http://www.democraticunderground.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sat, 18 May 2013 22:30:53 Sat, 18 May 2013 22:30:53 My 4 year-old is shopping with me.
It is December 23 (or there abouts...)
I am obviously BUYING A CHRISTMAS PRESENT
for a relative.

My daughter is putting things together in
her mind....

Suddenly she is SCREAMING at me "IS SANTA REAL?"

"IS HE REAL?"

"TELL ME THE TRUTH!"
"TELL ME T... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/44 Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:10:29 Church memorial service was unsatisfying.

Piper was nice, but he was memorialized by
a minister that he didn't know, and who obviously
didn't know him.

Not very comforting to hear that whosoever
believeth in him shall have everlasting life,
when whosoever didn't believeth in him at all...
... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/43 Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:03:50 http://1to10reviews.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/cafeteria1.jpg... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/42 Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:11:46 Strong, well-funded public schools.

Separation of Church and State.

Affordable Health Care for ALL.

Social safety nets for the poor and the infirm.

Strong Unions.

No unnecessary wars.

Transparency in Government.


Real anarchists, huh!

Those are our "ponies", and NO the curre... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/41 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:43:41 That had to be worth 50 to 100 thousand...

He sounds JUST like my mother's father.

MY dad called him "Little Boots", because he
strutted around and expected everyone to kow-tow
to him, and they (wife and 2 girls) DID.

My mother deliberately married a man that was
his exact opposite.

M... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/40 Sat, 18 Jun 2011 10:02:43 the "rapture" and having to see that many
live happily without fear or adoration of
a supernatural being is causing mental pain
amongst many.

Believers are not used to hearing opposing philosophies
that allow for states of happiness without the soothing
benefits of magical thinking.


"T... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/39 Sat, 21 May 2011 12:28:36 I am SOOOOOOO off the mark!

I later discovered that I didn't like to
sacrifice time for money, and that made
the probability of my becoming rich pretty
small.

I also discovered that I didn't want to
lie, cheat or steal to get rich, so those
avenues were closed off.

I also discovered th... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/38 Thu, 19 May 2011 10:53:18 She comes from a family of 6 children. All raised Catholic,
where only one child still has any ties with the church (and
his family withdrew from church during the Bush years, in protest
of what they perceived as catholic support of his wars).

I never asked her about religion, but she was well... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/37 Sun, 20 Mar 2011 12:13:13 This is the paragraph I can't stop thinking about:


"We are afraid of the known and afraid of the unknown. That is our daily life and in that there is no hope, and therefore every form of philosophy, every form of theological concept, is merely an escape from the actual reality of what is. All o... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/36 Fri, 04 Mar 2011 08:36:13 I was much closer to my even tempered, always SANE father.

My journal here is nothing but little snippets about him.

We ran the family business together for 10 years, until
he had a series of heart attacks and then was diagnosed
with ALS.

I miss him every day, and he's been dead for 13 ye... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/34 Sat, 13 Nov 2010 13:00:11 You may be right about "today's voter" being anti-union.
Just because they "don't understand the need for unions"
doesn't mean we should placate them by running a candidate
who only cares about the investment returns of the leisure class.

It is the Democrats FUNCTION to stand for the working m... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/35 Sat, 06 Nov 2010 08:36:28 when I was a kid. I was really impressed with Robert Morse,
and I thought Rudy Vallee was great in his role.

A couple of weeks later, I watched a much older movie, starring
Rudy Vallee. I though he looked and sounded silly. I said as much
to my dad, who was reading the newspaper in the living... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/33 Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:05:03 I want my immediate family to sit on their asses for a week
while well-meaning family members and friends bring food and
drink to them.

I want everyone to cry very much.

And laugh, too.

No "services" please.

I want to be cremated and my remains put straight into
a plastic bag. I don'... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/32 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:11:09 and it seems like your feet are made of lead.

And everyone around you is moving and working
and shopping and you feel like YELLING:

"Don't you know the WORLD has stopped!!".

Remember that, for a while, it did, for
everyone who posted here, that has lived
through the death of a father, a... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/31 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:23:59 Look, you've got THREE things to worry about:

The brake;

The gas;

and the steering wheel.

Everything else is not under your control.

My biggest fear was being side-swiped by
drivers next to me. Guess what...there's
NOTHING you can do about that, so you have
to assume they will st... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/30 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:28:45 Please give your Progressive Congressperson a call
and let him or her know you appreciated their courage!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Progressive_Caucus

The Progressive Caucus is the largest caucus in Congress,
but its work for the people is often derailed by
shifting allian... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/29 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:55:02 is QUITE different to "I believe".

What if means..."I don't know."

You can ponder all you want, but
all we KNOW is reality.

You can ponder the event of an
Egyptian god casting his masturbatory
seed onto the earth to "create life",
but it won't really get you anywhere.

I am better ser... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/28 Fri, 08 May 2009 11:03:02 ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/27 Sat, 06 Dec 2008 15:53:57 Disapprove of the Iraq War and those who voted to authorize it.
(Especially the unrepentant ones)
Approve of Impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney
Approve of National Health Care
Disapprove of the "Bankruptcy Bill" as passed
Approve of a distinct Separation of Church and State
Appro... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/26 Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:19:30 Instead, we choose the "give them enough rope to hang themselves"
strategy.

We let them RUIN our country. We let them RUIN Iraq.
Bankruptcy all around. Americans thrown out of their homes.
No jobs. The dollar at 81 CENTS to the Canadian dollar.

Great strategy!

We could have won running a... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/25 Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:30:58 Upper Peninsula. The "resort" was called "Olsen's
Nirvana. We got lost trying to find it.
There were 5 of us kids and my parents, my little
sister was 3 months old. It must have been near the
end of summer or autumn, because most of the leaves
were turning color already, and in the UP, it can
... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/24 Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:59:46 My father was a member of the Chrysler Pipe Band in the 50's.
He used to play in THE BATHROOM so he could hear himself over
the droning sounds.

I used to cover my ears and RUN out of the house if I could.

YEARS later, I still remember all of the melodies and when
I hear bagpipes I cry becau... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/23 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:32:39 He always taught us to think for ourselves, and
he told us that we would not be allowed our
basic freedoms in the military, and he would
DISOWN any of us who joined.

I didn't even know that he had been a DI
until I was 17! He didn't want us to
glamorize the military in ANY way.
He encoura... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/22 Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:39:45 ...put the gas, BUT he always told me that
whenever I saw a Renault Alliance, I should
shake my head slowly and say:

"piece of shit",

and everyone would instantly respect my
knowledge of automobiles.

He also taught me how to look under a hood
while someone else was fixing a car and sa... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/21 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:14:43 even YEARS after his death. BUT


...when I was a young woman (19) he told me
that he would throw me out of the house if
I dated a black man (an interested swain had
called the house).

The black man who had called was from a
rich, much admired family, but my Dad
didn't know that, all he... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/PassingFair/20 Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:22:10