You asked, "How many of the "pro animal Peta crowd" here give or raise money for their local zoos or donate their time as a docent?"

As an animal rights activist of 20 years, I can confidently answer that very few "Peta crowd" people give one penny or one second to zoos, as we do not support zoos. Zoos are prisons for animals.

We do give much of our time and money to pro-animal causes, including wildlife conservation in the wild. Back before I took an oath to obey the laws (as a lawyer) I also gave of my freedom, when I felt it necessary to engage in civil disobedience.

Conserving animals in the wild is good; imprisoning individual animals in zoos for the sake of keeping their species alive in captivity, though they go extinct in the wild, is more for our benefit than theirs, IMHO. If tigers go extinct due to human greed and indifference as we overrun the planet, then so be it; we don't deserve their company.

Genetic diversity for where and when: the magical day when the billions and billions (and counting) of humans give back land to the cheetah and tiger and other disappearing species?

Free their DNA samples if you must, but do not make individual animals pay for our mistakes and crimes.

Coffee time.

And they still raise thousands upon thousands on cattle in the desert states where the cowboys roam and the cattle drain the acquifers and tear up the soil. The cowboys, meanwhile, shoot and poison the competing "critters" before they send their cattle off to slaughter so that the fat boys on those golf courses can enjoy a nice steak for lunch.

Change the culture or watch it dry up and blow away.

I'm torn betweeen John Edwards' willingness to fight the corporate bastards who run our government, and Barack Obama's breathtaking potential to be the first black elected as President. If only Obama had Edward's fighting spirit, I'd be 100 percent committed.

As it is, he's still preaching kumbaya. The problem is that now is not the time for kumbaya. The Rightwing and their rich puppetmasters have had their foot on our country's neck since the time of that son of a bitch Reagan. Now is not the time for kumbaya. Now is the time to rise up, kick the Right in the balls and knee them in the face, and then, when they're lying on the ground gasping for air, to call it quits (even though they deserve to be curb stomped) and reach an accord. Edwards wants to do that, but Obama's got the Big Mo. I can only hope that he's not as nice and conciliatory as he's acting, since it looks like he'll be our guy in the ring.

I went to wild parties in college, but the girls were fully dressed (dammit). If it's true that they're showing up in their undies for parties, then even though my inner Benny Hill is cheering, my inner John Houseman wants to give them 35 cents and an order to call their parents to come pick them up.

Seriously, this ain't right.

Hillary Clinton teared up after a grueling campaign, and John Edwards got snippy after the same damn thing. That shows one thing: they're both human. Find somebody else to demonize who really deserves it (hint: the entire goddamn GOP).

I just threw a bunch of dried beans, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, and spices into my crockpot, and I threw some brown rice into the rice cooker. Both will be ready when my wife and I get home from work. That, plus a quick salad, and we will have enough food for dinner and leftovers for lunch. Total cost of all these ingredients is about $5.00, or about the same as two fast food garbage meals. Total time preparing them for cooking and eating is under 30 minutes, split between this morning and this evening.

Americans can eat well for not much money, if they know how to do it. Unfortunately, they're instead bombarded with commericals encouraging them to shovel salt and grease down their throats, i.e., McDonalds and its sleazy brethren. Bring back Home Economics and teach children how and what to cook, and future generations of Americans will be far less susceptible to the garbage food industry.

I am not a Clinton partisan. In fact, she is my least favorite of the Democratic candidates due to her conservative policies. However, I do agree with the proposition that women face a greater hurdle then men in running for President of the USA.

As others in the blogosphere have pointed out, a black male candidate's greatest challenge is convincing white Americans that he is not an angry race-card playing activist a la Al Sharpton. Obama has apparently cleared that hurdle.

For women, though, it's a Catch-22. On the one hand they have to prove that they're tough enough, i.e., "man enough" to be President, but if they show that kind of toughness, then they are attacked as being insufficiently feminine and hence a ball busting bitch, as Tucker Carlson and his fellow sexists might say. That's a mighty fine line to walk, and Clinton does not seem able to do it. Add to that the relentless hatred that has been thrown her way by the GOP neanderthals for 15 years, and it's amazing she's gotten as far as she has.

By the way, when Bush Sr. or Boehner or any other male Repug cries in public, you don't hear the kind of shit you hear about Clinton. The double standard is revolting.