Jamie123

The first time I heard that was when I was 10, in assembly at school; some kids got up and "performed" it, after which the teacher stepped in and asked "Does anyone not know why that is funny?" When answer came there none she proceeded to explain it anyway. Jokes are never funny when you have to explain them, and since this one had never been very funny to begin with anyway it was rather an exercise in dreariness.
I prefer the Bronx-accent version anyway:
On the matter of "Spring is Sprung..." though, you can't forget Tom Lehrer's "Poisoning Pigeons"...
Has me in stitches every time!

"Whatever will be, will beeee...."
(When I was just a leetle girl, I asked my mother, what will I beeee? Will I be pretty? Will I be rich? Here's what she said to meeeee....)

Its always in the last place you look.
 
Of course it is... once you find it... you stop looking

I admit that I am seriously impressed by the Fox News clip. That man is speaking my language. I almost laughed out loud when he called out Obama for his (typical) classless, condescending instruction toward the sadly benighted British, who rightly rewarded the "leader of the free world" with the finger. I'm less impressed by the first clip of him insulting von Rompuy, but that may just be because I have never understood or gotten used to the nasty rough-and-tumble tenor of European (especially British) political discourse.

You've gotta like Nige. Just look at Rompuy's expression during that tirade!
P.S. I just found this...

Quite uncanny!

I first took notice of Nigel Farage when he lambasted the newly minted President of the European Union back in February of 2010 (Von Rompuy took office in Jan 2010).  And he says it like it is.  (see short video below).  Although Farage is not quite accurate in attacking Von Rompuy's appointment... after all, Rompuy was elected by the European Council (composed of the government leaders of the EU states), his speech struck a cord.  The EU has been trying to mimic the structure of the United States of America with each State leader choosing the President (in the US each State established a system by which the people gets to decide who the State chooses to be President - this does not exist in any State of the EU).  But they keep on messing up because each member state is too diverse from each other and they're forcing them to lose their individual identity in the name of multiculturalism and globalism.  For example - the EU wanted to ban certain teapots in the name of Climate Change... fine in Belgium, not fine in Britain (teapots are ingrained in British culture).  And so the British people are feeling the pinch of losing the things that make them British to a Belgian or foreign EU President.
 
 
Anyway, after decades of Nigel Farage fighting the EU over British autonomy, he finally found himself, surprisingly, with a resounding WIN.  In my opinion, Brexit is the right path for Britain in the same manner that I believe the dismantling of the Soviet Union was the right path for the Soviet States.  The United States of America is a unique conglomeration of States which is a success because of the strength of the US Constitution.
This Fox interview with Farage yesterday was brilliant - Farage expressed perfectly what I feel about the relationship between Britain and the EU:
 
 
 

Indeed she has.
Back in the '80s when I was a student I used to listen to Cyndi Lauper - together with Chris de Burgh, Peter Gabriel, Rush, Barcley James Harvest, Kate Bush, Mozart, Dire Straits, Clannad... and oh so many more. Such wonderful music...

I don't think Just a Guy was suggesting that paedophilia is admirable - but that people afflicted with it are admirable for resisting it. A person is not the same as his or her temptations. 

Indeed she has.
Back in the '80s when I was a student I used to listen to Cyndi Lauper - together with Chris de Burgh, Peter Gabriel, Rush, Barcley James Harvest, Kate Bush, Mozart, Dire Straits, Clannad... and oh so many more. Such wonderful music...

It's hard for a 63 year old lady to get people thinking "damsel", but dang, she still got it.  
She was also on the Simpsons and the Mario Brothers Super Show.

It makes every bit of sense and is perfectly germane to this discussion.
A crocodile keeper is responsible for making sure his crocodiles don't eat anyone. If he does his job well and no kids end up as crocky-din-dins then we rightly give him our admiration.
Similarly a person who is afflicted with paedophilic tendencies has a responsibility to keep those tendencies in check so no one gets hurt. If he does this well then yes...I think he deserves our admiration.
OK the analogy isn't perfect because:
(i) A crocodile keeper has a responsibility also for keeping his crocodiles healthy; he could keep zoo visitors even safer by shooting all his crocs through the head, but that would only get him the sack. A "righteous" paedophile on the other hand would prefer to give up his paedophilic urges than merely to control them, but that is often not possible. (As Paul discovered with his "thorn in the flesh".)
(ii) A crocodile keeper has likely chosen his profession, while for a paedophile (good or bad) it has probably been thrust upon him by his own childhood abuse.
P.S. I'm not suggesting that Paul was a paedophile - only that what he refers to in 2 Corinthians 12 may have been something analogous to this.

I'm gonna take a shot at.... something with crocodiles.... 

I understand that. I'm saying that the idea of associating any level of admiration with certain types of evil doesn't resound with me.
There is a broader discussion to be had here, of course, and it is decidedly complex. And the current morale mores of our society throw a huge wrench into the mix (we are, after all, all nothing but victims, right? )
If I take it a bit closer to home I might say the same of those who have overcome pornography (something both JaG and I have had past trials with). I do not feel there is anything admirable about my overcoming those things. I admire those who have never gotten entrenched in the first place.
It's a semantic issue...and that can go on for days without going anywhere, so I suspect it's not worth pursuing.
There is only one admirable way, imo, and that is Christ's. Any other is naught but mercy. I know...semantics. What is "admirable"? It's just a word. I guess I use it contextually differently than others. (I do the same with words like "shame" apparently too.)

The point is that you fight for the right thing no matter what.  It doesn't matter that the old American culture has died; those who have the remnants of the old American culture in them fight on because that is just what you do. That is how you carry on in some small part the old America.
Life isn't so much about the results, because in the long run we are all dead. Life is about the struggle, the character you build, who you become by doing the right thing over and over and over again no matter the consequences no matter the chances of success. 

"I hope Great Britain is able to survive without Greece."
- Dennis Miller

And you think Great Britain isn't a melting pot also these days?
For sure Americans relish the taste of "Germanness" at the Oktoberfest, wear green on St. Paddy's day and go to Chinese restaurants, but these are excursions away from the everyday norm. (Except of course for actual German, Irish and Asian émigrés and their descendants but these are sub-cultures.) 
I'm probably going to get roasted for saying this, but I've always seen "Anglo-Saxonness" as still dominant in the USA, just as it is in the UK.
This won't last forever of course, and probably it shouldn't. It's a crumbling wall, but a wall nonetheless.

...and I wouldn't have predicted it in a million years. (Well maybe that's an exaggeration - let's say 10.)
Great Britain is no longer going to be a part of Europe.
 Which it never was really, except on paper. We never even adopted that stupid annoying "Euro" currency. Aside from thinking that the NHS (our equivalent of Obamacare, which we've had since the 1950s and most of us use) is a "good idea", and not automatically equating "socialist" with "spawn of the devil", we've much more in common with our cousins over the Atlantic with those over the Channel. 
But I was still predicting an easy win for the Remain campaign.
Just as I was also predicting an easy win for Hillary over Trump. Despite the fact that they look and act totally differently (and the fact that Trump is stinking rich), there's a good parallel between Trump and Farage. Both certainly want to keep foreigners out of their countries.
So come November who knows...?
Meanwhile here's a picture of Nigel Farage, about to win the "who can open his mouth the widest" competition...
 

...and I wouldn't have predicted it in a million years. (Well maybe that's an exaggeration - let's say 10.)
Great Britain is no longer going to be a part of Europe.
 Which it never was really, except on paper. We never even adopted that stupid annoying "Euro" currency. Aside from thinking that the NHS (our equivalent of Obamacare, which we've had since the 1950s and most of us use) is a "good idea", and not automatically equating "socialist" with "spawn of the devil", we've much more in common with our cousins over the Atlantic with those over the Channel. 
But I was still predicting an easy win for the Remain campaign.
Just as I was also predicting an easy win for Hillary over Trump. Despite the fact that they look and act totally differently (and the fact that Trump is stinking rich), there's a good parallel between Trump and Farage. Both certainly want to keep foreigners out of their countries.
So come November who knows...?
Meanwhile here's a picture of Nigel Farage, about to win the "who can open his mouth the widest" competition...
 

...and I wouldn't have predicted it in a million years. (Well maybe that's an exaggeration - let's say 10.)
Great Britain is no longer going to be a part of Europe.
 Which it never was really, except on paper. We never even adopted that stupid annoying "Euro" currency. Aside from thinking that the NHS (our equivalent of Obamacare, which we've had since the 1950s and most of us use) is a "good idea", and not automatically equating "socialist" with "spawn of the devil", we've much more in common with our cousins over the Atlantic with those over the Channel. 
But I was still predicting an easy win for the Remain campaign.
Just as I was also predicting an easy win for Hillary over Trump. Despite the fact that they look and act totally differently (and the fact that Trump is stinking rich), there's a good parallel between Trump and Farage. Both certainly want to keep foreigners out of their countries.
So come November who knows...?
Meanwhile here's a picture of Nigel Farage, about to win the "who can open his mouth the widest" competition...
 

...and I wouldn't have predicted it in a million years. (Well maybe that's an exaggeration - let's say 10.)
Great Britain is no longer going to be a part of Europe.
 Which it never was really, except on paper. We never even adopted that stupid annoying "Euro" currency. Aside from thinking that the NHS (our equivalent of Obamacare, which we've had since the 1950s and most of us use) is a "good idea", and not automatically equating "socialist" with "spawn of the devil", we've much more in common with our cousins over the Atlantic with those over the Channel. 
But I was still predicting an easy win for the Remain campaign.
Just as I was also predicting an easy win for Hillary over Trump. Despite the fact that they look and act totally differently (and the fact that Trump is stinking rich), there's a good parallel between Trump and Farage. Both certainly want to keep foreigners out of their countries.
So come November who knows...?
Meanwhile here's a picture of Nigel Farage, about to win the "who can open his mouth the widest" competition...
 

Wash your mouth out with soap!
 

Maybe you'd prefer this one of Hillary...

On just about every opinion where people disagree with me, obviously there is something wrong with you.  In this short video, I explain in great detail, the depths of wrong you people just sink to, when you disagree with me. 
(I apologize in advance for the harsh language.)
 

In my mind, the primary purpose of prayer is worship, to try to grow closer to God.
 
That being said, I do sometimes come to God with particular problems. In those cases, though, I don't tend to expect an overt response. God is the author of all that is good. When good things happen in my life, I have to acknowledge that God is their source. When I bring those particular concerns to him, I believe that he will either grant them or He will not. If He grants them, I believe he either does so through the thoughts and actions of others or of myself. If He does not grant them, well, then He sees a bigger picture than I do and I'm sure He has a good reason.
 
I think the best reason to pray is precisely for those times when He doesn't give you what you want. It's easy to be a good Christian when everything is going great, it's harder when the road gets tough. It's best in my mind to grow closer to him while things are going well so that you have a stronger foundation to start on when things start to go wrong.
 
-Claire