J0nny Ling0

And Belle, I read all of Marcincko's books. Loved them! "You don't have to like it, you just have to do it!" Is a favorite "family saying" around this house. But so far, as my kids are young, I am the only one saying it besides my wife. Hah! And so, I wonder what Mr Marcincko's doing these days with the Iraq War going on and all...Probably something...

My favorite books? "Rascal" by Sterling North is my very favorite of all time. That book "grew me up" a whole lot. Another favorite is "The Yearling" by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. About a boy who "grows up" in a very rural setting down in Florida. That book "grew me up" big time also. In fact, now that I think of it, those two books are in a "tie" for "first place". I think that "The Yearling" was more dramatic, and therefore had a "harder impact" on me, but no more eloquently written. For who knows of the thoughts and heart of a young ten year old boy like I was when I read them.... And, #3 would have to be "To Kill A Mocking Bird", by Harper Lee. Read that one in sixth grade. I will always grieve for Tom Robinson, and the Human Condition that he represents in that book... But the Bible takes precedence over all of these, although, strangely, I don't think of it as a "book". I just think of it as "The Book". And so, since I know that this is not the question you are asking, I list those first three books in that order... P.S. But, since I had my own pet raccoon named "Rinky" I guess "Rascal" still holds the #1 position. It's "personal" I 'spect... :) And PPS: All of you Floridians: If you have not, you MUST read "The Yearling". It's a must, in my opinion. Anyboby else read it?

Yup. Bummer for the Broncos and bummer for the Panthers. The only consolation I have is that if the Sea Chickens win the Big One, then I can say; "Well, at least the Redskins got put out of it by those who went on to win the Superbowl". Problem is, those Steelers look unstoppable! Man! As a matter of fact, if I were a bettin man, my money would be on the Steelers. "The Steel Curtain" as Howard Cosell used to say... And there is definitely a cool thing about The Bus coming out of retirement so that he could go to the Super Bowl in Detroit from whence he came. Now THAT is a piece of folklore that will go down BIG in the annals of NFL history. Should they win that is. AND hey, they might not win. Who knows? For as they say; "On any given Sunday, any NFL team can beat another", and the last two weekends have proven that old adage... Damn I love American Football! What a game!

The Way Corps training helped me immensely when it came to the work ethic thing. I didn't pick up any particular skills other than more carpentry stuff from Way Builders, which of course was valuable, for presently I work as a Union Carpenter. But, I'd grown up really lazy, and the best way for me as a kid to "clean my room" was to simply live in the pigsty as long as I could stand my mom's nagging, and then finally, I'd come home from school one day, and voila! My room was clean! I was an irresponsible slob, and my Mom, God bless her, and my Dad, God rest his soul, never put any "teeth into my upbringing", and let me get away with way too much. And so, alot of the little domestic things we did in the Corps-rooms clean, KP, bathroom cleaning crew, meeting room set up, fleet vehicle maintenance (detailing, car washing, etc) were good for me. Oh, and although this was not very "domestic", I was one of the Honey Wagon Heroes which was a fine "character building" occupation. Also, the big work parties, like picking squash for a farmer one time, cleaning out Delbert Moran's woods, cleaning out The Way Woods, firewood detail and logging at Camp Gunnison with the Grande Lake guys, and oh, how can I forget this one: Being on the Tent Crew for Corps week and the Rock. And what killed me was that the two guys I learned most from were these two Haitian dudes named Wally and Pierre. You see, these guys had nothing to do with The Way, but worked directly for the seemingly tireless and driven Dave Tseusdy(sp?). And, since they were simple employees, they spoke freely to us and with no remorse about their "unbeliever methods of getting a point across". Which really, was a great thing! One day, because I was concerned with whether or not I was a hard worker (and had begun to marvel at how those two little dudes worked so damned hard), I asked Wally this question: "Wally, am I a good worker?" And he says in his half English, half French patois; "No. You are a bad worker. Very lazy. You are Number ten! In fact all of you are very bad workers! All of you number ten!! You all talk too much and smoke too many cigarrettes and tell too many jokes! Time to work now, hokay fellas, hokay mon, you, lift dis teeng up and away we go. Hokay fellas hokay!" And here we were "Way Corps Volunteers" after a whole year in residence, and considered as a bunch of lazy a$$es by some third world dudes "that hadn't even had the Class!" What a stooge I was. But I did learn a valuable lesson from that. And from that point on I decided that I would become a "Number One Worker". I quit talking and just worked. And later when we took a break, I told Wally and Pierre, that they had better keep an eye out because I was going to become a "number one worker", and they just laughed. But, as time went on, this became a source of amusement for them, because, me, Alf C*vingt*n , S*ng*t B*in*s and I really felt embarrassed by this incident. I mean, these two dudes didn't even wear shoes half the time, and they out worked anyone of us three to one! And so, we three really got after it as if in a quest, and to our amusement as well, and to our delight, after a few days Wally says to me; "Jonny. You are number seven now. A haw haw haw!" And as the days went on, me and my two friends began to "climb the ladder of respect" in these guys eyes until we were all "Number One's!" And I blistered my hands with the sixteen pound sledge hammer used in driving those big steel stakes (you remember 'em) until my hands eventually bled, but later turned into awesome callouses. And waking up in the morning was a painful ordeal in that it seemed as if I was breaking free from rigormortis my muscles hurt so bad. But I reveled in it. I loved it that I had made my sorry lazy a$$ do what I told it to do, and accomplished far more work than I ever thought I could. And after about ten days, my muscles quit hurting, and I felt physically tough for perhaps the first time and it felt really good. I really grew up alot in that month with those guys. Sang*t and I have even reminisced about it over the years as a great time to remember. Strangely though, a number of the others on our crew during that month began to accuse me and my friends of being on ego trips and being too intense and not "walking in the love of God". But that was okay, because Wally and Pierre called those guys Number Tens still. And so yes, this all could have easily been gained out here in Regular Life, but, it was in The Way Corps that I learned it, I was put in that situation while in the Corps training, and it was very valuable to me to this day.

We had a friend who died of the dreaded and rare "flesh eating disease" in Haines, Alaska. He was a local minister. He went into some sort of diabetic coma, and was rushed to the hospital. He hadn't taken his meds or something. And then, this other thing set in, and he was gone very quickly. Very sad, very horrible. But, he didn't have any arms or legs cut off, he just lost his whole body. Now, if this is actually what this woman had going on, then the amputations may have been needed. It's just that, according to the article, I do not understand why this hospital is not chomping at the bit to explain to her what this horrible disease is, and why it was necessary to do what they did. Because they are not doing this, it seems as if there is a dark cloud over the whole thing. Maybe it was just a simple mistake? Wrong patient? Aye carrumba!

Thanks Raf. Sounds like a good and honest report. And so, why then did it get all of the accolades since it was a lousy movie? Personally, I think it got the rave reviews because it was a homo promo, not because it was so good. Now, I saw "The Crying Game" with Daniel Day Lewis and Forrest Whitaker. And, I was one of the viewers who had no idea whatsoever that there would end up being a heavy gay scene sprung upon me at the end, and was therefore shocked, just as the producer director (whoever) intended. It was very well done, it's message obvious, and the element of surprise was craftily sprung upon me, and the message artfully presented. I still didn't buy it though. Anyway, The Crying Game got some Academy Awards, or maybe Golden Globe awards (whichever), and even though I believe that it too was a "promo", at least it was well done. But had I known of the movie's intention, I probably would not have watched it. And since I do know of this movie's content, I won't watch it.... When I saw Heath Ledger in "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson, I thought him only a moderately skilled actor, but certainly one whom the Ladies would like, as they have liked such heart throbs as Patrick "Nobody Puts Baby In A Corner" Swayze, and other "flash in the pans". This movie will probably give Mr. Ledger a boost for a while, but he is no Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, or Matthew McConaghy.... I really believe that the gay theme is the only thing that gave this movie it's boost.

Thanks Nellie. Maybe one day I will write the story of "The Great Emporia Campus Mail Room Spilled Paint Can Debacle", starring yours truly... :blink:

Hey. I love LOVE too. Couldn't live without it. It just seems that some things seem so, well, against nature, that's all. I mean, what could be sweeter than a WOMAN with love in her heart for a Man, who in turn loved her, protected her, and would die for her and vice versa. There is plenty of LOVE in that. That seems to fit so very well with the way God designed things for a Woman and a Man. I mean, a Woman is so completely opposite of we coarse and rough hewn Men. They (you Gals) seem to compliment the very things we Men do not have, and vice versa. You gals are so soft, sweet, have the nurturing spirit, while we men are so opposite. It just seems so logical that we are there for each other to compliment each other, and make the two become one so that the best sides of each gender come forth to bring out the best of both worlds as One. But two guys poking eachother? Geez! Too weird for me. Call it love, well, I just don't see it. And Socks, love you too man. Hope I wasn't offensive, and if so, sorry...

Thank you for recognizing that I was quoting from the book. And, I also want to point out that the opening statement from the "blog" (why are they called "blogs"?) says this as a preface to the quote from the book; And so, I guess someone who saw the movie will have to tell us if that part of the movie was graphically depicted. I won't spend my money just to see if it is true, for the implication is still there... And White Dove, thank you for that...

Socks, you are so nice and "neutral"! It's no wonder evreybody here loves you! Me, well, some love me, some dislike me a whole lot. I guess I get myself in trouble for stating my opinions. Look: For me, from what I have read about it, the movie was a promotion of "that lifestyle", which, imho, is a "wrong course to take". But, that is just mho. I do believe that people should be welcome to take the course that they wish to take. BUT, for the movie and it's authors to receive the accolades which they have, is bogus and one sided to me. To me, it is like picking "KISS" over let's say Roy Buchannan because KISS was so brave and bold by way of pushing the "outer boundaries", whereas Roy Buchannon was just another "guitar player", and totally disregarding his superiority. Now, the penguin movie I want to see! I have heard it is really good, and I have always loved that kind of stuff-yeah must be a fetish-but, good National Geographic stuff is way cool! Peace dude... P.S. I seen a couple a' salmon "doin' it" last fall rght here in Alaska in a local stream, and, well, it was way ex rated fore shore. Hot! Maybe not as hot as a couple of penguins, but...whoa! Way hot! But then a couple of eagles came down and scooped them up, and well, there went that xxx scene!

I wasn't as you were so apt to put it. It was simply a quote from the very book from which the movie was written. And so, are you willing to admit that the movie was based on "gay porn", since my quote from the book is about the very same movie in question, taken from the very quote that you refer to as "gay porn?" So, I guess, according to you, I guess it is. It really is quite disgusting isn't it? So much so that you referred to it as "gay porn"....Yawn...

I loved Jerry MaGuire. I cried when she said; "You had me at hello". But, she was a fine and needful single Mom (with an adorable little boy), and Jerry was a single guy with love in his heart for this Woman. The writers had me to the point where I loved them both. This was not hard to do, because they were male and female. Man and Woman. Karmic, you said; Hey. I just went and found that description of what went on in the movie to make a point. Somebody else said that they didn't think the movie depicted male anal sex, so I researched it out, and apparently the movie does not skip this aspect. You may call it hypocrisy if you want, but there is no question that somewhere along the way, I'd have run into it anyway. The point is simply that the graphic description is there, and being promoted by Hollywood, and then, a Golden Globe award is awarded for this "brave" and "heroic illustration" which is nothing short of sick. Sorry, that's my opinion, and I'm stickin to it...

Well of course a movie to promote homosexuality will be well acted, well directed, and then voted in favor of by the Hollyweird elite. But it still is what it is: A "Homo Promo". I won't see it. To me to even think of American Cowboys depicted as lovers of their own sex is repulsive. No, they may not show any buggery, but then, I read this and so will post it: It is a quote from a blog that discusses the movie: And so yeah, the thought of a couple of queer cowboys doing it is totally disgusting to me, and is a degradation of one of the most American occupations that I and many can think of. So many people say; "What difference does it make what a couple of guys do in the privacy of their own bedroom?" Or in this case, on their bedroll on the open range. And to this I say; "Well maybe". But, IT has not been left in the privacy of their bedrooms. IT has been splashed all across the media. Gay rights groups have showered nuns with condoms, marched in Parades in their freakish drag costumes bragging about their bedroom exploits. IT has been promoted in public schools (I witnessed this in my own children's public scholls, so don't tell me it hasn't), and IT has now been big talk in the media, tempting the imaginations of viewers and readers. I have personally witnessed gay men making out publicly in crowded tourist areas because they were proclaiming their "orientation" during national gay month or week or whichever it was, right in front of Moms and Dads with their kids out for some tourist shopping in downtown Seattle along the Wharf. I had to try and be polite while asking a couple of gay guys to stop making out in heated passion, grabbing each others crotches, in the barroom lounge of the ship that I worked on, and the response I got was both of them telling me that "You sure are cute, wanna join us?" And yet, I was the one who had to be careful not to say anything too harsh, or the State of Alaska could get sued. I tried to politely tell them that they "should get a room", and they said that it was their right to display their sexuality because it was national gay month or week, or whatever. This was withing days of the Seattle incident. Finally they went and "got a room", and I was commended by my bar tender friend for keeping my anger in check. Of course during the next two weeks on the run, I endured lots af jokes from my crew, teasing me and telling me that "I was soo hot!" Yet I was the one who had to be careful not to offend those gay guys when simply trying to get them to be polite and stop mauling each other in the public view of passengers which included kids. The bar had glass windows so the patrons could watch the sea go by, and kids always liked to look in to the "forbidden bar". And so, pretty twisted, that. A friend of mine and his then two little girls were walking through Arlington National Cemetary on Memorial Day, and as they passed between a set of bushes, they walked right into two guys performing anal sex right in fron to anyone who might stumble into them. And he his wife and two middle school age daughters got the complete eyefull. At Arlington. On Memorial Day. And so, the privacy of their bedroom? Naa. They don't want IT to stay there, and it won't stay there. And it is a shame that this movie is getting awards for basically no other reason other than the fact that it is a gay lifestyle promotion, and it's producers and actors are "so brave" for throwing caution to the wind and depicting a couple of American cowboys this way. In my opinion, if they really want to "just live their lifestyle", well then, so be it. They may. It is a free country and I respect that. I am not a "rabid homo hater", but it is a myth that this lifestyle is something that goes only behind closed doors. It is promoted it seems, everytime we turn around. It is the buildup of "in your face-ness" that has become so repugnant to me. And so, we've had all of these discussions before. But I guess "Broke Back Mountain" fans the flames once again as it is splashed by the media into our faces, once again...

Hi Shellon. Buy a used, as well as a student trumpet. I have played trumpet since 2nd grade. And, I have one son who is a recent high school grad, and he played trumpet since 5th grade. My thirteen year old is now playing my old used trumpet in middle school, and my nine year old has begun to play also. There is a company called "Bundy" who makes a nice student horn. Also, Conn makes nice horns. The main thing, is like someone else said, make sure the trumpet is in nice condition, and that all of the tuning slides work smoothly. And, like someone else said (maybe the same person), get a "Bach 7C mouthpiece which is standard for beginners. And then, enjoy having your peacefull evening blasted to smithereens by an exhuberant youg trumpet player! Yeah, I have had three to contend with while my parents only had one. "Payback is a b i t c h " as they say... :blink:

Oh! So the guy who picked up the fumble was the "stab-ee" huh? I didn't know that. Yeah, after he broke through I was thinking like Howard Cosell used to say; "He-could-go-all-the-way!" Yeah, Chris Berman stole that line from Howard. But, I like hearing it still... And yeah, I think you are right Pirate. Losing a son like that has got to be the worst. I have three sons and a daughter, and I cannot imagine the agony. And no doubt his players have come to love him as "Coach", and then to see The Man take such an unspeakeable hit like that. Total downer... I remember thinking that when Tony Dungey (sp?) mouthed the words; "He missed", that no doubt his perspective on "bummer situations" has no doubt changed dramatically. Although he is known to be cool and calm anyway, I would imagine that when he saw the missed field goal, as dramatic as it was for a "moment in sports", how could it be worse than losing his son? I guess any negative event in his life from now on would be more "uphill" after that tragedy. God bless him, and may his heart heal, some way, some how...

Yeah Dooj, I remember all of that too. Great time. And then there was the time when we went and cleared out a section of Delbert Morans' woods. That was early on in the fall, and man did we get a pile of work done! And we guys were swinging from vines in the trees and playing Tarzan, and then finally, we ended up doing a huge bon fire and we had hotdogs and all of that, and then we all walked the five or so mile hike home. Yeah, great times, those...

This is a true story. It happened at the end of the Tenth Corps' first year in residence. It was a neat time that we all had together with our Brothers and Sisters in the Tenth and Eighth Corps. It happened as I wrote it, but no doubt, others who were involved have their own personal perspectives. Here is mine... “The Mud Fight” Hey. Speaking of Richard T, I just have to share this experience-again.. This time though, I will copy and paste it to an MS Word document. Remember when we had the huge mud fight our first year in residence? It was perhaps an even greater mud fight than the one filmed in John Wayne's "McClintock", because, it wasn't "scripted", it was inspired!. It was a nice day, and it was decided that on that day, the entire Way Corps was going to clean out the pond where Aquila and Priscilla (the two white swans), lived. The staffers had been using a trash pump and had sucked out most of the water, and there was nothing left in the bottom but swan &$*# and mud and crawdads and stunted catfish and bluegills and bass. (pardon the polysyndeton there). And on this fine morning, Richard and Linda told us that we were really going to see the Mystery in Motion. We all were going to work together scooping out the mud and crawdads and swan &$*# by forming a line of people with five gallon drywall mud buckets, while some scooped, and others others handed the full buckets to the next person as the buckets made their way to some garden we had on the back forty. Then the empty buckets would return by way of a chain of people who were fortunate enough to be in that enviable position of "empty buckets". And so it came to pass. We worked all morning, and as the hot Kansas sun came on, people began to put mud on each others backs to keep the sun from burning themselves, and I remember that Bob Kriebel had mud on his back and that someone had written with their finger in the mud on his back, “I Love God". Later, when he washed off, he had a bright pink burn on his back that said; "I Love God", which was awesomely cool! And, this is what we did all that morning and well into the afternoon. And then, at about three o’clock p.m. when I was on the “scooping line”, Britt Lynn and Phil Bonadies (eighth Corps) decided to get rowdy! First, then second in succession, Britt and Phil went off the rope swing, and instead of landing in the water which had usually been there, they did belly flops in the mud, crawfish, baby bass, swan s h it and stunted catfish! And when this happened, Linda MacDuffy went down into the mud pit and said; “Just what do you guys think you are doing?! And Britt, to his credit, responded by getting as much mud in his hands as he could gather, and dumped it down Reverend Linda’s haltertop! Yeah baby, yeah! And then, it was on! The whole Corps went nuts! As soon as this happened, a few more people witnessing the event from the sidelines, decided to join in and ran to the bottom of the pond and started throwing mud and water (and swan &$*# and stunted catfish) all over everyone involved. And this thing then therefore escalated into the biggest mudfight I have ever witnessed to this very day! Yeah! It was awe-some! I remember seeing Bob Kriebel on the sidelines cheering as certain people were getting thrown in by Richard Thomas, and it was at that point that I decided to make my move. I snuck around behind Kriebel and then rushed him and threw him into the muck! I felt a little guilty, because Bob was kind of an "indoors, clerical " kind of a guy. But then I figured, well, he’s a guy, he can handle it, and well, he had no choice! For he was up to his a s s in crawdads and mud! Even though I myself had not really joined the fray, it was at about this time that I noticed that Rev. Richard Thomas had been enjoying himself by throwing innocent bystanders into the mud (the crawdads, the catfish and the swan&$*#), and all the while had never even gotten himself even the least bit muddy in that he stayed up in the “dry mud” at the rim of the pond, upon seeing this, I figured that; “if he could dish it out, he’d better be able to take it too!”. So, I went up to Jay Wilson, our resident “very funny guy” and tough guy as well, and said; “Hey Jay, you see Richard over there? You see what he is doin?” and as we watched, it was evident to Jay too, that we had to do something. And so, we formed a plan. Since Richard was there in the “dry mud” at the upper edge of the pond on the Wierwille Library side throwing people in and cheering as he did so, Jay and I decided that we would simply “blind side him” and hit him from behind. And that’s exactly what we did. We gave each other a last fearful look and one of us said to the other (for I can’t remember who); “Well, if he can do it to “us”, why can’t we do it to him?” And so we commenced. We ran at him full bore from behind and Jay hit him low, grappling his legs together, and I hit him high in a classic tackle that rendered him totally helpless. We hit him with such concentrated force that we drove him straight to the bottom of the pond with me riding his head and shoulders and face into the mud, and the crawdads, and the catfish, and the swan&$*#! (polysyndeton once again)… Oh man! It was glorious! We had nailed that sucker! After all of that time from the previous year of him kicking our butts and challenging us, we were finally on an even keel, “mano y mano!” And surely he knew that we were on the same wave length and that we had bested him but good and that there would be no repercussions whatsoever! Cuz after all, we were all just “guys”, right? But noo!! We forgot that Richard T had been in the Marine Corps, and that he was a guy who didn’t like to get his a$$ kicked. As soon as he got up out of the mud and wiped the mud from his eyes and saw us grinning at him, he got a malicious glint in his eyes. In fact, he was enraged! Jay and I didn’t know what to do at first, but as soon as Jay saw that he was the first target of Richard’s ire, he began to sprint through the mud as fast as he could. But, he was not fast enough for the fury of Richard-I’m gonna pay ‘em back-Thomas! Richard tackled Jay with a fury and slammed his face in the mud time time and again! And when he was done with Jay, he looked at me who was staring stupidly wondering if I had “tackled God Himself” (because Richard had been ordained), and made a feeble attempt to run away. But Richard was on me like a Texan on a porkchop and was soon ramming my face into the mud, the crawdads, the catfish, and the swan s h i t! And so, that was the “Great Tenth and Eighth Corps Mudfight” from my perspective, AND…it was grand I tell ya, grande! And, a sweet Corps Sistah of mine actually showed me a picture of me all covered with mud after alla that at the Rock one year. Too bad I didn't ask her for a copy for my Kids to see....

Neither Waydale nor the GSCafe helped me to leave. I saw the handwriting on the wall and knew that "mene mene tekel upharsin" was coming to pass, and so, I saved my wife and family fifteen years of grief, and basically disobeyed Craig until he kicked me and my wife out in 1989/90. I chose to simply "not respond" to Craig's sad but preposterous ultimatum as to "Who do you stand with, me? Or Chris Geer?" Which I thought was very carnal and completely devoid of biblical back up, which was supposed to be the motto of the Way Corps: That is, "It Is Written". And so, upon my refusal to respond to that, we "got the boot", and I am thankful for that. For me, the GSCafe is sort of an "addiction" that is hard to stay away from. I have met some wonderful people here, and sometimes I view it as a forum where I am able to help and to give by way of sharing what I believe to be the true things of God's Word. I have, on the other hand, come to the point of accepting some things that I would not have otherwise believed had happened in what I once thought of as a "wonderful ministry" gone bad. I have Sunesis my friend to thank for alot of that, as well as others. Waydale was a wild "rumpus" of completely un-moderated topics, which, as an internet "newbie" was an amazing experience. But there was a lot of mud slung there, but as "Curious George" (anyone remember me? :) ), I had an interesting time there. But no, neither of these sights helped me to leave TWI, but I have learned a good number of things here by putting myslf into the shoes of people who went through a whole helluva lot more than I did when in The Way. I still believe that there is only one answer to True Deliverance though. No matter what happened to us, whether great or small, the only way to regaining peace and deliverance is to finally take all of the s h i t that happened to us, and leave it once and for all in the past, and hold on to that in the Word of God that we now know, which is good. If we learned good things in The Way, then by all means KEEP IT. And the things that were bad, well, keep it if you want, but I believe that to get rid of it is the key to a brighter future... Peace Brothers and Sisters, JL

Now. I have an honest to God question here: Why in the world are there so many jokes that degrade banjos and banjo pickers? I love the banjo! I used to have one and played it fairly well. And, I used to go to bluegrass festivals all of the time back in the early seventies back in Maryland, West Virginny, Pennsylvania and Virginny. And I have heard some of the greatest and met many of the greatest, including Earl Scruggs himself. Also, John McEuen, and whoever it was who picked banjo for the Seldom Scene. And me and my "stoner" buddies all loved the banjo even though we were Zepplin heads, Stones fans, and J. Geils Band fans (Full House Live Whammer Jammer can you dig me?!!!??!!) . And, I have a heavy metal "guitar shredder" for a son who also loves the banjo. And so, what's the deal with all of these degrading jokes about banjos? DMiller, you da man here on banjos, so, what gives? It's just that I have never run across any "Banjo Discrimination" until I ran into you DMiller. And now, it seems as if Ron G is up on it also. So, wassup my picker?

Wow, what a weekend of NFL football! Bummer for the 'Skins, but, they just didn't have what it takes. Seems like Portis was too banged up, and Brunell just "ain't no Manning, Rothlisberger, or Matt Hasselbeck..." But man oh man, my wife, kids and I were crazed fans during that Colts/Steelers game! We weren't sure who we wanted to win for awhile, but after the zebras pulled that stupid stunt with Palumalu, there was no question that the Steelers were robbed of that interception, and so, we had to go with the Steelers. And it was finally looking good when the Steelers sacked Manning with 1:20 to go. But then, THE FUMBLE by the Bus OMG! Too much! But then, The TACKLE by Rothlisberger! Whoa! But then, THE MARCH downfield by Manning! Incredible! But then, THE MISS by Mike Vanderjagt. A total fluke! And then, Tony Dunge's softly and almost wistfully whispered; "He missed...." A total NFL classic. Had to love both teams...

Well. I just gotta say: Me, da Wife, and all of my kids just LOVE "24". We caught up on all of the seasons, and now are not happy with watching the "up to date" episodes that "actually have commercials", and after tonight is over, the idea of waiting for an entire week, sounds almost unbearable! But, we'll endure, for, it is an excellent drama series. I like Jack Bauer's approach. Very politically incorrect, and, and totally necessary when it comes to doing what really has to be done to stop these piece of s h i t terrorists. We as Americans need to deal with any infiltrators as ENEMIES and get whatever info we can from them by way of whatever means we can to get the info from them. If it means shooting them in the knee cap, so be it. Fuggem! The pieces of crap would rejoice to see your "infidel" five year old daughter tortured, or simply blown to bits in a bombing. And, and as Dr. Milfee from the Sopranos would ask; "And how would you feel about that?" Yeah, no doubt it would destroy your life! And so, I like "24". It surprises me that the media allows the show to go on. But personally, the only reason that I can see that the series is going on is the fact that most Americans are in agreement with the sentiment that "We need to do what we gotta do" to beat these sick, perverted, raghead insanists!

So, where did this statement come from? The Department Of Redundancy Department? And hey, do you think A PFAL book in Spanish would be worth much?

Sounds like good advice to me Mark, fair and balanced. We have four kids, and I too have spent many a night up and with the kiddos. And of course when it is time to make a drive to the drug store, I am always the driver, regardless of the time of day. But when it comes to the "get them all sick at once to get it over in one week instead of one month", well, we'd never practice that. Not that you advocated it, and I know that you only gave that as an example of someone elses practice, which on the one hand seems to have it's merits. But on the other hand, we'd never practice that with our kids, because we also teach our kids that they can trust God not to get sick, even if the whole classroom "gets it". And many many times they have made it through unscathed, and of course, sometimes not. And so, a practice like making sure that they get exposed to the latest flu is something that we would not do for that particular reason. To me it would be "giving in too soon", and just relenting that the "World is gonna git ya no matter what". Another thing we haven't done is "immediately run for some antibiotics". We prefer to allow the bodies' natural immune systems to overcome a flu or sore throat, therefore increasing the bodies immune system to handle it even better the next time. But with a sore throat, if it persists, we then take them in, check for strep, and if it is strep, then we get the antibiotics. Don't want to risk the rheumatic fever thing. Bad for the heart. But then again, my kids have never had immunizations for DPT, MMR, flu shots, chicken pocks, etc. We don't believe in all of that. But that is another can of worms to argue about. All I know is that my brother and his wife used to try and lecture us on "whether or not we really loved our kids, and if we did, we'd get them the full array of immunizations, etc". And then talk about us behind our backs to my parents and my other brother and sister. But, one day, my brother's daughter, fully immunized, came down with whooping caugh, pertussis, the "p" in DPT, and came close to dying. And later, the other daughter ended up with "rhys syndrome", another known killer, and documented side effect of the measles vaccination. And so, believe it or not, there really is another side to that coin... This all is a very volatile topic, because we are talking about our kids here. But for us, so far, their health overall has been most excellent, and we are thankful to God for that...

So Mooney, you wanna get together sometime? I much prefer you as that redhead as opposed to being "a bro". Hah! Sorry 'bout that... And Justloafing. Thank you too. And man oh man I swear, those gals. I feel like a kid lookin at a tray full of Ice Cream Sundaes! Okay, and back to football. Yeah, it's 0800 here in Alaska, so, I have roughly an hour before the first game. Good luck you all, on your favorite team, unless of course it is the Seahawaks...

Yeah Moony Yeah!! Thanks bruh, 'preciate it! And hey, I'd like those girls if they were Bucaneer cheer leaders fo sho... And, well, I hope you are right Tom, about the Seahawks caving in, but I don't know... My predictions for tomorrow: Panthers over the Da Bears Patriots over the Broncos Colts most likely over the Steelers (but watch out for The Bus!) And, I want the Redskins over Seattle, and since they are "my team", I'll remain "faithful" and say Skins over the Sea Chickens. And damn how I love those hotpants! Thank God the Cowboys got that trend started! Makes me crazy!