The Public Broadcasting System and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting produce and distribute these shows to be used during local stations' fundraising shows.

Since the local stations often do not have the resources to produce their own fundraising programs they must accept what is available to them.

It seems that they are scraping the bottom of the barrel by airing Amen's infomercial. This is too bad because it gives a bad name to a wonderful public television organization.

PBS should be held to account for this.

In a nutshell.

Counting casualties is a bit difficult when napalm and 2000 pound bombs are dropped into heavy forests and villages. Our bombing campaigns (whether in Iraq or in Vietnam) earn us far more hatred than benefit.

If McCain volunteered for Vietnam duty then he was taken in by the blatant propaganda issued by our government promoting that war. That dimishes his stature as a presidential candidate, in my opinion.

And where is the flight suit, Mr. Decider?

This is gonna be a big problem for McCain because the Republican Party is run by lobbyists.

At some point he will have to face this and it will be interesting to see how his handlers play it.

Gay marriege will have no effect on the economy, the war(s), the environment, the real estate foreclosures, health care (or the lack of), gas prices, climate change, or any other significant issue I can think of.

What it will do is give small-minded people and bigots something to worry about.

No matter which Republican is elected the Republican Party will be running the show.

George Bush was an obvious figurehead. Unable to articulate a complete or proper sentence, blinded by the neocons the Party installed in his Administration, pushed to make one bad decision after another, Bush blundered happily along until 9/11.

Then, the rubber truly met the road and things have gone down hill ever since.

Electing McCain will perpetuate the failed Bush Administration policies.

This is a non-issue but look at the responses. My goodness!

If one person can explain how gay marriage will adversly affect his/her existence, I'd sure like to know.

The whole place will collapse under pent-up hostilities between Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Christians, and garden-variety terrorists.

Instead of an American neocon-engineered democracy, Iraq will be governed as a police state with checkpoints, barriers, and no-go zones everywhere.

Mission accomplished.

The GOP just can't seem to find anything but petty, useless, campaign issues that appeal to the mentally challenged bunch that seems to be the base of the party.

when their backs are against the wall and they are faced with no other alternatives.

Meanwhile, we keep on driving gas guzzlers and demanding more horsepower and larger homes.

Our political leadership is, as usual, bickering about whom to blame and holding hearings to try to pin the crisis on the oil companies when the fault lies elsewhere. They lack the courage (or intelligence) to push for serious conservation, such as vehicle mileage requirements and efforts to get the gas guzzlers off the roads.

If you want to blame someone for high gas prices, blame the folks driving 12 mpg SUVs, huge pickup trucks, and excessively high horesepower cars.

Am I wrong in saying that most, if not all, leading female roles are being played by actresses sporting the "unisex" look. Masculine, bodies, hatchet shaped faces with Botox lips, no breasts, and bordering on anexoria?

The petroleum energy industry does not want to openly discuss the reality of a finite supply of crude oil. This admission would have very predictable consequences in present and future investments in that industry.

Instead, they propose more drilling and more refining but I have a suspicion that this is based upon overly optimistic estimates of the availability of new oil deposits.

If any substantial oil deposits exist they will be increasingly hard to mine and combined with the timeframe required to get the oil to the gas pump, will make any new supply meaningless against future increases in consumption.

To get an idea as to the magnitude of the problem, take an informal survey of the vehicles on the roads and highways. Do a little mental arithmetic and you'll see that most of the vehicles cannot meet a minimum fuel mileage requirement of 20 mpg. Next, look at driving conditions and habits. Urban driving is slowed by heavy traffic and highway speeds easlily exceed 70 mph. This combines to drive our actual fuel mpg even lower.

I believe the bottom line is this: If we do not alter our vehicle choices and driving habits substantially and quickly, gas will continue to be more expensive and we may have shortages to boot.

Meanwhile, I'm riding my motorcycle whenever possibe. It gets 60 mpg.

The GOP has been in bed with lunatic-fringe religious nuts and now McCain wants the bed all to himself.

Well, it is pretty apparent that this is just a show because we know that the Republicans cherish their conservative religious base above all.

Let's not be fooled by McCain's rejection of these supporters. There are many more of them lurking in the Republican Party and McCain will do their bidding.

Given the high cost of fuel and adding the increased costs for groceries and just about everything else, the so-called stimulus will be mostly used just to stay even.

True, it's better than nothing but judging from the aggressive marketing done to tempt us to buy big ticket items such as big screen TVs and stainless steel backyard cooking centers, we are expected to spend the money on toys, not staples.

I recently paid off the mortgage, and retired.

Great feeling !!!