offenders?

CNN LINK

I think it's a bit over the top and probably unconstitutional.

Opinions?
...discuss

I don't understand this american obsession with killing people.
Imho the death penalty is something a truely civilized society has to abandon.

Being ever mindful of the rules on the left......how about the 5 states ok'ing the death penalty for repeat child sex offenders?

CNN LINK

I think it's a bit over the top and probably unconstitutional.

Opinions?
...discuss

I don't understand this american obsession with killing people.
Imho the death penalty is something a truely civilized society has to abandon.

I dont think we Americans are obsessed with killing people
Most convicted of a crime and sentenced to death are afforded years worth of challenges and appeals. The Majority of convicts on death row will never be put to death.

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I dont think we Americans are obsessed with killing people
Most convicted of a crime and sentenced to death are afforded years worth of challenges and appeals. The Majority of convicts on death row will never be put to death.

But there really ought to be a death penalty imposed on anyone who posts anything stupid on the SETI/BOINC message boards. Now, all I have to do is touch home plate before someone realizes how stupid my post is . . .

[Edit]: Ah, made it! But the rest of you guys would be in trouble.

Being ever mindful of the rules on the left......how about the 5 states ok'ing the death penalty for repeat child sex offenders?

CNN LINK

I think it's a bit over the top and probably unconstitutional.

Opinions?
...discuss

I don't understand this american obsession with killing people.
Imho the death penalty is something a truely civilized society has to abandon.

I disagree. I also think you should define "obsession" before I attack the idea.

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