I don't know if Rosie is correct about all the comments she made about Mr. Trump, but she is definitely right about one of them. Mr. Trump was given $30 million dollars by his father when he was starting out in business. Don't believe me? It's in his book 'The Art of the Deal'.

I think 'The Donald' would counter this fact by saying that amount of money is basically chump change & such small potatos when compared to his current vast fortune. I, personally, think that is bullshit & that most anyone, if they had been presented with that amount of money could become quite successful (so long as they weren't hooked on blow or collecting solid gold cars).

Certainly real trees smell better, are prettier than fake trees, and don't come from the PRC. However, once they dry out they are fire hazards. I don't know how many of you have put a dried out piece of pine into a fire, but they go up like they were soaked in kerosene (it's the resin in them, I think).

Also, for families without alot of money & who don't want to swipe a living tree from the interstate median or someone's private property, a fake tree is much less expensive (than buying a real one) over a span of 10 or more years.

As a fellow Kentuckian, I would like to add my congrats to Mr. Hayden for winning the World Championship & in process beating Mr. Rossi (quite a feat that was). Thank's to poster below who brought up this great feat that I had overlooked.

As a fan, I would surely like a 4 team (at least) playoff for the Division 1 football crown. However, it ain't going to happen. Ever. The main reason (and this isn't the only one, but probably the biggest) is that the BCS head coaches do not want one. The way the situation is now, with the myriad of bowls, you have the max number of coaches who can end their season with a win (that's one of the reasons we have so many more bowls now than 30 years ago). Put in a playoff & more teams will end their season with a loss. It's that simple.

Certainly Mr. Rose has the statistics which, if he had not blatantly & repeatedly broken one of the most basic rules in professional baseball, would have had him elected in his 1st year of eligibility. His skill with the bat has never been in question. The question to me has always been 'How big an ego do you have to have to think you can get away with violating the rule that is inscribed (the only one so posted) over every clubhouse door?!'.

I would remove some players/owners from the hall if I were King. I'm sorry scumbags like Ty Cobb & Charles Cominsky (among others) were elected. Two wrongs don't make a right though and enshrining Mr. Rose (so long as he bobs & weaves & refuses to tell the complete truth about his gambling habit while serving as manager of the Reds) would be just another wrong.

I also (unsurprisingly) am against Mr. McGwire, Mr. Sosa, Mr. Bonds, Mr. Palmiero or anyone else who was 'juiced' being elected. I would even favor their stats being wiped from the books and all of them be given lifetime bans from MLB. Steriod use is cheating. Cheating the fans & players of the teams you beat while being roided up & cheating the history of baseball when you use your artifically enhanced body to perform feats that erase stats set by men who generally dehanced theirs while setting the standards you cheated to surpass.

Dear Boy, I think anyone with half a lick of sense (even you, I see) understands that Cuyohoga County is 'blue' & gave Sen. Kerry a majority. The question is, was it the correct majority? Was there chicanary that diluted and/or minimized Sen. Kerry's vote margin over Pres. Batshit McWacko? Never will know (I guess), due to the alleged malfeseance of the election officials.

When Mr. Colbert appeared on 'The O'Reilly Factor' (first and probably last time I have watched that show), I thought his best & most revealing line was when he stated that 'it is very hard for me to play you' (or something like that). On whole, I thought Mr. Colbert was great (at times it seemed like he was running the show)! I also must say that Mr. O'Reilly kept his temper in check & seemed conciliatory in spots. I didn't stay up late enough to catch the flip side, but I will be watching the rerun tonight.

In this article on the history of vegetarianism, Ms. Miller included this quote: 'One of Cheyne's more celebrated patients was the publisher Samuel Richardson, who would later go on to write "Pamela," the first novel in the English language.'

Mr. Richardson's novel was published in 1740. Daniel Defoe published 'Moll Flanders' almost 20 years earlier. I would submit that Mr Defoe's work is considered by most to be 'the first novel in the English language'.

FWIW, I eat meat & think humans are designed to eat meat as part of their diet. I do despair over how these poor animals are treated as they are slaughtered. When I eat vegtables (which is every day), I try to only eat fresh ones (canned anything has very high sodium levels).

If in some future time we are able to create honest-to-God meat that is fit for human consumption, without having to kill any animals, I think that would be a great ethical leap forward.

In a previous post in this thread, Chloe asked 'My question is... why? Why does the world have to work like this, where back-stabbing and deceit and treachery are embraced by the people who pretend to represent the moral majority?'

IMO, the reason they work this way is because if they ran a campaign in a totally honest manner (i.e. a 'clean' campaign), they would never win any race outside Utah & Idaho (maybe Texas).

And, believe me, they know it!