Tired_Old_Man

Are you in a union? If so, your employer may have violated his agreement with the union by switching to a plan that is inferior to the previous one. Many times medical plans have requirements as per the union contract that must be met. If you are in a union, I would talk to your union representative. If you are not in a union, then I see little recourse other than to ask your employer, “why?”. It is a shame that the insurance companies and the companies that purchase the plans do not realize that in the long run, bariatric surgery can be cost effective. The cost of surgery may be one large hit that eliminates the never ending multiple small hits of treating the complications of long term obesity.

Yesterday afternoon, I called Tina on the phone. She was crying because she had just spent 5 hours at her mother's nursing home and during that time her mother opened her eyes 3 or 4 times for a total of less than one minute and then nodded off back to sleep each time. Tina feels so helpless. She is wondering why her brother had been calling her on the phone almost every day to come up to Brooklyn from Florida, if it is only to watch her mother sleeping. Tina was also very concerned that her mother was swollen with many bruises. I felt so helpless. I wanted to hug Tina and try to comfort her. I know (from almost 40 years of marriage) that when she starts saying "I'm ok" that she really needs someone there to hug her and I wanted to feel her head on my shoulder so that her tears would have some place to land. I felt helpless because she felt helpless.:help: The most important thing that I could do was to make sure feeling helpless was not confused with feeling worthless. Too many times, we are helpless to solve the problems that face us, so we feel worthless. But that is never true. We always maintain our human worth no matter how much or how little we are able to influence the situation around us. I hope I succeeded and Tina still realizes her self worth.

That is the story of my life in a nutshell.

I hate to say this, but "shut down your PC and get to work".

I was allowed to take a midterm late during my sophomore year because I had a rash covering about half my body that caused me to spend about 3 hours a day taking showers trying to subdue the itch, plus I could not wear clothing without becoming so itchie that I scratched until I bled. My thermodynamics professor gave me a makeup exam with one main question and he threw a trick into the question that no one would be able to answer because of a little gimmic, but I just happened to know the missing link, so to speak, that allowed me to get 100%. It was one basic question with a large group of subquestions based on the previous answers. He was pissed off, because he wanted to use me as an example for not asking for or taking makeup exams.

Glad to see you back. I thought that maybe your computer was on the fritz.:help:

I find myself going to foreign sources for News so often though I never had to before. Has the news media submitted to the attacks of the Right or has it been bought by the Right?

When I said, "When someone starts boycotting money because it doesn't have "In God We Trust" on it, that is making a religious statement and it is more that showing that they are not ashamed to stand up for what they believe in. It is destroying the commerce of the country in order to get their way", I didn't say boycotting that one coin. I said money and I meant "all money". I was responding to the suggestion in the e-mail and was making the reference because all our money has religious words on it, so atheists for example, can't boycott money with religious statements, so we would have to take "In God we trust" off of all the money to get an equal situation. I guess I didn't explain myself as clearly as I wanted to.

Being Black doesn't make someone tolerant anymore than being White makes someone a racist. Sometimes Blacks are hurt so often by Whites that they just assume every question or comment has to do with race or racial stereotyping. Some Blacks do not realize that whites too can be the victims of racial injustice. Where I used to work, very few of the Blacks were aware of the different ethnic groups. When one White guy was trying to describe a fellow mechanic to a Black mechanic, he said "You know, that old Polish guy". The Black man didn't know a Polish surname from an Italian name, from a Irish name, etc. There is a lot of favoritism between White ethnic groups. I know of major companies (Fortune 500) where at one time, an Italian was doomed or an Irishmen was slated to the junk pile when it came time for promotions. Many Blacks do not understand this. They however, have one major thing going against them; while the different ethnic groups eventually blend in, Blacks are always easy to spot and easy to discriminate against, so White ethnic groups always pass them on the totem pole over time. A Black friend of mine admitted that after 911, he felt that he had moved up, because then Arabs were more disliked than him. Note: When I said Polish, I meant Polish-American, etc.

God, if you believe the Old Testament, went through the trouble of making "Thou Shalt Not commit Adultery" as one of his 10 Commandments. How come he didn't bother to write "Thou Shalt Not commit Homosexual acts" on one of those tablets? Maybe because men didn't have eleven fingers to count 11 Commandments? Maybe God was afraid that men (being basically stupid) would use their fingers as a crutch for the first 10 Commandments and their penis to count the 11th.

I used to belong to a "Codependents Anonymous " 12 step group. Half of the women in my group also belonged to a "Children of Holocaust Survivors" group. The stories they told of Hitler's rise to power and the parallels to BuSh's policies is scary to them (and to me). Coming from Brooklyn, I had many Jewish friends and more of them are insulted by BuSh's tactics than by the comparison between BuSh and Hitler. There used to be a website that had 10 quotes and the challenge was to identify who made each quote: Hitler or BuSh. Many are not aware that my sig is a quote, not from BuSh, but from Adolph Hitler. Many people got that one wrong on the website I mentioned, which is no longer available.

My heart goes out to you and yours. I guess the 3 is a charm logic never ends. I just finished speaking to my minister and his wife. They found out yesterday that her 87 year old father also has cancer and the doctors are giving him 6 months to live. Just prior to that I got off the phone with my wife, Tina. She was crying because she had just spent 5 hours at her mother's nursing home and during that time her mother opened her eyes 3 or 4 times for a total of less than a minute and then nodded off back to sleep. Tina feels so helpless. She is wondering why her brother has been calling her on the phone almost every day to come up to NY from Florida, if it is only to watch her mother sleeping. Tina was also very concerned that her mother was swollen with many bruises.

However, once one group is attacked or their rights reduced, it is easier for the public to accept another group's rights being curtailed. Regarding the Mexican border security problem. #1. BuSh does not agree with the Republican majority on the immigration policy. #2. No terrorists have come through the Mexican border, while some have come over the Canadian border (and some were caught). I am not accusing you of anything nor implying that the following are your feelings, but many people are anti-Southern border immigration because they fear that Whites will soon no longer be the majority in the USA and that scares them as much as Al-Quaida does. Thank you, Karen, I respect the ideas in your posts and the way you state them without name calling or innuendo, but other members at this forum (and at others) have branded me a traitor and some have invited me to leave the USA. Your posts have been as thoughtful as mine (though not as frequent or long winded) and I will always respect that.

Question for the 21st Century: Why is it that we mock, belittle and underestimate our terrorist adversaries because “they wear sheets”, while at the same time we accept every word of Jesus and his Disciples as Gospel, despite the fact that they also wore sheets?

But one more attack and the worm will turn. I will say that the new attack is proof that the BuSh administration's plans for defending the USA and its war on Iraq were not the correct choices. I will also say that the money spent on Iraq could have been better used to beef up US security at home. The republicans will ask that in this time of war, can the US public afford to trust the security weak Democrats? They will also say that the Democrats' interference with the NSA eavesdropping and other CIA and FBI measures is the reason we were attacked again. Who do you think the panicking US public will believe? Giuliani for President Ann Coulter for Vice President

There are two sides to every story: I guess a case could be made that these interpretors were traitors to the Iraqi people and as Ann Coulter says, they should be tried and executed as traitors.:faint:

I watched the buildings burning from my attic window after watching the planes fly into them on TV. My daughter-in-law stood next to the WTC as the second plane hit and was hit with debris flying from the blast. She watched as people jumped to their deaths rather than be burned. She ran from the towers as they fell. I wiped the gray debris and the tears from her face after she walked the 8 miles to our home. Three of my x-aircraft mechanic coworkers who had become police and firemen died in the towers that day. My next door neighbors, my son and my step-daughter had all worked in the towers. Some of my coworkers who were not laid off from our airline after 911, were assigned to sift for pieces of our plane, some at the WTC sight and some at the sight in Staten Island where the debris was brought. At least two are dying of diseases caused by breathing the pollution from the debris (though our government told us the air was safe to breath). So what made BuSh and Giuliani heroes? How does BuSh ride the wave of being the “National Security President” when he was president during the worst security failure in the history of the USA? How did Giuliani become "America's Mayor"? He did nothing to stop the attacks. He put his bunker in the 3rd tower to come down that day; building #7 which was not hit by a plane, but fell anyway. How did the US voting public award credit, when blame would have been a more appropriate response to these two? Rudy tried to float an idea that he stay on as mayor until things were back to normal after 911. The election was 2 months away and Rudy thought they should be postponed. Is that the kind of man we want as our next president? One who would suspend all the rules because of a problem? Were the 911 attacks a tragedy to BuSh and Rudy (as they were for you and I) or just another opportunity to them and for them?

True, but you had better hire an army to protect your propety. I hear Halliburton has armies for hire. For a mere 1/2 million per man per year, you can rent as many contractors, I mean soldiers as you want.

I can not vouch for the authenticity of the following e-mail which I received it yesterday, but Snopes.com does not show it as false and it fits in with what you were saying: * Giuliani not a HERO: I am an active Battalion Chief who searched the rubble of WTC for 9 months. I saw the bodies and what was left of them. I'll never forget the horrors of 9/11. No one will speak for me as a spokesman. NEVER FORGIVE and NEVER FORGET,not even when a politician needs to roll you out to help him recover from bad press. Giuliani and his commissioners ran north to safety when they heard that another plane was missing. My son, FDNY FF Jimmy Riches' body was recovered from WTC site on March 25,2002. If Giuliani had his way, when he tried in November 2001 to end the recovery phase of WTC operations,my hero son's body would have been scooped up by machine and trucked to the S.I. Dump. The heroes all died on 9/11. Giuliani also had my son working that day with a radio that didn't work at WTC(we know this from 1993),and Motorola with whom his connections are suspicious. Giuliani also had the OEM command center built at 7 WTC against the wishes of Jerry Hauer,head of OEM. Rudy also had a room specially built in Command Center so that he could smoke his cigars all on the taxpayer's back. 7 wtc collapsed on 9/11/01 because it was located near a prime terrorist target, but Rudy could walk there from City Hall and He knows best. It's his way or you are gone as was Bratton, Hauer,etc,etc. The whole Kerik fiasco, the FDNY radios and Giuliani's association with Motorola, MUST be investigated more vigorously. Kerik probably learned from his boss how to take stocks from companies illegally,yet will fire the beat cop who takes a cup of coffee. Safir had lunch at known mob hangouts and took an illegal trip to the Academy Awards. Rudy Giuliani's ability to appoint people in high places who do not possess the knowledge base and abilities to perform their assignments is definitely a shortcoming .Politicians are now going to look for their 9/11 family puppets to show off to the media and America with the upcoming Presidential elections. Giuliani treated the dead heroes of 9/11 with disrespect and the IAFF is right to call a spade a spade.Tell America the truth. As for Lee Ielpi being the unofficial spokesman for the 9/11 families, this is ridiculous. This is a typical Giuliani move. Some will kowtow to politicians at any cost. This week Mr. Ielpi went to Washington,DC with Rep. Gary Ackerman as guests of The King of Jordan. Abdullah was addressing Congress and telling them to be tolerant. Mr. Ielpi then had lunch with them. Have we all forgotten how they danced and celebrated in the streets of Jordan on 9/11/01 while our sons were laying under the rubble. This is the ultimate disrespect for the murdered 9/11 Americans. I will "NEVER FORGET." Battalion Chief Jim Riches FDNY

How can we assume that other countries are ready for democracy while we (the USA) are in the process of destroying our democracy?

I read a book recently; "Purpose Driven Life" by Rick warren, and I was amazed how he says things like "God knew what your DNA would be before he created the Heavens and the Earth in Genesis" (paraphrased though I used quotation marks). Where in the Bible did Reverend Warren find the word DNA? It amazes me how Theists revise their thinking because of science, while simultaneously refuting science.

They say that two heads are better than one. Here at LBT, we have a multitude of heads and I hope that people of good will, will always be able to stir the thinking process for anyone who needs help with an important decision.

I spent a week at a drug/alcohol rehab visiting a family member who was a crack addict and alcoholic. I would like to make two points: #1. Every drug addict there (of the 200 at that time) was also an alcoholic and the top drug councilor told our group of "family" that about 99% of drug addicts are also alcoholics. #2. Because drugs, alcohol and sugar work similarly on the brain's chemistry, sugar is not allowed in the rehab facility during the 2 month stay of the patient.

Falwell quoted a biblical verse about the planting and harvest will continue until Jesus returns. I can not find a link to it, but I saw him say it on a TV news show. His interpretation, I guess, is that the world can not end because of global warming because of that verse.

Don't be ok with it, but don't claim it threatens your marriage. It is not a lifestyle. When and how did you decide to be straight? I never did. My penis told me which gender I preferred, not my heart, nor my larger head. One more Supreme Court Judge appointment by a conservative president and it will be. #1. Theory as used in "Darwin's Theory" does not mean the same thing as when I say "I have a theory that it would be better to go to dinner before we go shopping". It is more akin to the Theory that all triangles have angles that total 180 degrees. #2. If the school systems are required to teach religion in science class, should the churches be required to teach Darwin's Theory and other science in church? How about if once each month, the minister's sermon is replaced by a science teacher's lecture?