blzrul

Interesting. Where did you grow up? My mother grew up in Brooklyn and went thru Catholic school all the way, same story. HER mother too. I remember when our pastor died all us kids had to file by the casket, I was 6 years old and it scared me to death. My parents even sent me to a Catholic summer camp, it was my first and last time, it was just horrific. It seems like my parish would have been quite at home in the Dark Ages. My husband grew up Catholic in Dallas and his experience sounds like yours. In MY school they told us that the Commies would put nails in our eyeballs and the Chinese would put bamboo slivers under our fingernails to make us deny Jesus. And then there were those butt-ugly uniforms....

I guess I did.

You flatter yourself. I live every day pretty much like everyone else until I'm bored, then I come here to stir up the pot ... let it stew a bit, come back later and get a good laugh at all the ijits who have no doubt been spluttering and plotting over how to get the last word. It's really quite flattering. From my earliest days I remember my mom calling me an instigator, and she was right. It's not just a skill, it's an art. BiB and I have both made it perfectly clear it's what I'm about, so those of you who continually step into the trap are merely playing right into my hands. Duh. You don't have to be MENSA to figure it out.

You must have gone to a pretty liberal Catholic church. The one I went to pretty much excluded everyone, including babies who died unbaptized, people who missed Mass and didn't live to get rid of the mortal sin in Confession, or worst of all people who took Communion without having gone to confession. Miss Mass or Confession, hellfire awaits.... Commies, Jews and Protestants were also automatically hell-bound. That's why I found this so ironically funny.

huh?So I thought that the Roman Catholic religion was, like, the original Christian religion. Mayhap I missed one in there somewhere. Shoot all those years at Catholic school, what a waste. Ah well, I guess it's good that they all turn on each other. Then they'll be too busy fighting the sectarian fight to worry about shoving their beliefs and supersticions down the throats of people who believe Christianity is more about doing the right thing by people than by worshipping statues of the Commandments and waving rosary beads.

Is there a point?

I'm not rending garments over either of those. Only extremist reactionaries, typically ill-informed to boot, do that. Getting back to the point I guess no-one appreciates the irony that in Texas you CAN get the boot if your house is in the way of a football stadium. Perhaps you didn't read the article but rather decided to skim the headline and be...er...reactionary?

And the CIA has been thrown under the bus by the administration over 9/11...maybe deservedly, but they are an entity unto themselves...

Hmmmm well WE thought ONE was too many when it happened to us. So whilst you might be comfortable with those statistics, I bet you don't get many takers in Iraq.

So if I do something bad I'm Italian...not American? These guys were Brits.

See? Freaking out of the SCOTUS ruling was way too premature. States can make their own laws protecting property. Take Texas for example! They've already acted upon it. As long as your house isn't in the way of a new football stadium (what a surprise), you're pretty much A-OK. ================================ Eminent domain takes hit Senate passes limits; Cowboys' stadium would be protected 07:06 AM CDT on Thursday, July 14, 2005 By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News AUSTIN – Shouting one another down in a fight about property rights, senators approved broad restrictions Wednesday on government seizure of homes or businesses to spur economic development. The bill's sponsor, Republican Kyle Janek of Houston, and its leading critic, Democrat John Whitmire of Houston, angrily interrupted each other as they tussled over a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing such use of the government power known as eminent domain. It was an unusual brawl in the normally genteel upper chamber, known for doing its dirty work away from the floor and then staging debates full of kisses and pats on the back. The measure, sent to the House by a vote of 25-4, would spell out the projects for which governments still may condemn land, and would forbid a taking of land for economic development by a private entity. Senators approved a protection for Arlington's efforts to condemn homes for a proposed $650 million Dallas Cowboys stadium, already approved by voters. Also protected, through an amendment by Democrat Royce West of Dallas, was the city's plan to raze the Mercantile Building and other vacant buildings in a downtown reinvestment zone. Dr. Janek said he was angered to read that an 87-year-old woman could be forced from her longtime residence because of the Supreme Court's June 23 ruling in a case from New London, Conn., that involved a waterfront development project. "It is wrong to take a landowner's land away and give it away to a private concern," Dr. Janek said. Mr. Whitmire objected that lawmakers are likely to harm Texas communities as they rush to join a political backlash against the court's 5-4 ruling. "It's political expediency at the cost of economic development," he said. Mr. Whitmire warned that the bill would make new sports stadiums and convention centers much harder to build because holdout property owners could demand exorbitant prices for land. Dr. Janek said that some good economic development projects might suffer but that "I'd rather err on the side of the landowner." He said the intensity of the Senate's debate suggests that a proposed constitutional amendment to ban condemnation of land for economic development may be in trouble. Lawmakers are trying to approve a constitutional amendment, which the House endorsed Tuesday and voters would also have to approve, and legislation like Dr. Janek's, putting the amendment into effect. They have a week until their special session ends. The Republicans who control the Legislature value property rights and private enterprise, Dr. Janek said. "This is a classic example of economic development versus the right to own land – where they conflict," he said. The bill would prohibit the state and local governments and corporations they've created from condemning land if the taking is for economic development, aids a private party or "is for a public use that is merely a pretext to confer a private benefit on a particular private party." Eminent domain still would be allowed for roads, airports, water projects, pipelines and utility easements. Sen. Jon Lindsay, R-Houston, added a protection for "public infrastructure," which he described as museums and convention centers. The bill says cities still could condemn land for community development and urban renewal, as long as economic development "is a secondary purpose." Gov. Rick Perry won protection for his top transportation priority, the Trans-Texas Corridor, that would allow new toll roads, railroads and pipelines to crisscross the state. However, under an amendment by Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, the Texas Department of Transportation would face new restrictions on its use of eminent domain, too. The department could condemn farms and other property to build a corridor and allow for gas stations and convenience stores to be located in a corridor's median – though not within 10 miles of an interchange with an interstate highway. But the bill would rescind the authority the Legislature gave the department in 2003 to use eminent domain to provide "ancillary facilities" to a toll road – such as hotels, restaurants or other commercial operations. "The hotel was taking [the department] way, way out of the highway business," Mr. Shapleigh said. The Cowboys' proposed stadium in Arlington won protection after the city's two senators – Republicans Kim Brimer and Chris Harris – succeeded in exempting from the bill "sports community projects approved by the voters before Dec. 1, 2005." However, the Arlington Chamber of Commerce argued, in a memo circulated in the Capitol, that the bill would jeopardize a separate development project – razing a "blighted business corridor" in east Arlington to build a facility for a General Motors supplier. Two sexually oriented businesses have refused to join 10 other businesses in selling land for the $50 million project, wrote chamber President Wes Jurey and senior Vice President Craig Richard. "No one wants to see little old ladies bulldozed off their property for a new shopping center," they wrote. "The unintended consequences of this legislation, however, may be far reaching and detrimental to older cities." Voting against the bill were Mr. Brimer, Mr. Whitmire and his fellow Houston Democrats Rodney Ellis and Mario Gallegos.

Well we can't stop drug dealers and child molesters, what does that say about us? It's easier said than done. I'd imagine that plenty of Iraqis would like the violence would stop. But the Americans OBVIOUSLY cannot protect them, so they're gonna clam up. The don't know democracy - they know intimidation, and their reactions are ingrained. When we can do a better job of protecting civilians, it'll improve. And don't tell me it's up to the Iraqi police and military to protect themselves. We assumed that responsibility when we invaded. We bought it, it's ugly, and it's all ours.

I don't see CTM lighting candles in church to thank God for this great "news", does that mean he's a radical lefty? Goodness. I choose to believe that even YOU don't believe half of what you post, because that could only mean your medical condition is far worse than you've shared with us. You don't have to be brave and suffer in silence, you can tell us...anything's better than witnessing these delusions ...I didn't realize biliousness caused delusions but I can see how it would happen. I should say I HAVE seen how it happens...

Yes I think the "Pontius Pilate" approach is what we're going to see here. Assuming it is Rove, or anyone close to him. And no-one with a grain of sense takes an editorial as gospel truth...or for that matter a pundit...no matter WHICH side of the issue they're on. Sad that so many do...I guess it's easier than thinking for themselves, eh?

"Us people" can certainly read but that's MY statement, MY opinion, and I'm not asking you to subscribe to it. If you in fact you could read, you'd realize that I was stating my own belief: that was pretty clear. Can't YOU PEOPLE allow that others might have a point of view which may not jibe with other foldsk?

Yes but in the end, as usual, the little children suffer whilst we speak of semantics.

1) Iraq was, at the time we invaded, not a recently war-torn country. Their latest war ended in 1991. 2) To the Iraqis, we are just what you described. I've said it before and I'll say it again: OUR "terror victirms" are THEIR "collateral damage". They don't kill people for the thrill of killing them. They kill them to bring down our government. Well shoot, that's just what we do. So OUR "collateral damage" is THEIR "victims of American aggression". No killing is good. It's a very last resort, one of self-defense - in order to come close to being justified. No-one's hands are clean in this one.

To the extent that one defines a "minuteman" as a patriot who fights to defend his homeland, in THEIR minds these insurgents are just that. Naturally the right will @$## all over that, because to do otherwise is to admit that we ARE NOT WINNING. I heard a woman screaming on at the scene today: "MY GOD, THE AMERICANS ARE BLOWING US UP." Doesn't matter that it's not true. It matters that they THINK it's true. And what will follow is more hatred against America and eventually the prophecy that Iraq harbors future terrorists will be very true. So you wingnuts can take solace in the face that Bush was right after all.

heaven help you if you ever add up all the minutes you waste on PPP...

And there's not a danged thing anyone can do about it at this point either. They made this movie in the 1970's...I remember watching it as kids were getting blowed up at the suburban shopping mall, etc. Of course in those days kids in other countries were already getting blowed up so it should be no surprise that it's finally reached our shores. So pass the remote, or the bottle, whatever. You can't do anything much about it, and worrying about it or sitting behind plastic and duct tape or passing reactionary legislation or conducting body-cavity searches on everyone who boards a plane, train or public transit are all signs of victory for them. Just remember, our "collateral damage" are their "victims of terror." And vice versa.

Who?

It all depends on who you talk to. William Calley was a convicted "rogue element". I know guys who insist they were ordered to kill villagers...maybe they were and maybe 40+ years later that's what they have to believe in order to live with it. I am not going to judge them. War kills civilians, period. There's no way around it. Therefore deliberately starting a war is tacit targeting of civilians although of course most responsible soldiers will do everything possible to avoid hurting them. The only way NOT to hurt them is not to war. My next door neighbor when I was a child was a bombadier in WWII. He was the most gentle, soft-spoken man. When you asked him what he did in the war he stated "I killed women and children." War sucks as far as I'm concerned.

I sure don't want to see it. But then I have been watching too many "Seconds from Disaster" episodes on the National Geographic channel lately. I better stick the The Deadliest Catch (which my husband calls "Guys Fishing for Crabs").

If "enough is enough" isn't enough well...I don't know what people expect. Should they riot in the streets, thereby perpetuating the feeling that they're savages? link There are tons of Muslims in Europe, it's spreading. If they were all as some people think we are indeed in big trouble. I guess seeing what the Roman Catholics did in their heydey we should be afraid... Religion is so dumb. God is great, but man's interpretation of His will and worship is just pure silly. Scratch that and we'd get on a lot better.

hahahahahahahahahaha! Thanks for the trip down memory lane - I used to drive that stretch to my nanna's place in NJ and EVERY time I saw it I wondered WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!