Drea

My marital status is not relevant to this discussion. I have stated facts, and I have yet to see a logical dispute of those facts that I have presented. On the contrary -- your mindset has everything to do with whether or not you have experienced a relationship and whether or not that relationship went sour on you. From your post it seems that your wife left you and now you are paying child support. Also, you are very bitter about this. You have stated no "facts" at all. It is NOT a fact that a person named "Jesus" even ever existed, let alone have an effect on your life today. The fact is you are a whining man who no longer has his wife/slave and is crying and whining about it. OoooooOOOO -- see what I mean? This is the ranting of a very angry, bitter man. Do you not believe that you are responsible for your children's upbringing? The child support I get from my son's biological father goes to his future education, some mom's use the money for day to day expenses. Would you deny your children postsecondary education or food on the table because you are bitter towards your ex?

Women are being stoned to death and Scriblett is all in a twitter over the words "ass" and "fuck". Any words on the topic there Scriblett? IMO, individual human rights should always trump "religious" rights, regardless of country or religion. That being said, I do not have the "right" to go to Iran and run around in short shorts. All human beings regardless of age, gender, race or creed should be afforded rights -- the right to live and prosper. After all that's really all any of us want.

I suppose I wouldn't have a problem with it then. Who am I to say that two people cannot draw up a contact... Your *god* (the men that wrote your bible, as there really is no god) already condones incest and polygamy... and if you want to get it on with your dead wife -- go ahead. I will be cremated so no one gets my remains! As far as "pre-contractual cannabalsim" -- what does that have to do with marriage??? Or do I sign a pre-contractual agreement with that side of beef I am going to purchase? Pffffft.

Topstrok11, you are newly divorced? With child support payments?

OOOOooooOOOoooooo -- how "frightening" LOL Any words to say on the actual topic -- a women not being allowed to have a coffee... big friggin' deal, with all the stories of real violence, real enslavement of women, the author is all bent out of shape over a cuppa joe. I think the story is completely fake and written by some bored broad in some apt in some insignificant small town. yes there is extreme inequality in Iran -- complaining about not getting a cup of coffee is like complaining that the furnace is turned up too high when your house is burning down.

There is nothing "progressive" about religion -- ever. So no, I was not speaking of what you folks have labeled "Iran's progressives in 1979", I was speaking of my friends father (obviously a liberal -- I'll use that term as to not confuse you folks) and why did folks like him not fight the religious takeover. If there were a religious takeover here you bet your ass I'd fight it to the death. So here you two guys are running around this thread insulting me because of my "frightening" comment and you didn't even know what the damn comment was regarding. What the fuck does a disco going, tightjeans wearing popluation in Iran 40 years ago have to do with protestors at the white house last week, btw? You probably believe it was a good thing those religies took over Iran -- gives you an enemy to hate...

This is simply not true. The rest of your post is the usual heart-tugging series of mantras attempting to elicite the proper emotion, but its all presumably offered in support of the above. We, the public, are asked daily to accept bum buggery as a "lifestyle." Making marriage between homosexuals a recognized institution is about as 'accepting' as it gets, not to mention condoning. The fact of the institution is both a demand for acceptance and a demand that it be condoned, by no less an entity than the state itself. The constitution demands that homosexuals (along with pedophiles, beastialists and necrophiliacs) be "accepted and their behaviors condoned. Your own simpering announcement that they only want equality is itself a demand for acceptance. Just cannnnnnot wrap that ol right wing brain around "2 consenting adult human beings" DOES NOT include animals or children. Do you attend these events? Me neither. "DAMN those uppity women! Wanting to vote, wanting a "voice" -- they should be barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen! They have ruined the world -- now there is no one to fetch my beer" Just cannnnnnot wrap that ol right wing brain around "2 consenting adult human beings" DOES NOT include animals or children (or dead people). Grasping at straws -- they f**ck one another, they MUST f**k children, animals and dead people too! OMG. LOL Just out of curiosity -- have you ever heard of Ellen Degeneris (sp)? She is a dyke. She rocks as one of the funniest comediens of our time. She must scare the living shit out of the likes of you LOL "just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..." -- from Finding Nemo.

"The naivety of your comment is frightening, Drea." What on earth do you mean? I am not going to put her family in jeopardy by discussing Bush's imminent attack. Nor am I going to tell her "muslims suck". My life is safe, I can say whatever I want so I cannot for the life of me figure out why you say my comment is "frightening". ?????????????? Do you think her internet usage is monitored? I do. Even her mail gets opened before she gets it. She told me she could not drive a car so I said I'd teach her when she got over here. She is planning to come over and study here.

I find it somewhat odd (therefore making the story suspect) that the man at the counter served her. Although I do not doubt that this type of thing (and much much worse) happens all the time. I speak to a young girl (rarely as of late) in Iran. She is quite progressive. She said to me "We are supposed to pray 5 times a day, but sometimes I don't pray, sometimes I just think." I thought that was just wonderful. She is one of the lucky ones as her father, a young man in the 70's, is progressive. He said that life in Iran was much like here with Disco music, too tight jeans, western dress for both sexes, alcohol and everything. He liked it. LOL It's a wonder how they ended up today. You would think that the "progressives" would have fought the religious takeover... I haven't asked because there's only so much I feel comfortable talking about over the internet with them -- I shudder to think something may happen to her family... She's not allowed to ride a bicycle in public or drive a car. I haven't spoken directly to her since she moved to Tehran to attend university (just one letter, they take about 2 months -- really!) I try to look at it this way -- So a young Iranian woman is able to access Yahoo Messenger and I am able to send her links, she gains knowledge and shares that knowledge with other students in her university. Pretty soon all the students are linking and gaining knowledge.

Teachers are the people who see our children day in and day out and should be aware of behaviour changes. We need teachers to be more aware and report odd behaviour to the parents. Severe behaviour should be reported to the police or another social agency so they can intervene. The crux of it is that the parents don't care that their sons are gangbangers, it's a status thing even in their minds. Parents need to take a hard look at how they are raising their kids.

who are you talking about Jerry? Who is defending this? Why are you jumping down people's throats when they have not even opened their mouths -- oh never mind you get it from your "leader" -- it's a PREEMPTIVE insult

More people watch You Tube than watch any given televsion station...there are a gazillion tv stations and only ONE You Tube. And You Tube does not care if "advertisers" are offended -- they only care about the number of people clicking to view. What a great concept IMO -- no longer having to pander to the corporate advertisers. You Tube rocks!

It's women like these that give the rest of us (serious, levelheaded businesswomen) a bad name and make me sick. Ladies, no matter how young you look, once you are over 35 you should NOT be wearing itty bitty miniskirts. And I look damn good in 'em but I'd rather die than wear one to work at my age. Can you imagine walking into a client's dressed like that? LOL I'd get in the door for sure -- but it's unlikely any clients would trust me to manage their marketing for the long term.

My question is -- how did they know she wasn't gay? I mean, it's not like you can tell a person's sexual orientation by looks alone... she could have been a lesbian and her dad could've been a closet gay for years. But I see that the issue is not about the fact that she was hetero, but the fact that she was female. (Seems they didn't have any issue with the dad) Its a gay men's bar -- what? Are they afraid some goodlooking woman will convert some of them to the hetero side?

As a professional businesswoman I would never never wear a skirt that short (for work). Geez... I find that these "girls" (they are not women IMO) are just eye candy for men and are not meant to be taken seriously. There is a time and a place for a mini skirt and the business world is not it. Are the men that see them listening to them or just trying to look up their skirts? Pfffft -- useless as tits on a boar these "girls" are.

More nurturing? You mean those "uncles" are "nurturing" the children. Give me a break. I know this awesome native woman -- owns her own very successful business... she was fostering a 16 yo native girl and her baby boy. 16 yo disappeared (to the streets?) but left the baby at foster mom's house. Indian Affairs came along and took the baby boy -- "He needs to be raised in the band" was their reasoning. Well this woman was totally devastated! She loved that little boy as her own but she wasn't a local "Rez" native so they took him away... sick bastards. She has no idea where he is now or if he is being loved... shameful innit?

I do not have "unfettered access" to all the land in Canada. I must go to a bank and get a mortgage (or have tons of cash) in order to buy it. Any native person can go get a mortgage and buy property, same as me. First Nations (gawd I hate that term) ahem... unfortunately natives are not part of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms -- they are covered by the "Indian Act". Until the Indian Act is abolished you will continue to not be protected by the Charter. Can't have it both ways... hmmm the Tsawassen band seems to be doing very well with their land (the best in the lower mainland btw) -- it is worth fair market value and they are free to sell it, build condos, leave it alone, build a casino, start a business.... whatever they want. There are too few qualified native families. Too few. If there were more native families who were qualified to take in additonal children I would say "good". Reality is they end up with drunken uncles... and that is a problem. Look at the story of that baby who was "given" to her "uncle" -- ended up dead. She would have been much better off if someone had said "she needs a home and it doesn't HAVE to be native".

How is it that I am in a "position of priviledge"? I do not (nor did I) have an ton of money "inherited"... My ancestors came here from Germany with nothing. All they got is some land. Did I benefit from this land? Nope. My father left Sask and moved on to BC with just the shirt on his back. He worked at what jobs he could get and built his life from there. No, I do not come from "priviledge". And the young woman that my sister fostered does not have FAS. She is a very intelligent (literacy wise) girl and can be very charming when she wants to. Not to mention she is so beautiful that she should be a Revlon spokesperson. Do you really and truly figure she and her bro would have a "better" life if they were raised in "the band" rather then their "bad white" adopted parents?

I'm pretty sure I'm real -- I am sittin' here --- of course I could be a figment of your imagination LOL

The land claims should be settled. Now. And natives should be free to do what they wish with their land (no, not 110% of BC -- that is totally unrealistic) and the Indian Act should be abolished. The Niska (sp) and the Tswassen bands have settled and this is a good thing. Now if they want to put up Casinos or condos or billboards, utilize the land's resources or just leave the land be, that is up to them. Matter of fact, Paul Martin is in the BC interior now, working with native groups to ensure their success... gotta love that man! Oh, he does it for free btw... he's become somewhat of a philathropist The "poor me" mantra only goes so far. People need to get mad at their chiefs who take all the money for themselves and children go without. People need to make the chiefs accountable. And chiefs need to start some "revenue" streams for their people -- invest in themselves -- invest in the future for their people. My hubby met a young native man at a union meeting -- he has some good ideas (and will no doubt be a real political force someday). He sees his generation as much more progressive and willing to make sacrifces to get ahead instead of whining about the past.

South Dakota Bans Abortion Here's more if you don't like that link: Washington Post Gee it looks like you don't know your country very well

I grew up on a ranch in the Cariboo. I grew up going to school and socializing with natives, many were close friends. My best friend was half native... she still is. And I know the roommate stole them (of course it could have been one of her "boyfriends" as there was a different pair of cowboy boots at the door every night...) but I am pretty friggin' sure she pawned them to buy drugs. I certainly didn't friggin' lose them as they sat in my jewelry box... One day I come home (I was 23 and naive about drugs) and she is sitting in her room freaking out that there were ants crawling all over her. There were no ants -- she was on something.... so I called 911 but they wouldn't take her to the hospital because she was coherent enough to refuse treatment. Little while goes by... I spend the night at my boyfriend's place and come home to a little duplex full of smoke damage. In her drunken/drugged stupor (another one) she had thrown an ashtray in the garbage and gone to bed. Back when I was a kid I knew this really nice blind native girl -- I used to help her getting on and off the bus... well one day after we'd all been in highschool a couple of years I see her and she has no arms! Apparently someone (her *uncles*) had gotten her drunk and she crawled onto the traintracks and was run over by the train. Poor girl -- bastard uncles. Five years ago my sister took in a foster kid. A native girl who had been raised (along with her brother) by a very religious German couple. She had the best education, the best clothes and she was loved. But she no longer wanted to live by her adopted parents' rules so she went to the govt and they got her into foster care where she ended up at my sister's. One day my sister looks through her backpack (illegal for the foster parent to do btw) and found crack cocaine and a handgun! She is 22 now and can't hold a job and routinely threatens my sister's youngest daughter (the only one not yet out of school). Once again a kid with the world on a string who decided it's more fun to drink and drug than to work... I probably have more examples but these ones stand out... If you folks don't like to hear the truth it is not my problem. If anything in the native community is ever going to get fixed people need to stop glossing it over and saying "Oh pooor babies have been downtrodden for so long that it's in their genetics now!" Pffffft.

You may have simply pointed out the spelling error.... but of course you couldn't do that -- that would be a sane thing to do and if you are a radical religie or a Bush supporter, you are certainly not sane. Anyway any words on the actual issue or are you just wandering around the forum finding spelling errors? Cheers!

Ah but they are not right next door! LOL The religious right has been running your country since Regan. Didn't you know that? Now that Falwell is gone they have lost their voice so you guys just might get your country back if you work really hard on ousting the religies.

I should change my handle to "white and proud". But of course THAT would be racist wouldn't it? Pfffffft. You may be a straight up kinda guy FNPROUD -- so are some of the people I know. Some of them don't expect free stuff for life. Some work, some open their own businesses. Once every single native is off reserve and paying taxes then we will have equality. My roommate was going to university to become a lawyer -- paid by the band (Indian Affairs, the federal govt, the taxpayers). She was cute and intelligent but Nooooooo -- she chooses to get messed up every night. She also stole my rings and set my house on fire. Lousy wench -- she's probably on the streets in Vancouver. Serves her right. She had the world on a string but decided to fuck up her life instead.