Chris James

How very sad, for the life lost and the parents who could not do anything about it. Its enough to make you cry. Jamey posting to "It Gets Better" only serves to confuse because he didn't seem to understand it himself. In looking for further details on the local news scene in Buffalo I read the following article: http://www.buffalonews.com/city/schools/article563538.ece It isn't what was said by the news media. Repeating the hate speech posted to Jamey's social networking page only confirms the blind hatred that festers in his peers. But then go look at the commentary in response to the article. The It Gets Better campaign has been labeled an athiestic venture in the mainstream Christian media and here again that comment is added to one of the posts. By labeling a gay led effort, although many posts are by straight people, as part of an athiest consipracy it blames that movement for the deaths of these kids. What a horror of disinformation. Many of the comments on this and other articles on gay youth suicide scream about the immoral gay movement, as if the Christians who make these comments are blameless. I don't see anything Christian about spreading lies, this is all about feeling morally superior. Any religion based upon hate doesn't deserve to survive, we already have an Islamic Taliban, do we need a Christian one?

In this world filled with dis-information, I am happy to see that there are those who still seek the truth about LBGT people. http://www.slate.com/id/2303739/?GT1=38001 The facts in the article are well placed, but I was drawn to the statements by readers there at the end. For once there seems to be some intelligent commentary, or perhaps the forum is beyond the reach of those in the homophobic segment of society. I personally cannot say I was aware of my sexual nature this early in childhood. I had no interest in role playing the female personality some insist exists in gay men. I do recall being more interested in what my boyhood male friends thought and acted upon by the time I was seven or eight, but then normal boyish periods of discovery soon followed. I crushed on another boy at age ten and even managed to kiss him. That I beleive was my watershed moment, although at that time in personal history I still didn't have a name for it. I come from that generation who huddled under their school desks in absurd drills meant to preserve us from The Bomb. I was a teenager in the 1960's and discovered that the Free Love concept only applied to straight kids. The 1970's seems a blank, but the 80's brought us the Gay Plague of AIDS and like many in my circle of gay friends we marched in the streets and then felt guilty when we survived while so many of the bright and beautiful did not. I do believe we are born gay and will eventually find proof of that in research. But science is under attack by those who scoff at modern discovery while clinging to a two thousand year old book for their knowledge. I often feel like huddling under that desk again.

Excellent news! Dude...I love the candid interviews and the music. Perhaps it is finally hearing the voice of an author speaking in real terms rather than with a fictional voice on the page. The interviews also provided some insight to the minds of those who produce such interesting stories and answered a few questions I had thought I might ask them at some point. Now you know why I am here.

My thanks for all the viable suggestions, but my real concern is that I cannot click on an author link here on the site and send mail to one of the persons writing a story. Like many of you I know the importance of feedback from a reader and how it inspires. But now as I read things here and there, think to reach out to the author with my praise, I cannot. How terribly frustrating. My default mail client is not properly installed and so I can say nothing to those of you I admire. I guess you will just have to take my word for that...

That should have been the photo of Bachmann used on the cover of Newsweek Magazine.

Okay, I am a computer novice, I admit that. My first PC was used for word processing the stories and I guess I haven't grown much beyond that. I could probably ask any middle school kid what I am doing wrong but then I don't know any. My "default mail client is not properly installed." This is all I get when I click on the links. Was the bribe not big enough? Didn't I put enough stamps on it? Does MSN hate Yahoo so much that it won't allow me to use the mail links? Mike (dude) was kind enough to pass along a reader comment, but that will get old real fast. Hotmail has always been my long term mailbox, strictly because I like to read the news on MSN first before branching out. All the reader responses go to the Yahoo mailbox to keep from cluttering up the Hotmail. Perhaps if Yahoo was my homepage things would be different, but I just don't know. Help anyone?

Bruin...This is called a job opportunity here in America. Running for political office is one of the few things we can find for our mentally ill people to do. Isn't it lovely?

I wonder how that would apply if the following story were true, and for all I know it may be: A couple from Nigeria ended up in Baltimore at John's Hopkins Hospital where their two children were born. The first, a boy, they called Male and the girl born the following year was called Female (accent on the e). This because the chart hanging on the mother's bed identified the children as male and female so they thought the doctor had named them. Cultural differences perhaps? We have to respect that as we are a nation of immigrants.

Hmm, seems like he couldn't keep his Little Hinkle in his pants. Old Chinese proverb: When you have so much to hide don't pull down your zipper.

Rick Perry needs this cadre of lunatics around him, they make the rest of the Tea Party look sane....but they're not. Perhaps there is still some room left for debate but I think Perry has become the ringmaster of this little circus and that it will kill his political ambitions. As if anyone in their right minds wants another Texas cowboy in the White House. I imagine the rest of the GOP is huddled in darkness hoping not to encounter any of these clowns. Heck, we all know religious conventions cause the stock market to crash.

Someone should have cut up the national credit card years ago but who wanted to take on the responsibliity? Be prepared for another year of political backstabbing, lies and half-truths. I would urge anyone who becomes interested in what the various candidates are saying to fact check those words, most of it will be seen as propaganda. In reading about the latest meeting of candidates (GOP this time) I found this little fact in the article: " The White House budget office has estimated that federal spending this year will equal about 25 percent of the country's $15 trillion economy — the highest proportion since World War II." So if we immediately shut down the Iraq and Afghan nonsense how much money will we save? I say nothing, we still have the bills to pay. WWII did a lot to bolster the ecoonomy and create industry. When the war ended all those soldiers came home to the GI Bill, education, employment and job training...imagine trying to do that now. If federal spending is high now, what will happen when all those troops come home? All those National Guard soldiers who have been forced into two, three or even four deployment periods. They have no jobs left here, what are we going to do for them after this sacrifice? And we think the economy is in a mess now....

Let's think about this a moment, what does a teacher mean to his/her students? Through personal experience I learned that teachers were the first people outside of family that I could trust. Not only did they provide knowledge in the classroom but they could also become mentors in life. Unless you live in Missouri: http://digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/08...nts-on-facebook Social networking is a good tool for learning if used in a responsible manner. Anyone who uses the various networking sites understands that there are public and private forums. So perhaps little Johnny might find it difficult to discuss some inner thoughts in the classroom, or post them on the Facebook wall, but what about the private questions he might have, where do they get discussed? Not in Missouri. I see this as harmful to LBGT students who see a favorite teacher as a mentor. A teacher that they see every day and have come to trust. But the wording of the law even forbids former students from Facebook contact and that is a step too far even if I didn't disagree with the whole premise of this law in the first place. Why stop with teachers? Why not paint ministers and priests with the same wide brush as potential miscreants? They have a worse track record these days. This smacks of censorship and tramples on the rights of parents to raise their children. As a parent I would rather have little Johnny ask a trusted teacher about his gay feelings than see the boy sneak off onto websites where he might meet a truly dangerous individual. I mean...WTF Missouri. If I lived there I would think about migration.

How well we understand this as we now sit on the throne of age and look back. From all I have read and seen, those with a difficult past will seek to order the present in any way they can to make it seem as if they are in control, lying becomes a part of that. Even in a normal adolescent (is there such a thing?) what we refer to as "stretching the truth" becomes a part of the development. My heart goes out to anyone who takes on the role of a foster parent since the landscape of a child's mind in that situation is almost impossible to predict, there is no road map for the emotionally distressed. Kudos to you, Richard.

I cannot disagree with Cole on this one, but I think parents are overwhelmed by the technology involved. A clever child can hide almost anything, and when have you ever met anything but clever children? Perhaps there is a difference between lying and intentionally not telling the truth, but that conversation belongs in a different forum. I will say that my son went to an advanced computer school and learned more in five minutes then I will ever know in my lifetime. Past a certain age we are all users in the electronics world, but then the future belongs to them so perhaps I should be glad of my ignorance.

It seems as if there are those who would see Google+ as a problem: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43881513/ns/te...ks/from/toolbar But then we all know that kids are far ahead of their parents when it comes to anything new. Can you imagine any child actually revealing their inner circle to the parents? Google+ just seems to have one-upped Facebook in making it easier. But then if you can't trust your kids then you are probably a failure as a parent.