Good stuff, Bucky!

VERY good. I could become that kind of conservative, myself.

You have all our sympathies for your difficult path through this time, eugene.

My best friend has had a pretty rough go, herself, and sometimes I've heard her say that she believes she must have run over God's dog in an earlier life, or some such thing.

Not to make light of it - not at all. (Although, sometimes you can't do anything else but laugh at it.)

When my mom died several years ago, I posted about it very late that night. Husband and kids were asleep and I had my usual insomnia, and felt kinda puny and alone, with lots of mixed feelings. My mom and I had had some difficult times between us. Her multi-headed illness took her down slow and hard. Perhaps you know how it is when your loved one's sickness cannot be cured, and you know it's only a matter of time, and when the time comes - there's that fallback "well, she's in a better place," or "well, at least she isn't suffering anymore," or "well, at least she isn't in pain anymore." And all that other lame stuff you say to yourself at times like that. When the death is actually one of those Bizarro World blessings. When even my mom herself, who'd always fought it and always felt she was gonna get up out of that hospital bed one more time - had now been saying "this isn't living. This isn't living." She'd reached the point where she finally wanted to go. And there you are, knowing it's the only way out.

And I posted just a one-liner on DU. And I shrugged and went to make a cup of tea.

I returned to my computer and was promptly OVERWHELMED. OVER-FREAKIN'-WHELMED.

There were some 20-or-so posts already. Loving, kind, sympathetic, empathetic, supportive, you name it. Just all of a sudden. Outta NOWHERE.

In an hour or so the responses had expanded to about a hundred. And it went on. By the next day there were SEVERAL hundred! By the NEXT DAY! And private messages of love and comfort, people offering a shoulder to cry on, people offering their phone numbers if I ever needed to talk to someone, people reaching out to me in every way. It was UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!

NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS here on this site, I will NEVER forget that. NEVER, EVER.

It won't bring your loved ones back - two-legged OR four-legged. It won't make their pain stop. It won't make YOU stop hurting. It won't make time turn back to the days before your troubles started.

But it will mean a MOUNTAIN RANGE-worth. It will buoy you up. It will make you feel not quite so alone and un-cared-about.

It's one of the most treasured times on DU that I've ever experienced. It will help you to be here and to share your troubles. There are many shoulders here to help you carry that burden. They'll help carry you, too, and help you get through it.

Glad you're here.

BTW - I'm crying now, too. It was kind of a gnarly weekend for me (not on the order of magnitude that you are experiencing, though), and I need to remember this, myself. For my own sanity. DU is here for you. It's the BEST site on the internets.

Maybe we should start a meme: "Aw, how nice that rapists finally have someone representing them!"

Poor things! They've been left out, all this time, haven't they?

Rapists: THEY need a Congressman, too!

I wonder that same thing, myself.

It reflects VERY poorly on them, I'll tell you that for sure!

I sure as hell wouldn't want that schmuck "representing" me. Not that he ever could - with that cock-eyed, fucked-up, neanderthal world view of his.

I hate those things, too. STOP PREACHING TO ME, ASSHOLES!!!!

And quit trying to change my mind. A woman's right to have the last word over what happens to HER body - the ULTIMATE right of sovereignty - is NON-NEGOTIABLE. It is an ABSOLUTE. Just as any man would insist - for issues involving his own body.

See, that is ANOTHER good point here, that's often overlooked.

Salutes to you, JohnnyRingo! This is something else that almost never gets mentioned in the same breath as the lead point. It's always farther down the list. It should be first or maybe second. EVERY contract in the last few years with few if any exceptions has involved workers making concessions. It's either wages, rate of wage increases, or benefits of some sort. Workers have always had to give back.

Once upon a time, workers were paid well enough that one paycheck WOULD take care of a family of four. Mom wouldn't need to work to help make ends meet and she could afford to stay home, make cookies, and vacuum in her shirtdress and pearls the way June Cleaver did. That union worker who supported his family of four made enough so he could afford to buy the cars he helped manufacture. Little by little, the so-called "job creators" were only interested in how cheap they could get away with paying their workers for the same or even more work, and that trend continues to this very day. Penny-wise/pound-foolish. Get the pirates' deal for now. Never mind the longterm ramifications. When all you want to do is get it on the cheap, pretty soon your whole operation is cheap. And not as desirable in the marketplace, and certainly no longer competitive.

THIS IS NOT A GOOD PARADIGM! Look at Hostess! The workers took it in the shorts, the company went bankrupt, and yet the CEO and all the vice presidents parachute outta there with nice fat bonuses with which they were rewarded - essentially for having tanked their company. I mean, sit back and consider objectively - what do we all learn from this?

And why isn't this making a bigger difference to our legislators and so-called representatives?

OH MAN!!! This one's great, too!!!

That wouldn't work in a political climate like this one.

Do you think for one instant that THIS Congress would willingly, or in a timely fashion, approve ANY money for the inauguration of the President they tried SO HARD to trash? Hell, these assholes say no to THEIR OWN bills! It should NEVER be up to Congress with this kind of partisanship!

And maybe, seeing who won, could the fat cats be wanting to have some skin in the game?

If it goes to him, then that's money the GOP does NOT get. Granted, there'll be plenty for them, but it separates some of the money from the corporations. I'm pretty much fine with that. I don't like corporations slinging their money all over the place to buy influence. If they're throwing money around, and they will ANYWAY, then MY man might as well get some.

AND no weekends. AND no overtime compensation. AND bring on the child labor again.

You can pay them less! There's a ton of stuff that the efforts and struggles and energies of organized labor won for the rest of us, sometimes with their blood as well as their sweat and tears. Disgusting. WHEN will people get it? THAT'S WHAT YOU GET when you vote republi-CON.

THAT should be repeated over and over and over, in the presence of as many people as possible. "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET when you vote republi-CON!" IF we repeat that often enough, plant those seeds frequently enough, drive those points home again and again, the law of average dictates that some of them ARE gonna take root. But we all have to do it and we all have to keep at it.