I am becoming dangerously close to my 40th high school graduation reunion. In 40 years this has not been something that I have done. As a matter of fact, through the years contact between me and any one of the 100 graduates has been, well, nonexistant....excepting for a couple guys. Let me come clean. I would have been a nerd if I had been smarter and computers had been around. Without that I was just not a piece of the puzzle. Being happily married for the past 34 years rules out any fascination that might be there for those sexually charged years. Look, it seems like its something I'm supposed to do. But back then I carried half the weight I do now and I could see the whole social thing just repeat itself again with the cliques that have reformed at previous reunions putting me right back in my place. They've contacted me before and they'll do it again. Can you help me out on this? I don't want to screw this up.

News Item: After overwhelming chest-pounding and other inflamatory behavior, the Democrats were told to put up or shut up. 3 congressmen voted to begin a military pullout of Iraq. 403 voted against the idea. The Dems accused the Republicans with performing a political stunt in calling their bluff. Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Tex.), who spent seven years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said U.S. forces in Iraq "need our full support." He added: "They need to have full faith that a few naysayers in Washington won't cut and run and leave them high and dry."
The Democrats who honestly believe we should begin a military pullout should have supported this Republican sponsored measure or write one themselves. Given they are unwilling to do either, they should get out of the way and shut up.

I'm real confused. Nothing personal now.....but.....Why do all these gay song writers compose and sing songs about their presumed heterosexual relationships? Barry Manilow, Elton John and others. I mean for the last 25 yrs, how can Elton sing stuff like "Tiny Dancer" and be satisfied with the experience? Is all of this about deceit for the almighty dollar? Or is this a wishful thought on their parts? I have never seen this addressed in interviews or discussion groups.

We have a handful of professional ministers who are blogging with us under the religion category. They each have fascinations for PreChistian Philosophers and dubious Bishops centuries after Christ's church organization was extinguished. Being professional, they blog more than your standard religious blogger. They are aware of the membership losses evident in their particular orthodox denominations. God's purposes roll on where the truth is found. They are so attracted to Aristotle because his goal was the journey toward non-contradiction rather than Truth. That is his fundamental tenet. Truth was secondary to him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle ---------- As an Genuine Christian, truth is vital to me. -------------The Pharisees of old questioned Jesus using Aristotle's method, trying to cross him. They weren't interested in the truth, given He was in plenty of trouble because was telling too much of it. They knew the truth had already convicted them. In using the tenets of Aristotle, political leaders (prodded by the Pharisees) were getting Christ to appear contradictory by figuring out ways to get him to cross himself to their satisfaction. That was all that was necessary to have him KILLED. This is the game of our blogstreaming latter day Pharisees who require a discussion based upon the method of Aristotle and other philosophers of the time.--------------- By the way, what do you recall was Christ's response to the questions from those vipers? It was Silence. ------------------------- Not referencing Paul or Christ or Moses, or David, or Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Peter, or James in real gospel doctrine discussions, they want a debate that avoids the Truth.

Vietnam study shows bird flu virus mutating - media
The Daily Star (Malaysia) ^ | November 13, 2005

HANOI (Reuters) - Scientists in Vietnam, where bird flu has killed 42 people, said the deadly H5N1 influenza virus had mutated into a more dangerous form that could breed more effectively in mammals, state media reported on Sunday.

The online newspaper Vnexpress quoted Cao Bao Van, director of the Molecule Biology Department of the Pasteur Institute, Vietnam's centre of bird flu research, as saying the decoding of 24 samples of the virus taken from poultry and humans showed significant antigen variation.

An antigen is any foreign substance that stimulates the body's immune system to produce antibodies.

A Vietnamese man seen standing behind a red cross at the National Institute for Clinical Research in Tropical Medicine, a hospice for infected bird flu patients, in Hanoi, Vietnam, inb this November 11, 2005 file photo. (REUTERS/Kham) Van said the study had showed an antigenic shift involving major antigenic changes of the influenza surface proteins, the HA and NA molecules. These changes can result in the appearance of pandemic viruses.

Van said the study had also found a mutation of the PB2 gene in a virus sample from a patient in Dong Thap, southern Vietnam, who died earlier this year. The mutation allows more effective breeding of the virus in mammals. ...The virus had developed resistance to anti-flu agents Amatadine and Rimantadine.

Vietnam, where the H5N1 virus has hit nine of the country's 64 provinces since returning in early October, has recorded 92 cases of human bird flu infection and 42 death.