Hi Jannie, If one of your daughters, at age 15, invests One Whole Dollar ... ... and manages to have it earn 5% rate of return throughout ... ... through 50 years of time ... ... when she hits the ripe old age of 65 ... that dollar will have multiplied 2-1/2 times - it'll be worth $11.00 and change. If she can manage a 10% return, it'll grow to $117.00 and change. No allowance in either case for the erosion of annual income by income tax, and of the value of one's dollar-denominated assets due to inflation. And when she buys a pack of cigarettes - she pays a lot more than a Buck for each one of them. Most of which goes up in smoke - though some stays in her lungs. And the residue can cause a lot of trouble. Can she imagine what people would think of her were she to stand on a main street corner in town and set on fire as many dollars as she spent on smokes that week? And do that at that street corner - every week? People would say that she was nuts. But - that would do her a lot less harm than using those dollars to buy smokes. Trouble is, though - in the U.S., I think that she'd go to jail: it's a Federal offence to destroy money, as it is Federal property. I do hope that your daughters decide that it is a destructive habit - and one of the worst addictions. I don't want to be a slave to a person - much less to a white paper tube filled with dead leaves!! That sounds some stupid, to me. As Dad used to say, "Looks like that person drove their pigs to a darned poor market"!! Good wishes to you - and especially them - for a New Year filled with common sense. ole joyful

I would say that he is really busy tending his gardens-he is big into vegetables,and right now,everything is coming on hard and fast-he is south of me about 6 hours,so he is likely pretty busy starting to harvest some of his fruits. Also,he has to use the Library pc where he lives-maybe getting out in this heat after he is done in the garden is a little much for him

OJ If you posted something and need help finding it, you can contact the site. If they pulled it they will let you know. If they did not, you can search your own posts using your 'joyfulguy' username, alternatively you can search by subject matter, icebergs + middle east, there should not be pages of posts with both of those together here on this site. The search box for individual forums is below, scroll down below these posts in this forum (and in others, it is always at the bottom), and for wider searches look above the posts here to your right. If it does not come up and if the site did not pull it, perhaps you reached the 'preview' stage but did not proceed to the next step and actually post? This post was edited by lucille on Tue, Sep 23, 14 at 20:35

There's nothing wrong with free expression of opinions. Some people get a little to worked up over little things but that's okay with me. So long as comments there, as here, remain non-personal I'm a denizen of the double yellow lines in the middle, I don't have a lot of affection for either of the two major parties nor their leaders. Both sides have plenty to be criticized about and blamed for. Outrage has taken the place of engagement and compromise. Whether justified or not, there were plenty of Republicans who were unhappy with Obama and what happened during those years. And with Clinton. Is anyone more right or more wrong? Maybe, but it doesn't matter, because criticism of the opposition is what rallies supporters. Less so than in countries with parliamentary governments but here too, how the country stays on an straight course is by having periodic changes from one party to another. More extreme things get changed every so often or changed back to how they were before being changed, it's not a bad thing. In the meantime, obsessing over details or events really doesn't do much. Vote for the candidates you like and don't expect them to do much once in office. There are some exceptions, good and bad.