Buffalo?

[Kounelaki]

Is everything OK in Hipland?

[withahip]

Terrible. 49 dead on the plane. A home was hit.

Thanks for asking.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7887555.stm



http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/577959.html

[withahip]

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/587487.html

Outnumbered more than 50 times over, three members of a Kansas- based fringe group here to picket a memorial service for a victim of the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 were hushed and eclipsed Sunday by counterprotesters in Buffalo and Clarence.

With many counterdemonstrators wearing white plastic angel wings and others holding large white flags and banners, two efforts by the three from Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., were rousingly overshadowed by the response of area students and residents who gathered because they said they opposed the group’s hateful, anti-gay message.

“We wanted to show people that we don’t put up with that sort of hate in Buffalo,” said Meghann French, a city resident who stood Sunday afternoon on a Main Street sidewalk near the University at Buffalo’s South Campus. “We just don’t tolerate it.”

The Westboro group had announced plans to picket near a memorial service in St. Joseph-University Catholic Church for Alison Des Forges, a human-rights activist who was one of the 50 people who died in the Feb. 12 plane crash.

At about 1:45 p. m., when the service had been scheduled to begin, the three Westboro pickets started walking along Main Street from Allenhurst Road.

In a matter of minutes, they were surrounded by dozens of the more than 150 counterdemonstrators, who came armed with the plain white cloths to hide the Westboro group’s signs.

Just before 1:50 p. m., the three Westboro members walked back to their car with two of at least a dozen Buffalo police officers monitoring the situation.

Members of the Topeka group, an organization whose members hold harsh anti-gay views, travel across the country to protest at funerals of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Hatred in the name of Jesus is a despicable thing,” said the Rev. Randy Milleville, the church’s pastor.

[Red]

wow! i never even heard about that plane crash!

[withahip]

Just a couple miles away.

Glas I was out of town this pas week. Even over a week later it iwas so sad.

Did I tell yous guys I went to Argentina?

[Mr. Brian]

Did I tell yous guys I went to Argentina?

Is that near Japan? I'm American so I dunno.

[moses (2)]

Just a couple miles away.

Glas I was out of town this pas week. Even over a week later it iwas so sad.

Did I tell yous guys I went to Argentina?

where they good ???

joking aside -- what was it like??

[withahip]

Which?

People even closer than me did not hear it. It was surreal. And then the trickle of finding out knowing of someone you know being directly affected was terrible.

Buenos Aires was just the opposite.

[black francis]

Do all the women wander about in a constant state of topless-ness?

[withahip]

Do all the women wander about in a constant state of topless-ness?

That's Brazil, to the North.

[black francis]

North of Japan?

[withahip]

North of Japan?

No, Argentina. Did I ever tell you, btw, that I've been to Japan?

[Kounelaki]

Did you try the green tea Pocky?

[withahip]

Did you try the green tea Pocky?

heh, Pocky. That is so Japan. When I first got there and friends would come over and bring snack including Pocky I didn't understand it was the shoestring youth version of bringing gifts to a home invite.

And, no, I think I missed out on the Green Tea.

[Kounelaki]

Strawberry is nice.