From Merriam Webster:

Main Entry: mar·riage

Pronunciation: \ˈmer-ij, ˈma-rij\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English mariage, from Anglo-French, from marier to marry

Date: 14th century

1 a (1): the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law (2): the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage b: the mutual relation of married persons : wedlock c: the institution whereby individuals are joined in a marriage

2: an act of marrying or the rite by which the married status is effected ; especially : the wedding ceremony and attendant festivities or formalities

3: an intimate or close union

Those were the old Howard Johnson's Restaurant colors. You're too young to remember them but they were across the country, anywhere you traveled and had great food + 27 flavors of home made Ice Cream...heheh

Joe can be a very good debater IF he wants to be but he needs to think about what people are telling him again and again. By his own hand on a recent debate, he just wants to have fun here. I think we would all like to have fun and we do, simply by debating an issue and someone making a funny statement now and again which, if appropriate, makes us all laugh.

Once again, I don't give a hang about the points unless someone is getting hit for no reason. I actually wish they had none at all. There are many ways a debate can be decided good or bad or in-between rather than up and down votes which are sometimes quite arbitrary.

Thanks to all who participated in this one!

OK...it's too much for you! I'll try and give you a short but sweet analogy. If your computer was running slower and slower on a daily basis it would most likely be a problem of not cleaning it properly. In order to bring it up to speed and operate the way it should, you'd take steps to clean it up wouldn't you? Answer is YES! That's the issue here! We're trying to figure out the best way to clean up this site so it operates the way it was designed to!

Now, since these matters seem to be of little or no importance to you, why don't you go and commune with your plentiful pines and change your life...go make some angels in the snow, it's fun!

The U.S.A. and Russia must remain on friendly terms lest the threat of nuclear war hang over our heads at all times. We are able to work together and will continue to do so. The cold war is long gone and unless something unforeseen occurs, it won't be back! In many ways Russia is still finding its true self in the 21st century. Do you have any idea of how many political parties Russia has and how many are Democratic? It takes many years for a country like the U.S.S.R. to break apart into several smaller countries and find their way to a viable political system. It was one way, since the Russian Revolution, for so long that I can but imagine the effort on everyone's part to make this transition and build it from the ground up.

The "creep" in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and the other creep in Iran, Mamoud Ahmadinejad along with Dmitri Medvedev don't go around kidnapping people and making them disappear! That's a pretty amazing statement to make without proof.

There are no dictator's that are welcome in the world but they've always been there and most likely always will unless they all have an epiphany right after Christmas at some year or other. The American people did NOT remove the Bush Doctrine, it is still in place! I don't know where you get your information from but it is faulty.

Yes, I am convinced it wouldn't happen as much to ANYONE if people explain themselves when down voting. I got Karma Bombed and why? Because I called her on her stuff concerning the debate and she didn't like it. You don't seem to get the bigger picture here. No one should use up or down voting as a weapon. You weren't even in on the debate nor many others nor do you reply when someone has a question or comment on other debates. Get back to the current debate if you have anything else to add to this topic.

What do you think of Black Friday? Is it a greatest thing since apple pie or a hoax just to get people in the stores for things they would have come for anyway during December? I've never known anyone who didn't get it all done even before Black Friday became a tradition or the blue laws hit the books.

Your situation was in NO way remotely similar to Joe's. You had been here just a couple of weeks when you put up your debate on PRO-CHOICE. I weighed in and you didn't like what I said in my post. You began to belittle me and call names on everything you posted to me personally. Others came to my rescue and you didn't like that either. When I realized I was debating an abortion issue with a 14 year old kid I cut it right there. You didn't like that either. YOU OFFENDED ME and it became a very bad situation with you creating names in order to add more to your BS and then start to "Karma Bomb ME under all your names! You changed your profile so it didn't list an age anymore then made out like it was a joke and then belittled me again for believing it!

JOE OFFENDS ALMOST EVERYONE HERE virtually every day!

You nor Joe were ever sabotaged by me for no reason. You got voted down and so did he but for two different reasons and with him I wasn't the only one doing the down voting. If by banned you mean you were made an enemy that is true. I made Joe an enemy because for all his blather he never once stood up for me as I had him. He had been my ally almost from day one but I made him an enemy AFTER our debacle and after his pleading, took him off my enemy list but did not put him back on ally until later. I'm the one who patched up the situation between the two of us and you know it. I'm the one who suggested we stop what was going on and then become allies just so that everyone would see that we had straightened things out. No one but you and I knew how or why until now. Since then, and because you finally, after all the struggle admitted you were wrong in what you did, we haven't had a problem. I've included myself on your debates and even up voted you when I thought it was right to do.

Now Joe is my enemy once more and he Will stay that way. And don't think, for one minute, I've not read your posts to him on his debates. Are your fingers burning yet?

History is certainly not repeating itself here. Yours was a problem that was personal and it was toward me and me alone. Joe's problem goes up and down and side to side and includes everyone who debates here and are all too familiar with his tactics. That's a lot of people and it includes ALL the top debaters here.

Whether or not you have problems with other people I wouldn't know but here's one thing I DO know. You think that Joe is a pretty big deal here at CD and perhaps at one time he was. You'd like to couple your caboose to his engine so that both of you can ride into the sunset as winners. Don''t even think it! It won't be happening that way. If you truly like Joe and it's your business if you do, then I have to ask what on earth are you doing here? Go read what the others are saying to him on his own debates. People are so tired of his nonsense it's astounding to see. You burning the candle at both ends is not a good thing.

There's your elaboration.