If you live in a state that allows telephones to be recorded with the consent of only one party to the conversation, you always run the risk of the other person recording the call and might use against you in some way in court.
If one of you live in a one party consent state and one live in a two party consent state, then usually you fall under the two party consent laws.
So, for people that live in a one party consent state they always need to keep this in mind when talking to someone in their own state. But, if you talk to someone outside of your state, arguably you are safer than talking to someone in your own state if that person lives in a two party consent state. Logically neither of you can record the phone call and therefore are safer.
My head is spinning, isn't yours? Well, I include a link below that you should print and keep on hand if you live in a one party consent law. In a world where things are all equal, you are better off having only long distance, share all my secrets type friends, in two party consent law states because they can’t tape your conversation and use it against you in any legal proceeding.
Here is the link Click Here.
I realize that this is much nuanced and might not seem very important, but I am of the firm belief these complex times, we do ourselves service to learn one or two simple tricks a day to protect ourselves. This is just one piece that I feel is pretty easy to understand for the dull wit person like myself.
And, the lesson here is if you live in a one person consent state, only make long distance friends or have long distance affairs with people in two person consent states such as California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington and Illinois.
This is non authoritative of course and just a guideline, and before you start sharing with your wives best friend in Texas about your affair with the brides maid. Check the actual law.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Summary of Consent Requirements for Taping Telephone Conversations.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
I knew it, Astro can count!
"A variety of animals, including pigeons, parrots, raccoons, ferrets, rats, monkeys and apes are to varying degrees capable of either counting, adding or subtracting numbers."
My little male syrian hamster Astro, and his sister Princess and step brother Paddy paws are my current companions. I had for years considered Hamsters for kids and not very fun. However, my friend Alison convinced me one day when I was a bit bored and perhaps feeling a little lonely that I needed a pet. I am alergic to cats and with my disability having a dog would be hard for the dog since I could not walk him as much or fast as he or she might deserve.
Then hamsters came to mind and I rescued mine from the shelter. I am simply overwhelmed daily by their amazing nature, individual personalitys and endless compassion and kindness. They know my mood and know how to communicate theirs to me. Astro for instance likes to yawn at me with his mouth wide open when he rests on my hand. I am convinced its a high sign of comfort and affection. Princess comes to the edge of her palace to greet me when I walk over to get clothes from my drawers and Paddy Paws knows my voice intonation and knows before I hide his food where I am thinking of putting it and waits for me.
I think we too often forget how wonderful these creatures placed among us are. Regretfully, we don't treat many of them fairly and do so much harm to their habitats. The article in the italic link above spurned this for me since I had always known animals were very intelligent and its nice to see someone took the time to quantify it in a way that can't be argued with.
However, anyone that holds or visits or watches these creatures knows this. Perhaps they are one of the most humanizing elements we come across each day in this pretty human eat human world.
Toy that I want! Bigliodromi
Its called a Bigliodromi, they are made in Italy and they are hard to find. Its an engineering toy and usually made by the person that wants one. The photo to above and left shows Anthony Hopkins in the movie Fracture, with the rolling glass marbles. This particular one was a design of the Dutch artist Mark Bischof. It takes Bischof sometimes six years to build a maze. The cost is undisclosed so you can imagine the cost. Lowball estimates of this type of toy are in the $150,000 range.
Below are some links to discuss and study it in more depth.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Ralph Naders blood soaked hands
Few people in the history of civilization sleep in a bed of blood as big as Ralph Nader.
Nader ran in the 2000 presidential election and siphoned enough votes off Vice-President Gore causing George Bush to be elected. Freedom and peace loving people across the United States begged him not to run or to withdrawal, but his warped perspective of America allowed him to continue on seemingly enjoying interfering in the political process.
Liberals and Libertarians have a soft spot for Ralph Nader in their hearts because he is credited with being Instrumental in forming the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and his followers, Nader’s Raiders have an impressive list of accomplishments to help improve government.
However, Ralph Nader keeps justifying that he runs for office because he says it does not matter which party you vote for, Democratic or Republican it does not make any difference. This cynical view trivializes all the efforts of thousands of good people of many stripes who work within the system as elected officials.
Nader definitely caused George Bush to win the vote in Florida, which was won on as few as 500 votes in 2000. And, Florida resulted in George Bush being elected and ultimately invading Iraq after the 911 attack. Based on reasons never fully understood, President Bush attacked Iraq instead of going into Afghanistan and Pakistan to find the terrorists that actually killed our USA citizens. Many hold the view that Al Gore would never of invaded Iraq and concocted the weapons of mass destruction justification for its invasion.
And it follows that the 4,000 US soldiers that have died in the war is an enormous tragedy.
So based on this logic Ralph Nader has the blood of all innocent Iraqi citizens killed during the Iraq war. Numbers vary on what the number is varying from tens of thousands to as high as several hundred thousand. I posted 200,000 as a kind of average number to represent the enormity of his impact on death in this new century we have started.
Nader seems irreverent and blind of the hurtful impact his running for office has had on the of the innocent civilians around the world.
Hatred of the political parties for which Nader is emblematic has spurned him to run for the Presidency in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004. He claims its a way to get topics into the public discussion that otherwise would not find it there. And, that is certainly true, but typically candidates withdrawal from the election before the final election letting the will of the people decide the outcome, and not have it siphon votes from the Party closest to his position.
Yes, I do think Ralph Nader has come to run every four years for office for self aggrandizement and to remind them more of HIM than to actually promote interesting discussion in the public debates. Where was he during the primary process?
How does he sleep at night with all that blood on his hands? Perhaps seeing his name on TV everynight helps.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Cherries for Change from AP News
Ben & Jerry's Founders Endorse Obama
By LISA RATHKE Associated Press Writer
The founders of Ben & Jerry's endorsed Barack Obama on Monday, and lent his Vermont campaign two "ObamaMobiles" that will tour the state and give away scoops of "Cherries for Change" ice cream.
"If there was ever a need for real change, and if there ever was a candidate to inspire us and make that happen, it's now," said Ben Cohen.
Added Jerry Greenfield: "Barack is showing that when you lead with your values and follow what you have inside that good things will happen."
Echoing Obama, Greenfield said he and Cohen succeeded when they opened their ice cream shop 30 years ago in Burlington by doing things differently, instead of copying the "tired ways" of doing business.
"What we saw is that when you want real change it's not a marketing slogan. You have to do things differently. And that is not going to be done by someone who's been involved in the system for years and years," Greenfield said. "It needs to come from inside and Barack Obama has it."
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and his wife joined the ice cream duo to announce their radio campaign backing the Illinois senator.
Cohen initially supported John Edwards, who dropped out of the race earlier this month.
Rob Hill, director of the Vermonters for Obama campaign, said he looked forward to getting behind the wheel of one of the two ObamaMobiles _ retrofitted Honda Elements.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Don't miss the wonderful Ontario Red Tart Cherry Banana Smoothie recipe behind the Cherries photo at top.
Shame on Glenn Beck and more shame on America
Clearly news is driven by advertiser revenue which is driven by viewership. The amazing thing is that we show more by our viewership than by what we actually say. For instance, Glenn Beck for a very long time has been decried by nearly everyone as an idiot, moron, loser and dozens of other pejorative terms. Yet he has a prime time show in CNN, the world's biggest Cable TV news network. We crucified Don Imus over a few remarks over the years that were born of his insensitivity and self described license based on the huge amount of good work he has done for children with cancer and other causes. Why are we giving Glenn Beck a pass?
Monday, February 18, 2008
French Women Don't Get Fat and Do Get Lucky
Below is a post about women and how Americans who eat and live for nutrician and often forget about enjoying life. Plus our prudish ways seems to give no solice to our lonely hearts does it and French women seem to know this ever so well. Makes you wonder if in the end if its not the women who are the true sex winners of enjoying a full life (wipes tear off male cheek). Alas, while this singularly is one of our biggest downfalls. Healthwise and otherwise we would be wise to listen to this interesting article by Pamela. She is a fine writer at the Washington Post I occasionally find time to read. Of course the advise would serve men equally well and while she does seem to feel thinness is terribly important and it is, she is ever so correct to point out that zest for life simply trumps all other factors. Viva Pamela!
Henry
By Pamela Druckerman
Sunday, February 10, 2008
If I have to get old, I want to do it in Paris.
It's not because of the dank weather, the constant personal snubs or a fetish for unpasteurized cheese. It's because, quite frankly, I'd like to keep having sex.
In the United States, my odds would be grim. Through our 40s, we American women manage to arrange romps on a fairly regular basis. But the latest national statistics show that by our 50s, a third of us haven't had sex in the last year. By our 60s, nearly half have gone sexless in the previous year. Once we hit our 70s, most of us might as well hang up an "out of business" sign. (Needless to say, men fare much better.)
So much for the gym-bodied baby boomers who promised to make 60 the new 40, using Botox as an aphrodisiac. Among today's 50-plus women, the problem of sexlessness is as bad or worse than it was for older women two decades ago.
But not in France. Frenchwomen simply don't suffer from the same dramatic, post-40s slide into sexual obsolescence. Just 15 percent of Frenchwomen in their 50s and 27 percent in their 60s haven't had any sex in the past year, according to a 2004 national survey by France's Regional Health Observatory. Another national survey being released next month will report that cohabiting Frenchwomen over 50 are having more sex now than they did in the early 1990s.
Try not to hate them: Frenchwomen don't get fat, and they do get lucky.
The idea that older women are desirable goes right to the top. Before Nicolas Sarkozy hooked up with his new bride, 40-year-old Carla Bruni, a French magazine suggested some matches for the newly divorced president, including 50-ish TV presenters, writers and an extremely buff sailing champion. After all, Sarkozy, 53, had just been dumped by his then 49-year-old wife Cecilia, who had famously obsessed him and who had had no trouble finding other suitors.
This post-menopausal sexiness is palpable here. In the lingerie section of an upscale department store, I recently watched a gray-haired man earnestly inspecting the black lace bra and panties that his similarly aged companion had just picked out. "That's just what's needed," he clucked, handing his credit card to the clerk.
So why are older American women sitting around feeling bad about their necks, while their sisters across the ocean -- craggy necks or not -- are off being seduced?
For starters, Frenchwomen d'un certain âge have much better role models. Sure, Hollywood still employs a handful of preternaturally preserved actresses in their 50s and above. But even these women, such as Susan Sarandon, tend to be famous precisely because they've defied the laws of aging. And they're mostly denied unfiltered close-ups and romantic leads.
French cinema, however, is in the throes of a revival for 50-ish actresses, many of whom got their starts as fresh-faced teenagers in the early 1970s. These women aren't all airbrushed versions of their former selves, nor does the interest in them seem to be mostly nostalgic. "They have roles not as old women but as women. Which means they're still considered to be desirable," says Danièle Laufer, author of the book "50 Ans? Vous Ne Les Faites Pas" ("50 Years Old? You Don't Look It"). "Fifteen or 20 years ago, you wouldn't have seen this. I think they refuse to give up power."
The actress Nathalie Baye, who's 59 and looks it, has made some 20 films in the past decade, including romantic roles. She told an interviewer that at the 2003 César awards (France's version of the Oscars), Meryl Streep asked her whether "things were as difficult in France as in the U.S. for actresses of a certain age. I told her that thankfully, French cinema is very faithful to its women."
These French actresses are products of the generation of '68, France's sexual and social revolution. But in the French version, women weren't expected to forgo high heels and chivalry in exchange for equality. So it's not surprising here when successful women retain their charms. In the United States, the two can seem mutually exclusive. The right-wing talk-show host Rush Limbaugh felt free to question Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's candidacy in December by sneering, "Will Americans want to watch a woman get older before their eyes on a daily basis?"
Of course, things aren't all rosy in French bedrooms. France has its share of lonely widows and divorcees. All the Frenchwomen I spoke to also stressed that older women must keep up their looks to stay appealing. Liftees are becoming a more frequent sight.
In the United States, men tend to treat older women who've done age-erasing work with either horrific awe or chaste respect. France is more sanguine. Last year, Paris Match magazine put a photo on its cover of a topless 50-something Arielle Dombasle -- looking like a reengineered 16- year-old -- to celebrate her new cabaret act.
American women seem to have internalized the message that wrinkles aren't sexy. A 2006 study called "Sex After 40?" led by Laura Carpenter at Vanderbilt University concludes that middle-aged women who live alone have trouble seeing themselves -- and others -- as potential sex partners. And then there's the famous demographic bottleneck: Men die sooner, and many of the ones left standing prefer younger women. Impotence can leave even married couples sexless.
All that happens in France, too, of course. But when the French writer Elisabeth Weissman interviewed dozens of older Frenchmen for the book "Un Âge Nommé Désir" ("An Age Named Desire"), she found that "they see in maturity a form of eroticism." French Playboy's photo spread on the 43-year-old Juliette Binoche in November carried text that gushed, "The more time passes, the more her inner beauty glows." Wisdom -- combined with regular exfoliation -- is sexy here.
Another reason older Frenchwomen have an easier time is that they're apparently less choosy about their bedmates. A study of older Americans published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine found that 88 percent of sexually inactive women ages 57 to 64 had actually met a willing partner. But about half the women said that they hadn't met the right person.
This isn't just a matter of taste. The Vanderbilt study also found that middle-aged, unmarried men and women in the United States suffer from "sexual conservatism," even if they've been married before. For many women, the study notes, "disapproval of sex before marriage applies to every marriage."
Older Frenchwomen seem open not just to non-marital sex but also to the extramarital variety. Overall self-reported levels of infidelity are practically identical in France and the United States. But because the taboo on cheating is weaker in France, what would be guilty flings in the United States can blossom into long love affairs over here. "When [French] people have multiple partners, they have stable partners, and not one-night stands. This is not the case in the U.S.," says the French researcher Alain Giami, who co-authored a paper on French and American sexual habits.
None of the Frenchwomen I spoke to thought that married men made ideal companions. But all of them said that they could be a reasonable compromise until the "right" fellow comes along. "It saves your life, you live like a woman," says Nathalie Samson, 50, who dated a married man for six years until she met her current boyfriend. (He was single.)
Samson, who co-owns a boutique in Paris, isn't the lithe Frenchwoman of the American imagination. But she's wearing a stretchy black dress with a plunging neckline and flipping through pictures from her recent birthday party, in which her 52-year-old boyfriend gazes at her with obvious rapture. She describes this period of her life -- post-divorce, her three kids out of the house -- as her most uncomplicatedly sexy one. "Now there's just the seduction between a man and a woman," she says.
Older women in Paris don't actually look any better than the ones in New York. The difference is that the French typically don't see sex as a privilege for the young and beautiful. They see it as one of life's most basic pleasures -- something women or men would not give up without a fight . . . or in my case, perhaps a second passport.
Friday, February 15, 2008
FUNNY HAMSTERS Collection
What kind of a dam does a hamster build?
Where do hamsters come from?
Hamsterdam (Contributed by Mary Sue, 10 years old, Chino, California)
What do you call a hamster that can pick up an elephant?
What is small, furry and smells like bacon?
A hamster! (Contributed by Nicky, age 8, Austin, TX)
What's gray and furry on the inside and white on the outside?
A hamster sandwich! (Contributed by Greg, age 9, Cleveland)
When does a hamster take a bath?
A shady looking man walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender says, "No way, pal. I don't think you can pay for it." "You're right," the guy says. "I don't have any money, but if I show you something you haven't seen before, will you give me a drink?" "You have a deal, my friend," says the bartender. The guy reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a hamster. He puts the hamster on the bar and it runs to the end of the bar, down the side of the bar, across the room, up the piano, onto the keyboard and starts playing classical music. The hamster can really play..."You're right... I've never seen anything like that before," says the bartender. "That hamster is really gifted." The guy downs the drink and asks the bartender for another. "Will that be cash or another miracle, pal?" asks the bartender. "Watch this,"replies the guy. Again, he reaches into his coat again and pulls out a frog. He puts the frog onto the bar, and the frog starts to sing. The frog has a marvelous voice and great pitch. A fine singer. A stranger from the other end of the bar runs over to the guy and offers him £500 for the frog. "It's a deal," says the guy. He takes the money and gives the stranger the frog. The stranger runs out of the bar. "Are you some kind of nut?" asks the bartender. "You sold a singing frog for £500? It could have been worth millions. You must be crazy." "Not so,"says the guy.
"The hamster is a ventriloquist." (Contributed by anonymous)
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Alison compiled a wonderful set of Hamster and Animal in action thumbs
Take a look you will love them.
