Mimi Di

We went to return movies today from our local Hollywood Video store only to find the store EMPTY and the return slot taped over. I called their customer service line ( 18speaktous) and after 35 minutes, finally spoke to a supervisor who said I could either drive to another location to return them, (6 miles away or 22 miles away) or mail them back and they would "reimburse" me the postage. I am fuming. I asked them to send me a prepaid mailing envelope so I wouldn't be further inconvenienced and the supervisor said they can not do that. Here's my solution and if any one else is in the same situation, you might consider the same thing-

I am mailing the videos back C.O,D, to the president of Hollywood Entertainment. Here is the address:

Hollywood Entertainment Corporation

9275 SW Peyton Ln.

Wilsonville, OR 97070 Phone: 503-570-1600 Fax: 503-570-1680

President and CEO, Movie Gallery: Sherif J. Mityas •

EVP Operations: Guy M. Marsala •

CFO: Lucinda M. (Cindy) Baier

Have you had the experience of being hired as an event planner and then being introduced to a large committee of volunteers ( especially in the non-profit sector) who insert themselves into every aspect of planning? Was it helpful or hurtful? Do you feel you could have done a better job with or without their help? What would you say to a future client about committees if you could be completely honest?

Here is where we can get the money to provide a better health care plan:

Every person who is elected to the US Senate & House of Representatives, the President, V.P. and all the other White House Execs continue to draw FULL SALARY and benefits for themselves and their families until they die. With a few rare exceptions of middle income candidates with enormous contributions to pay their way in, only a very wealthy person can afford to run a national campaign for election to one of these prime jobs with the ultimate Golden Parachute. Here we have mostly rich people who WE are paying to run our lives and then we are making them even richer after they lose their jobs.

If a person in the real world were to have an executive position and that job came under review and they were not selected to do it anymore, we would call that "being fired": reasonable severance pay, sign here,there's the door, see ya later, buddy.

In the financial crisis we are in, why are WE The People, not demanding the end of the ridiculous retirement package these people are getting?

A younger senator, losing a re-election bid is "rewarded" with collecting somewhere in the area of $7,000,000 during the rest of their life ,plus spousal benefits valued at close to $300,000.

Even the guy who lost his re-election bid to a dead guy is STILL drawing his salary. How stupid are we?

With 100 Senators and 435 Congressmen, WE pay over $100,000,000 per year in salaries just to the active elected officials. Add to that figure all the retirees and the benefits packages and the cost of living increases and

all the other government employees with similar golden parachutes and we have a financial fiasco on our hands.

So what if we insisted that their retirement was a two year severance package and we said thanks for your service, have a nice life? These retirees ALL go on to write books, get on the lecture circuit or ( and this should be ILLEGAL) sit on the boards of directors of the huge corporations and/or become consultants to them for enormous fees. They aren't going to be in the bread line.

Here's where we can get the money to pay for what the country needs.

And please don't tell me how "hard" it is on them to do the work they do. It's like hearing a supermodel whine about having to pose in designer clothing all day while sitting still.

So what do you say?

Isn't becoming a doctor just to get rich a little like being a mercenary soldier who will kill anyone, anywhere if you pay them enough? And isn't GREED the biggest issue in Health Care in America? And that goes for Doctors, Pharmaceutical Companies and especially Insurance Companies as well

I live in a nice suburban college town and we have people come right to our front door trying to sell products and services at least five times each week. Last Friday we had three! We also still have a neighborhood ice cream guy. Though it's charming and nostalgic in some ways, it is also a real breech of privacy, an annoyance and after a man killed four woman in the city by knocking on their doors and then pushing into their homes, it's just creepy and dangerous. Do you have door to door sales people and how do YOU feel about them??

Most marriages for people under 25 years of age, end in divorce before they reach their 5th Anniversary. So what's the deal? Do these girls (and guys) actually want to be married to these people until death do they part, or are do they just want to feel like the Prom Queen (or King) for one day, crown and all? Have they given any thought to waking up to his dirty socks 35 years from now and the very real life they will live complete with piles of bills to pay, dealing with in-laws, and baby puke at 4am when you have to be at work at 8?

What do you think and please tell us your approximate age and whether you are ( or were) married at a young age.

1. Is it possible for a Liberal Democrat and a Conservative Republican to have a respectful yet passionate discussion about politics?

2. Why do you think it is that when some people are asked to explain their political positions they immediately respond with anger personal attacks rather than calmly presenting their position and their reason for beleiving in it?

3. What format would be the best, safest, most respectful format where this sort of mature dialog could take place? (For example- an exchange of emails or a message board dedicated to calm and respectful discussion and debate)

Come on Sci Fi fans- you know you love that word. It's so succinct. Do you use the word frak in your vocabulary?

Cluster Frak stuff

www.cafepress.com/karmicsoup

In the 1970's Clairol sold a fantastic, earthy, woodsy emerald green shampoo called Herbal Essence. I am not talking about the God Awful bubble gum fragrances they are currently selling as "Herbal Essences" (plural). There are petitions on the Internet asking Clairol to bring back the Original formula but not enough people know about them. Let me know right here and I'll send this on to Clairol!

It's amazing with all this "natural product" emphasis going on that they would overlook such an obvious money making opportunity by bringing back a shampoo that made your hair smell like an Earth Goddess instead of the sickeningly sweet candy heads they offer now.

Anyone else miss this fabulous product??

One of my lifelong friends is getting ready to sell her house in the Chicago suburbs and look for new digs in the city. She's single, working and is looking for a fun, safe neighborhood where she can purchase a condo or apartment and make some new friends her age too.

Any Chicago folks have suggestions where she might start looking? Thanks!

Here's the project- tell us your favorite song lyrics and imagine those words spoken by a famous actor or actress or a slam poet.

Which song would you select and who would be the best professional actor to "perform" the song lyrics as spoken dialog?

Here's my son's first suggestion-

Zach Braff speaking the words to John Mayer's "Stop This Train" as a nervous caffiene induced rant.

What is your suggestion?

This is a girl who went with her mother to try on wedding dresses when she was 14 years old. Her every thought has been how to get a man and marry him right after college graduation. Well, she did it. Graduation is May 07 and the wedding is in August.

The friends she has are college kids with no money and jobs out of state, yet she expects them to drop their lives to attend every event, to fork over hundreds of dollars for their dresses, give her gifts at every shower and make choices of either paying rent or attending her Queen for Day ceremony.

Blinded by the TV fairytale wedding madness, how do friends get through to this girl with wedding cake frosting where her brains should be?

According to a Muslim Cleric in Australia, women without headcovers are "meat asking to be raped".

Perhaps we need to reclassify males as subhuman since the very sight of human hair makes them drop their pants and attempt to push their penises into women like wild animals. They kill, they fight, they behave in outrageous ways and they expend tremendous amounts of energy attempting to force females into submission.

It is obvious that as a gender, males are incapable of behaving in a respectful fashion that allows other genders to exist in a safe and nurturing environment. Like any wild creature that injures, attacks and threatens the life, health and well being of humans, perhaps it is time that we cage these beasts and only those who have been certified as non-dangerous and life threatening should be allowed to live amongst the rest of us.

Women will, of course continue to raise young males until they exhibit threatening behavior.

So, is it time?

If your focus and your obsession is the End of The World, which obviously means the end of The United State of America (and every other country), are these followers commiting High Treason by preaching and encouraging "end times" prophecies to manifest?

My theory- I believe there is an undiscovered chemical reaction that occurs when men have sex with women. I think the vaginal walls are lined with a fluid that erases the memory of wives, children and grandchildren.

I am constantly stunned and amazed at how men can be married for 30, 40 or 50 years and lose thier wives and then remarry just months after burying her. Almost all of them have nothing to do with their children and grandchildren after their wives die and new women move into their lives. These new wives take over all communications with their "new" husbands "ex" families and they systematically break down the bonds with children and grandchildren until the man has little to no contact at all the people with whom he spent most of his life.

There must be some kind of chemical reaction between the penis and the vagina that erases the significance of anyone the man knew before.

I personally know 23 men who remarried less than a year after losing their wives.

The day he was inaugurated he gave an order for the US military to do a "flyover" into the No Fly zone in Iraq. I wonder if he asked the pilot to flip Saddam the bird?

The second thing he did was cut the funding for International family planning effectively ending the only health care many women in remote areas receive at all. Why? Because he promised the Christian right that he would end abortion and birth control wherever he could as president. Those clients do pre natal care for expectant mothers, regular health care visits, inoculations for children and disease control. I wonder how many women and children died as a direct result of his helping out the Christian right's agenda to take us all back to the 1500's?

I've seen far too many "Christians" who have treated people like garbage their entire lives, stealing from them, lying to them, and attempting all sorts of character assasination and then they "find" Jesus and think they have a clean slate with every one they have injured.

Newsflash: Jesus is NOT a super absorbant diaper that wipes away all your past, current and future heinous and decidedly unloving actions.

The "Sin" that Jesus supposedly died for was that whacky story of Eve, an apple and a snake. Bizarre mythology that over the millenia many have come to believe was true instead of the metaphor is was.

The man Jesus died 2006 years ago. Trying to destroy your sister's life yesterday does NOT get neatly folded into the big giant Jesus diaper without another thought just because you prayed about it. You MUST ask forgiveness from those you have TRESPASSED AGAINST and never, ever do it again.

Too many Christian are evil snipers that attack and run to hide behind a cross.

With the naked human eye, we can only see the Visible Light Spectrum. Instruments help us "see" infrared and ultra violet. We are "limited" to seeing only what we are currently capable of "seeing." That does not mean there is nothing else beyond those "visible" points.

Do we operate under a Comprehensible Thought Spectrum; A limited understanding of the Universe around us that is blocked from further discovery by religious dogma?

Do all religions limit our description of "god" by assigning gender and childlike behaviors like vanity, jealousy, anger, vengence etc.

If all religion's were created by men who possibly had ulterior motives involving ego, control of others and revenge, did thier version of "god" and "god's will" kill our ability to think for ourselves?.

How is this different from an inventor or scientist that decides not to tell the public about Infrared? (For our own good of course.)

Do we stop using true cognitive function the minute we "join" a religion

A college guy will be driving it.