Tired_Old_Man

I am a New Yorker. I was raised on Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and Rockefeller Plaza, the Yankees or the Mets, Jones Beach or Rye Beach or one of the beaches on the sound. I know that "THE END" means Montauk. Because I am a New Yorker I am a New Yorker. When I go on vacation, I never look up: skyscrapers are something I take for granted. The Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty are part of me. Taxis and noise and subways and "get outa heah" don't rattle me, because I am a New Yorker. I am a New Yorker. I was raised on cultural diversity before it was politically correct. I eat Greek food and Italian food, Jewish and Middle Eastern food and Chinese food because they are all American food to me. I don't get mad when people speak other languages in my presence because my relatives got to this country via Ellis Island and chose to stay. They were New Yorkers. I am a New Yorker. People who have never been to New York have misunderstood me. My friends and family work in the industries, professions and businesses that benefit all Americans. My firefighters and police officers died trying to save New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers. They died trying to save Americans and non-Americans because they were New Yorkers. I am a New Yorker. I feel the pain of my fellow New Yorkers. I mourn the loss of part of my beautiful city. But then I remember: I am a New Yorker. And New Yorkers have: Tenacity, strength and courage way above the norm Compassion and caring for our fellow citizens Love and pride in our city, in our state, in our country Intelligence, experience and education par excellence Ability, dedication and energy above and beyond Faith; no matter what religion we practice Terrorists hit America in its heart but America's heart still beats strong. Demolish the steel in our buildings, but it doesn't touch the steel in our souls. Hit us in the pocketbook; but we'll parlay what we have left into a fortune. End innocent lives leaving widows and orphans, but we'll take care of them, because they are New Yorkers Wherever we live, whatever we do, whoever we are. There are New Yorkers in every state and every city of this nation. We will not abandon our city. We will not abandon our brothers and sisters. We will not abandon the beauty, creativity and diversity that New York represents. And most importantly, we will never forget. Because we are New Yorkers. And we are proud to be New Yorkers. I REPOST THIS IN HONOR OF ALL OF THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES 5 YEARS AGO TODAY

There are two types of hunger that I go through. One is in the mind caused by my emotional problems that started in childhood (and which are too personal and would take too long to discuss). Then there are other times that I am physically hungry. Ghrelin has been researched for years. I remember reading that ghrelin was produced in the stomach and people who have much of their stomach removed for gastric bypass surgery don't produce as much ghrelin as they lose weight as people who lose the same amount of weight without (partial) stomach removal. I can tell the difference between the two hungers because with one I find myself eating even when I feel full. I find myself craving though not hungry. I find myself day-dreaming about what to eat next, though not hungry. I can't wait for the next commercial, so I can get up a go to the kitchen. That is head hunger.

We have a country full of parents who do not raise their children properly. Many of those parents probably were not raised properly, but all we can think about is "it is the responsibility of the (irresponsible) parents to raise responsible children to be responsible adults". That is not going to happen. I see this as a debate between the relative worth of compassion versus the relative worth of personal responsibility. We can either expect people who have no abilities to be responsible or we can show some compassion for their situation and their children. It is obvious how we feel in this country. When we fund schools based on property value, we say that those who come from better neighborhoods deserve a better education and those that come from poor neighborhoods deserve what they get. We can continue to expect people to pull themselves up by their own boot-straps (which as any physics teacher worth his salt can tell you, is physically impossible) or we can lend a hand. A few years back there were two towns a few miles apart. The towns were almost clones of each other size and ethnic background wise. Both towns had schools that were performing well below standards. One day a teacher noticed that kids were falling asleep in class and then she found out that many kids were hungry. After doing research, the school started a Breakfast program to go along with the lunch program and started giving children food to take home. The test scores soared. The other town's mayor and school board heard about the progress, but insisted that they were a school system, not a restaurant and it was the parents responsibility to feed their children. I would imagine that the town that fed their school children had to raise taxes, but can anyone think of a better use of tax money?

In the last few weeks before my Lap-Band surgery, I was hell to live with as my internal defense mechanisms and my fear of the unknown caused me to be irritable. I subconsciously took it out on my wife. Can you identify with any of that Kellie? And yes, my wife's fears of losing me caused her to react more harshly than she should. Love can show itself in strange ways.

Thank you for the very interesting article. I have been reading about ghrelin for at least 4 years if not longer. I have been hoping that this research would produce results which would lead to medications that will save us from ourselves. The American lifestyle is killing us. We are teaching our children, inadvertently I'm sure, to destroy their internal mechanisms for regulation of weight and sugar/fat in their systems. Profit is king while the health of the people and health of our planet are pawns in this marketing chess game. :help:

"Murry the K" used to say "You can pick your friends, but not your relatives". I hope he doesn't turn over in his grave if I modify that to: "You can pick your friends and your Dogs, but not your relatives".:bandit

Susan, I know I shouldn't say this (but that has never stopped me before), but are you sure you want to stay in those clubs? I would think that clubs like that are one of the reasons that people wind up needing a Lap-Band.

Heaven Forbid! It sounds like we agree. Well, except for the Jade part.

When McBride came to a screaching halt after he fell 12 stories, it was as if a Hefty Bag filled with vegetable soup had hit the pavement. Analogy Now?

No! I am not missing your point. I disagree. Schools need to do whatever it takes to educate the children. I would have more teachers per student and/or teacher's aid to help control, discipline and teach manners if that is what is required. And if parents of other students (I say other, because all our children are perfect), don't teach their children manners and good sense, then we wind up with a society of uneducated adults and adults who are muggers, thieves and criminals, but at least the teachers didn't have to teach them manners. We are all in this together. Let's say that your neighbors are slobs, who dropped out of school in the 7th grade and are functionally illiterate. I guess we should just write their children off. When one of those children (as an adult) many years later, mugs your child or your sister's child, it will be of little solace to know that teachers only had to teach the "3 R's". Better to light one single candle than to curse the darkness.

My daughter-in-law was standing next to the South Tower when the plane hit. She was only mildly injured by the debris, but emotionally scarred from the sights that she witnessed. She was one of those people you saw running as the South Tower came down. She was on the Brooklyn Bridge trying to walk to our home when the North Tower came down. I wiped the tears and gray soot from her face after she walked the 8 miles to our house in Flatbush. We hugged and cried together after I wiped her face. I worked for an airline that (unwillingly and unwittingly) supplied planes for 911 and I worked at one of the airports where one of the planes took off from. I was on my day off watching FOX News and eating Breakfast with my wife when the first plane hit and I was at my computer and turned around to look just as flight 175 was about to strike the South Tower. I saw that crash live and said to my wife, "we are under attack for sure". I had said earlier that it might have been an attack when the TV showed the damage to the North Tower, because knowing the size of the towers and the size of planes, I knew that the imprint of damage was not that of a small plane. I pray that all people who believe in God, no matter what they call him, will come together to end this madness. I am tired of seeing people use the name of God to justify this unjustifiable never ending cycle of killing. When Jesus said to Peter on the night before his crucifixion, “Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword", He was not only speaking of swords, he was speaking of guns, bombs, missiles and planes, both fighter and bomber as well as civilian. He was speaking of a way of life. He was speaking of war as a way of life and Jesus also said, “Blessed are the peacemakers”. He didn't say, “Blessed are the people who pray for peace”, nor “Blessed are the people who want peace”, but “Blessed are the peacemakers”. Where are the Peacemakers?

Most people do not understand pyramiding or the power of powers. Let me give you an example: Story: The knight in shining armor saved the princess from the dragon, so the king offered the knight a choice of three rewards. #1. $1,000,000,000 (one billion dollars):clap2: #2. He would take a checkerboard and put 1 penny on the first square, double it and put 2 pennies on the next square, double it and put 4 pennies on the next square, double it and put 8 pennies on the next square, double it and put 16 pennies on the next square until all 64 squares have been used. Then the knight could have all the money on the last square.:clap2: #3. The knight could have all the money on the all the squares except the last square.:clap2: Which would you take? TOM Answer to follow later. By the way, they probably used a Chessboard instead of a checkerboard.

If your senator can not realize the phoniness of that type of petition, I wonder how he was able to get elected. Petitions at certain websites that are made for petition signing are a totally different thing. The best way to influence your representative using the internet is to go to his web-site and send a PM type correspondence. Phone calls and postal mail are probably better. When I want to influence my representatives, I go to their websites and write a personalized expression of my feelings toward an issue or to a bending bill. Then I copy that and paste my idea into an e-mail and send it, along with links to the appropriate state houses or federal government sites, to all the people in my address book.

Internet Petitions I continually get petitions for ideas that someone thinks we need our US congressman to pass a law about. The E-mail petition usually comes with these (or similar instructions). Instructions: To add your name, click forward, add your name at the bottom of the list. Send it to all you know. OR...COPY AND PASTE INTO A NEW MAIL... ADD YOUR NAME. I am usually CC'ed in with around 30 to 40 people. Recently I received an E-mail petition which had 277 names on it already and was sent to 36 other people besides me. This was my "Reply All": #1. A petition of this type has no value because names are not considered signatures #2. The petition is fictitious. I received this E-mail with 277 names on it. Let's say I write my name on #278 and send it to 20 people. If 10 of those people add their name at 279 and forward it to 20 people, there will then be 10 different petitions going out to the 200 people because there will be 10 different #279's. If 100 of the people who receive those petitions add their name at #280 and forward it to 20 people, there will then be 100 different petitions going out to the 2000 people because there will be 10 different #279's and 10 different #280's for each #279. After 5 more signing and mailings, by the time #285 is signed, there will be 10,000,000 different partitions. Well that is bad enough, but the same thing would have happened if this was a legitimate partition. By the time #10 was signed and mailed, there would have been more different petitions than all the people in the world. If this partition was legit (assuming each person sent it to 10 people who signed it and mailed it on), there would be more petitions than there are atoms in all the people on the Earth.:faint: #3. Congressman ignore petitions except from constituents from their district in their state and they have no way of knowing what state or district each name is from. It is amazing how many "Yes, But..." replies I get back.

"McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty Bag filled with vegetable soup" is actually quite descriptive and while gross, is a good analogy.

If teachers are required to be mothers and fathers and baby sitters at once, then the school system should be funded to have enough teachers and teachers aids so that they could be effective mothers and fathers and baby sitters. Whatever it takes to get well educated students must be done. I bet when the coach of the high school football team says, "we could have won the state championship except that I didn't have the facilities to practice in the rain", a building will be built to allow the football team to practice in the rain. Education of our young is not priority one. The first thing cut when a municipality has financial problems is the school budget. Yes, in a democracy, people have a right to cut the school budget rather than increase taxes, but then we can not complain when a P/E teacher is found wanting in ability. Well we can complain, but we make our own bed. No, I am not saying the individuals here who faced or saw abuse from P/E teachers deserved it, but the vote of tax payers to put children's education below tax rates on the priority list caused the situation.

I have heard some people say that what you eat is personal responsibility, but McDonalds, other fast food chain stores and other purveyors of fat and sugar spend billions on commercials directed at children. Does anyone think that they spend those billions because they are stupid? There are psychologists working on the ad company's payroll to make sure that the commercials are effective. People do not stand a chance. And with many families having all adults working long hours, the marketing is impossible to beat.

Hurray for Californina and the Guvernator. But here in Florida, they have cut almost everything except passing the FCAT's. The history class is only US history and science is a joke.

Hi Pebbles. I have lived in Florida for the past 3 years, But I was born in Brooklyn and except for college in Pennsylvania, living in Queens for almost a year and living in Medford, Long Island for almost a year, I lived my first 58 years in Brooklyn. I had my Lap-Band surgery in Staten Island by a doctor who has a Staten Island/Brooklyn practice.

Welcome to LBT, Mastiff Mum. As a man who has been married to a British woman for 39 years, I feel as if we are mates already. I hope I will be able to answer any questions you might have and I am sure if I can't, someone else at LBT can.

Welcome to my Club. Married life IMHO is the best life for a man. And I have a Maytag dishwasher for all those making assumptions.

Go out of your way to make the breakup as civil as possible. The children will benefit from the reduction in stress level. Your "X" will benefit and most of all, you will benefit (in the long run). Getting even for past grievances may sound good and may be the popular thing to do, but the resentment that builds and lingers will only eat away at you and the children. Forgiveness (believe it or not) benefits the forgiver more than the one forgiven. It is in vogue to be strong, but some tenderness may actually show more internal strength and the children will be watching. I have seen a lot of breakups and the ones where the couples acting like adults and were civil and compromised usually resulted in happier people down the road. Couples who fought the hardest usually brought all the hatred into their next relationships. TOM PS: I am not saying to lay down and to allow your self to be taken advantage of.

I agree with much of what you say, Kare. However, these are two separate issues. Of course we as voters should do all that is possible to force our schools to root out waste. We must however look at "waste" with open minds. Many schools have eliminated P/E and music programs as "waste" because it was not the "3 R's". In the long run, our children will suffer from the removal of those programs. You say that progress reports are a waste "because the teachers so often don't have time to have enough things graded every single 6-weeks". Well maybe teacher's aids could help with some of the rote work that teachers do. My daughter-in-law was first a Catholic school teacher and then a public school teacher, and she had to bring home tests to mark and did many other teaching related chores while "Off duty". Maybe e-mail might be a better way for progress reports. Maybe the money saved through reduced mailing costs could be used for hiring teacher's aids to free up the teachers to make the reports (and other more important chores). As voters and people who control local school boards, maybe we can influence the boards in that type of change. We definitely need to influence our state representatives and governors to remove this stupid testing system. It may sound good at first glance, but what we really have is an enormous amount of time wasted teaching people to take "the test" rather than any real learning going on. My grandson was a C+/B- student in Brooklyn public schools. He is a A student since we moved to Florida. He did dot get any smarter. In many districts in the state of NY, parents are allowing their children to boycott these tests. Here in Florida, if the students at “School A” have high FCAT scores, then “School A” gets more money next year. If the students at “School B” have poor FCAT grades, then “School B” gets less money in next year's budget. BuSh's rational is "why reward ineffective teaching?" Maybe the low FCAT scores were caused by lack of nutrition or the low scores could have been caused by many other variables or reasons which might be grist for another thread. But to remove help from those who need it most is a sick policy. If two people fell off opposite sides of a cruise ship, one an x-Olympic swimmer and one a person who could barely float, and there was only one life preserver available, by BuSh's logic, they would throw the life preserver to the Olympian. As voters we have to push our legislators to dedicate tax dollars to schools. This year's SAT scores were appalling . 503 doesn't sound that bad until you realize that you get 400 points for signing your name. So 503 on a test that goes from 400 to 800, really means 103 out of 400 or about 25%. That was the average test score on the one of the SAT's sections this year. The USA is producing children who pass the mandatory tests, but are functionally illiterate. We complain about the good jobs going overseas, but our children will not be able to perform the good jobs with the educations that they are getting even if the jobs stayed here. The USA will soon be a third world country with a Super Power Military if we do not wake up soon. The town where I live has two types of job available. Real estate (including construction and contracting) and retail sales. When all the lots are sold and filled with homes and stores, there will be only retail jobs left. How can people pay quarter of a million dollar mortgages on Wal-Mart and Home Depot sales associate's wages?

There are three generally accepted versions of the 10 commandments: Protestant Version: 1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the Water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy Manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 5. Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 6. Thou shalt not kill. 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 8. Thou shalt not steal. 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's. Catholic Version: 1. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. 2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 3. Remember thou keep the Sabbath Day. 4. Honor thy Father and thy Mother. 5. Thou shalt not kill. 6. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 7. Thou shalt not steal. 8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife. 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods. Hebrew Version: 1. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 2. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; Thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; And showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments. 3. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the sabbath in honour of the Lord thy God; on it thou shalt not do any work, neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 4. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the sabbath in honour of the Lord thy God; on it thou shalt not do any work, neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 5. Honour thy father and thy mother; in order that thy days may be prolonged upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 6. Thou shalt not kill. 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 8. Thou shalt not steal. 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. However, I defy anyone to show me anywhere in the Bible where 10 commandments are laid out and numbered 1 through 10. In both Exodus and Deuteronomy, there are what most people would call the basis for the Ten Commandments, but Exodus 20 takes verses 2 to 17 to spell out the Ten Commandments, while Deuteronomy 5 needs verses 6 through 21. That is 16 verses in each book to spell out 10 commandments.

Who is they? The reason that removing recess is being discussed is because of budget constraints. The reason for budget constraints is that it is almost impossible to raise taxes for the schools without a politician being called that ultimate dirty word: LIBERAL. We have to make up our minds. Do we love our children and want them to have a good education or is it more important to keep taxes down? No one likes paying taxes, but if the alternative is children who can't read, children who can't do math, children who are fat and out of shape, and most of all, children who when they become adults are too out of shape to live a long healthy life and who are too ignorant of the world to be able to cast an intelligent vote, I'll pay the taxes. And I don't have children in school, but I will pay the taxes for my fellow Americans' children.