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If you want to donate, email me, as the Click Here will not come through after I plain-texted Don Reed's message. I would have to email it directly to you.Ray #236 Wednesday, October 11, 2006 - MY FAVORITE FUNERAL My favorite funeral will be my own. And it will be the best funeral I can possibly imagine and design. It will take all day, have tons of food, and be near a lake so when the kids get bored they can wander off and play somewhere. There will be martial arts demonstrations, tai chi, wing chun, tang soo do-I am totally serious- and if my kids object, they don't get the house! My wife wants to leave the house to our children. Personally I would rather leave it to charity-but okay, it will go to the kids, but only if they mind me (for once) and respect my wishes as to my leave-taking from the world. The funeral will be a fund-raiser, cost a buck to get in, and it all goes to a charity, or some good cause, which I will name in the will. No flowers, send a dollar to___. I will want my car to be donated, etc., etc. You get the picture. And I want to be videotaped, so I can make my last public comment! "Hi, guys, you didn't think a small detail like being deceased could stop me from speaking, did you?" It will be so cool. Well, to be grammatical, I ain't dead yet. (That is correct, you know, the contraction for am not is indeed "ain't". And I ain't. I got a whole lot of living to do before I kick the bucket. But let's do a fundraiser anyway. I want you to send CLAIRE McCASKILL some money. CLICK HERE : I am so serious. Think what she is up against. Imagine you were her. Imagine you were Claire McCaskill. You are not up against not just one massively funded candidate-you are up against someone who can call in the President of the United States to do fundraisers, and the vice President, as many times as he wants-if you are Claire McCaskill, you are up against someone whose campaign budget has been described as "limitless". But you are Claire McCaskill, you have to win, because you are fighting for all those who suffer and die needlessly, from incurable medical maladies. You are Claire McCaskill, and you are standing tall for stem cell therapies to ease the suffering of chronic disease. You are Claire McCaskill, and if you win-America might just have a veto-proof Senate in terms of stem cells. The President of the United States has vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, with the help of Jim Talent, who could hardly be more closely allied with the Bush policies. (Talent has a pro-Bush voting record of 94%, which is fairly astonishing.) Consider: the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act was so modest and cautious and conservative that it was passed by both houses of Congress. The most conservative Senate and House of Representatives probably in the history of the country, and still they agreed to pass the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. But George Bush vetoed it. And Jim Talent supported that astoundingly bad decision. Hang on a minute, it gets worse. Missouri has a stem cell measure on the ballot, called Amendment 2. All it says is that federally allowed stem cell research will also be allowed in Missouri. There is no funding connected to it-it just says, let Missourians have access to the same stem cell research, treatments, therapies and cures-as the rest of America. Jim Talent is even against that! What total arrogant airheaded nonsense. Unfortunately, ignorance can command cash flow. For instance, if Mr. Bush does not believe in global warming, or at least says he does not, that means all those polluting companies that do not pay to clean up their own poisons will contribute big bucks to keep such foolish policies in place. What kind of mountain of money is Claire McCaskill up against? So far, Jim Talent has outspent Claire McCaskill literally ten to one. And he can turn on more floodgates of cash any time he wants. He can drown his home state in a tidal wave of advertising. Whatever money can buy, that's what Talent can get; the most skilled psychologically-planned advertisements, tons of TV time, radio time, micro-targeted phone calls, mass-produced newspaper ads-you name it, he can buy it. If cash could pay for it, he could change the name of Missouri to Talentville. He could paint his name on the side of every public building. He could (and probably will) make Missouri hear his name every moment of the day, shouted through every form of paid media which exists-because he can just keep writing those checks. But there is one thing he cannot buy. And that is your support. I don't care what state you live in, Claire McCaskill's election matters to you. If you love stem cell research, I hope you will do what I am going to do (don't tell Gloria, please, she will be mad!)-as soon as I finish this article, I am going to donate $100 to the Claire McCaskill campaign. Okay, you may not be as rich as I am, being a retired schoolteacher. I don't want to flaunt my wealth, but I own my own house, and um, well, let's see, quick list of assets, let's see, umm-I own my own house! But whatever you can afford, give that. If you can give a dollar, give a dollar. If you can match my small donation, do that. But whatever you can do, do something. Don't let Claire McCaskill fight alone. She is a good person, fighting a good fight against nearly impossible odds. Oh, and one thing more-at my funeral, I want someone to write the words: FEAR, IGNORANCE, and MISUNDERSTANDING on a piece of paper, and burn it. I want that paper to burn to ashes, and those ashes to be scattered to the winds, where they can break down biologically and become fertilizer to help something grow. Fear, ignorance, misunderstanding-when Claire McCaskill stands up for stem cell research, those are the enemies she is fighting against. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn