Southwest Airlines: No more LUV in the Club...

Remember when Southwest was the "fun" airline? Remember when no matter where you looked they were the cheapest around. I didn't mind the plastic boarding passes or the "cattle call". I also didn't mind that families with small children or disabled folks got to get on the plane first. Hey I'd rather have the family of 4 with the two cranky kids all settled in and ready to go when I get on the plane. This way I can see where they are sitting and sit faaaarrrrr away from them. Recently the airline that used to make it's Stewardesses dress in hot pants (like sex symbols) kicked a Hooters Waitress off of one of it's planes because of her "booty skirt". Said it was too revealing. I've seen the pictures....it wasn't that revealing, and the woman offered to cover up with a blanket from the waist down while seated so she wouldn't offend anyone. They still kicked her off of the plane. Now Southwest (who's stock symbol is LUV) is doing away with preboarding. They say it's to get more business travelers. Oh really??? Business travelers want Business Class on a plane. They want a bit more elbow room and sturdier trays so they can open up the old laptop and finish that last minute proposal, presentation, etc. Ain't going to find that on the cramped ass Southwest plane. They aren't cheap anymore anyways. Lord I remember all the times I flew back and forth from Cali to Tenn to visit Cath (before we got married and I moved out here) and I very rarely used Southwest. I'd always check them first, they do have some great deals, but always ended up on another airline. From what I can tell, this getting rid of the preboarding is going to drive families away in droves. Why spend the money for Southwest when you can guarantee yourself a seat on another airline. And one where you want it to be.

Holiday Specials

Since my favorite holiday of all time is a month away, that's right Halloween, I thought it was time to talk about all the holiday specials we used to watch as kids. What prompted this was a Blog entry on The Poop blog on SFGate.com regarding the "Star Wars Holiday Special". What Holiday Special you may ask yourself. Yep, if you weren't a Star Wars freak back in 1977 when it came out like I was you probably never saw this horrendous piece of poop. It aired in November of 1978. Heres a link to imdb.com http://imdb.com/title/tt0193524/ so you can check out the details for yourself. It had all the cast members (yes Harrison Ford actually was in it) and it had all the hack character actors of that time: Art Carne, Bea Arthur and even Harvey Korman. It was so bad that Lucas has done everything he could to make sure it never officially saw the light of day ever again after the inital broadcast. You can buy bootleg copies at Comic Conventions on VHS, but they are probably copies of copies from someone's parents who had a VCR back then (those huge ones with the corded remote and the door that popped up so you could put in the tape....remember those beasts???). I used to love to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" every year. Check out the Robot Chicken version of this...it's brillant. Then during that "other" big Holiday...you know the obnoxious one that happens in December where people put lighted trees in their houses and you have to bankrupt yourself getting gifts for people you don't honestly care about but don't want to be a social ass if you don't. Anyway, during X-Mas (I love calling it that...it pisses certain people off when you do that...) we used to watch all those great Rankin-Bass stop action puppet shows. Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the Little Drummer Boy and the Year Without a Santa....what you don't remember that one??? You don't remember the song: "I'm Mr. Heat Miser, I'm Mr. Sun. I'm Mr. Green Christmas I'm Mr. 101...." C'mon.....it wasn't on for that many years but it was great. There used to be some great Variety shows that had X-mas specials too. At least the Simpsons is still making "Treehouse of Terror" specials every Halloween.

Authors Part II

Like I've said before my Wife and I are avid readers. She has been waiting on some stuff to come to paperback as have I so we've discovered some other Writers we have previously passed over. We've discovered some of these folks that blatantly write as two different people. Nora Roberts who writes mostly romance stuff (blahhhhhhh........why do they call it Romance when it's really Soft Core Porn....guys next time your Romance novel reading Girlfriend/Wife gives you grief about Porn call her a hypocrite) writes these crime thrillers as JD Robb. Why? If you're going to use a Nom de Plume why advertise it's you? Stephen King has written a fair number of novels as Richard Bachman. They've done well, but it's reall his name that draws folks in. Cath was pretty much annoyed at the last JD Robb book she read. Said it had too much Romance novel influence in it and from the inside cover you can see that this woman has written a crapload of books. Apparently she is one of those "formula writers". I told my Buddy Brian last night that it's like Mad Libs..."give me a noun....now give me a verb.....now an adjective...". It's like her books are all written on a template. Character A is a detective who has Partner B help him/her solve Crime D, etc etc. Nothing real interesting at all. I hate that. I've read an Author or two like that and just couldn't finish it. Ah well to each his own I guess.

And the award goes to......

Who cares...that's who. Apparently the Emmy awards were Sunday...big whoop. I don't think I've watched an awards show of any kind since Star Wars got snubbed in 1977 and Michael Jackson won every single Grammy in 1983. These shows are nothing but Hollywood/Music industry Politics and popularity contests. Honestly some of the stuff that wins best Picture at the Oscars makes you scratch your head. Nothing I ever liked has ever won and none of the people I want to see perform have never been asked to. I can see why certain Celebs never show up, even if they win.....it's just more elitist crap. If you want my respect and my hard earned cash start making original things and stop rehashing stuff.

RIP Robert Jordan

Yesterday after battling a rare blood disease for several years Robert Jordan the Author of many many books but one series in particular "The Wheel of Time" has passed away leaving his Series unfinished. This is the Author I've spoke of who's books started to get so confusing and bogged down with too many side stories and characters that I hand't bothered to pick up the latest installment (a few years old now) and figured I'd wait because he was writing just one more and it would be the last. Not sure if the tale will ever be finished now. It's a shame that he passed on before he could tell it to us, because he always said the last scene was in his mind that he could see it in detail and he needed to tell the story that came before that scene. RIP RJ, we were grateful for what you gave us while you were here.

Fatty Boom Ba Latty

I saw the beginning of an article about Sports Fans on one of my RSS feeds today that just made me laugh.  The writer said "I'm sure glad I wasn't a kid growing up today, or I'd be 220 pounds by the time I was 12 because I'm sure I would have loved video games and Pringles and NFL Network than I would have going outside to play".    Wow!!!!  Says it all right there.  I stopped going outside to play and my quick metabolism and huge appetite changed.  The metabolism slowed down but the appetite didn't.  It's been that way since college.  I fight that battle of the bulge (although there are times I just spectator at the battle....... :D) but my excuse (and yes it's an excuse) is that I'm in my early 40's and a lazy bastard.  I have earned the right to be a lazy bastard though, but I shouldn't indulge it.  No...no no..... My Step-Daughter Liv likes to say she's fat.....she is built like her Mother, thin as a rail..... I tease her and say that yeah her earlobes are looking pretty pudgy..... We love our conveniences in this Country, but they do make us lazy.  I've seen people out here with the long driveways (not that long either) who's mailboxes are on the curb.  These lazy bastards will drive their car to the curb and reach out the window just to get their mail.  C'mon now.  We are obsessed with skinny.  We really are, but most of us aren't.  Let's look at poor poor little train wreck Brittney Spears.  On the VMA's she came out in her underwear basically and fishnet stockings trying to look sexy but succeeding in looking awkward and pitiful.  Now folks were calling her fat because of a little bit of baby paunch left over.  I've seen the pictures, the girl actually looks like your average woman.  Not fat, just can't pull off the dancing around in her underwear bit.  Not fit, that's for sure....but not fat.  What do we do?  Stop reading my Blog and get off your butts and take a walk.  Meanwhile I will be vegging in front of the tube. 

Confused

In a few months it will be time for my annual report of another year in the contradiction that is Tennessee. The one thing that confuses me the most is the way workers are treated here; and from what I've been told in much of the South. There are no labor movements here, or any that you hear about anyway. Corporations rarely give bonuses nor do they pay what they should, then they wonder why their retention numbers are so low. I just recently received a raise (thank God) and my new Boss and I were discussing this. She's from Boston where Companies spread the wealth. I know large Corporations hold back bonuses when times are hard, but those same Corps spread the wealth when they are doing peachy. Ntt's Brain works at a computer game company (I'm not sure if he's mentioned the name before, so I won't) that's pretty damn huge. Do you think he'd work 7 days a week with all that pressure he's under a lot of the time if the compensation wasn't worth it? That same company out here, there'd be no compensation whatsoever. Too bad so sad...you got a job don't you??? That's what you'd hear. This State is a contradiction of terms, it really is. Back home in California, construction is done by mostly Union Employees who make decent money. Out here it is done by mostly Latinos who are non-Union and getting paid as little as possible, probably under the table. Back home, the Latinos mostly work in the Fast Food industry or the retail industry. Out here those jobs are held by mostly White, middle class Americans. Odd.....very odd. Out here there are very few Unions. The Teachers have one as do the Cops and Firemen. Oh, but get this, the Metro Nashville Police who used to be represented by the FOP (Fraternal Order of Police.....the cops Union) are now represented by the Teamsters?!?!?!?!?! Huh? Jimmy Hoffa's folks, my Dad's folks (and my Dad drove a BreadTruck for 30 something years). Seems odd. The average citizen out here is Middle Class and just making it. These same Middle Class folks tend to vote Republican. I'm confused. Republicans do not care about anyone but themselves. They cater to the Rich and strive to keep the Middle Class in it's place. But yet these folks love these guys. Republicans love to wave that "Family Values" banner and "Pro Life" and "America is a Christian Country" so I guess that would be why. These folks don't see living in a trailer as bad. I would love to live on a good patch of land but the problem with that is you live outside of the City limits and in the County Limits which means you aren't beholden to the rules of the City. You also usually don't have sewer but septic, and you and your neighbors can do pretty much what you want with your property. We drive by these sections and some of the homes are beautiful...gorgeous big homes with well landscaped property, right next door to PWT in his rusty trailer with 20 cars parked wherever, a shack and a bunch of animals running around doing what they want. Nice!!!! Makes you want to take a molotov cocktail and throw it at the trailer to see if it will burn. Or folks set up businesses like junk yards on their land. Nice huh? You get 5 or so acres for a great price, have a gorgeous multi-room home built on it, spend a fortune on ponds, trees, a nice lawn and right next door is Sanford and Son. Do people just not care? I know folks who have bought a nice piece of land then had a manufactured home placed on it. I know the land was cheap, so why not pay someone to build you a nice house. These homes aren't trailers, they are essentially wide rectangles that are put on a foundation, all built in a factory and transported to the location of your choosing by semi. A mobile home is one that has wheels and a hitch, these don't. They are manufactured homes. They cost about 50 something to 100-200 thousand depending on the design. I haven't had a house built, but from what I can figure the price of the land plus the price of the manufactured home is probably equitable to paying a contractor to build you a house. So why not have the house you want built? I'm confused. I wouldn't do that, I just can't see why. Not that these houses aren't nice (some are really nice looking) but you can tell them for what they are. They are big rectangles. Nothing unique or interesting about them. The house I bought is unique. It's 30+ years old and from what I can see in the attic has been added on to and the roof raised. I'd love to find a picture of what it originally looked like back in 1973 or so. That would be interesting.

Fantasy Football

I actually never thought I'd get in to this little pasttime, but dammit I love it!!! I remember a group of ex-Coworkers back Home that I used to compete against. We'd go to a local eatery armed with printouts of player rankings, etc and have a "live" draft. We even did it via IM one time. If you don't know what Fantasy Football is, it's an online game where you can either create a private league for you and friends or join a public league with everyone across the Country. In these leagues you play the part of the General Manager/Headcoach of a football team. Available to you are all of the actual players on the current NFL rosters. You have a computerized draft, or you do a live draft, then before the games are played you shuffle your final starting line-up around. You can trade with other "owners" or go after Free Agents (the list of players that aren't currently assigned to someone in your leagues team). Then if that player actually plays, you score points based on the players actual performance. You are pitted against another "owner" weekly and the "owner" with the most points wins. There are many places you can go online to set leagues up and play. The majority of them are free. Yahoo Sports has one which I've used in the past, and the one we are using this year is from ESPN. You know this thing is popular when every Football wrap up show has a "Fantasy" segment where the Sports Analysts give you recommendations on who to drop, who to keep, and who to go and pick up for your team. Gotta love it. You should try it some time.

6 Years Ago Today

Let's all take a moment and reflect. Today has been proclaimed Patriot Day. A good enough name I guess. Rememberance Day would have been better I think. Let's just pause and remember those that died that day and those that are dying every day in Iraq as a result of that day. Remember folks that these events could have been prevented if enough people would have taken a stand. Flight 93 is a good example of what should have happened on the other 3 flights. We need to stop thinking of our selves in situations like these an act. If you see someone being mugged either try and stop it, or if you don't have the ability to do so, call a cop and make sure you give detailed descriptions. We all have Cell Phones, use them for something other than mindless yakking. If a couple of guys with box cutters stand up on the plane you are flying on, you and the other 100+ so passengers should all stand up and tackle their asses. Be mindful people, that's all I ask. There's an old saying that goes "Evil men thrive because of the inaction of Good men." Let's make that a saying of the past.

Bay Area Sports

So last night I was sooo ready for some football that I actually sat down and watched most of both games. I'm glad they switched MNF to ESPN that way there's not conflicts with Network programming, etc. The Raiders lost on Sunday, but looked good up until they choked and Detroit captialized on the choking and beat them. Now I hear the front office is getting close to sealing the deal with JaMarcus "Whiner" Russell. It does look like his ass will be benched though for the rest of the season. Ha ha....that's what you get for being a greedy bastard. I've already blogged about this so don't get me started. Last night the Niners won (and so did I in Fantasy Football as my Option player Frank Gore got me some points.....as did my QB Carson Palmer got me some points from the Cinci Baltimore game. Sorry Bill....) but it wasn't pretty. The O was just a bit shaky from what I could see...the D solid. It is good to see a Head Coach in a suit again. Mike Nolan looked like a Head Coach should (remember Landry and that Hat....Lombardi too.....). As you know I'm not a Niners fan, but it's hard to see my HomeTown teams on the tube out here unless they are the Monday Night game.

Consumerism

Like everyone else in this fine Nation of ours I am a Consumer.  I like buying stuff.  Stuff I need, stuff I want, stuff I don't really need but want just the same, I am a Consumer and I love it.  Living in a Free Market society is a kick, but you have to watch what you are buying.  The rules of Free Enterprise state that something will cost what the market will bear.  If it's too expensive, folks aren't going to buy it generally.  Thus the reason Apple Computers only have a 2% market when it comes to Home Computers but a larger market share when it comes to digital music players.  Markets are odd though.  MP3 players had just started coming out when the first iPod was made.  Apple did what the others didn't, make it seem trendy and cool to own an iPod.  Made it seem like it was some kind of hip, cool and with it lifestyle to own an iPod.  The masses bought into this, and figured 300 bucks to be cool was a low price to pay.  What they didn't realize was that Apple, like with their home computers, had a proprietary fix on where you were going to get your music for your 300 dollar "cool" accessory.  Yep, they invented their own digital music format the MP4 and you could only buy songs to download to your iPod at iTunes on Apple.com.  This proprietary thinking severely limited their market share in computers, but somehow folks didn't care when it came to downloading songs.  Very odd, but a Free Market is like that.  I personally don't like Apple because of their proprietary attitudes.  I like to be a smart Consumer and shop around.  I like competition, because competition leads to price wars and price wars lead to Yours Truly getting the most value for his hard earned buck.  I've seen 3 GB MP3 players for 70 bucks.  That's alot of music that you can store, and because it's not an iPod you can get if from numerous legal sources and sometimes cheaper than iTunes.  See, true Consumerism.  I want to comparison shop.  I want to look at the product and research the product and see what is required to own and maintain the product.  I'd love to have a BMW, but couldn't afford the monthly payments, the increased insurance premiums, the cost of maintenance etc.   Even if I could get a great interest rate and have low monthly payments, all the other things involved would kill me.  Don't get me wrong, sometimes you do get what you pay for.  You can look at the quality of something and know if it's cheap or not.  I own a Scion which is made by Toyota.  It cost me 15K and for a "cheap" car it's got a lot of quality parts, etc.  The interior is really nice and well put together.  I remember my 93 Saturn I had for 10 years.  When I bought it, you could tell it wasn't made all that great.  Within 3 years things in the interior started breaking.  The Perfect Line will fondly remember the flapping covers on the door sills....he finally duct taped the things for me in disgust.  Then there are certain items that they convince you that you need to use as refills.  I'm talking Gillette and their 5 billion versions of the 3 bladed razor.  Instead of disposing of the whole thing like disposable razor meant, you keep the handle but replace the shaving head.  Gillette created the Mach 3 a 3 bladed razor that actually gave us heavy bearded folk a pretty damn good close shave.  I actually get 5 O'clock shadow now and not 9 AM shadow like I used to get.  It was convenient and economical at first.  Then Schick got in the game.  We are now up to 4 blades plus Gillette has one with a 5th blade on the reverse part of the shaving head for dealing with sideburns.  Gillette countered with a battery powered, vibrating shaver handle that was supposed to make it shave even closer.  I tried one of these, it didn't make a freaking difference whether or not the handle vibrated how close my shave was.  Then they started getting out of hand with the pricing.  Everyone of these razors has a different color scheme.  The original Mach 3 blades are grey and blue, the Mach 3 Turbo(vibrator razor) are green and orange.   Gillette has everyone convinced that you need to buy the green and orange replacement heads for the vibrating one and the grey and blue for the regular one.  Oh yeah, and they are priced differently.  The blue and grey are 15 bucks for 8 and the green and orange are 24 bucks for 8.  Huh??????  I've put blue and grey heads on the vibrating razor and they work the same as the green and orange ones.  Why are they then almost double the price?????  It's stupid, but Men buy them.  I buy the disposable ones and usually get a good deal.  Heck yesterday Cathy and I found 6 Old Spice 4-bladed disposables for 5 bucks at Walgreen's.  I used one this morning and it worked just great.  Kind of why I won't buy an iPod.  I paid 5 bucks for something that someone else is trying to sell me for 15 or 24.....its nuts!!!  Oh yeah, and Gillette also likes to convince you that you should get their shaving gel to go with you Gillette Razors.......it's somehow better because it's made by them.  Okay...whatever.  I use Edge by Foamy and you know what, it's cheaper than the Gillette, has just as much shave gel in it, and works just bloody fine.  I remember when I was a kid and used to give my Dad grief for wanting to buy the Generic crap all the time.  Remember that stuff, it was almost comical the way it was packaged.  It came just like the name brand stuff, but it had a white label with uppercase block letters spelling out the product across it.  i.e. "BEER" or "PEANUT BUTTER".  In that sense, you got what you paid for.  That stuff was crap.  But, the Supermarkets took that idea a bit farther and decided to make their own line of stuff but made it taste comparable and sometimes even better.  Safeway is the huge chain out in California (like Kroger is here in Tennessee) and they had their "Safeway Select" brand of items.  Their salsas were just as good, if not better, than Pace or La Victoria and usually cheaper.  Now that's a smart business technique which a lot of stores do now.  They end up with more of your money in profit and therefore can lure you in with better sales and deals every week.  When it comes to buying food, we are a captive audience.  Kroger has some great Kroger brand stuff; even their pharmacy items.  The Kroger brand of Claritin was 10 bucks for 120 tablets and works just as well as Claritin.  Why?  Same damn chemical.  Loratidine 10 mg.  Heck we buy Kroger ibuprofen....it works just as good as Tylenol and is cheaper.  See Dad, I was paying attention.  I've learned my frugalness from my Father actually.  His favorite saying was "What a bargain!!" and he'd buy 5 cases of something that he really didn't need, but it was such a bargain he couldn't pass it up.  I'm not that way, but I will buy bulk items if it does indeed save you money in the long run.  I remember when we saw some men's shower gel in a 2-pack for a ridiculous price.  I bought it even though I didn't need any at the time.  Hey it doesn't go bad and I will eventually need it.  What a bargain!!!  I guess when the saying "Consumer beware" isn't just a cute tagline.  It's the truth.  Now get out there and shop!!!!

Education

Something I personally have experience being the son of a Woman who worked for a particular School District for alot of years as a Special Education Teacher's Aide. I won't mention the School District as it is the same one that the Discourser is employeed by and it's also the same city that the Discourser's Site is located in. Certain things don't need to be shared for one to get one's point across. Our Country as a whole is way behind good portions of the World in education. Our Teachers and Principal's do not get paid well enough for the job that they are expected to do unless they are employeed by a Private institution. The Professor is a good example as he is employeed by Catholic Private School so for a child to attend the Site where he teaches, the parents have to pay a fee. He get's paid out of this fee. Not the Discourser. His site is a public school and therefore subject to the whims of those that hold the pursestrings in the State and Federal Governments. The Government has always put Education last when figuring out where money goes. This causes our Schools to suffer immensely. It's sad really, because you'd think they would realize that poorly educated children grow up to be poorly educated adults and therefore if some of them were to get elected to a Political Office someday, they'd make poorly educated decisions.....decisions that will affect the retirement funds of all these narrow minded Politicians not doing enough for schools. Idiots. There is a well known correlation between crime and education. If no one cares enough to make school interesting then the kid doesn't care enough to try. If the Parents don't encourage the child to try, then the kid slacks off and gets crappy grades, get's in trouble, then drops out. A High School Drop Out without a GED is someone without a future. Okay, that future may involve the following statement "Would you like to Supersize that?" but that's about it. Kids who are raised with absent parents, ie parents who just don't give a crap, tend to not be enthused about school and therefore end up in Gangs and committing crimes. Hey when you pretty much see that your only future is working crappy jobs for the rest of your life, you tend to try anything that will make it not so. There are some excellent teachers out there. My Step-Daughter Liv thinks her Science teacher is awesome......he's a young guy who is really excited about teaching...Thank God for that. Alot of people get tired of what they consider "crappy" schools and decide to Home School their kids. I think this is a bad idea. It takes jobs away from qualified Teachers and it denies your children the social skills they will need to develop in tomorrow's workplace. My Grandson is in a First Steps program. Something he is really benefitting from. He is learning to make friends, to have structure a schedule if you will, he's learning to write and spell and count. He's learing to socialize with other children his age. Like I mentioned above, he's made one new friend so far. That's great. Home School should be a supplement to a structured public or private education. It's great when parents want to know what their children are doing, it really helps out the teachers. Too many parents are "too busy" to get involved and it's really sad. Here's hoping someone wakes up and helps out the Teachers. They are, after all, shaping our future leaders.

Football Sunday

It is the greatest time of year. It's Fall and that means one thing....FOOTBALL!!!! The National Football League. Ever since I was 12 I have been a Football fan. I chose the Cowboys over the Steelers in the first Superbowl I ever sat through with Dad. Were talking Roger Staubach vs. Terry Bradshaw....those Cowboys and Steelers. I was also a fan of a team of miscreants that had been coached by the man I consider the voice of Football, John Madden. Yep, those miscreants were/are the Oakland Raiders. Not the LA Raiders like they briefly were (I never referred to them as that I just couldn't......if you are not from the Bay Area you don't realize just how much of a dirty word LA is.....).

Updates and Observations

Remember awhile back when I blogged about "The Secret"?  Supposedly you read this book and ask the Universe for what you want and you will get it.  So far the money I asked the Universe hasn't showed up yet.  Like I said, "The Secret" is a scam. 

 

Life has gotten better for the Ranter though.  My wonderful Wife is finally an official Real Estate Agent.  Something she has been working on doing for some time now.  Did she succeed by asking the Universe?  Heck no, she succeeded in the one true way to success: perseverance and hard work.  Yep good old "nose to the grindstone" studying and reading then taking the proper tests and classes.  Gee....maybe I should write a book called "The Obvious Secret".....of course it would be pamphlet sized and have on thing in it: "The secret to success is to keep trying until you either achieve your goal or admit to your self that the goal was a bit too lofty."  Nice huh?  Wonder how many copies I'd sell?

 

The growing scandals in GOP land have me laughing at the Conservative, Right-Wingers who bash gays, and everyone else who isn't white and doesn't attend the same church.  Here we have Senator Craig, the same man who was responsible for "don't ask, don't tell" the same man who joins in the GOP chorus of "God is Right....gays should die, etc etc"....and here he is kneeling in airport bathroom stalls (and he has been doing this off and on since the 80's) bobbing for apples..... Don't you love hypocrisy???  Ever notice, the louder the person saying "NO NO YOU EVIL, PERVERTED FIEND" the more deeply and darkly perverted and evil they are??? 

 

Honestly folks, we are all hypocrites.  Kind of why I don't belong to any organized religion anymore.  I know I'm a hypocrite; I often have the attitude of "do as I say, not as I do".  Especially with my youngest Step-Child.  She's 13 and I don't want her to be influenced by the stupid crap I did when I was young and dumb.  You do get a chance to make up for you youthful stupidity by making sure your children don't make the same mistakes.  Christianity is that way.  The Bible preaches love, tolerance, honor, fidelity, clean living, etc etc.  "Love thy neighbor" is something credited to Jesus as is "turn the other cheek" or "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (I guess Senator Craig really liked this one although I'm not sure if anyone reciprocated or not), but yet criticize a Christian or say you don't agree with them, and they are the first to turn violent, hateful and vindictive.  Things Jesus didn't teach us.  Hypocrites for sure.  I can understand if you don't want gays to be married in your church.  Your church, your rules.  Although it's still a form of discrimination.  It's just like a Country Club only admitting White members.  Can't do it.  Since when did the attitudes of a particular religion influence what our Government does?  I thought we had a separation of Church and State????  I know this Country was founded because of a particular group of folks who wanted Freedom of Religion.  That term really means, "Freedom to choose religion or not" as there is no official US religion (although there are a lot of Christians, but that doesn't mean it's official).  Lately it means "Freedom to be Christian and flaunt that fact and the other Religions be damned".  I would honestly love to see Giuliani or Romney get elected President.  An Italian Catholic or a Mormon.....wow!!!  That would shake some crap up wouldn't it???  Why are some Christians so annoying?  You know the one's I'm talking about.  The BAGGIES...Born Again Christians...the Ultra Fundamentalists who do nothing all day but think about Jesus Christ.  The one's that ask you, whether you want them to or not, "Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ??"   Yeah, I do.  He's coming over Sunday to watch Football.  We're going to have some Nachos and Beer.  I usually respond with "it's kind of hard to.  He hasn't been around for over 3,000 years...." They also don't have a sense of humor either.  They have their little fish symbol, you know the one, that they all put on their cars.  Someone created one of those with four feet and the word Darwin in the middle.  They didn't think it was funny...actually made a rebuttal Jesus fish eating the Darwin fish.  See, perfect example of a Christian Scorned and they violence they are capable of.  What happened to turning the other cheek?  That doesn't sound like it to me.  Or what about the "WWJD" they love to plaster on lanyards, t-shirts you name it.  What Would Jesus Do? they ask.  He's smack the crap out of you for using him as a marketing tool, that's what he'd do.