I'm trying to figure out what to keep in it until my demise. Maybe a secret stash of chocolate, that way it won't need to be emptied before I take up residency.

ah ... thanks for the pictures, Aims. I was imagining a figural kind of thing.

And, yes, awesome.

The Empress' Urn is truly a thing of wonderment.

And so is Monty Python's Universe Song: [link] which we haven't had here in a few weeks.

That is cool, and it would be perfect for your ashes. Uh, don't take that the wrong way.

That's great, Hil. I admire your discipline in plugging through this.

Yes, we need pictures of The Empress urn.

One of my dearest friends... No, really, one of my relatives is a lifelong Republican and I love to debate issues with him. He gets loud and excited supporting his positions and I can get loud and excited supporting mine. Then he pours another drink and declares that until one or the other side puts a million bucks in his bank account he don't care who is in charge. And we laugh and agree to disagree. It is only when you try and tell me that I can't have my opinion that we have a real problem.

I'm able to see individual people including politicians as good and admirable people while disagreeing with their policies and beliefs. I have a big problem with people that lie or manipulate data to sell their ideas. And I have a huge issue with people who advocate torture or denial of basic human rights. We sometimes disagree on what constitutes a human right.

It is possible that I will never find another human that agrees with me on every single issue, so as a social person I have to keep communication open. (until they all see the wisdom of my beliefs)

Empress Urn! Awesome.

Em just walked up to Joe, pushing buttons on his old cell phone, and said, "Dude. I totally just texted you."

P.S. I still like you. Take that as you will.

FWIW, Shari I have no personal animus against you because you're a Republican. I just think supporting those planks of the Republican platform which disenfranchise people because they're gay is wrong.

I know there are libertarian leaning, fiscally conservative Republicans. I don't have a problem with that at all. I can even respect people (such as yourself) who have a different idea about what constitutes national security and when and where military intervention is required.

Though I don't think the torture issue is as slippery and open to interpretation as a lot of Republicans do. Waterboarding is torture. I don't believe torture is even effective as a means of intel.

I hate Dick Cheney for what he's done, not because he's a Republican.

I'd like to see more of THAT kind of tolerance here extend to politics. (wishful sigh)

Huh. I'd like to see some of that tolerance extended to my side from the Right.

And me, I'll take "enhanced interrogation" (and that is NOT torture, despite the hype) over another 9/11. (Torture is pulling out fingernails, not sleep dep, but let's not digress. If sleep dep is torture, I have a bone to pick with my children.)

Not ever having been a parent, I can only defer to What Jessica Said in regards to sleep dep and babies, but still. Really? Your kids keep you awake for days at a time? Jab you with pointy things or electric-shock you when you start to fall asleep? Tie your hands to the ceiling and make you stand on an unbalanced stool so if you fall asleep you fall and dislocate your shoulders? Really?

I've always tried to be tolerant and understand other peoples' point of view. It's a core tenet of my beliefs, also. But lately? I'm getting tired of it. I'm getting fed up with extending tolerance and understanding to people whose core beliefs include the idea that people like me are evil, who not only don't try to understand/tolerate me but actively try to suppress me as a bad influence. It feels like walking up to someone with open hands and getting slapped in the face, over and over again. Eventually you just start folding your arms and glaring. If you're not the kind of person who slaps back, which I (generally) am not.

Also, what DavidS and Windsparrow and javachik said.

I think I might be a fiscally conservative liberal. Is that even possible?

(I have a thesis in mind that one reason humans evolved to live in co-dependent social groups was so that no one would have to take care of the babies by herself, because human infants take so very long to become capable of caring for themselves that caring for them is so exhausting, any one person doing it alone would become unable to do anything else for the community or herself. But that's just me and my weird ideas about human evolution and the evolution of human societies.)

Aims, I love your urn! Also the fact that Joe declared it you final resting place. Y'all are cool.

I keep trying to post and I can't which seems to the just one tiny duckling nipping at me in a swarm of them trying to nibble me to death.

But let me try again.

I have had hallucinations, well one hallucination due to sleep deprivation. I brought the sleep deprivation on myself but it was scary and freaky and I releazed it wasn't real and that I was probably doing damage to myself and I needed to sleep so I did. But I had a choice. Someone who is being forced to stay awake as a method of torture would not be able to make it stop.

Also I know that the American government and the military doesn't want our troops tortured, I'm sure no government wants their troops tortured. But how can the American government or any government object to its citizens being tortured when America (or any other goverment) is torturing our prisoners of war?

To me it seems like such a basic thing. You don't do something you wouldn't want someone to do to you.