Lucy

This is my baby and I LOVE her: a 2007 Black Jeep Wrangler

I simply think your initial statement of opposing illegal immigrants because one of them urinated on your neighbor's lawn is a hyperbolic, sweeping generalization with poor reasoning. You stated that you were "not sure if they're illegal or not", followed by an explanation of your anti-illegal immigrant reasoning, using this badly-mannered sod (a point that we DO agree on) as an example. Your inquiry of "Lucy, Are you okay with men urinating in public?" is just as absurd as my inquiry. But I'm sure you threw that in as a reciprocal dig. Obviously I don't support public urination. But I also do not support generalizations of an extreme kind (with wishy-washy examples). We obviously have differing opinions on immigration, but I think the bottom line is that we agree that public urination and other ill-mannered behaviour is undesirable, particularly that of the illegal nature. I wasn't trying to be hurtful, I was simply making a point.

Bubblebutt, we've had quite a few conversations and I respect you because you are clearly an intelligent, thoughtful woman. We are not going to agree and I'm not here to change anyone's opinion. This is the rants and raves section for a reason. I do not agree with you, but I respect you as a person and you are free to state what you believe (not that you need my validation). There are, however, others who have made sweeping statements about keeping out the terrorists, etc.: It's this kind of thinking that makes me feel like I need to insert my few cents here. Lastly, there is quite a difference between opening our doors wide open and building a wall and shooting any illegal alien that we see. I don't agree with super-strict anti-immigration laws, but I also don't think we should put out the welcome mat to everyone. I said it before and I'll say it again: there needs to be a balance. It doesn't have to be one way or the other.

"Anyway, one of them stood in my lawn and unzipped his pants and peed on my tree last fall. And that's the time I saw him, I wonder how many times one of them did that and no one complained. You don't just go to someone else's house and expose yourself and pee on their lawn in public, on the corner of two intersecting streets in broad daylight! It's the law for god's sake. I'm sure he didn't know it's the law. Just another reason why I'm totally against illegal immigrants being here (or in any country for that matter), people NEED to be acquainted with the laws before livng here (or whatever country they want to immigrate to)" Really? Which foreign country, exactly, are you speaking of that encourages public urination? I've seen plenty of born-and-raised Americans urinate in public. Do you think we are the only country with manners? Ever wonder how many things you have done in a foreign country that would be considered rude to them?

Go live in a third world country for a few years and you might feel differently about how you view illegal immigrants. All of you clearly have no idea what it's like. Say what you will about "law-abiding citizens" and make your incredibly offensive and racist "fruit-picking" comments, but every illegal immigrant that I have known (and I live in Miami, which is one of the US alien capitals) has a stronger work ethic, a fgrateful attitude, and more respect for the US government than any born-and-bred North American. As for all of you who seem to think that terrorists all come from other countries, I think you need to re-read your history books. Timothy McVeigh? Ted Kazynsky? Columbine? John Walker Lindh? And let's not forget the biggest terrorist of them all, George W. Bush. Most of us wouldn't be here if the Native Americans had instituted the anti-immigration laws that this government is trying to impose. What makes you think you are so special that you can turn around and shove everyone else out? What are you so afraid of? Oh no! Maybe your childern will learn a second language! I'm so sick of Americans and their hoity-toity behaviour and their arrogant proprietary attitudes. In case you are wondering, I was born and raised in this country. But I am married to a foreigner and he was raised in a VERY different environment with a facist government. If our immigration laws were stronger, I might not have met him. Yes, he went through hell to get his citizenship, but it's hell for everyone. I'm not saying that we should open our doors and let the whole world come in. But this wall-building sh*t and the obsessive anti-immigrant laws are so excessive. There has to be a balance. How can we spread democracy and freedom if we shut ourselves in and refuse to lead by example? Oh yeah, I forgot -- by blowing up major cities and innocent civilians with the premise of searching for imaginary WMDs.

I don't know anything about RVs, but I've always wanted to take a long roadtrip in a decked out Winnebago...but maybe I'll wait until the gas prices go down. It's bad enough with my Jeep Wrangler!

I'm having similar issues as you, Evilah. I don't want to consume all the artificial sweeteners and I'm not a dairy fan (and I HATE whey protein). That leaves us with few options. But I think the biggest hurdle is the liquid diet period -- during that time our diets are SO limited. Once we can eat real food again, there are millions of options. Again, I think soy in excess is bad for the body, just like anything in excess is bad for the body. In small amounts, it's not going to do any damage. There are just as many studies that preach the benefits of soy as there are that warn of its detriments. And again, most of the anti-soy studies are funded by the dairy lobby. Just because there was a study done about it doesn't mean that it's necessarily right. I'm not worried about too much soy, I'm worried about not getting enough Protein. And, frankly, I'm worried about not having this surgery at all and getting diabetes and high blood pressure and sleep apnea in the next 10 years. There are also vegetable and hemp protein powders out there.

I ordered a big container of this off the internet and I didn't like it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, it just wasn't for me. As I am one who doesn't want to waste things, I am offering to give this away free to anyone who wants it. Yes, the container is open and I've had one scoop of the powder, but it's not contaminated or anything. I just feel bad throwing it away. Thanks.

Jukis are the BEST. I'm envious!

That's terrible... (it did make me laugh, though)

Samsung just came out with a phone called the Jitterbug, which I think is a great concept. It's JUST a cellphone, no email, no camera, no games, nothing else. It's simple, to the point, and very well designed.

"There's a lot of soy scare-mongering by the dairy industry. Asians have been eating it for centuries" Insubordination, I couldn't have said this any better. It's no secret that the dairy lobby is out to get everyone to buy cow milk. It kills me that everyone abides by the food pyramid (mostly grains and dairy) without realizing that it's the national government that creates the food pyramid AND benefits from us all buying their agriculture. Many of the anti-soy studies have been preformed by the dairy industry and, duh, of course they don't want us substituting milk with soy. And you are correct about Asia -- they eat a ton of soy, many times a day, and they are fine. They also balance it with fish and lots of vegetables and small amounts of red meat, grains, and fats. I'm not concerned about eating soy in a balanced diet. Also, Betseyjane, nuts are fattening, but they contain a good fat. Raw almonds are a particularly good source of Protein and good fat. A little bit of fat in your diet will help you lose weight. I put a tablespoon of flaxseed oil in my smoothie every morning, which also has Omega acids in it to help with weight loss. It's not "fat" that's so bad for our bodies as it is "sugar". That's not to say, go eat a cheeseburger and fries, but good fats can be beneficial for your body.

As long as it's not all soy all the time, it's OK. I'm not pregnant, so I'm not worried about having deformed children, at least right now. Anything in excess is bad for you -- Water is even bad for you if you have too much of it. I'm not a vegetarian, so I also eat a lot of chicken and fish, which balances out the soy (of which I only have one shake a day). Not to mention the fact that cow's milk really isn't that much better -- even if it's organic, it's still full of cow hormones. And I simply loathe the taste and smell of milk. whey Protein makes me want to puke.

Good to have you back, Eddie. Get lots of rest and I hope that you feel much better soon!

I put a scoop of Garden of Life's "Perfect Food" in my Protein shake every day. Granted, I haven't been banded yet, so I don't know how it's going to work after surgery, but I've been taking it for a long time and it's always had a postivie effect on my digestive system. Plus it's organic and full of very good things that your body needs (especially on a compromised diet). Good luck.

This was in the New York Times today. I thought you would appreciate it. It's so sad that so many people misunderstand paganism: Wiccans Keep the Faith With a Religion Under Wraps By NEELA BANERJEE DUMFRIES, Va. — Above the woman’s fireplace hangs her wedding picture, taken in a Lutheran church years ago. Below it, on the mantelpiece, is a small Wiccan altar: two candles, a tiny cauldron, four stones to represent the elements of nature and a small amethyst representing her spirit. The wedding portrait is always there. But whenever someone comes to visit, the woman sweeps the altar away. Raised Southern Baptist in Virginia and now a stay-at-home mother of two in this Washington suburb, she has told almost no one — not her relatives, her friends or the other mothers in her children’s playgroups — that she is Wiccan. Among the most popular religions to have flowered since the 1960s, Wicca — a form of paganism — still faces a struggle for acceptance, experts on the religion and Wiccans themselves said. In April, Wiccans won an important victory when the Department of Veterans Affairs settled a lawsuit and agreed to add the Wiccan pentacle to a list of approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans’ headstones. But Wicca in the civilian world is largely a religion in hiding. Wiccans fear losing their friends and jobs if people find out about their faith. “I would love to be able to say ‘Accept us for who we are,’ but I can’t, mainly because of my kids,” said the suburban mother, who agreed to talk only on the condition of anonymity. “Children can be cruel, and their parents can be even more cruel, and I don’t want my kids picked on for the choice their mommy made.” She worries that because most people know little about Wicca, they will assume she worships Satan. She fears that her family and friends will abandon her and that the community will ostracize her. David Steinmetz, professor of the history of Christianity at Duke Divinity School, said, “Wiccans have so many things stacked against them, from what the Bible says about the practice of magic to the history in this country of witch trials, that the image of them adds up to something so contrary to the consensus about genuine religion that still shapes American society.” Wiccans worship the divine in nature. Some practice it privately in their homes, and others worship with large congregations. Most people do not grow up Wiccan but come to it from another religion. “It’s a very open religion,” said Helen A. Berger, a sociology professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. “Each person can do what they want, and they don’t have to belong to a group. They take things from a number of different sources, like Eastern religions, Celtic practices. You are the ultimate authority of your own experience.” But its symbols and practices elicit suspicion from outsiders, Wiccans and religion scholars say. Many Wiccans practice some form of magic or witchcraft, which they say is a way of affecting one’s destiny, but which many outsiders see as evil. The Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star inside a circle, is often confused with symbols of Satanism. (The five points of the star represent the elements of nature — earth, air, fire and water — and the spirit, within the eternal circle of life.) It is unclear how many Wiccans and other pagans there are. The 2001 American Religious Identification Survey by the City University of New York found that Wicca was the country’s fastest-growing religion, with 134,000 adherents, compared with 8,000 in 1990. The actual number may be greater, Ms. Berger said. Some people may have been unwilling to identify themselves as pagan or Wiccan for the survey. Others combine paganism with other religions. Wiccans face less backlash now than in the past. The Internet provides information about Wicca, and the popularity of the Harry Potter novels has made magic seem a force for good, scholars and Wiccans say. David and Jeanet Ewing, coordinators of two pagan groups in the Washington area, estimate that at least 1,000 Wiccans and other pagans live in Northern Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. At least half actively hide their faith from their relatives, Ms. Ewing said. Many also hide their faith from their employers, Mr. Ewing said. One such person is a 58-year-old former Roman Catholic who has been an auditor for 30 years in what he calls “one of the most buttoned-down departments in one of the most sacrosanct agencies” of the federal government. “I put on this Joe Taxpayer suit, and it’s like living two lives,” he said. “A minority would have a problem with me, but it would be a big problem. They would assume we are doing weird things, illegal, immoral things, at all hours. They wouldn’t want to really know what we do, but they would go with their presuppositions instead.” The auditor said that by “coming out of the broom closet,” he risked ostracism at work and perhaps being pushed into early retirement, which would affect his pension. “I don’t even want to contemplate it,” he said. A New York marketing executive finds the city so secular that being passionate about religion is often met with a smirk, and it would be worse if people knew he was Wiccan, he said. “In my personal and private life, I like to be taken seriously,” he said. “Pagans are associated with the ’70s and hippies and counterculture. New York is a Type A city, and it’s all about getting ahead, and the kooky ones don’t get ahead.” Members of other religions, including Jews and Catholics, have sometimes been forced to mask their faith in the past because of religious bias, Professor Steinmetz said. But it is rare, he added, for people to keep their religion from parents and grandparents, as many Wiccans do. The Virginia mother has not told her mother or grandmother that she is a Wiccan. “I have a deep-seated fear that they will say, ‘I can’t be a part of this, you’re raising your kids as evil,’ ” she said. She attends classes about Wicca on Friday nights, and she has yet to caution her older child, a preschooler, not to tell anyone about them. “My son says, ‘Yeah, Mommy’s going to witch school,’ ” she said. “I’m just waiting for the day he says that in front of a teacher.”

I don't think it's turned into fat since there are no calories there. But I think it conditions our bodies (and minds) to desire things that are sweet (or "sweet"). And the next time you want something to drink, but your only options are Water and regular coke, your body will tell you to go for the coke. As for high fructose corn syrup, this is what automatically turns into calories, because our bodies don't recognize this as sugar and don't know what to do with it. Our government overproduces corn and uses the excess (and that's after the first batch of excess is supposedly sent to feed the hungry in other countries) to create a toxic byproduct sweetener that they sell to big corporations. That's why HFCS is in everything. And that is why I am so wary of buying anything that is made with it...

Oh wait, it's tomorrow, isn't it? I'm sending you all my best!

"Believe it or not, I was actually somewhat saddened to hear of his death this morning. In the last couple of years I had heard him make remarks that led me to believe he was lightening up on his anti-Gay rhetoric. I had hoped he would come to his senses and wield as much influence in changing the far right's attitudes as he once did to firmly entrench them. I suppose now we'll never know..." Eddie, I think that really just goes to show how open-hearted you are, which is a word that I would not use to describe Falwell. I don't agree with you, but I respect your input. By the way, how was your surgery today? I guess I should check out the GLBT forum and see. At least you have your Tinky Winky to keep you company while you recover!

Well, some people put milk in their tea. I hate milk, usually drink my tea black, so that doesn't really apply to me. That really should have ended my search, but I wanted to believe it would be delicious. I was being overly quixotic and now I have to continue my search for the perfect Protein shake.

Having doubts about the Wannabe Tea. I still have this weird aftertaste in my mouth...I feel like I need to down some kerosene or something to make it go away... Damn you, Protein powder! *shakes fist at sky*

Mark, I still love my NPR. I'm sure there were many other anti-Falwell listeners like me, trying not to crash their cars while they angrily re-dialed the 800 number over and over again so they could get on the air to voice their opinions. At least we don't have to hear about Larry Birkhead anymore.

Thanks, Bubble. I couldn't agree with you more. I don't think people realize what a significant negative impact Jerry Falwell had on this country. He has emboldened the conservatives in this country to embrace hate disguised as "god's love". George Bush owes his presidency to Falwell because there weren't any "Christians" in politics before Falwell initiated the Moral Majority. Not to mention all the parents who now refuse to let their children watch Teletubbies because they are afraid they will all turn gay.

Did any of you listed to Talk of The Nation today on NPR? They brought on Ralph Reed and some other fundamentalist and all these people were calling in and lamenting his death "what a good man, blah, blah, blah". I am completely offended that NPR, my main source of news (who I donate to, by the way) actually devoted 30 minutes of air space to this devisive,ignorant-agenda-pushing, money hungry, uber-conservative, hateful homophobe who not only claimed that 9/11 was god's way of punishing homosexuals and abortion advocates, but also preached that global warming is a myth! It kills me that as soon as someone dies, everyone suddenly has to be so respectful of him. Remeber Ronald Regan's death? Everyone was droning on and on about what a great leader he was. Give me a break. When Bin Laden dies (if he hasn't already) are we going to hear everyone say "oh, but he was such a charismatic leader!"? Dead or not, Falwell was an a**hole. I'm not dancing on his grave or anything, but the world can do without religous extremists of all kinds.

You are MUCH better than that. You deserve someone who does not hurt you and treats you with respect, love, and kindness. If a man thinks that Disney World is more important than his girlfriend, then maybe he should be dating Minnie Mouse. You are more than your body. Fat sucks and it's in the way, but it does not comprise who you are. If he can't see past that, then don't let him in your life. Especially now -- the process of losing weight is difficult, even with the band, and you need to surround yourself with positive, supportive people. Kick this jerk to the curb and open yourself up to people who will love you and support you, Space Mountain or not.