Agreed. And I find it really shocking that they believe that some of us who supported Hillary would go for Sarah Palin! Their politics are diametrically opposed! The only thing they have in common is that they're both women.

My favorite is the charge that O doesn't have executive experience. Well, if you want to get technical McCain doesn't either.

That is only the tip of the iceberg why I highly dislike this woman.

Clean Coal. WHAT???? What is this business about clean coal??? There is a reason that we have been looking for alternatives to coal for a very very long time. What kind of BS is this about Clean coal????? It's not efficient, it's not clean, it's the reason china's so polluted, it's not as plentiful as it was, it was fine for the industrial revelution but...... ahhhhhhhhhhh how are they getting away with such crazy outright lies?????

Oh my lord, you might be right Julez, I might have to not watch tonight. I'm sorry for bring stupid polictics in to our lovely off topic thread.

I actually *WAS*impressed.

Still undecided though...

Better to do it here, among friends, Pointy. We only get the occasional right wing OT barracuda in here.

Regarding your first point, there are people who will actually believe in such utter bollocks.

Wow, dev, to say that I am shocked is an enormous understatement!

I thought she spent too much time attacking Obama and too little time explaining how she would be a useful VP. And she can talk family all she wants, but what she brings to the table is not what MY family needs, nor most middle class families, for that matter. No thank you, Sarah Palin!

Kidding aside - what she said WAS funny about Obama & his rented columns & his ego. Very true!

If I do vote for the Reps, it's because of him, not her. And if I vote for the Dems, it's NOT because of O. Very torn.

I was very torn, too, but since the DNC and RNC, and all the eye-opening speeches, my decision has been made much easier. And since both McCain and Palin stand for everything I don't believe in, I couldn't ever bring myself to vote for them.

Experience must count for something?

It's a shame. It seems to me that McCain has given in to the part of the Reps that he most despises, and is letting them run his campaign. I have heard so many outright lies coming from the RNC, that I don't trust them on absolutely anything.

You'd think they were having the election here there is ssoooooooooo much coverage.

I'm sure I might get plenty of barbs for this, but I find it difficult to vote for someone who thinks ID/creationism should be taught in public schools. Or abstinance only education (sure worked with her daughter!). Or that it is god's mandate we go to war or build a pipeline.

I don't mind McCain so much, but let's be honest...he's on the upper end of the average life span for a male. He seems to be fairly healthy, but with people that age it can change very quickly. Look who is second in command then?

At least with Obama he is surrounded by people with experience.

I agree with you.

When I look at McCains politics, regardless of experience, its just not what I want for me and my family. To vote for someone merely because they've been a politician for a long time seems a bit short-sighted to me. If we never give the new guy a chance, will we be left wondering over the next 4 years what might have been? For me, the last 8 years have been some of the darkest for the US. Do we really want to chance four more of the same?

I'm just really surprised that someone who has been such an ardent supporter of HRC could conceive of voting in the GOP for 4 more years. I mean, I love Hillary and still feel disappointed that she couldn't seal the nomination, but not so disappointed that I can abandone my beliefs.

Please note, I'm not attacking you dev, really just trying tounderstand your POV since I always thought we were polically compatible!

So you'd rather a #1 person be more inexperienced?

This is why I don't like the Reps. They fail to learn from their mistakes. That is why her daughters pregnancy is a pertinent issue. Not because of how it reflects on her parenting skills, but on how it reflects on her lack separation between faith and government.

Yet you backhanded me in your 'question'? I've stated my concerns w/ both, and that I am indeed UNDECIDED, yet somehow this makes me a bad person for not following party line & voting Dem, no matter how much I question that candidate?

I'm done discussing it. Same sh*t, different forum.

This is pretty much exactly how I feel about it. However I don't get a vote. C is seriously considering the possibility of flying over to vote in Florida, rather than registering here, in what will certainly be a blue state.

I dunno, a lot of people thought Bill Clinton was too inexperienced to be the President, and yet he led this country quite well during his 8 years. People took a chance back then because they were sick of the same old same old experienced GOP candidates and it really paid the US dividends. The White House needs a shake up. Big time.

I did NOT backhand you. I am seriously trying to understand your POV. And I NEVER said you were a bad person. I'm sorry if you think I'm attacking you, I really am just trying to understand.

ok so how bout that 90210,

My green card is in the mail this time for sure! And my boxes have arrived. They still have to clear customs, but I'm pretty excited. And I had a meeting yesterday, that I might have a job out of. Nothing for certain, and it wouldn't be my dream job, but it would pay money, and get me started.

Happy thursday everyone!!!

oh and ginger, was that the great north run in England, you were talking about?? I watched it one year, it looks tough!

Experience does count for something, but it is not everything. I was rather shattered by the primaries as I liked both Hilary and Obama...I thought that had they ran better campaigns they would have had an unbeatable ticket. But that isn't the case.

The republicans...I would maybe say more pointedly their evangelical base...go against many things I believe in. They say don't have an abortion, it kills a life...but I rarely hear from them how to give a child a good life after it is born. I hear that gays are somehow "threatening" my marriage, but yet they get their only defense from a couple verses in a 2500 year old book. I'm attacked for not being a patriotic American because I question the decisions made by my leaders...not because I'm some sort of commie but because I love my country enough that I don't want it f'ed up.

I admit that not all the democrats stances ring true with me, and I'm not convinced that Obama will really make any fundemental changes if elected. But at least to me, the democrats aren't interested in opposing semi to outright religious views on my life.

The one in Newcastle...that would be the one :-) I'm doing the Chicago Half in about 10 days, and I have a few others lined up I want to do next spring/summer. I'm not so concerned with the distance but the hills...I have no way of training for those except on ye auld treadmill.

Do you know much about the Dublin Marathon? If I don't do the Great North Run that was the other race I was thinking about doing when we go back over next fall.

can't say that I do know much about the Dublin Marathon, my sister did the Women's mini marathon one year, but I don't know how long it was. Dublin still has some hills, but I don't think it would be quite as bad as the great north run, hill wise. It's also probably a smaller event, so depending on your perspective that could be good or bad. There are still crowds by the side, cheering you on and there's all the usual stuff, the roads closed off, medical personnel standing by, etc etc.

So it only applies if Dems are elected, not Reps?



I'm not mad at you Julez. And to your point, I *AM* that disappointed with the Dem pick, that I may vote Rep for the first time ever.

I think the experience question is a distraction from far more pertinent questions about policy, and not if they can govern, but how they would govern. Let's face it, if dubya can manage to do it, getting by must not be that hard. Doing it well is another matter.

Amen sister Pointy!

I have a greater uneasiness of the kind of "changes" - or non-changes that could happen with a republican leadership than with a democratic leadership. For example, a greater chance of troops coming home with democrats than republicans. I think there is a greater shot at rebuilding international confidence in the United States with Obama than with McCain (and note...I think the same would have been true with Hilary).

Those are just a few examples of my point of view. Everyone is entitled to what they believe and what they hold dear...I tend to give more respect to someone who has thought their position through first rather than someone blindly supporting the other candidate just because there is a D or an R behind their name. I come from the deepest of redest of states and I now live in Obamaramaland...so I understand how it can work both ways

This current Democratic Congress has done less than EVER before in history...

The Dublin course didn't look too bad...it seemed to stay along the southside and around Phoenix Park. I like their course better...but at the GNR I would have people cheering me on. Eh...I might do the one race this year and another the next. I'll just have to work out in which order.

Oh dear - all I can say is that I really am glad that I don't have to vote I hated the politics in the UK as well and I have managed to avoid most of the propaganda floating around here - I saw more coverage in the UK Imho the person who is the most convincing liar wins - combined of course with the judgment about what they think people want to be convinced on. The successful liar then has the opportunity to try not to get hated while in power (and let's face it, from all I have seen in politics, the "leaders" always get bad-mouthed at the time, it is only in retrospect that people consider them to have -maybe- done a decent job).

Of course, it could just be put down that I am not cut out for politics as I am a notorious fence-sitter and much prefer to let everyone else battle it out - how apathetic I am

Completely on topic as well, but so I don't (maybe) get caught in a political crossfire that I don't like (or half the time, understand ) I got my biometrics appointment letter today - 16th Sept we get to take a trip to Riverside - yay me!

I think I caught a disease from Bruce...

It's called I-need-more-cars-itis. It is apparently chronic, and is expensive to treat. I have it so bad, I had to buy a '93 Mustang convertible. It's awesome -- I can't stop grinning when I'm gunning it.

So LA girlies, who's up for a ride with the top down this weekend?

Wow, it's like I'm the car fairy, and I turned the wand on myself.

Maven!! You are so bad!!!

I've been fighting with a roach this evening You can read about it here if you're interested as I think I summarised it quite nicely in an e-mail It's been interesting but I also found a little game site where I have been chatting online - simple pleasures but fun - it has brightened my evening and my day so that can only be a good thing

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!!!!

I'd be happy to wash my hair this weekend, and see how long it takes to dry it in the convertible

Mustang Maven eh? To the tune of "Mustang Sally of course...




I spent my night fighting one of these things myself!



I saw it crawling on my bedroom wall and I started screaming for Nicky to come in and kill it. Well, he came rushing in at the flying speed of a snail...giving the centipede plenty of time to crawl back behind the bed...on my side of the bed and out of sight under my pillow. So he finally comes shuffling in while I'm jumping around like an idiot...and he has MY NEW RUNNING SHOE to kill it with. Anyways at this point he can't get to it so I get a broom while he moves the bed. The thing is just chilling on the baseboard...and I attack with the broom. At first I miss, but the centipede gets a dust bunny caught in some of its legs...slowing it down and thus giving me the opportunity to once and for all off the dang thing.

Nicky had also killed one earlier in the week and squashed it so it left a nice big mark on our wall. We killed another one a month ago...methinks it is time to call the landlord about these things. They aren't poisonous or are going to bother you but they just look so creepy.

Hey ginger, thanks for the visual. Now I get to feel creepy all day!

I am now forced to avoid this thread until it spill onto a new page. I hate insects! In fact, they just cleaned my office windows yesterday and removed all the big crunchy spiders, so I can finally keep my curtains open again!

Ginger, that is just so...ewwwwww. My skin is actually crawling.

That's not a centipede, that's a monster! I'd probably start screaming if I saw that too, and I'm normally ok with creepy crawlies.

I read about them on Wiki and they supposedly eat spider eggs and stuff like that. They apparently don't "live" in the apartment too...they typically stay in basements but they are somehow finding their way to the second floor where I live.

I had these things in my old apartment up here too. What is weird is I have never had problems with any other insects (no roaches, spiders, daddy long legs) except with these things.

I really don't think they look that bad. Though I didn't know they have a nasty bite!! Rather those than a big ### spider.

Omg - that is so gross!! I'm sorry but centipedes aren't meant to look like that! I am used to ones that look like this:



Ok, so magnified it doesn't look much better but eww!!

So you've taken to broom-bashing bugs as well?! I started that tack last night with the lovely roach that is still (potentially) somewhere in our house

Oh and sorry Charles - bug on this page as well now

how big was it actually?? An insect that eats spider eggs sounds good to me.

Especially if they happen to be poisonous spider eggs

Good job on getting the pic of the centipede from the University of Nebraska entomology website Aly I actually signed up for an entomology class there one year...I thought we would just look in glass cases with dead bugs in them. When I went to the first class I found out that you would actually be given a live Hissing Cockroach to keep alive for a semester. Needless to say I dropped that class like a rock.

I would say that centipede was about 1.5 inches long. It was good sized.

I just grabbed the first pic that looked like what I thought a centipede should look like!!!

And yuck... keep it alive? Did you see what they did to them on Mythbusters?! They survive levels of radiation something like over 100 times more than a human could survive!! At least it would be a class you could pass easily!! Put it in a box in another box in a locked box in a safe then bury it. Dig it up at the end of the semester and if the Houdini-like blighter hadn't escaped, I am sure it would be fine!!

When I was a kid and used to visit my family in Texas I lived in constant fear of the cockroaches and lizards in the yard. On my cousin's ranch I once saw a tarantula - I never recovered.

I can deal with lizards and snakes. I dunno why...they don't freak me out so much. Maybe it's just invertebrates that bother me?

Call me naive but I didn't realise they lived here... nor mantises (though those are pretty cool when they don't fly/run at you )

I dunno - I guess I always thought that animals frequently seen in a zoo back in the UK were from the deepest depths of some exotic rainforest or suchlike... I don't mind them so much when they are behind glass...

Do you ever watch that show on Discovery called Verminators? That show is the creepiest crawliest show

Verminators

There was an episode once where it was the infestations...yes and that is plural...from hell. This guy was a very bad alcoholic and made home brew in his apartment to boot. Anyways, this guy had

roaches
bedbugs (his mattress was covered in blood from the bites)
mice
ants
black widow spiders

but the kicker...when the exterminators went onto his deck to check out the closet out there, he had a nest of killer bees! It was honestly the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life.

Yeah - I heard of the show.,.. I don't watch it for that very reason