To Get over it ....Wow, you have a real problem with women having diamonds. Glad it's your problem. I have a lot of diamonds, rings, ear rings, watch, necklaces and so on. Some were my Mothers ,some were my Grandmothers but most were given to me by my husband. I love them all. ALMOST as much as I love the wonderful husband that gave them to me. He is kind, caring, he makes me laugh and when I cry he is there to comfort me, I thank God every day that he has been my partner in life for over 25 years. He likes giving me nice things ,including diamonds. It makes him as happy to be able to give them to me. I love them too,but if it were a choice I would sure pick my loving husband over anything , diamonds included,or anybody. You need to mind your own life and not judge people lives you know nothing about. Worry about what you have and want and stop worrying about what we want or have. Get over it !

To "get over it" this sure sounds like someone who has never gotten a diamond. They do something to you. Make you almost invincible. They posses the same caliber of power as cryptonite does for superman.... You also get to flash them in your girlfriends faces and watch them go ga ga over them. Sometimes you even get flashed back. LOL get over it.

Re: Dream On.
Why is it always the republicans fault? They aren't the ones stopping companies from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico or in ANWR and building new refineries. I think you need to look at your Democrat cronies and the environmental whiners to lay the blame. You think it's bad now, just wait til next year.

To DreamOn: Gas is $3.10 but it's individual decisions that create these prices. If we keep buying it, then we deserve what we get. Carpool one day per week. Use public transportation. This was coming no matter what group was in office due to the emerging world of China, India, etc.
To bs64507: You are willing to sacrifice anything and everything to drill for oil? That preference will kill your children's future, just as the current 6 trillion dollar deficit has almost certainly assured the US to be a 2nd class nation in the next 30 years. And you state that DreamOn needs to stop "whining." You, too, are complaining, so doesn't that make you whining as well?

To Sam: Unfortunately oil is what makes the world go round. China, Mexico, Cuba and others are already drilling in the gulf. The high cost of fuel drives the price of everything else up also. If they would create an alternative energy source that is effective and cost effective, I would be more than willing to use it, but they haven't yet.
I would like to take public transportation, but it doesn't work for me if they don't run 24hrs a day and the public transportation system in St. Joe isn't that good.
Just tired of everyone blaming the republicans when it's like you said, it's everyones fault.

Hey diamond loving momswisher, have you ever heard of blood diamonds? Do you care that people, including children, have had their arms and hands hacked off so that you could drape yourself in your precious jewelry? How greedy and vain. Typical spoiled American trying to be a two-bit Elizabeth Taylor. Time to grow up.

Donhill...only 1%-4% of the worlds diamonds are conflict diamonds (blood diamonds).

To Sam: Our individual decisions don't "create" these prices, but they certainly do contribute to sustaining them. Our collective decisions are what creates these prices.
At last count (my count) there are 38 different blends of gasoline requirements in various parts of the US. We haven't built any new refineries in the US since the 1970's. The refineries struggle to keep up with the different blends - then when you add the fact that the world is demanding more fuel - including the US - you can see the problem. While the US is not considered an emerging market/economy, we are certainly an expanding market. Combine this with the greed of OPEC and we have a real problem.
I spent several years in the oil industry and still have contacts in both the research and the drilling aspects of it. The drilling techniques we can now use are vastly more efficient and disturb the environment much less. Most geologists agree that there are billions of barrels of recoverable oil and trillions of cubic feet of recoverable gas in ANWR. (Alaska National Wildlife Refuge) I agree with the more than 75% of Alaska's population that we should drill in ANWR to help decrease our dependence on OPEC while we search for alternative energy sources.

Hey dondill: Looks like you watched the movie "Blood Diamonds". So did I. My take on it however is that the people that had their hands or arms chopped off are the people that made the personal choice to try to steal these said diamonds. I agree that this punishment is too harsh, but it could have been avoided.
Several people died while building Hoover Dam. Do you blame the people driving across the dam for their deaths?
Maybe it's time for you to grow up and see the Hollywood hype for what it is. Try thinking things through for yourself.

I did not see the movie "Blood Diamonds." I had already read about the trgic events surrounding the diamond trade years before this film brought it to the mainstream. The photographs that I saw were of children who'd had their arms and feet hacked off. Little innocent children, who knew nothing of the diamond trade and were too young to be capable of stealing. Sheesh!

So if these children knew nothing of the diamond trade, how do you relate their arms and feet being hacked off to the diamond trade?

Duh. . . . the children were living with adults who were either living in the diamond area or involved in the diamond trade. They were innocent little children. What part of that can't you figure out?

What I can't figure out is why you can't get your story straight and say something that makes sense. Duh!

Liberian president, Charles Taylor, used slave labor in Sierra Leone to dig up diamonds worth up to $125 million per year. He terrorized the population to assert control of the diamond fields. The proceeds were used to buy arms and ammunition for rebels to fight - thus the term "blood diamonds." Rebels routinely and methodically hacked off hands and feet of innocent children, using terror to control the population. Even if there were no such thing as blood diamonds, I would not be too interested in diamonds because in reality, they are a dime a dozen. Unfortunately, the De Beers family - or cartel - has been charged with all sorts of price fixing schemes and sell their diamonds at hideously inflated prices. Diamonds are not rare, but we've been led to believe they are. I don't buy into the scheme.