StrawartS

Haha...good thing the speck of dust didn't land on my boob - I would have been freaked out that my nipple was showing!

Hey guys - I don't post much anymore, but this picture was too weird not to share. Can you see that circle on my stomach? There was nothing on my sweater last night - I think that's my port! Am I crazy? Or is this some freaky xray camera? June 2007 Bandster Calender.doc

Now I'm sitting here thinking about how much trash these people generate on a daily basis. And not to be gross, but these prude ass people probably don't use any flushable hygiene products, either. Just imagine the piles and piles of refuse.

Sunta, you'll love this. I'm watching the Duggars' show on A&E right now. They use PAPER PLATES.

Sorry I missed this one! I vote no to both outfits and vote for the panties/santa hat from the other night.

Hehe...love it! I didn't realize your granddaughter was half-grown! I thought she was much younger. I bet she has the coolest granny in school!

Yes, but did you see the article on CNN.com? Apparently the "fundies" are not happy with her! They're actually condemning her for having babies in a homosexual relationship. Too sad. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Conservative leaders voiced dismay Wednesday at news that Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Dick Cheney, is pregnant, while a gay-rights group said the vice president faces "a lifetime of sleepless nights" for serving in an administration that has opposed recognition of same-sex couples. Mary Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, are expecting a baby in late spring, said Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for the vice president. "The vice president and Mrs. Cheney are looking forward with eager anticipation" to the arrival of their sixth grandchild, McBride said. Mary Cheney was an aide to her father during the 2004 campaign, and now is vice president for consumer advocacy at AOL. She and Poe moved from Colorado to Virginia a year ago to be closer to the Cheney family. Family Pride, which advocates on behalf of gay and lesbian families, noted that Virginia last month became one of 27 states with a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. "Unless they move to a handful of less restrictive states, Heather will never be able to have a legal relationship with her child," said Family Pride executive director Jennifer Chrisler. The couple "will quickly face the reality that no matter how loved their child will be. ... he or she will never have the same protections that other children born to heterosexual couples enjoy," Chrisler said. "Grandfather Cheney will no doubt face a lifetime of sleepless nights as he reflects on the irreparable harm he and his administration have done to the millions of American gay and lesbian parents and their children." For years, Mary Cheney's openness about her sexual orientation had posed a dilemma for conservative activists who admire Dick Cheney's stance on many issues but consider homosexuality a sin. Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America described the pregnancy as "unconscionable." "It's very disappointing that a celebrity couple like this would deliberately bring into the world a child that will never have a father," said Crouse, a senior fellow at the group's think tank. "They are encouraging people who don't have the advantages they have." Crouse said there was no doubt that the news would, in conservatives' eyes, be damaging to the Bush administration, which already has been chided by some leaders on the right for what they felt was halfhearted commitment to anti-abortion and anti-gay-rights causes in this year's general election. Carrie Gordon Earll, a policy analyst for the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family, expressed empathy for the Cheney family but depicted the pregnancy as unwise. "Just because you can conceive a child outside a one-woman, one-man marriage doesn't mean it's a good idea," Earll said. "Love can't replace a mother and a father." The vice president's office declined to elaborate on the circumstances of Mary Cheney's pregnancy. The news was welcomed by the president of the largest national gay-rights group, Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign. "Mary and Heather's decision to have a child is an example that families in America come in all different shapes and sizes," he said. "The bottom line is that a family is made up of love and commitment." http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/06/cheney.daughters.ap/index.html

Speaking of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or North Korea as it's known to all us ugly Americans), I'm planning a trip there in August! According to my Lonely Planet, if I manage to make it, I will then be the most interesting person I know. :eek: For anyone who is interested in the DPRK, there is a beautiful movie called A State of Mind. It's about the Arirang Mass Games, a national celebration that occurs on holidays, sometimes several times a year. It's am amazing gymnastics spectucular with about 100,000 gymnasts and tens of thousands of school children performing. The gymnasts work together in a mass synchronized routine (a physical representation of socialism) and know that if any one of them messes up, the entire performance is ruined. Behind the stadium floor where the gymnasts perform, thousands of school children flip colored cards in synchronicity to create a giant mosiac picture. Americans are only granted visas during the Mass Games, and there are some performances in August and September. I am currently dealing with a Korean travel agency to schedule a trip. The trip is completely chaperoned by two guides at all times, and everything you get to see is highly regulated by the government (hence, no poverty, starvation, etc. are shown). I don't mean to hijack, Sunta! (I agree with everything you've said and more . ) I just take any opportunity I can to talk about my favorite "axis of evil."

I'll answer for myself, because I am also a Christmas-loving atheist. I think the Christmas season is beautiful. Everything, all the way from the nativity story to the godless commercialization that the holiday has become. I think the Jesus story is very lovely, and I have a nativity scene in my home. I love the aestheticly pleasing parts of the season, and I can even get behind people feeling more generous at this time. I don't feel like I need to believe in god to take advantage of this really wonderful time of year. Also, Christmas is my birthday.

Sorry, Wheetsin, I didn't mean to jack up your thread. It's a slow day. Come on y'all, come up with some better advice.

Since you weren't really intending to collect on the camcorder anyway, I defer to one of my original suggestions. Profusely insist that Friend compensate you in any way he finds fair. Maybe it's my own idiosyncracies, but the idea of explaining a complex reimbursement formula to Friend is contradictory to the notion that you're not all that concerned about being compensated for your loss. The conversation, in the StrawartS Telenovela, would go like this: Friend: Wheetsin, I deeply regret losing your camera. Please tell me how I can repay you. Wheetsin: Oh, Friend, as I've told you before, you don't owe me anything. I know that you didn't intend to lose the camera/sit on the camera/drop the camera in the bathtub/sell the camera for condom money. And anyway, it's so hard to estimate a value for the damn thing since technology changes so quickly. If you really feel obliged to do something, I'll gratefully accept any amount you think is fair. *Wheetsin and Friend look passionately into each others' eyes and move closer together. The music swells in the background. Friend reaches for Wheetsin, but the time-traveling machine with which he is to embark on a secret government mission to search for alternative fuel sources is about to leave. Friend gives Wheetsin one last longing glance before Voltor, the leader of the secret mission, closes the door to the time machine. Wheetsin is left alone, sad, and camcorder-less.*

Only if you use it to buy some less revealing clothing. You're making the rest of us look bad.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/us/05liberty.html?ex=1309752000&en=633335bb68bac96a&ei=5088