No, this isn't about the differences between boys and girls, heh heh.  If you guys and gals haven't figured the differences out by now, well....

Anyway, this post is about the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.  Man, do they rawk.

My sister on Long Island is a single mom raising a wonderful and smart little girl of eight.  My sister works hard for a living and can't be home with my niece after school although she'd like to be.  So my sister enrolled my niece in the local B&GC.

Can I just say that my niece is excelling there and this program is the best thing ever??  My niece is now playing softball (and rawking it!) and is most especially enjoying the Science Club (she also excels at math, so Obama would be very pleased to know that there's at least one little girl out there who loves math and science the most out of all her classes both at school and at the Club).

My sister is fortunate enough to live in a wealthy area, and her specific B&GC gets some pretty nice donations.  It's my hope that all of them do -- or will.  The Club my niece goes to pays attention to school schedules, and will open early when school closes early.  They also provide bussing from the school to their facility, and summer courses.  A parent's dream come true, truly.

I urge all of you to look up your local B&GC and either enroll your kids in the program, or donate or volunteer.

Cute side story my sister just told me on the phone tonight:  During Science class, my niece's teacher was discussing evolution.  A little boy in the class raised his hand and announced to the teacher, "You are wrong.  My dad says that God created us."  My niece then raised her hand, and turned to the boy and politely said, "I'm sorry, but your father is confusing religion with science."

Eight years old.  Go figure.

Heh heh.....that's my niece.  Damn proud of her, too, I am.  Can you tell?

How's about some music, laughter, conversation in real time, and just a whole lotta fun with friends?

Please join us in chat.  We'd love to see you.

(Thanks to Kurt Cobain for the title of my post - RIP, man)

First, I'd just like to make clear that, in this post, I speak solely on behalf of myself.  I have many friends here, but none of them are even aware that I'm writing this post and won't be aware of it until after I've published it to my blog.

I normally do not like to call out to specific members of the TPM community in such a public manner, but because I do not have the email addresses of two certain posters by the names of Clearthinker and Newsnag, I am writing to them here.  

As many of you know, there was a bit of a brouhaha over the weekend concerning two separate blog posts, and some 'altercations' between CT, Newsnag, myself, and, others.  In one post, I jumped all over CT, and then Nag, for what I perceived to be attack behavior.  In another post, I made a reference to CT in a somewhat joking manner, and others followed suit, and CT spotted it and jumped in and there was yet another fray.

By the end of the evening, at least one other poster commented that I and my friends were displaying a clique mentality and pretty much said that it wasn't pretty.  I've been giving that a lot of thought ever since, and, looking at the whole affair from Clearthinker's point of view, and Newsnag's as well, I can see where there definitely was a pile-on, and I can say that it was very hypocritical of me to accuse CT and Nag of what I myself turned around and did in another post.

CT, you and I have chatted on at least one occasion, many months ago, and we got along pretty well.  In days past, we've managed to work out our issues over time, and it's my hope that we can do that again.

I don't always agree with your comments, nor the style in which they are written.  I think you know I'm not alone in this.  Many folks have suggested to you that you try to word your comments more carefully so as to avoid coming across as condescending.  In this particular instance, your first comment at Stilli's post, you also made it seem personal in your statement about Christians by starting out the first two or three paragraphs apparently talking to Stilli alone, and not - as you said later - to Christians as a whole.  When you start a comment to another poster with the words "You don't yada yada yada" instead of "Christians don't yada yada yada", it sounds to most of us as though you are speaking directly to the poster.  That is what made me jump into the post in Stilli's defense -- not that Stilli had ever needed my defense, as she so ably proved throughout the rest of the evening.

That's my two cents, anyway.  We can agree to disagree on your writing style and the points you make in your blogs.  But it's my hope we can avoid another evening like this past one, by being more aware of our words, actions, and mindsets - both of us.  

My sincere apologies to both of you, and to the entire reader community, for making a mess of things.  I will try to be more careful with my comments in the future, and act with more empathy as well.

Peace.