I'm about sick of the Palestine/Hamas crap. Seems like nobody wants to discuss anything else. I guess no one was interested in the post about the riots about the subway shooting. I was wondering if anyone besides me had noticed that the people who are now "outraged" and are running wild destroying one another's property and businesses are the same ones who were dancing in the streets and cheering when O.J. got by with murder. Where was their outrage then? Where is the outrage when a cop is killed by some doped up thug. Where is their outrage when a gang banger kills a little girl in a senseless drive by shooting? Seems to me their values are skewed.

I hate matting and framing!!!!!! Of course if I hadn't waited until the last two days.....

I just wanted to post I don't think we have had a fraud of this magnitude involving one person doing a Ponzi scheme of $50 billion of the funds of some very prominent people as well as some pension funds, charity funds, etc. I am surprised he has been allowed to stay at his home, but then perhaps this is case has few precedents so they are setting new ground as they go along. There is a special on CNN tomorrow night and I hope to watch it. Were the people who invested with him thinking they were getting such great returns that they could not get elsewhere. Would anyone trust their money with one person? Not since Ken Lay from Enron has one person been maligned as much for having caused so many people to lose their life savings. Only these people were billionaires mostly. The Enron people were more middle class. There have been several suicides related to this case.

But on the other hand, isn't this a lot of excess money that could have been put to better use in the world?

There are 228 discussion topics in TA

since November 2008, only 62 were viable and 30 of those had less than 12 posts each

Since November 2008 only 30 are active

Since November:
11/18/2008 469 CUAO workshop

11/30/2008 235 gay, transgender

12/3/2008 33 bleeding menopause

12/6/2008 502 TR SOS

12/9/2008 405 Marriage Discussions

12/10/2008 502 TR Men

12/12/2008 507 TR Online

12/14/2008 251 Relationships w child

12/19/2008 505 caring for loved ones

12/21/2008 504 Cooking and recipes

12/24/2008 503 Women's Well

12/24/2008 177 menopause community

12/25/2008 54 practice discussion

12/25/2008 513 Photography

12/28/2008 267 Profiles

12/28/2008 133 General diet

12/29/2008 505 stress and anxiety

1/1/2009 560 Cats and Friends

1/1/2009 448 Cyber Hair Salon

1/2/2009 554 Kip's Lodge

1/4/2009 577 Among Friends

1/6/2009 105 Chatterbox

1/7/2009 502 Nutritionist

1/8/2009 551 Old Fuddy Duddies

1/8/2009 373 Salon Cantina

1/9/2009 249 Mature Friends

1/9/2009 860 New Spirituality

1/9/2009 1258 word association

1/9/2009 775 Nature Word Game

1/9/2009 6407 Daily Vent

1/9/2009 519 Dating after 50

1/9/2009 670 Grandparenting III

Now, most of these discussions have posts numbered prior to the switch over so the numbers don't reflect the real status of posting. It is difficult to find new people to post when most of them are the old TA members who are posting in three to four discussions.

Those of you who are previous members know what they did to us when they did the big inclusion of "The Rules" and then the Rules people fled in droves and we were left with a bunch of problems. The TR in front of a discussion is from that group.

I am procrastinationg today because I have a bunch of matting and framing to do and it takes a lot of hefting and hauling out of and into boxes.

It would be nice if the powers that be cleaned house of the old unused discussions, but what the heck..other discussion Boards need cleaning up too.

Catmom, I replied to your post way down, about research and you thought that I was saying you didn't research.
You misunderestood what I was saying or I didn't write it the way I ment it. Anyway in case you overlook it. This is what I wrote to you in reply.

"Sorry catmom, i didn't mean that for you. I know you do your research. I should have made myself clear.

I was referring to the two people here that write their two liners in rebutal to everything they disagree with. I mentioned them in the original post, but went back to edit and removed their names."

Friday, January 09, 2009 Hamas, Israel and the American Media by Mike Gallagher
"I'll never forget the time my wife came screaming into our bedroom late at night. I was sound asleep; she usually stayed up later than me watching TV.

“Wake up! Wake up! You made the Daily Show!!” she shouted.

Convinced that the house was either on fire or an army of terrorists was storming our residence, I practically fell out of the bed, wild-eyed.

Thankfully, the huns weren't storming the place. It was, indeed, just a brief video clip of me saying something on Fox News that Jon Stewart, the host of Comedy Central's popular fake news show, used for a punchline.

My Denise was very excited.

The Daily Show is a cultural phenomenon. Fast-paced, hip, and smart, Jon Stewart hosts a nightly parody of the news, covering current events with his tongue-in-cheek, bemused style that usually skewers conservatives, although he takes a fair amount of shots at libs, too.

While undoubtedly not sharing many of Stewart's political views, I've always appreciated the way he treats conservative guests who appear on the show to hawk a book. He clearly has a liberal bent, but usually treats his guests with respect and courtesy.

This week, the new host of NBC's 'Meet the Press', David Gregory, was a guest. During a conversation about the current conflict in the Middle East between Israel and the terror group Hamas, Stewart said the following:

“Why can't any American politician criticize Israel in any way for their behavior? I'm watching these shows and there's not one person going, Gee, it's kind of complex. Yeah, Hamas is a bad actor and they shouldn't be throwing missiles, but, gosh, the treatment of the Palestinian people for the past 50 years, not so nice, either.”

The audience roared with approval. There's nothing quite like a prominent member of the American media bashing Israel that makes a bunch of liberals any happier.

Welcome to the USA.

One day before I die, I will finally understand why liberals, especially Jewish liberals, fail to fully support Israel in its right to survive terror attacks.

For months, Hamas has lobbed rockets into Southern Israel. Thousands of them, in fact. Israel decided enough was enough, that it was time to do everything possible to stamp out these implementers of terror.

The worldwide condemnation was immediate. The midnight oils burned at the United Nations as documents were prepared and meetings were held to determine ways to demand that Israel stop defending itself.

And even a popular Jewish television personality like Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz) wonders aloud on national TV why politicians aren't allowed to criticize tiny Israel, a place surrounded by an angry, huge Arab world that is hellbent on driving it into the ocean.

As Stewart said, the entire Mideast situation is a mess. Of course it's complicated and nuanced.

But for me, things get pretty simple when I know that one side wants the other side dead.

Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Arab terror groups are committed to the destruction of Israel, a position supported by millions in the Muslim world.

All Israel wants to do is survive.

If Canada suddenly started raining rockets down on Buffalo, New York, I wonder if there would be worldwide condemnation over the United States' inevitable “disproportionate response.”

Not likely.

When I have guests on my radio show to discuss the Mideast, I often ask them why they believe so many liberal Americans don't have the wisdom to defend Israel.

Jackie Mason, one of the funniest people on the planet, told me he thinks it has something to do with liberals and Jews feeling oppressed and maligned and always longing for an underdog, and that they have somehow (stupidly) convinced themselves that the Palestinians are underdogs.

But perhaps the most astute observation came from Bill Gertz of the Washington Times. He believes that many American liberals, who have an utter contempt for the United States already, simply view Israel as a U.S. outpost in the Middle East. They resent the military might of our own country and they view Israel an extension of that dominance.

I think that's as good an explanation as I've ever heard.

Jon Stewart, and others like him, should be ashamed of themselves. No right-minded, clear-thinking American should waiver in supporting Israel in its current battle with Hamas.

Man up, Mr. Stewart, and do the right thing. You can still be Comedy Central's superstar if you do.

Perhaps you'll even sleep better at night. Unless, of course, your wife comes screaming into your bedroom."

It keeps going to the wrong pages. Go to Wikipedia and type the word Palestine in the search box. When it drops down, select the first choice that comes up, which is simply the word "Palestine" On that page, which is interesting too if you have the time to read it all.. scroll down to near the bottom to find a list called "See Also" From that list, select the choice "History of Palestine" and you'll get to the page I found that gives the factual history.

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

Here is a history of Palestine from the basic Wikipedia entry. It gives a factual account of the actual history from very early times to the present. Interesting reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History of Palestine

Dec. 2008 : millions around the world witnessed the biggest full Moon of 2008--a "perigee Moon," 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser Moons .

It's about to happen again.

This Saturday night, Jan. 10th, another perigee Moon is coming. It's the biggest full Moon of 2009, almost identical to the one that impressed onlookers in Dec. 2008.

"Johannes Kepler explained the phenomenon 400 years ago. The Moon's orbit around Earth is not a circle; it is an ellipse, with one side 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other. Astronomers call the point of closest approach "perigee," and that is where the Moon will be this weekend.

Perigee full Moons come along once or twice a year. 2008 ended with one and now 2009 is beginning with another. It's the best kind of déjà vu for people who love the magic of a moonlit landscape.

January is a snowy month in the northern hemisphere, and the combination of snow + perigee moonlight is simply amazing. When the Moon soars overhead at midnight, the white terrain springs to life with a reflected glow that banishes night, yet is not the same as day. You can read a newspaper, ride a bike, write a letter, and at the same time count the stars overhead. It is an otherworldly experience that really must be sampled first hand.

Another magic moment happens when the perigee Moon is near the horizon. That is when illusion mixes with reality to produce a truly stunning view. For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects. This weekend, why not let the "Moon illusion" amplify a full Moon that's extra-big to begin with? The swollen orb rising in the east at sunset may seem so nearby, you catch yourself reaching out to touch it."

Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

Full story and pictures:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/08jan_bigmoon2009.htm?list877154

I hope TERRA will use a tripod AND send me a picture ! ;-)

and is the image of the neo-cons in the U.S. Because the Likud Party doesn't recognize Palestinians in their platform does not mean that it will always be the platform Israel uses...like the Republican Platform was ultr right but now the U.S. is more centrist.

Definition: The right-wing Likud Party dominated Israeli politics in the 1980s and 1990s. It was founded in 1973, a coalition of several parties: the Herut Party, the Liberal Party, the Free Center, State List and segments of the Land of Israel Movement.
Likud's philosophy is based on the expansionist objectives of Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky (1880-1940), founder of Irgun, the militant, sometime terrorist, organization that fought the British, then Arabs, for Jews' right to a land in what was then Palestine. The Likud advocated for extending Israeli sovereignty to territories it conquered during the 1967 Six Day War, which in 1973 included Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Syria's Golan Heights, Jordan's West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The party still maintains as an objective Jews' rights to the West Bank and the Golan, although it is under Likud leaders that Israel agreed to withdraw from the Sinai following the 1978 Camp David agreement, and unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

The Likud's influence diminished significantly when more centrist members, led by the centrist-slouching Ariel Sharon, broke away to form the Kadima Party.

What is interesting to think about is how two groups won independance from Great Britain: Israel through terrorist attacks and war and India through the non-violence of Mahatma Ghandi. Same outcome, different tactics.

On 13 February 2005, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal declared that Hamas would stop armed struggle against Israel if Israel recognized the 1967 borders, withdrew from all Palestinian territories and accepted the demand for "Palestinian right of return"
Reading some history.

Likud party platform does not reconize the right of Palestine to exist on the West Bank.