There is no escaping reality with drugs. They involve a physical reaction. They trigger the brain's pleasure center by releasing endorphins. This makes the individual experience a state of euphoria that's equivalent to the mood one has after falling in love or winning a lottery. No subsequent experience ever equals the first, and this sets the individual on a course of trying to have that experience again.

Unfortunately, each use of any drug diminishes the ability to do just that. Along the way, the individual becomes tolerant to the increased level of endorphins and when the increasing amount of drugs fail to deliver that level, the individual becomes despondent and sometime physically sick. Certainly, this does not come close to describing what the individual feels during that period. It's impossible to describe, but it is terrible.

Something to remember is that for each good experience the drug delivers, it takes back ten times that in horrible experiences, which is why addicts often commit suicide rather than live in that condition. Nevertheless, staying in that bad experience gradually bring recovery from the physical and mental torment, but it does not stop the psychological desire to repeat that tirst experience which is why so many addicts relapse.

This is why it's so important not to have that first experience. What you do not know, you cannot miss.

You need to add up all your current living expenses and try to predict what future emergency costs might occur. Then you need to factor in inflation and estimate how long you might live. Multiply your life expectancy by your estimated expenditures. That will give you an idea of the amount you need.

If it's less than a few million dollars, I'd be surprised. I'd also be surprised if you can acquire such a sum by age 35.

A better plan would be to open a brokerage account with TDAmeritrade or its equivalent, and also open a Roth IRA wsith TDAmeritrade. Try to max out the Roth contributions and put as much as possible in the taxable account. In both accounts, buy closed-end income funds and closed-end global equity funds.

You may not retire at 35, but you'll be well on the way to financial security.

There was a woman in New Hampshire named Kimberly Cates. A gang of young thugs broke into her house while she and her daughter were sleeping. The home invaders hacked Kimberly to death with machetes. It took her a while to bleed to death while they continued to chop her beautiful face into hamburger. They even cut off one of her feet at one point.

They left her daughter for dead but she survived, scarred for life. New Hampshire's death penalty is restricted to murder of police and some other very narrow circumstances. One of the monsters was convicted and sent to prison for life and now he's running around bragging about what he did. Another is claiming insanity in his current trial.

By any measure of decency, these animals should not be allowed to live, but New Hampshire law currently does no allow for real justice. That infuriated many people.

There are some crimes that are so horrible that only the death penalty can be true justice in response to them. The murder of Kimberly Cates is an example of that. It taxes the imagination how these neanderthals could laugh and enjoy such butchery and still be part of the human race.

Imagine what Kimberly Cates felt as those blades kept taking out chunks of her body, knowing that the young merciless dirtbags wielding those machetes would never suffer anything equivalent to the atrocity they were inflicting on her.

Fortunately, the recently elected state legislative majority have submitted a bill to include such crimes under the qualifications for the death penalty. Even so, there are people who object to this. They are among the cretins who think there should be no death penalty.

Only people who have the potential to commit such a crime themselves would have this inexplicable mentality.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, "When I was sixteen my father was an embarrassment. He knew little and just did not understand the important things in life. When, I was 25, I was surprised at how much he had learned in just nine years." The same could be said by your sons in the future about you as a mother.

That's typical of all teenagers. Brains are not fully developed at that age. Hence, most have a self-centric view of life. That will change.

Judging from what you wrote and the skill with which you wrote it, you clearly are a highly intelligent and educated individual. That puts you at an advantage.

When you are in conflict with the boys, you need to take positions you know are correct. When you are wrong, don't deny it but don't advertise it either.

You need to hold onto a set of guiding principles and stop thinking about how they might feel about you. That they have a father who undermines your authority makes high behavioral standards more important than ever.

Respect must come first; love will follow. It's a natural course of life. At some point in their lives, they'll reassess their positions and come to you racked with guilt over their treatment of you. It's at that point when you will truly reap the reward of sticking to your guiding principles.

The father will be out in the cold when they realize the abominably poor judgment he exercises. Giving pot to kids is preparation for a prison term. This guy must be a total idiot.

He doesn't. There is no God. He was invented to control the behavior those who can be convinced to believe that he exists.

You could do the same with a rock in your back yard. You could claim the rock is all powerful and is the source of all good that happens to you. When something bad happens to you, it's because you didn't believe deeply enough in the rock. Also, if you deny the divinity of the rock or fail to worship it correctly, you'd be punished when you die.

On the other hand, if you were to tie a bomb to your back and blow yourself up in order to kill people who don't believe in the rock, you'd be rewarded with 72 virgins to rape or sodomize as you please. Still, you would not want to wonder why the rock, being all powerful wouldn't kill the unbelievers itself. (This is a question that muslim terrorists are too stupid to ask themselves about Allah.)

Wondering about that would be blasphemy. Remember, if you blaspheme, you'd be punished after you die. Why wouldn't you be punished before you die? Asking that question is blasphemy.

Neither would you be permitted to wonder if the rock really is all powerful. Nor would you be permitted to ask for proof of its power or to see its power with your own eyes. Doing so would mean you'd be puninished when you die.

Do you see how easy it is to invent your own religion with gullible people?

It's easiest to forget one love by finding a new one. Heartbreak can be terrible. No one is imune.

Just remember it's your behavior that determines how you appeal to the opposite sex. For the future, I suggest you read Love Tactics or get the audiobook. It's written by two guys in a way that takes you step-by-step through the process, and it works.

That's easy. Position a couple SEAL snipers on the bow of the navy ship and clear them to fire at will.

These guys can all knock out the eye of a gnat at a hundred yards. All it takes is for a Somali to expose his head an inch into the sights of one of these guys' 50-cal rifles and the impact would rip out a hunk of skull the size of a baseball. The snipers could pick off the dirtbags before the dirtbags even know what's happening.

If the officer in charge wanted to be a wash-cloth liberal he'd wait for the dirtbag to surrender and watch while the dirtbags butchered their prisoners and then surrendered and asked for taxpayer-funded lawyers.

It depends on your skills, knowledge, and resources and into what area you intend to go. For instance, if you intend to sell a product it will have to be something for which many people would be willing pay, except it would have to be cheaper and better than your competition. Finding that product is not easy and it's hard to market things if no one knows about it. That means laying out money for advertising.

If you're thinking of providing an online service, such as providing research information, you'd have to do it better, quicker, and more accurate than the competition. Drawing a large audience to your website would allow you to sell advertising.

As a general note to success: think of something you enjoy doing and then find a way to make money at doing it.

It was the moniker given to American soldiers in World War I. They got it because of their appetite for doughnuts. At first, they were called Sammies after Uncle Sam, but they dispised being called by that name and after a few broken faces, it died out and was replaced by Doughboy.

Establish a set of behavioral rules and when he breaks one, ensure he is punished consistently. If that takes a spanking, then so be it.

Too many paraents are afraid to discipline their offspring because they fear their children won't love them later. That's a myth. You can't be a friend and be a good a parent.

Children love even the most abusive of parents. However, harshness is as unhelpful as reluctance to punish transgressions. Consistent enforcement of acceptable behavioral standards is the key. Before a child can love you, he or she has to respect you. Without respect, you are a failure, and you plant the seeds that will grow into much greater control problems as the child ages.

In addition, you risk being one of those embarrassed parents you see in stores with raging brats, screaming like banshees because they can't have something on the shelf. At that point, it's too late to expect a child to respond to attempts to make it behave.

Those type pararents are losers. Parental discipline has to be in place at all times, not just when the family goes out.