Gracey

Alright m'dear veterans, I have a question, pls. In my October bandster thread, someone mentioned that they weren't staying the night to which I was surprised b/c I am. Someone else said they weren't schedule to either. So naturally the question is: is it more the normal to stay the night or not? Thanks!

Amen, sugah!!

Welcome, Jess! How are you doing since your surgery??

I certainly cannot and will not speak for RSG but I know that I believe the choice should be available for women. HOWEVER, I do not believe it should be used as a birth control method when we have too many other options available. I would prefer women not have to choose abortion. However, I do not want the 40%+ of Senators that are over 65 to decide this very personal decision for me or any other woman when they probably have the money and connections to get one for any female relative of theirs if it's illegal. The thing that bothers me so about extremist pro-lifers is that under no circumstance should you have an abortion but 1) we give them zero support after the baby has been born; 2) they're OK killing people with bombs; 3) they think that being born into extreme poverty or abuse is better than being aborted and I think that's worse. (And no, I am not calling any LBT'er "extremist")

Glou - girl, yer on a roll today!!!

Am I being unclear in this thread? That is my exact point! Let's be proactive, not reactionary! Ditto - RSG! I think McCain is a wee bit more "leftist" of the Republicans and thought if he'd chosen a different VP, I would've had to think before I voted. But I will not, n-o-t vote for Mrs. "I'll get back to ya" Palin. The fact that McCain might've thought that all women will just vote for any ol woman is nutters!

Scares me that Plain figured me out! Yes I meant that offering assisted suicide was ridiculous!!! I almost went into how the insurance provided at my very first job in the late 80's that would pay for abortions but not birth control pills. While I don't want the govt telling me what to do with my body, that is stupid!!!

Jack - I realize that. I just find the vote interesting, that's all. Biden has been around for years and years. Palin is just the new face to pick on b/c she's only done 3 interviews since her acceptance and nobody knows her on the national stage.

Hmmm, I was reading an article today about how all the bank mergers might affect Visa versus Mastercard's share in the market. Doesn't seem as if I want a MC if they're jerking Kat around! I live in Atlanta. In almost 6 years, there ain't neva been a need for wool much less snow tires. That rental car was brought it, not hatched here! I love, love Chicago! I despise summer down here but I don't know that I could do the bone marrow cold up there especially after I get my band and lose weight, babay!!!

I so can't help myself. Gone called Plain "Pain"! Buwahahahaha!! I love great typos!

Gadget - that is beyond ridiculous! A good friend of mine is married to a Canadian. She has horror stories about her FIL during his (unsuccessful) battle with cancer. Can you imagine the amount of fraud attached to Medicare/Medicaid being applied to a universal healthcare system? <shuddering> The liberal in me would like to see everyone have healthcare but the businessperson in me knows it would be horribly unsuccessful. (But hmm, would it be worse than $700B?) Speaking of - I have a serious question for the Republicans (and no, I am not being facetious or sarcastic, promise). President Bush is the head of the Republican party. He appointed both Paulson and Bernanke. Why did the House vote seem backwards? I mean why did the Dems vote for and the Repubs against their own party? And I thought the Repubs were supposed to be for big business? I truly cannot find (and haven't been home to research) why the House voted "backwards." Now for the sarcasm so I don't disappoint Plain - why do House reps that have 2 year terms think they know better than the experts? Oy. One last serious thought - I feel for whoever wins this election. They sure are inheriting a mess.

There's a first! Miracles DO happen!

I have been going through the process while on United and so far, all has been smoooooth. <knock wood> Good luck!

OMG rude!!! I am not malicious! 15 days - omg!

ewwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am too - I like way too much "brown" food, unfortunately! I love Snickers but don't wanna ruin it by frying it. I eat Snickers in my completely almost-OCD way, tyvm! Oh get this! Today my boss' boss said we could work from home through the gas crisis. We're thinking this week and all the next. Welp, the next week is my surgery date so I will only be working at the office a very few days in October! Woohoo!

Oh man, Kat, I am sooooo incredibly sorry about your debit card. I hope that drama is handled quickly and easily. "all the starchy things I very seldom eat anymore, they fill me up so fast they are simply not worth the effort to eat them!!!" I so hope the same thing happens to me when I get banded; yippee! And thx for laughing...esp at Plain's expense! :thumbup:

Green - I'll catch you in other threads. Hope you're feeling well.

Susan - I didn't know if you meant FF or me!

My buddy, Ebony, we give Plain grief in this thread. No being nice to him, pls! Kat - girl, I am so proud of you that I could just hug you!!! Great job! Tippity Tappity - you don't do chocolate??? My god, I wish I didn't! I'd say the fat on both legs is directly attributable to chocolate! Never had a deep fried twinkie; don't plan to start now! I like enough fattening stuff w/o trying something new. I haven't had a twinkie since college, I'd bet. Cheese - I love cheeeeeeese! Unfortunately I don't like veggies so much. Hopefully my tastebuds will change after surgery. Love fruits tho (and no, I don't mean Plain!!) :thumbup:

I love you, Green!! For the record, I personally am not for socialized medicine. My beloved Tennessee tried a state healthcare system that, of course, failed miserably. The US is entirely too big to be able to handle the fraud associated with a program like this. I do feel, however, that the healthcare system is an absolute mess and I have no idea how we can get it out of the spiral. Why can women not dislike another woman with whom they have NOTHING in common? Sarah Palin no more represents my views as a woman than does Lassie.

That's exactly what I said I was going to tell nosy people at work - that I had a tapeworm!! There's a guy in my dept that's esp nosy so I'm naming my tapeworm, Rob!

MommaMac - giirrrllll, I was just playing!

Two questions: 1. Ever heard of separation of church and state? 2. Can someone please tell me why the stupid damn Republican Representatives voted against their f'n President and party leader? Dubya appointed Secretary Treasurer Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke and again, the Republicans voted against. GREAT JOB. Plain asked why Democrats don't like Palin so I responded. She is one of the few people that can make Dubya look smart. (Well she and my cousin who thinks Obama is a muslim.)

To answer your question, Plain: Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for "The Vagina Monologues", wrote the following about Sarah Palin: "Drill, Drill, Drill I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears. I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists. But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war. I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity. Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God." Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not. She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes. Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth. Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air. Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be. I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression. If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain. Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life? Eve Ensler September 5, 2008"