lookin

I should have been clear that my friend is the one who said, 'I'm not a size queen but I can be impressed.', and not the guy in the picture. If my friend were the guy in the picture, do you think that I would be here posting at MER day and night? But he isn't and I am so maybe I'll go put some more of his pictures over in the Potluck thread. PS: My real friend is some years older and some inches less well-endowed than the guy in the picture. I know he'll be delighted when I forward all your kind invitations over to him.

I've heard the same good things from a friend who retired there a year ago. PV would definitely make my short list.

Greatness??

As a friend of mine said, I'm not a size queen but I can be impressed.

I find I agree with all of my esteemed and learned fellow posters. (Well, except for that firing squad stuff. ) He did sign up for military law, so it applies to him, although I doubt military law really requires him to "verbally confirm that he is alright" every five minutes. If true, that piece doesn't seem either humane or constitutional. But, applied fairly, military law is what he gets. I also share Lucky's sense of despair that some are willing to kick him to the curb before he's even been charged, let alone tried. What if we or a loved one ever needed the justice system to be there for us? More urgent, in my opinion, is whether we think as U. S. citizens that we have a right to due process. If we pretend we don't, or pretend that Private Manning doesn't, then pretty soon we won't have it. I think we're giving up a bunch of rights these days and, in my opinion, agreeing to snatch away the rights of others is only going to speed up that process.

Well I sure don't and these posts definitely have me curious! Since it's the holiday season, why not slip a little gift on his desk when he's not looking, and see which way the wind blows? Merry Christmas from your Secret Santa!

No problem. I'm sure there'll be other things to do.

I dunno. I keep worrying that Fred Phelps will be out googling Palm Springs weekends one day, and stumble across our happy home. Of course, with our luck, he'll probably decide he likes the place and start posting under KansasKutie.

If my calculations are right, that's sixty-one pounds, just nine pounds short of an Irish Setter. Congratulations! I probably lost about the same, but it was over a period of five years or so. I'm wondering what changes you've noticed after losing that much. For me it was going up stairs easier, and fitting in some clothes from the back of the closet. Are there any differences you've seen?

Wowsa! Thanks!! Do tell!

Good one Lucky!

I'll probably wait for 3D until they get rid of the glasses. Unless of course Ralph Woods releases something.

Interesting question about 'gay' message boards being liberal. If I had to guess as to why there might be an overlap, it would take me back to compassion. At the risk of another generalization, I find most of the gay men I know to be compassionate. (There are exceptions, of course, and I'm sure we could scare up one or two.) The self-identified liberals I know tend to be compassionate too. I think on this message board, in particular, there are a goodly number of compassionate gay men and it doesn't surprise me at all that many identify themselves as liberals. The question about whether it's the only thing that "works" is a bigger one than I'm going to tackle here two fingers at a time. I can tell you that, for me, a worldview that doesn't include compassion would not work. In my heart, as well as my head, I want everyone to have a healthy and secure social net and if that aligns me with some looney liberal fringe, so be it. Pretending I don't care would not work for me. I tried it once upon a time, and it didn't work well at all. But trying to figure out what works for others, and how, and why, is for me a lifetime's work. It seems pretty clear that those who self-identify as conservative have a viewpoint that works for them. I've heard some refer to themselves as 'compassionate conservatives', but I'm aware of more who could be perceived as non-compassionate conservatives. They seem to do just fine, and are definitely feeling their oats these days. So, yes, I think that viewpoint can work too. However, I do find myself wondering if it will work as well when they eventually find themselves needing the compassion of others. Nope. Sure hope I never gave you that impression and am very sorry if I did. Yep. Willing and eager here. Limp. Mince. Lope. Trot. Leap. However we get along. But I don't think we should let them get out too far out of our sight.

In choosing both friends and politicians, compassion comes first for me. If they don't have that, we will come no closer. Respect is probably second or third. Compassion and respect are qualities that I have difficulty associating with Sarah Palin. - Somebody go arrest that homeless guy. He must be wanted for something! And check out those two Mexicans too. - The hell I will! Alaska's twice as big as England. That old broad should be curtsyin' to me! Unless it's over drinks with Levi Johnston, Sarah Palin and I will come no closer. It's fun to watch her keep stepping in cow pies and, as others have said, the entertainment value is way up there. But she causes me distress too. Well, not so much her, as the fact that there are tens of millions of my fellow U. S. citizens willing to elect her President and cheer her on as she tears down bridges we've spent decades building up. Can you imagine her negotiating an arms treaty with the Russians? For the next little while, I plan to enjoy her occasional flames, all the time wondering if I would have been one of those Germans in the 1920's laughing at that funny little man with the mustache.

Your take surprised me a bit too, RA1, and maybe I misunderstood. You've always seemed to me to be a guy who looks at things from all sides, and stays away from pigeonholes. These days, I get most of my news from the internet and have put together a bookmarks folder of various news sites. It's always enlightening to see the same 'news' delivered to different constituents. Can't do it for every issue, of course, but I don't feel comfortable taking a position on something important until I've at least peeked into a range of opinions. And, for me, the wider the range, the better. Thanks to JKane, I just checked my bookmarks to make sure Pravda is there. It is.

Well thankee kindly gents but modesty demands that the credit go to my fellow members for strewing the Forums with such choice nuggets that need the merest bit of bending over and picking up. I mean here we are in the midst of a thread on fiber and regularity. All that's left to do is find a snapshot of a beaver leery of making any sudden moves. Y'all have done the heavy lifting. (A friend reminds me that y'all is actually the singular and I should use all a y'all to include everyone. Not sure of the spelling though. )

A Booklover's San Francisco

Well, I knew the day was coming. I so enjoyed being a 'Tumescent Member' that it's somewhat harder becoming an 'Esteemed Member', so to speak. I like tumescence. In a member, and in life in general. To me, it's always implied 'good enough', with the potential to get even better. I enjoy a somewhat restful state knowing that I can usually rouse myself should the occasion arise. And 'Tumescent' is certainly a lot closer to my day-to-day reality than 'Esteemed' is or, perish the thought, 'Prodigious'. But, remembering the fun time we had coming up with these member names, I found the post that did it and am offering here a modest appendage, you should pardon the expression. Too bad the punctuation got clobbered in this vintage post, but it's still pretty readable. Most of the picture links are gone too, especially the ones to Kaique, an erstwhile Brazilian escort. To me, his pictures were such perfect examples of various member types that I'm uploading them here for your closer inspection and, I hope, enjoyment. Here's wishing my fellow members the state of arousal that suits you best! Curious Member: Dangling Member: Aroused Member: Tumescent Member: Esteemed Member: Prodigious Member: Olympian Member:

And sometimes it goes the other way . . .

Budget woes probably mandate searching a bit closer to home. Just last week, I found them nosing through my refrigerator.

What an outstanding opening line! I hope you've locked in the screen rights. Pleasure Under The Pampas original screenplay by NeedSome

Here's how The Catholic League and John Boehner are marking the day: Christian activists force Smithsonian to pull Aids video from show One doesn't know what to say.

Interesting article. Thanks. The arguments make my head spin, as both sides seem to have valid points. I'd like to know how much Comcast is charging Level 3 for handling Netflix traffic. Obviously it's enough to make Level 3 squeal. My guess is Comcast is motivated by losing some of its own pay-per-view business to Netflix, rather than by having to handle the additional traffic. Reminds me that we're really still in the early days of the internet, and business models will come and go quickly. So long as Comcast keeps its mitts off Cam4, I guess I'll just bide my time.

As you say, the answers are important. For example, if Canadians were coming across the border for half - or even 20% - of their health care, that would suggest some pretty significant weaknesses in their system. But my understanding is that only a percent or two come to the U S. for health care and, even then, usually when they're here for something else, although the Mayo clinic may indeed be a magnet as it is for many around the world. So the answers are available, and they indicate that Canadians are pretty well satisfied with their health care system. There was a program on TV a couple years ago that showed a hip-replacement patient who went to India for her operation. Not only did she have the option of a less invasive procedure that hadn't yet been approved by the FDA, she also paid about a third of the U. S. price, and recuperated for a few days at a luxury resort with some nice-looking Indian boys bringing her drinks poolside. While it wouldn't be fair to ask our seniors to travel to India for hip replacements, it might be possible to bring parts of the Indian system here. We'd almost certainly have to give up our right to large malpractice awards for a start, and the FDA might have to find a way to streamline its approval process. Of course, there are folks who don't want the FDA to change and others who support the idea of a large malpractice industry. Though that may be more about preserving wealth than about preserving health. In my opinion, our country continues to struggle with universal health care not because we can't find the answers, but because many are not yet willing or able to hear them. But I think the message will continue to get louder as the days go by.

Wish I had one of those down the street from me. They'd get a lot of drop-in traffic just from us locals. San Francisco has pretty good low-cost or no-cost health care too, and Healthy San Francisco is showing that on-going care is better and cheaper than emergency care. I tried to check out Memphis's health care approach through Wikipedia, and so far found only this snippet: Memphis is also home to the Memphis Medical Center, which is locally referred to as "The Med". In recent years, the hospital has experienced severe funding difficulties that nearly led to a reduction or elimination of emergency room services. In July, 2010, The Med received approximately $40.6 million in federal and local funding to keep the Elvis Presley Trauma Center operational. Perhaps the free clinics in your area indicate that Memphis is also shifting its emphasis away from emergency care and toward preventive care. As others have said, emergency room care, even if free and readily available, is often too little and sometimes too late. I think we all need affordable medical care that keeps us well and lets us avoid the emergency room whenever possible.