I adored Jackie Kennedy, but I think that most people did back then. We were caught up in the whole Camelot mystique. And then when President Kennedy was killed the martyr syndrome only enhanced the attraction. Of course, years later we found out that it was all an illusion.

When I was a about six years old my father drove this old retired school bus for our church in order to pick up kids that lived too far out to come to vacation bible school. Here in Richmond, VA. we have a very steep hill downtown on 26th street, it runs about three blocks and ends at a canal at the bottom. The road at the bottom of the hill is just a few yards from the canal and there is a train trestle that runs right down the middle of it.

One day my father had to go down that hill and as we started down the bus began to go a little fast, so my father reached down and put his foot on the brake and it went completely to the floor and had no effect. We began to really pick up speed because the hill is pretty steep. I was sitting behind my dad and I saw him reach down and try to put the bus into a lower gear in order to slow it down, but all that happened was the gears made this horrendous grinding sound. Dad tried several times, all to no avail.  Meanwhile, the other children were screaming and crying for their mothers or just screaming in terror. I was almost petrified and all I could think to yell was " Turn dad, turn dad, turn dad."

Well, as luck would have it we caught green lights all the way to the bottom with my father struggling to slow the bus down. To this day, I don't know how he did it, but as we reached the bottom he yanked the steering wheel hard to the left and wrestled that old piece of junk right between the pilings of that train trestle. We ran across a narrow strip of dirt that bordered the canal and around the next piling and back on to the road where the bus rolled to a stop. He spent the next five or ten minutes calming the us kids down and then walk to a gas station down on the corner and called the church to tell them what happened. The minister and half a dozen other cars showed up to give us rides to the church. My father and I, along with several other kids rode with the minister and another man and along the way my dad told them what had occurred and they started laughing and to this day I don't understand how that was possible because I didn't see anything funny in the situation, let me tell you. Anyway my father, who was never a patient or tolerant man told the minister to go to hell and we never attended that church again. In fact, I don't remember going to church anymore after that.

I know that memories are not always reliable and I don't know how fast we were really going or how precarious the turn was the bottom of the hill, but that is the way I remember in my six year old mind. But, what I do know is that the terror was real.

You've go mail.

As someone holding a doctorate in profanity my first response would be to show them what real good old fashion cussing is all about. But nowadays, with the populace armed to the teeth it's better to either ignore it or quietly withdraw because cursing not only indicates an individual with a poor vocabulary, but someone lacking control and you don't need to deal with a person like that.

I guess I would have to say war. While slavery and bondage does still exist in many areas, great strides have been made in it's attenuation. However, even when countries abolish slavery, as has happened in the US, Europe and many other countries, war always maintains it's horrible presence and I think it always will.  

Well, as of today, probably Putin because of the Crimean situation. But, I guess that would be infamous, wouldn't it?

I don't agree with the take over. I've read quite a few articles about it with differing opinions as to what the west's response should be. I'm no expert in foreign affairs, but it seems to me that the big problem is that Putin is violating international laws established by the EU, US, Russia, China and the Asian countries. Everyone agreed to obey those laws and you can't have one rogue nation flaunting their power and taking advantage of the fact that everyone else is adhering to the legal framework.

I think everyone realizes that there wont be any military action taken in this situation. However, there are measures that the west can employ that will exact a penalty from Russia such as asset seizures, travel bans, putting missal batteries in eastern Europe. That last one is of great concern to Putin and Russia's economy is in a more precarious position that the west's so economic penalties will be more detrimental to Russia. In fact, any economic penalties Putin uses will actually hurt him more than us.

I read that Russia has enacted travel bans on some western officials and all I can say is " oh shoot".

No, I'm afraid I don't. I've spent the entire last decade reading and researching this very idea. When my younger brother died in 2003 I began to wonder whether God truly existed and the reason that I started on this quest probably seems stupid to most people, but the reason is that my brother died after a long illness and when we went to the emergency room for the last time a chaplain took my mother, aunt and myself into the room where they had been working him. And as I stood there gazing at him I was struck by how undignified he looked on that table. I know it's ridiculous, but I though "if God was real then there would be more dignity to this and less pain", crazy I know, but that's what went through my mind. So, I began to read intensively on the subject. I read the Bible and interpretations by biblical scholars as well as biblical critics. Books by historians, anthropologist, scientist and countless others. My final take on the subject was that faith is arbitrary and requires belief without evidence and that is deluding yourself, miracles are nothing more than statistical anomalies, and most of the Bible can only be taken as symbolic because a great many things that are promoted as history never happened. For instance, there is absolutely no anthropological proof that the Jews were ever enslaved to the Egyptians and the exodus never happened. And if you want to read something really depressing check into the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And I don't mean read them, I mean read an analysis by historians and even biblical historians.

What's necessary here is to approach the subject objectively and read all the information and not just what you know supports your beliefs. And while it's depressing when you are finished there is also a feeling of liberation. Like I said, I apologize to those this may offend, but that is my honest opinion.

Yes, I believe in the virtual world in the sense that it is a man made object just like a table or any other physical creation, but to consider it in any sense as an alternate reality is nothing more than a philosophical exercise and in my opinion. A brain game.

Environment is a defined term, not a subjective one. It's the physical system surrounding a person or organism.