Matthew 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven."

I'd love to see these so-called "religious" people practice what they preach.

I have been in insane amounts of debt for my dogs. My pug cost $4000, after being diagnosed with literally hundreds of bladder stones and an abnormally small liver. I would "need" to bring him to a "liver specialist" to determine the cause of his small liver. I discovered that "doggie liver specialist" was my personal uncrossable line and opted to treat him with a "human grade" diet and crossed fingers. He's now happy, healthy, and completely unaware of his "small" liver.

At least part of that bill was paid for by my pet insurance. When I got my dog, I looked at him and realized that it would be an unacceptable choice, euthanizing him because I couldn't afford the medical bill, so I figured I'd BETTER get insurance. While it's true that if you have a healthy pet, it may seem like a "waste of money," but if you have a pet like mine, you quickly discover that pet insurance can pay for itself many times over.

I should note that the vet "offered" to sell me prescription "liver-health" dog food at a cost of $3 a can, significantly more expensive than the $1 a day it cost me to feed him beef and rice and veggies. He would have sold me potassium citrate (to prevent the recurrence of stones in his urine) for $35 a can and put up a fight when I requested a prescription which would allow me to buy the exact same product on the web for $20. All of which leads me to believe that there's more than a little good old-fashioned greed being thrown into the mix. We simply cannot trust vets in the same way that we might trust our own physicians. (And maybe THAT'S a mistake too, but that's a whole other discussion.) There are some great ones out there, some truly noble people, but everyone has to make a living, right?

Pets are not toys. They are living beings, and when we bring them into our homes, we owe them our compassion and care. But we've all got to go sometime, and we do have to be willing to acknowledge when their illness has surpassed our ability to care for them. Then we owe them a peaceful death, at least. I have known compassionate vets who come to people's homes to euthanize elderly dogs so that they may die in peace and calm, in their home. That's what we owe them. Don't get them if you can't care for them but ultimately, we've got to learn to accept mortality, either for ourselves or our pets.

What astounds me about this entire presidential campaign is the arrogance and stupidity (always a deadly combination) of the reporters and pundits (sorry) covering it. You guys are the very definition of insiders. You've got your heads so far up your collective heinies that you have absolutely no idea -- absolutely none -- about what so-called "average" people think.

Everyone I'VE spoken to thinks Obama's response to Hillary was hysterically funny and totally on target. And you don't have to be a sociologist to understand that the "ruling classes" (for lack of a less loaded phrase) actually control the not-so-ruling-classes by stirring the homophobia-gun control-God and country pot to draw their attention away from the fact that they're being manipulated, mangled, and abused.

As a member of the working class (as opposed to the middle class, to which I aspire), I can assure you that working people are not stupid. Undereducated, possibly, but not stupid. We are angry and yes, bitter, about the state of affairs in this country. My income has decreased (in real dollars) every year; I am paddling as fast as I can to keep from drowning. I can't afford to send my child to a public college. I drive a 13 year old car (a reliable foreign car, sadly), and my property taxes, on the condo I can barely afford, go up every year. Soon I'll be out on the street. I have two sons of "draft" age, and I cry every time I see another mother lose a son or daughter in Iraq, because I can only imagine how they feel and I want the bleeding to stop. One of my son's best friends will be in Iraq soon, and we'll all be holding our breath and praying.

Yeah, I'm bitter, and I want someone to address my actual concerns. I can not possibly care less that Hillary's grampie took her shooting out behind the cottage. I am deeply insulted that she thinks that kind of argument has any power.

What the candidates and the press seem completely incapable of understanding is that we're fed up with all this baloney. We're fed up with their pandering and we're fed up with your silly analyses of non-issues. Stop it stop it stop it. Start dealing with the issues.