Hmmm, you really must ask this question???? I could see to ask if you were like 20 maybe..but checked your profile and you're 33 dude.

Well its been in the media a LOT lately, the Army and Marines are recruiting CONVICTED FELONS!!!!!

Just look it up. They were even doing special segments on gang members joing the service just to get trained and come back on OUR STREETS! They even had shown a clip of a gang member who was in the Army, and he used his training to execute another opposing gang member outside a store and it was caught on survalence video!

Welcome to the great USA!!!

remeber this moto.... "Don't mess with a nation that NEEDS MEDICATION!!!!"

Hmm well if you never slept with them...you know it's got to be a JOKE! But if you actually slept with them....well you asked for that question by your actions.

ROFL..wow Rob, if all that is true...no wonder we locked horns so hard!

When we got into it, I seriously meant it as a joke in the thread. Then you shot out at me in e-mail and the fight was on.

But now that I see a bit of your background, I see why. Looks like we both are fighters in this world with very simular backgrounds.

I too was out on my own at 16, not that I had to, but was simpyl ready to. At 16 went through a flood back in Tulsa (yep we were state neighbors) and lost everything. never asked not received any "handouts" I just worked that much harder. On a long distance move, had a truck and trailer fire many years back, lost everything except the clothes on my back..even my wallet with ID and cash was sitting on the dash. Talking about starting from scratch...i had prayed and asked God for a "fresh start"...well, He gave me one!

Again, no handouts, never even thought to ask. I just had to pick myself up by the bootstraps and move on. Nothing has ever been given to me in my life..I have earned everything I ever had. And I think myself a better man for it. I'm 42 now and semi-retired.

So sounds like we have very simular backgrounds and at least for that part you have my respect. Could say, if we ever did actually have a fight, we should at least sell tickets, cause it would be one hell of a fight with two people as determined as we are.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- If you're a poor sap who needs to eat or drive in the near future, then you might want to consider taking out a second mortgage (assuming you could even get one) pretty soon.

Food and gas prices have been all over the news lately, and even a big dumb rodeo clown like me can see that it's all connected. Our policies, which try to cater to everyone from oil company executives to environmentalists, end up benefiting no one -- and now we're all paying the price.

I know that real economists probably will say that the causes of these skyrocketing prices are extremely complicated to understand, but the truth is that it's actually pretty simple: We've done this to ourselves.

I don't know if it's because of our arrogance, our stupidity or maybe both, but I believe that history may one day judge America as the most suicidal superpower of all time. After all, what country that cares about its future would do what America has done to its supply of food and fuel, two of the most critical things that any civilization needs to survive?

For example, look at the way we treat our food supply. We've spent decades giving billions of dollars in government subsidies with incentives for the wrong things, we've mandated that huge areas of farmland stay open for "conservation" and we're using grains that could feed tens of millions of people to make a crappy biofuel that you can't even buy anywhere.

That's not arrogance?

Our fuel policy has been even more absurd. We're completely dependent on foreign countries, many of whom hate us, to keep our trucks moving, our planes flying and our homes warm.

Take a look at the top five countries we currently rely on for oil imports. You tell me if these are the five you would choose if you were creating your own world superpower from scratch: Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Nigeria, Venezuela.

Aside from Canada, that's not exactly a "Who's Who" list of stable, America-loving countries.

And if you think I cut off the list at five because the next five are so friendly, think again. Here's the next five: Iraq, Angola, Kuwait, Colombia, Ecuador.

The point is that we don't control our own destiny, foreigners do. Despite bipartisan hatred for high oil prices, they've gone up 49 percent since 2006. If we could've done something, anything, to stop that, we would have. But the sad fact is that we can't.

That's why, instead of offering real solutions, most politicians offer something else: blame. Democrats blame Republicans, Republicans blame Democrats, and nothing ever gets solved. President Bush provided a good example of that last week when he was asked about high oil and gas prices.

"We've had an energy policy that neglected hydrocarbons in the United States for a long period of time, and now we're paying the price. We should have been exploring for oil and gas in ANWR, for example," he said. "But, no ... our Congress kept preventing us from opening up new areas to explore in environmentally friendly ways. And now we're becoming, as a result, more and more dependent on foreign sources of oil."

Personally, I think the president is right; we should be drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In fact, we should've been drilling there a decade ago, but that's not the point anymore. Opening ANWR now would be like stopping at the bathroom on your way to the electric chair; you're only delaying the inevitable.

Should we still do it? Yes. Frankly, we need all the time we can buy ourselves to find a long-term solution; our nation's very survival is at stake. But ANWR is not the answer, it's a Band-Aid, and I worry that our shortsighted politicians would use it as an excuse not to look for viable replacements for oil, which is what we really need.

Fortunately, there is some good news in all of this: Oil prices this high mean that a lot of formerly dismissed alternatives will finally make good economic sense.

For example, back in 1980, Congress passed the Energy Security Act, which led to the creation of something called the Synthetic Fuels Corp. (SFC). Lawmakers provided SFC with up to $88 billion in loans and incentives to get started (the equivalent of about $230 billion in today's dollars) with the goal of creating two million barrels a day of synthetic oil within seven years.

So why aren't you putting SFC oil into your SUV right now? Well, it turns out that members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries didn't appreciate the competition so they started bringing down the price of oil. From 1980, when SFC launched, to 1986, when it was shut down, oil went from more than $39 a barrel to less than $8 a barrel. Suddenly, synthetic oil didn't seem so important anymore.

In announcing the SFC's closure, then-Energy Secretary John Herrington said that oil prices had simply dropped too low to make it a viable business.

But the good news is that those economics don't work anymore. The state of Montana, which is leading the synthetic fuel charge, says we can now make it for somewhere around $55 a barrel. That's more than a 50 percent discount from what it costs to buy the real stuff.

It's the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to use OPEC's price gouging and monopoly against it.

So let me be the big, dumb rodeo clown once again and ask the obvious question: Why aren't we doing it?

This was by Glen Beck on CNN.

Definitely agree!

Like in Oklahoma now, the illegals are leaving by the thousands..because that state passed laws taking that situation into thier own hands.

I also heard that Arizona has made it a crime for business to hire illegals, so now they are leaving there because there is no work.

So you are correct, if laws are actually enforced, it cuts down dramatically on the problems.

LOL..nah tats are ok. Mine is just a small one, only about 3" in diameter..and it is a cool looking flying dragon with a coiled tail. Got it when I was 19. Still looks good, even good color. But that's all I will get..no more tats or any piercings for me.

LOL, well my dear, if anyone has none, they don't qualify in the catagory..must have one or more.

I probably have the least in this catagory..only one tat..a small flying dragon on the right side of my chest.

See here is the problem..sterotyping. Do you see any ladies giving opinion or anything referring to why this stigma exists?? No, you just seen one call older guys "pervs"..no reasons, nothing to say why.

It's like when asked a simple legitimate question...they have no answers.

I mean come on..we are all supose to be adults here..can;t we have a simple discussion on a basic issue???

Where????? Its amazing, when much older women go after younh guys, they are called COUGARS. If an older guy asks a younger woman out, he's called a perv?? Why???

And again, whats wrong with being 40+?? Not getting any answers here. And why, because there are none that are legitimate..it's nothing more that a closed minded stigma.

LOL, well never hurts to ask, as long as the intentions are good. Got to swing the bat to get on base!

LOL..hey had to ask!! I'm 42, but just as active and in shape as when I was 25. And have a LOT more maturity under my belt, so some great benefits for any woman. I would have to say I am at my peak in most respects.

So...where is the downside here? I really just curious.

Nah, it would not be your AGE that drives people away...it would be your attitude and maturity level...so don;t whine and don't be thinking of yourself as "pathetic". man up!

LOL..so you would go out on a date with me???

Not to sound racist, but only one group of people I know who would even really try that..Mexicans. And most if not all were probably illegals.

Cougars are on the prowl!!!

Hmmm, you have a problem with men over 40 viewing your profile?? Why is that? What's wrong with guys over 40?? I can;t honestly think of a thing. I can give you a long list of great things being 40+...can you give me your list of whats bad about them???

Almost everyday. But luckily most of the time it's songs I like. I hate it when it's one of those songs that anoy the sh*t out of you...those stay in most of the day.