buckeyemike

Penelope Cruz wins Best Supporting Actress. That makes one more person Tom Cruise dated who has won an Oscar, since he's still batting .000. By the way, who wrote the opening number? What a bunch of crap. Never thought I'd long for the days of Rob Lowe and Snow White, but it's starting to happen.

I have it on in the background...what on earth is Hugh Jackman doing? There is only one person who can get away with doing a song about movies at the Oscars, and his name is Billy Crystal. Boy, if the rest of the show is anything like this, it's really gonna suck this year. I've even lost interest, and as a pop-culture nut, I never thought I'd say that. A side note: someone said on another message board that if Mickey Rourke doesn't win for Best Actor, we'll know it's rigged, for the following reason: Rourke stated a few weeks back that he defended former President Bush's actions over his handling of the 9/11 aftermath. So if the Bush Boogeyman isn't around for Hollywood to kick, do they take it out on Rourke?

WAPL in Appleton, Wisconsin. This is a station that plays some terrific music. As I type this, I'm listening to the Alice Cooper syndicated show, playing "Midnight Rider" by the Allman Brothers. Earlier, they played Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" (one of my favorites) and Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55" (believe it or not, one of my 72 year old dad's favorites). They do play harder stuff, like old Metallica and W.A.S.P., which I'm not really into, but they do play a lot of classic rock, which is more to my taste. So, for those of you who like to rock, this is a new choice, if you're not from Wisconsin or familiar with it already.

:lol: As far as what occurred at the memorial service, I praise the good people of WNY for showing restraint. This is the only place I've heard about the WBC people at the funeral; either I'm not watching the news very much anymore or the media showed some restraint.

No. Best to stay silent on this one, Pooj.

#20 is Manny; I think that may have been his first baseball card.

It's a great story. Thumbs up to those kids who seem far more mature than the Terrell Owenses of the world.

Thank God for that. EDIT: Look at the last couple of lines of the story: His oldest son has to write a daily journal as a condition of missing school to travel north. Last Friday, he drew a picture of a crashed plane. "Above it it said, 'My plane crashed today,'" Smith said. "Underneath it said, 'I wasn't on it.'" That's one of the most chilling things I think I've ever read.

This is obvious to all decent people. When I posted last night, I did so from my Instinct phone, which only allows 200 characters and I couldn't post everything that I wanted to say: Four of the Phelps children are estranged from the rest of the family, primarily because of the abuse that they took from the patriarch. That leaves nine nitwits. All of whom have been abused physically. Fred Phelps is now in his late 70s and apparently suffers from dementia. That's why Shirley is the spokesperson. I think they honestly believe that they are the "Chosen", that everyone else is apostate and will be punished by a vengeful creator. I believe in a God of mercy. I cannot put this any more succintly: The Westboro Baptist Church god (note the little "g") is not the God I serve. I would love to see someone punch Fred Phelps right in the jaw, so he would have to take in liquids for a while, but as several have stated here, that is exactly the type of attention they crave. Some people thrive on what they see as "persecution". That ain't persecution. Go ask a Christian woman from Somalia who has been raped (because of her faith) and has had to flee for her life what persecution is. And BTW, I use the exact same argument for Christians who claim they have been persecuted in the United States for their faith. Everyone knows that the Phelps family is nuts, but nobody seems to know how to deal with these people. And I use the term "people" loosely.

As a devout Christian, I appreciate these posts. I despise WBC as much as any of you do. The Phelps clan is very familiar with violence. Fred used to beat his wife and 13 (yes, 13) children.

My favorite has to be the one in Key West: "I told you I was sick!"

Don't let the bastards get you down. Or you will not be happy. Unless you want to take a potshot at them. Christianity is not like that. Heaven is for them, they say...hell is for Everyone else. But read the Scriptures some time. All have sinned and come short of God's Glory See, if you read between the lines, you'll feel better.

What disturbed me more was that the monkey was clearly dead with two bullet holes and a pool of blood. That's what I found disturbing...maybe I should have clarified that. I didn't expect to see that out of a political cartoon.

Agreed. I also found it somewhat disturbing.

Wasn't that the entire plot of the movie Black Snake Moan?

Non-human primates, then. Sorry.

Heard about this on the early morning news. Seems that some of the neighbors were scared of the chimp. I'm sorry that the chimp had to be stabbed and subsequently shot, but it was out of control. The victim's life is in danger, and she is not out of the woods yet. She faces a long recovery if things go well. We often forget that primates are much stronger than humans.

The Melbourne-Cocoa area is pretty nice. I visited last year and it's probably my favorite place in Florida.

We'd welcome you with open arms, but the weather sucks right now. Really, the weather in Cleveland from early May until mid-November is terrific. I love the summers here, and besides the fact that my family is here, the summers are a big reason why I've stayed.

My wife wants to head to North Carolina someday, probably when we get worn out by the cold weather. I'm going to try to talk her into Raleigh-Durham...only a couple of hours away from her beloved beaches, yet far enough away to blunt a hurricane impact. And also far enough south so that the winters aren't too bad.

One problem: this was in England, not in the US. The nutjobs aren't nearly as powerful there. Does the UK have mandatory sex ed? And at what age does it start? The 13 year old (who does look about 8 in the pics I've seen) either didn't have it yet, or didn't care. A side note, as some of you know, I do court-appointed GAL (Guardian ad Litem) work for Cuyahoga County. This means I often represent children and their interests in custody cases, as well as neglect and dependency. So, without going into details, I've seen quite a few of these types of cases (the youngest of the mothers was 14).

That would explain a lot, but I think that you can only do a "Borat" like project once. People's antennae go up otherwise. You know, fool me once, shame on you, etc... And John may be right, but the Phoenix family does have a history of drug dependence, after all.

Hell, I think I ate those tonight. I'm nearing 40 and I've never smoked pot in my life...but I have a sweet tooth and an affinity for chips and popcorn. Go figure.

And what is it that grown-ups do, Pooj? Personally, I think it would be a LOT harder to raise girls than boys...girls are constantly bombarded with conflicting messages about weight, size, sex, etc....it goes on and on and I believe there are more consequences for girls messing up than there are for boys. Flame away if you disagree.

Radio's reporting they have called the race. Kenseth would be the winner. EDIT: It's official...Kenseth's team is celebrating on TV.