MrD

This only started happening a very few weeks ago, but it's VERY annoying. I publish identical posts on the pages of several groups, but then I find that they're all on my page, too.

Help!

I absolutely am not interested in hearing about an "opportunity" that SHOULD make money, or CAN make money; I am only interested in hearing from people who can prove that they ARE making money from the home business opportunities they tell me about.

These opportunities should require a very small (I mean, VERY small!) initial investment, little or no computer or technical know-how, and return very quickly.

I don't need enough to have villas on the Riveiera, or three Rolls-Royces and a Bentley. I just need to make a consistent $200 a week or more.

Remember --- I ONLY want to hear about opportunities that you ARE making money from.

If so, how do you do that, step by step?

Please don't tell me that trying to do affiliate marketing is premature for me at this point; I already suspect that, but I want to try anyway.

I have a fairly widely-read blog, and I need to make a little money, but I am probably the most computer-ignorant adult in the Western hemisphere. I've been accepted by several affiliate marketing programs, and have wonderful ads available, but I don't understand how to place them on my blog. The instructions, from the marketers as well as from blogspot.com, assume that one knows more computerese than I know.

Can someone please, in pure, SIMPLE, step-by-step English, tell me how to place ads on my blog? And no, I do NOT intend to overload my blog with ads.

I have seen posts and comments on Yahoo Answers that were far worse than anything I've ever seen on, say, Craigslist ''Rants & Raves,'' yet they got published. The intolerance and vile name-calling that I've seen on Y!A have sometimes been appalling, yet they've been published, and those posters continued to post.

But when I asked a simple question of fact, I was threatened with being kicked off Y!A. Why?

There's a historic church in Boston named King's Chapel which began as an Anglican church, but became Unitarian over 200 years ago. In its worship services, it uses a prayer book that is based upon the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, but modified to remove all trinitarian and British monarchist references. I happen to be nontrinitarian in belief, but am an active Episcopalian. I wonder(ed) if there is a church somewhat like King's Chapel (with a Unitarian or Christian metaphysical slant, coupled with a beautiful, formal liturgy) out West here. For asking that question, I was censured by Y!A. Why?

I have read that the main reason for the Mormons' early persecution was not so much their embrace of extra-Biblical scriptures or their practice of polygamy, as it was the fact that they were mainly New York and New England abolitionists whose anti-slavery ideas didn't play well in rural Illinois and Missouri; is this correct?

I've read contradictory early-LDS ideas about polygamy; was it, in fact, approved of and practiced by Joseph Smith?

I understand that it was Brigham Young, not Joseph Smith, who introduced many of the more controversial ideas into LDS faith and practice -- polygamy, secret temple rites, the ''black thing,'' etc.; is this true?

I understand that all of Joseph Smith's descendants remained in what was long known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the official name of which is now the much simpler, less controversial Community of Christ; is this true?

PLEASE: I'm not interested in getting into a theological argument here, so I don't want to read one word about how evil and dangerous the LDS ''cult'' is, and all of that. I only want answers to the historical questions I raised.

I am elderly, and have had prostate cancer, a mild stroke, and a mild heart attack. I'd be very interested in a home-based business which offered products that I could use and sell which would promote wellness.

If anyone knows of the products offered by Dr. Al Sears, I like all of them that I've used, but (a) they're too expensive for my present circumstances, and (b) there is not available a home-based business offering those products that I know about.

Does anyone know BY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE of a home-based business offering wellness products like those offered by Dr. Sears?

I have a Nokia E71 phone, and am fairly happy with it except: Very, very often when I'm online the phone will beep, and across the screen will flash ''Web: Connection Time-out.'' It's very frustrating, and I'm not sure what that means.

What does it mean? What should I do when it happens? How can I stop that from happening?

The famous statement beginning ''A man does what he must...'' appears at the end of John F. Kennedy's book, PROFILES IN COURAGE, but recently I've seen it attributed to Sir Winston Churchill.

Who really said it first?

We're at the 20th anniversary of the L.A. riot (I will NOT call it an ''uprising''; it was a RIOT, plain and simple!), and my fellow liberals are falling all over themselves, justifying the violence and bloodshed, and loss of many innocent lives.

Yes, I am a liberal. I'm not ''progressive''; I'm very proudly LIBERAL. And I'm black. And gay. I'll pit my liberal bona fides against those of anybody who chooses to challenge me. But I'm also angry; I think blaming someone falsely is wrong -- and I think that Daryl Gates was and is very falsely accused of inaction during that horrific time.

I very clearly remember his cancelling the offdays of his LAPD officers, and having them on standby, in case the community was unhappy with the imminent verdict. My lord, the black so-called leaders (if I recall even halfway correctly, among them were Connie Rice and Chip Murray; I'm positive Melanie Lomax was one of them) went apoplectic; how dare that oppressive, racist Daryl Gates suggest that blacks were somehow less than human, and that the black community would react violently and irrationally? Oh, the outrage! The name-calling! The finger-pointing! So he rescinded his order, the verdict came down, and the rest is history.

Why isn't this fact recalled when we remember the riots?

Downtown Los Angeles has become very trendy, with all the new apartments, condos, restaurants, clubs, etc., and I wonder which celebrities have moved there.

The only one I've heard about is the TV sportscaster who's moved into one of the Ritz-Carlton condos at LA Live, but I've seen a young guy (a Laker? Clipper? King?) driving a Ferrari into the garage of the hyper-expensive apartment house on Olympic & Figueroa, across from Staples Center.

Which actors, professional athletes, etc., now live downtown?

I have a friend who is terminally ill with cancer. She's been housebound for months, not wanting to have anyone see her in the physical condition she's been in. I'll call this friend "Ada."

I have another long-time friend whom I'll call "Betty." She and I are VERY different on many levels, but I love her dearly and enjoy her company, and I think the feeling's mutual. From time to time, Betty and I enjoy going out to dinner and movies together.

I was surprised --- shocked, really --- to receive a call last week from Ada's daughter, inviting me and a guest to a dinner in honor of Ada's 64th birthday (probably, her last --- though no one said that, of course), to be held in one of the most elegant and expensive restaurants in Los Angeles. I was one of only four non-family members to be asked to share in this (at Ada's request, I might add). It was an honor, and there's absolutely no way that I would have refused. Since the dinner was scheduled for an evening when Betty and I were supposed to catch a movie, I invited her to go as my guest.

If you don't understand the term "brutally frank," you've never met Betty. She's not one of those people who speak before they think, she's one of those who speaks whatever she thinks, feelings be damned. Over the years, she's told me several things about myself that other friends probably say behind my back, and I have to admit that some of those things have stung!

Anyway, when we were shown to the area where Ada's party was gathering, I was so shocked that I almost dropped the gift I'd brought for her. Ada was a beautiful woman who had always been a little chubby; I'd guess that her normal weight is around 160 or 170 pounds, and she's probably 5'5" or 5'6" tall. Sitting there at the table, with jewels aglitter and wearing a rather strangely-done wig, was a wrinkled woman who couldn't have weighed more than 100 pounds. It took me awhile to realize that this little old lady was Ada. Betty had met her before she got ill, and the expression on her face made me pray fervently and silently, "Lord, PLEASE don't let Betty say what's on her mind; in fact, don't let her say ANYTHING!"

"Well," asked Ada as I greeted her, "How do I look? If you didn't know, would you believe that I'm 64 years old?"

"I don't care that you're 64," I responded. "You're absolutely beautiful, my dear. And I assure you that NO ONE would possibly guess that you're 64!" Actually, she looked 84!

As soon as we left the dinner, Betty whirled on me. "Why'd you lie to that woman?" she asked. "First of all, now she won't realize what a fool she's making of herself, sitting there in all that dimestore jewelry and that white folks' wig sitting up on the side of her head. And what do you mean, nobody would believe she's 64? She looks every second of that, and then some! You shouldn't lie to people like that."

I have to say that, knowing Ada, that jewelry was probably from Rodeo Drive --- it definitely was not "dimestore." And she felt that she looked better in the wig than with the bald head that chemotherapy had left her; and, as I said, nobody would have guessed her age as 64, since she looked at least a decade older. But more important in my mind, what would have been gained by ruining her festive birthday dinner (which we hope against hope won't be her last)?

Who was on firmer ethical and moral ground --- my friend Betty with her frankness and honesty, or me with my white lie?

I know that different religious groups have different ways of financing their activities. Mormons and Seventh-Day Adventists, for instance, stress tithing; each Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses has a ''contribution box''' into which members voluntarily place their monetary offerings; my own Episcopal Church, like most mainline American Christian denominations, encourages pledging and dropping contributions toward the pledged amount in the collection plate or basket each week.

I just heard that synagogues are financed mainly by sales of tickets to High Holy Day services. Is that true? If so, how much do they cost? How much for a little storefront synagogue? How much for some place such as New York's Temple Emanu-El, or Los Angeles' Wilshire Blvd. Temple or Temple Sinai or Temple Tiffereth Israel or University Synagogue?

I understand it's an excellent opportunity, and I've accessed their website, but I don't understand it.

Exactly how does it work?

How does one make money from it?

Please don't explain why they're all illegal.

I happen to know of ONE which is not illegal, and doesn't make promises of unlimited riches. My suspicion is that, since there definitely is this one, there MAY be others.

Are there? How do you know? Why is it (are they) legal?

I am very frustrated - and very angry. I 'm using a Nokia E71 phone, so I don't think I can post Additional Details, but I really, really, truly need to add to my earlier question in this category.

I really can't believe those two or three of you who felt that the homophobic views referenced in that posting were MY views. Folks, I AM GAY. Like you, I don't understand how asserting my rights would deprive other people of theirs, and I simply asked if someone would explain that to me. One respondent did do exactly that, even though I absolutely do not agree with him.

But 2 or 3 of you were way out in space -- especially, ''Gustavo'' (sorry, but I don't think my phone will let me make the too-cute little boxy thing that he uses in his moniker).

Gustavo, if I live to be normal, I won't understand where you're coming from. ''We don't want special rights, we want equal rights''? I agree --- and have been in the trenches FIGHTING for those equal rights for over 50 years.

Another thing you said with which I wholeheartedly agree: People who ''don't know nothing about anything'' should ''shut the hell up.''

So please, my friend, shut the hell up.