Namm Man...glad to hear you weren't in Katrina's path...

Slanshroom....gotta love the music, and how it can heal...

962..... "I'm sick n tired of America babysitting the world only to get shit on "......when did "the world" ever ask to be "babysat?" The world didn't ask...... So why does our goverment think they have to. We need to take care of our own business. I use to think the war in Iraq was justified 'cause I believed in what Bush was saying. I was proud that our country liberated two countries and made them a Democratic society. I'm changing my view. All we did was piss off these people who were pissed at us to begin with. If they wanted to be a Democratic society my guess they would be.There was a reason for 911 and it wasn't because they just felt like doing it. They were and did send a message and that was to : STAY OUT OF OUR BUSINESS What did we do.....We took over and are still occuping thier country. You can't fight people who have no regard for human life. That cut the heads off of inocent people or blow themselfs up and God knows how many inocent people around them. I say pull out and take our chances in America. They are commin' back. It just a matter of time. That terrifies me when I think about it.

"Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?"......yes, not even the President Of The United States Of America can stop the weather doing what it wants to do.

NO.... it did not have to happen. If you read the article Cuth and Michelle posted you'll read funding for the levees were rerouted for Iraq. The flood waters have cause an estimated 27 billion in damages and is the cause for the catastrophic effents that our enfolding. If those levees were completed I'm thinking there would be really no flood damage only damage from the 140 MPH wind that Katrina had. Damage that within time and a reasonal amount of money could be fixed. New Orleans is F....ed for a long time. It's going to take months for the water just the water to reseed. Then the rebiulding of the infrastruture commences....The health issues.....This will take years to get back to normal if there will be a normal. What about all those homeless people who lost everything?Where are they going to live ...work.... or even have a life. Bush pulled a couple of million away from completeing those levees and look what happened as a result. We're all going to pay for this in the end. The little people always have to pay for the govenments mistakes. I'm sick of that to. Are you? Like I said before I'm proud to be an American and I'm damn glad to live in America 'cause it's given me the life I love with my two boys and my wife Cindy. But enough is enough...End of rant.......

Ohio High School Has 64 Pregnant Students

CANTON, Ohio - Thirteen percent of the female students at Timken Senior High School in Ohio are pregnant.

High school senior Monica Selby thought she would be busy this year planning for college, not preparing for the birth of her first child. "I've been crying every day and every night. I keep on blaming myself for this," said the 18-year-old Selby, who is six months pregnant.

She cries about starting classes this week at Timken Senior High School with a bulging belly, about the emotions of planning an adoption, about becoming part of a statistic that has snagged the nation's attention: 64 of Timken's 490 female students — 13 percent — are pregnant.

The statistic at the school in the heart of this old steel city contrasts with a decade of declining teen pregnancy rates nationwide. But teen pregnancy experts say the problem is not exclusive to Timken High.

Experts, parents and students themselves struggle to explain why such pockets of high teen pregancy rates appear. Are teens getting appropriate sex education? Do they have access to birth control and are they using it consistently? Has the stigma of unwed motherhood lost its edge?

"This might be a school that is forthright with its problems while others are not," said Jay Green, chairman of the Education Reform department at the University of Arkansas. "But this is a widespread issue."

Green wrote a study last year for the conservative New York-based Manhattan Institute for Policy Research that found 20 percent of urban teenagers have been pregnant, compared with 14 percent of suburban teens.

Urban teens as a whole don't use birth control as consistently or often, according to his research, and often have less to lose financially and socially than those in the suburbs.

But Green couldn't say whether those factors applied to Timken. The school of about 1,000 students draws teens from across the neighborhood and economic lines in the state's ninth largest city.

Eric Wilson, 18, who works at a hot dog shop a few blocks from the school while making plans to get his GED and caring for his 2-year-old son, said the spotlight on Timken is magnifying an old problem.

"My mom had a kid when she was in school and now I have a kid," he said. "It goes back to how you were raised. Down here, it's not looked too down upon because a lot of parents had kids when they were kids."

Last school year, both high schools in the city's district reported 55 pregnancies. Ninety-nine pregnancies are expected in the district this year, most of them at Timken, where expecting students get six weeks of maternity leave.

"This has gotten to horrible proportions. I wish I knew the answer to why it's happening," principal Kim Redmond told the city's daily newspaper The Repository. Redmond did not return several messages left by The Associated Press.

Joanne Hinton, whose 16-year-old daughter, Raechel Hinton, is eight months pregnant, said she believes the school's abstinence-based sex education program isn't enough.

"It's time to take the blinders off and realize that these kids are having sex," she said. "Obviously, abstinence is not working. If we have to, just give them condoms."

Hinton stresses that she doesn't condone teenage sex and that her daughter doesn't fit the mold some may think pregnant teens come from: The Hinton household has two loving parents with a strong relationship who asked the straight-A Raechel "45 times a week if she was having sex, doing drugs, drinking. We were constantly checking on her."

Raechel, who plans to return to the 10th grade at Timken after delivering and completing an adoption, said many students are sexually active and need more information about birth control.

Hello wonderful friends!!!!

I feel so sorry about the Hurricane tragedy :-((((.

To all American friends my condolences and best wishes. I saw on TV that the situation is terrible, sorry friends :-(((. My prayers are with all of you, sorry my great people!!!

I`ve been busy on company, many work and trips to do.Soon i will be here with more time. I miss all of you!!!!

WEBMASTER - Thanks for the good news. Thanks Dear Jon!!!

MARI, MICHELLE, JUJU, 962, BAHDUH, DO THE STU (welcome back), DCK, PHRYDOM, OCPS470, OVATION1 and all of you, take care friends, hope everyone is well and safe, Warm Regards to all !!!

JOE - I still miss you brotha.

ALBUM OF THE DAY TO RELAX: SLANSHROOM`S CD, nice one.

Cuth....It was educational today. Great postin' with ya. I'm out of here. Rant key is off....lol....

Have A Great Evening Everyone ! ! ! !

So, Joe was a Judge at this Guitar Hero 2005 event. hmmmmm

hoiguy...he has his own site... it's dominicfrasca.com... probably some sound bytes there?

CHEESE,,,DEATHCUBE,,STEEVE T,,& anyone who cares..NEW JS-1000 design..FULL ON OCTIPUSS,,Deep red tones....Jellyfish I think would be a little subtle.

drop by just to say hello!

I miss you all , I really don't know what is going on here, don't have time to catch up....hope everything is great with everybody!

JOE : A SPECIAL HELLO TO YOU !

Hugs !

:-)

just read on the "news" that

An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet.

"You can do everything for other countries, but you can't do nothing for your own people," he added. "You can go overseas with the military, but you can't get them down here."

man all this talk about iraq and 911 and bussssccchhhhh and the london bombings and the quest to "own" the oil the faked (mistaken, i understand) gas price hike pales into significance for me.... there are people out there... starving, thirsty (anyone heard of 'water water everywhere nor any drop to drink'?) ... babies needing baby things! FFS!!!!

add a few complete numbnuts (thinking of the.. oh i won't type it) who fire GUNS at AID-BRINGING helicopters.... and then when the boats arrive they effing ATTACK EN MASSE to make them turn around!!!! and so NOBODY gets ANY help

i imagine it's a hell on earth for those people (well excepting the RAPISTS and MURDERERS and LOOTING FUCKWADS) and for sure i'd not trade places with them, but it seems to me that people are afraid. afraid they going to die, i don't wonder....

they need HELP imho, but perhaps as important they need policing, in varying degrees, and even if it means marines going in there, i think send em all... the US marines are known to do a job, and generally do it well... send em in there, with aid, and let them take care of the situation....

this is a natural catastrophe... people are dying, people are needing, people are raping (FFS!!!!!! WTF?!?!?!?!?!), babies - BABIES - are in need.... send help!!!!! ffs send help!!!!!

Saw this joke and though of al...

I told my girlfriend last night how much I loved her, and she said that I must have been out drinking again. I asked her why she would say that, and she said, 'Because I'm your father.’

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www.redcross.org

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Slansh, big hugs to ya!

You have three ways of contributing to the American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund:

Make a contribution online to the American Red Cross at www.redcross.org.

Mail a donation to the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund to your local chapter of the American Red Cross. Mail a donation to the American Red Cross National Office - note that the donation is for Hurricane Katrina:

American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund P.O. 37243 Washington, DC 20013

Additional Agencies where you can Donate Catholic Charities USA 1-800-919-9338, Hurricane Katrina, P.O. Box 25168, Alexandria, VA 22313-9788. You can donate at www.catholiccharitiesusa.org.

Christian Contractors Association 1-800-278-7703, 2009 S Broad St., Brooksville, FL 34604. You can donate at www.ccaministry.org.

Church World Service 1-800-297-1516, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN, 46515. You can donate at www.churchworldservice.org.

Convoy of Hope 1-417-823-8998, 330 S Patterson, Springfield, MO 65802. You can donate at www.convoyofhope.org.

Episcopal Relief and Development/U.S. Hurricane Relief Fund 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129, P.O. Box 12043, Newark, NJ, 07101-5043. You can donate at www.er-d.org.

Islamic Circle of North America 166-26, 89th Avenue, Jamaica, NY 11432. 718-658-7028. You can donate at www.icna.org.

Lutheran Disaster Response 1-800-638-3522, 8765 W. Higgins Road, Chicago, IL 60631. You can donate at www.elca.org.

Mennonite Disaster Service 717-859-2210, 1018 Main St. Akron, PA 17501. You can donate at www.mds.mennonite.net.

Presbyterian Church 1-800-872-3283, Attention: PCUSA, Individual Remittance Processing, P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15624-3700. Write on check: #000169. You can donate at www.pcusa.org.

Salvation Army 1-800-725-2769, Salvation Army Headquarters, P.O. Box 269, Alexandria, VA 22313. If you send a check, note "Katrina Disaster relief." You can donate at www.salvationarmyusa.org.

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief 770-410-6133, P.O. Box 116543, Atlanta, GA 30368-6543. If you send a check, make it payable to North American Mission Board. You can donate at www.namb.net/dr.

United Way of America 1-800-272-4630, You can also donate at national.unitedway.org.

If sending a check to the United Way, mail to:

United Way of America P.O. Box 630568 Baltimore, MD 21263-0568

tracie..thansk for the kind words....so how is chris doing..is he back yet???what about you....hows work?????cheers ans stay happy...

atn...hi,,,thanks for the info....

alexandre...hello.....

steven........whats up bro??????

everybody else....hi...

Cuthbert and Keniko, points well taken brothers. I knew my comments might cause a stir, but things like "did this have to happen" always end up getting turned around and construed and contorted so it's possible to say "THIS person is to blame for this", which is ridiculous 'cause nobody is responsible for the natural cycle of the planet.

Then again, if we didn't all burn so much fossil fuel and pump so much sh*t into the atmosphere, the global weather systems would be more stable.

However, I completely understand that the context of that quoted comment was, of course, that warnings and damage limitation plans could have been put in place but weren't. And yes, it is Mr Bush who you can point the finger at. If he pulls all your troops out of the gulf to come home and stop the looters/help rebuild New Orleans, then he proves that he never really was interested in liberating/protecting "the Iraqi people". If he leaves your troops there, then he proves that all he really wanted was the oil, so he can't win, which is cool, 'cause he doesn't deserve to win.

"The little people always have to pay for the govenments mistakes."....yes, but hopefully next time there is an election, the little people will vote for someone who actually gives 2 shits about the nation he is in charge of.

The latest news report that had me creased up laughing/crying, was that the US now wants to import fuel (gasoline) from Europe. This is the same US that, not two years ago, put an embargo on trade with Europe, especially France.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that anybody deserved to get hit by a hurricane.....the footage and photographs of the level of devastation are shocking.....but it just seems that everything is turning really sour now that the US is realising the things that the rest of the world has been telling it for the last 5 years.

dakook...sounds like you've designed a James Bond JS1000...lol...

ATN...my prayers are with you.