The results of a survey by LexisNexis ranked the top ten most talked-about news stories of the year.  More than 1,500 Americans ranked the stories they talked about in 2005.

1)Hurricane Katrina

2)The spike in gasoline and oil prices

3)The war in Iraq

4)Tsunami disaster

5)London terrorist bombings

6)U.S. Supreme Court nominations

7)The Terri Schiavo right to life battle

8)Natalee Holloway Aruba case

9)The Michael Jackson trial

10)The breakup of Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt

Out of all these stories the one that I was most intrigued with the most was the Terri Schiavo case half of you know where I stand on it, but I just got so in to it I would probably on go on a ramble.  Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami were probably amongst the saddest of the year.  Plus Hurricane Katrina got so out of control politically, no side wanted to admit they screwed up.  The right didn't want to talk about how FEMA, Homeland Security, and Bush were late to respond. The left didn't want to blame the city and state officials along with the government who screwed up. The right and left never realized all those groups screwed up. The who cares stories of the year were a tie between The Michael Jackson trial and the breakup of Aniston and Pitt. The most overhyped story of the year was the Natalee Holloway case, the media are such hypocriates when it comes to this case. The U.S. Supreme Court nominations are no surprise with John Roberts getting approved and Harriet Miers being nominated by Bush but then dropping out because of pressure from republicans. Then Samuel Alito replacing her and he in all likelihood will be approved next month. Leading to the balance of the Supreme Court to republicans. Oh of course Iraq is always important as long as we're fighting over there it's always going to be on everyone's mind. I had my say that's hear yours.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hope all of you are having a great and safe Christmas!  I bet all of you are done opening your gifts(I am) and spending quality time with your family. I got mostly clothes.  I bet alot of awes are going out during this time because of the emotion.  I know who there coming from to(I just won't say) anyway continue best wishes during this time.  Anyway not much else, speak to you soon. 

So almost Christmas, hope everyone has the Christmas spirit.  I hope all of you finished your Christmas shopping for everyone, I finished on Monday so no problem.  Besides that I still have the Christmas spirit, but I did upset someone well I think.  I hate getting anyone upset at me especially good people, besides that I really hope you have a great time during this time. And I hope Lexi you forgive me, I meant no ill intentions. Did I ever mention how television program is in the toilet, god are they really looking to keep people from watching television.  I must tell you when I do get a chance to watch television, I end up watching a DVD or tape of mine most of the time. Television program is definitely in the downturn.  Anyway I'm going to watch Bill Clinton speak on C-SPAN (it may be a repeat) tonight so there is something actually to watch.  Speak to you real soon. SMILE everyone.

I watched the special about Religion: Church and State on FoxNews on Sunday.  I actually found the words seperation of church and state weren't in the Constitution.  The first person to envoke this phrase was Thomas Jefferson in a letter that he had written.  The special also stated that religion in the country is under atttack. Which I guess is debatable.  Take the case of atheist Michael Newdow who wanted the words "under god" taking out of the pledge of alliance because he feels his daughter was forced to say it by the school.  Just a point he doesn't even have custody of his daughter his mom does.  I'm aganist the words being taken out just because it's a tradition that I'm so used to and why break with tradition.  Are you for the words "under god" being taken out of the pledge of alliance? Anyway Christianity is under attack according to alot of sources as well but to me it is exatterated.

This is just an open-ended question that I could use your input on do I talk too much about politics and does me talking about politics alot on my site drive you away from sometimes responding or reading it?

If any of you who want to do the questionarre from yesterday and haven't you still can.  But tonight we all know President Bush will make a speech about Iraq at 9 PM, but there is a special at 10 PM on FoxNews hosted by Brit Hume called Religion in America: Church and State, about the ongoing vigorous debate on religion in today's society.  I'll watch either the live telecast at 10 PM or the repeat later that night.  Since this is an ongoing debate in this county I hope you watch and tell me what you think. Or if it's changed your views or thought it didn't match up to what to you believe.

Honestly it seems like everyone is in a happy mood during the Christmas holidays, which I am to BTW. Which is a good thing we all should at this time put any of our troubles aside and appreciate the time of year it is and that we all want to just get along and have a good time. I still haven't gone Christmas shopping, I'll do that on Monday.  But it's been awhile and I haven't done one of my great Xanga questionarre(well according to me anyway).  So here goes.

QUESTIONS

1)If you burped or made an embarassing noise in public(in front of your friends, family, or total strangers), how would you react or feel?

A)I'd apologize immediately for doing it.

B)I'd apologize to them, but it wouldn't bother me that much that I did it.

C)I don't mind burping or making embarassing noises, I'd apologize, but feel I have nothing to be embarassed about.

D)I feel like burping in your face, just for asking such a crude question.

2)For you girls out there would you ever cut your hair short or have?

A)Yes, hair's hair there's no difference in whether it's long or short it's the same.

B)No way there is a difference and my hair is much better longer.

C)I have done it and it looked pretty good, no complaints.

D)I've done it and I regret ever doing it, someone should smack me if I ever think about doing it again.

3)Are you the type of person who could appear on Fear Factor?  Could you get past the second round where you have to eat something weird or dip your head or body in something weird?

4)What is the most embarassing thing that happened to you in public?

  Please be candid and for you, who haven't done any of my questionarres before go ahead.  I tried to steer away from any political questions, I sometimes think the more I talk politics on here the more I turn you away. Hope not. Anyway enjoy yourself and smile, hope all of you are enjoying this much needed time off.

Well Iraqi elections took place today and it looks like they went off well.  There was a large turnout by the Sunnis, which was a big hope in the success of today's elections.  Also reports say the overall turnout was at more than 70 percent. President Bush called it "a major step forward in acheiving our objective."  So I guess this is a good step so the next step is the drafting of the constitution.  Anyway Joe Biden(D-Delaware) had an interesting  baseball reference when it comes to the Iraq War, he said some Democrats view this as being up in the bottom of the ninth inning with your three worst hitters coming up, but he viewed it as were in the bottom of the eight inning with your top three hitters coming up and he thought we had a 50/50 chance of making the Iraq War a success.  Well do you still think we can win this even with the apparent success of the Iraq elections?

Also I heard in an interview by George Bush last night that if he knew there were no weapons of mass destruction that existed he still would of gone into Iraq. He believes in bringing freedom to the Iraqi people.  Also he said this of Donald Rumsfield, "He's done a heck of a good job."  Excuse me. I'm sorry he doesn't even know how many of the Iraqi troops were getting trained."  In interviews he seems to avoid answering certain questions. Good job, I don't believe so. I also heard somewhere that John Kerry called for the impeachement of George Bush because of bad intelligence and sending the troops into the Iraq War for it. Anyway I hope I'm not boring everyone with all this political talk during the Christmas season, because everyone seems to be taking a break from exams and work and stuff and the last thing you probably want to hear is politics. I bet everyone is doing your Christmas shopping now and spending time with your family, anyway chat with you later.

 Anyway I'm done with classes until next month when the spring semester starts.  So I'll just throw some political stuff on you and just give me your thoughts, your agreements, or if you want to disagree go ahead.  In practically all my political classes so far, I feel like it's me and maybe a couple other people participating.  The level of debate is fair at best it's like there aprehensive of disagreeing on a point of view. There are people who do share there point of view, but there's always this huge chunk who are apathetic to sharing anything.  Hello the world doesn't come to an end if you disagree on subjects, that's what I thought college was all about. Ok, enough of my tangent I'm going on.

Recently Ann Coulter spoke at the University of Connecticut and during the middle of her speech some people in the audience shouted "you suck, you suck" for several minutes.  She later said, "I love to engage in repartee with people that are a lot stupider than I am," and later said, "We're having a question and answer right now with the little crybabies". Someone did ask her what she would do if she had a child who came out as gay.  She responded by saying, "I'd say, Did I ever tell you you're adopted." Anti-war mom Cindy Sheenan did speak several days earlier without incident.  Several things college students should not be interrupting a guest by shouting "you suck" at them (no matter how extreme they are) there just plain stupid and your wasting the speaker's time and if they have a problem with her ask questions like the one asked.  On another note if some of those responses by Ann Coulter doesn't prove that she is an extremist than nothing will.

Ok a couple more, anyone see the latest Republican ad called "Retreat and Defeat" an ad claiming Democrats(especially Howard Dean) are saying harmful things about our troops in Iraq, if you actually want to see the ad its on the GOP website, www.gop.com. I actually heard Lindsay Graham(republican, South Carolina) on Meet the Press condeming the ad, that it questions people's patriotism and it is wrong for them to play the ad.  All I'll say is don't ever ask me to defend Howard Dean because I won't and the ad the only thing I'll say is there's some truth in it, besides that I don't know, honestly I don't. One last thing I hate the way Jack Murtha (D-PA) is being treated just because of his policy he outlined in Iraq.  I even heard Mort Kondracke say that Murtha hates the president, that is such garbage, there is no evidence whatsoever of that.  By the way, who do you think led the charge in 1991 to have the Gulf War, it's Murtha.  I may not totally agree with all his views on this, but give him a break honestly.  So I've thrown you some things, take your pick.  What can I say I'm in a debating mood, or if you have any other political issue that's bugging you please let me know!!

  Ok, I survived on Monday and I got an A- on my paper and I somehow SURVIVED Spanish I think.  Anyway the rest of the results of my grades should be in soon.  Happy Holidays no Merry Christmas everyone, ok whatever one you choose.  We seem to have this war on Christmas going on where Happy Holidays is getting replaced by Merry Christmas, it's been a big focus of Bill O'Reilly's and even John Gibson has a book out called THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS. He says liberals are part of the people who are at fault for this and it's an attack on Christianity.  So here's a question Bill O'Reilly asked and I'll pose it to you would you shop in a store that had the words Happy Holidays replacing the words Merry Christmas in it?  Me I say the words Merry Christmas during this time but if I saw a sign that said Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas in a store I would still shop there anyway, it's just a store where I'm going to go shopping how's it going to effect me when I go shopping? 

  Hey everyone I just wanted to say thanks to Alexia and Cari for their encouragement when I was feeling lousy last week, that was very sweet of you.  Right now I'm just tense and nervous.  I'm finishing up a paper for class right now, I have a final tomorrow, and I have one on Thursday.  But tomorrow is D-Day for me and I'll try someway to survive, I'll update you later this week.  Anyway what's up with everyone, is everyone enjoying their weekend and having fun?  Hope you are, anyway I've also determined a couple things after taking my media class I determined by watching the media that I think there a joke and there not "looking out for me"(both conservative and liberal).  It's all about the gotcha game, it's about taking one line from a long speech and twisting it to your advantage or on not reporting certain things that happen that are significant.  While I've always thought there was a liberal bias that exists and is clearly evident,  I see both sides twist things around to make their side look good and the other look bad.  If you want me to give you examples of reporters who do I can.    By the way don't you love the last week of a college semester and the madness that happens.