BJean

patty if you're stop rolling your eyes maybe you'd read and learn. As for that essay you forwarded to us I have a response to that former Marine who is tired. No doubt he is tired and he's very confused too. Here goes... All your yapping about Kerry, you're as much of a little sheep as your tea baggin' friends. Did you pay any attention when it came out that the mega wealthy guys who funded the anti-Kerry campaign lied? No, obviously you didn't. And in spite of that you're willing to jump on the Republican bandwagon and impune the reputation of a decorated American soldier. You can do that without a guilty conscience? What a guy. Did you do your homework on just how often George W. Bush actually put on his uniform? No, obviously you didn't. If you had you wouldn't be bringing up his name in a discussion of men who have served this country honorably. You're tired because the corporate big wigs have sucked you dry after you put in all his long hours of work your whole life. The government doesn't have the bulk of the wealth your worried about paying them. The corporatations that your government helps subsidize and the stuff you purchase that those corporations make is where the biggest portion of your wealth goes. And very often they don't even make it here in the United States. And you have a small carbon foot print by owning two homes? Get real buster. You're just as big a consumer as everybody else and you're whining because you don't want your life of luxury to be changed to save our environment. Blame that on Al Gore? What a cop out! You Marines think the whole world owes you something because you went off to war. Well, by your logic you need to stop sucking the government teat, forego your military retirement and thank the rest of us for giving you a job in the military sector where you got paid and medical was taken care of for you and your family and your groceries and merchandise were discounted and probably still are. Your bitterness against the Democrats is wholly unfounded. You need to quitcher whining and get back to work because since your Republican dominated government has favored the wealthy for so long it has made it imperative that even after age 63, dude, you're going to have to keep working!!!

phil, you've got my vote. And Cleo's I believe that you are entirely correct about who's funding the Tea Party "movement" which is less a real political grass roots movement than a corporate P.R. campaign. They throw in the anti-gun control, anti-abortion, anti-government, pro-right wing extremist religious stuff to suck people in. Their true agenda is no federal regulations for corporations and continued subsidies for corporations. And it works so well because of the emotional hook that it provides to the right wing conservatives that are already in such a frenzy because a black Democrat was elected to be our president. The whole thing is lucicrous because the black Democrat has been shown to be totally willing to work with Republicans to get America back on its' feet.

Yes, patty seems to take her seriously. Have you ever met such self-serving, selfish, idiots? They're disgusting to be around. Everything is all about them and their welfare. The rest of the country be damned. Me, me, me, me, me. They'd make great Halliburton CEOs or Oil company executives. In fact, let's face it, these nutheads are those guys' champions. Now Michelle Bachmann I can understand. She stands to profit from her pontificating puke. But patty? Just a sheep being led to the slaughter.

Teachers deserve more than they get. We need to upgrade teacher's qualifications and pay them more. We should care more about our children in America - you know, they ones who actually are living, breathing human beings. They actually ARE our future and we can't invest too much in their education and potential for continuing this great country of ours. You probably don't make as much as they do and you resent what they make. Which is understandable because all your arguments boil down to what's best for patty's pocketbook.

Yes and if they are able to convince enough pattys to go out and vote them back in office, then God help us!

patty just cannot see the big picture - the one where the president has to think about and balance all of the problems in this country. You know, the very thing that Bush did not do while he was in office. Bush and Cheney had an agenda when they rode into office. They carried it out and the entire country has suffered tremendously in the process. There is no quick fix that's going to make everything right again. And the only way we can get things back on track - the track of fiscal responsibility - is to systematically go through the mess and make some choices. The choices that are being made may not bring the desired result, but they might just do the trick. No one person has all the answers - especially NOT the stupid greedy Republicans who got us here in the first place. So for a right wing extremist to bellyache about spending NOW, after they are the ones who let the cows out of the barn, is utter folly and most Americans know it. The only ones who keep talking about how bad the government is and how awful the congress and president are for trying to fix our broken economy, the more stupid and selfish they look. And miss broken record there should for once stand back and look at the big picture of her great nation that has been brought to its' knees by the very people she likes to quote. Go back to using your tea bag to make tea because all you're coming up with using the tea bagger nonsense is more selfish, single-minded clap trap.

Well said! That was actually what I was trying to say in an earlier post! Self-confidence is an aphrodisiac. That's why "bad boys" are so attractive to women. And a self-confident woman (not a self-centered woman) is usually a better bed partner. As ouroborous intimated, a person apologizing all the time for her arms, tummy or whatever, is really focused on all the wrong stuff when you're wanting to have a good time. It's been my experience that if you're focused on your mate and you're not worried about your pound of flesh (metaphorically) you're both going to have more fun for sure!

You know when you're waiting for your date to arrive, all kinds of things go through your head. If you're like me, the more things you get resolved the more confident you'll feel. Now I think a good plan of action is to track down some extremely hip music that you can shake that thang to when you're feeling your Wheaties about 6 months from now!

Keep up the good fight!!

You know most people after posting something so blatantly wrong, would go missing until the smoke blew over. But not our patty. She'll come back swinging with some other misrepresentation or lie or Bible thumping proclamation. These people are fueled by the fires that rage at Fox. Which are fueled by the fires that Rupert Murdoch starts.

If I were a betting man.... my money would be on likes to spread lies and cause trouble.

Cleo's sounds like you are a driving force in your community for the party. I'm impressed. I always talked about getting politically involved but I am too big a chicken to go public when I live in such a Republican, Tea bagging community. Besides my DH is the force in this house. And yes, we moved because of jobs. Thanks for letting us see a little glimpse of where you live. Guess there are red neckersons everywhere!

You bet your sweet life it's unsustainable. And that's why you should wise up and get behind your president and congress and stop allowing those self-serving, greedy, corporate driven Republicans influence your thinking. We didn't get in this mess because of any other kind of welfare but corporate welfare. I absolutely do not understand why you keep adding two plus two and getting seven. It is not that complicated. But it's also not as simple as Republicans want you to believe - that the reason we have such an enormous deficit is because of the help we give needy people. For you to keep acting like that is the problem only proves that you are being sucked in by the corporate political machine. :Dancing_biggrin:

Oh man that makes me feel better. 25 to 30 is acceptable given your manlihood. Yeah I really need something like steroids to make my head go bald and grow a mustache. But I would love to have upper arms with muscle definition. I hate it when I stop waving goodbye but my underarms keep waving. Maybe I could buy a wig and go for lots of waxing. Keep up the good work shedding the lbs.

tdsfl1, you betcha! Great points and how could I have forgotten you from the list above... you are one of the ones I was referring to who make so much sense. We should all stop taking it for granted that because they're so wrong and so transparent we can just sit quietly by and expect them to go down in flames. It just doesn't happen that way with the Republicans. When someone in life is willing to lie, willing to do anything whether it is honest or not, there will be people who believe them and people who will follow their lead. This is true in our daily lives at work, in our families and with our friends. You've probably met people who operate like the Republicans. You can't sit idly by and let them get away with it because if you do, they will definitely get away with it. We need do what you suggest, it makes sense. We have to speak up. Good post.

Oh my goodness... grade me if you must. I will tell you that the idea of listing all the places we've lived sounds like a fun exercise. I haven't thought about many of them in quite some time. Born in Las Vegas, Nevada. Too young to form an opinion. Then I've lived in these places in this order: 1) Tulsa Oklahoma, I consider Tulsa my hometown and it was a very pretty place, rolling hills with very genuinely sweet people. 2) Petersburg Virginia, very closed community with an unreal sense of their own importance probably due to reading about themselves in the history books. Still stuck in the Civil War mentality. However I worked in Richmond and found those people to be much more open and everyone was extremely good to me. Very southern! 3) Sierra Vista Arizona, incredibly beautiful desert mountain scenery and a climate that totally agreed with me. I continue to love high desert as my favorite climate. 4) Norfolk Virginia, discrimination problems but lots of historical and interesting surroundings. 5) Sierra Vista Arizona, same as above. 6) Tulsa Oklahoma, returning was interesting. Politics had changed considerably making it a less fun place to live. 7) Chantilly Virginia, one of my favorite times of my life. Lots and lots of histoical things to see and do, lots of good continuing educational opportunities, lots of natural beauty. And everyone I met had an opinion and seemed intelligent. 8) Orlando Florida, God didn't mean for humans to live in a climate like Orlando's. The bugs and critters were interesting but no fun to live with. However I did have a bob cat that lived behind my house and it was a beauty. I became very involved in philanthropic endeavors which fortunately kept me mostly inside. 9) Montreal Canada, a totally awesome experience. Learned to snow ski and cross country ski and walked the hills of Montreal enjoying the beautiful British section of town. People were very high on themselves and low on English speakers for the most part. Silly politics. Incredible places to eat, drink and be merry. Fabulous views from my downtown apartment on the 18th floor of a high rise. 10) Orlando Florida, back again :-( 11) Colleyville Texas, neat little berg. Nice people, beautiful homes, but too noisy. 12) Haslet Texas, too far out, too quiet. A little too Nascar if you know what I mean. 13) Ft. Worth Texas, husband's hometown. Much like Tulsa in many ways. I'm ready to go whenever he says lets move on. Good Canasta group except for the women's extremist political views. TMI? That'll teach you not to get me started! Ha. Now tell me what it's like to live in the same place all your life. I honestly can't imagine going to the store and running into my 3rd grade teacher. Now I'm trying to decide where I'd like to live next. I have always loved the mountains. Have you ever heard of Cuchara Colorado? It's a tiny little berg that has the most amazing mountain vistas. But I'll probably just stay planted in Texas. Although the political climate is terrible and I would love to be in California or Colorado. Santa Fe would work too though. And I loved Canada and the Adirondack (misspelled?) mountains would be awesome.

You and Cleo's and Leigha and phil and others have called them out on their lame arguments. And I say to all of you GOOD JOB!!!!

We lived in Petersburg, Virginia, south of Richmond over 30 years ago. The cigarette companies, Brown & Williamson, Raleigh, etc., so polluted the air you could hardly breathe. Dow and Dupont chemical companies and others polluted the river so badly that for many years you could not eat the fish that came from the river or Chesapeake Bay area. So environmentalists caused the government to clean it all up, right? I mean some of the regs were in place but the coprorations just ignored them and dealt with the paltry fines. I haven't been back in years and I don't know what the situation is now. I am sure some of it has been cleaned up but there seems to be no end to the dishonest and irresponsible way corporations do business in the U.S. And why you ask? Because we allow it. We allow it because we value the money we make working for them and buying their stock on wallstreet and we value the products that they sell us more than we value a pristine environment. It reminds me of the immigration problem. It's impossible to blame the immigrants themselves because we virtually invite them here with the policies we ignore. We ignore tham because we value the jobs that immigrants do that make companies money and we value the products that they provide at prices we like. As long as we're part of the problem there will never be a solution. As long as Republicans lie and cloud the real issues with emotionally charged issues like abortion and separation of church and state and taxes and welfare, we're doomed to more of the same: life that becomes less and less healthy by the year. We're now looking at a generation that will not live longer than their parents. We have so many problems in the U.S. that people are retiring to other countries in record numbers. And let me tell you, it is very tempting to think about doing that very thing. Why not live in a country that has cleaner air and water? Why not live in a country where your limited retirement income can buy you a decent home and fresh food that hasn't been loaded with preservatives and shipped from other countries? Why not live where there's no gas or oil wells putting out unhealthy emissions in the air we breathe? Why not live a simpler life - one without the idea that you must have a better car than your neighbor and a bigger television and more expensive clothes? Why not live where you can walk or take public transit rather than jumping in your car everytime you need something? Why not live without freaking Walmart whose shelves are filled with products (often unsafe products) made in China? China, the very country we are indebted to for a war that should never have been waged. And what happens when we discover that dog food from China is laced with poisonous residue? Or toys made with lead paint? Or baby formula that has melamine in it disguised as protein? We refuse to accept products from a country like that, right? No. We don't. We might get rid of the stuff when we discover it, but our importing of goods from China hasn't stopped. We're too beholden to them. America used to be the best place to live in the world. The best place for middle income folks. Good people. Hard workers. People who made up the majority of our population. Well those numbers of middle income people has shrunk drastically. And what about the wealthy? Those numbers grew by unprecedented numbers under the Republicans. More billionaires - BILLIONAIRES - than anyone would have thought possible in double the amount of time it took. And the poor? Those numbers are growing too. I like what the president said about corporate America. Let's just wait and see if it causes any improvement. I have my doubts but I hope and pray that I am wrong.

Good for you Leigha. You've taken the time to explain it. I usually am just so exasperated by her logic I start slinging barbs.

Oh you're going to love the taste of food once you're off the liquids and mushies! It's amazing how great everything tastes. I think that because we're off the super foods - high calorie, sugary, white stuff - our taste buds are invigorated. Maybe all the sweet stuff and simple carbs dulled our senses to real food and that's why we wound up craving the super foods. You're going to love the taste of nutritious food now.

The reason the government sticks it's nose in is because people are incredibly stupid and can't resolve issues on their own. You of all people should be able to understand that!

That is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read. Environmentalist nuts. Has a cool ring to it doesn't it? Straight from the wizard's mouth to your ears. Lap, lap, lap, lapping up the kool-aide as fast as it can be handed to you.

I suppose the only way it is possible for us to change our way of life is for one catastrophy after another to happen until we find ourselves unable to breathe or physically survive what we've created. That means that a lot more people are going to have to die before enough people learn what they need to do and actually make the changes. Won't happen in my lifetime, sad to say.

I'm not surprised that you don't understand. I am not saying that you need to give up your relationship with God. I am saying that you do need to look within yourself to be able to find goodness, unconditional love and forgiveness and to not judge others. By your own posts, you do not have any of those things through reading the Bible and heeding God's word. Think of the Bible as a map. What you need to learn is that you're reading it upside down. If someone, like me, points out what you have been saying in your posts, you deny those things and you use God as proof that you're something different from what your posts indicate that you are. But I've been reading what you believe over and over and over and over and those posts have been quite consistent. We are not put here to find God, read the Bible, be born again, and go about sinning because that's what God tells us that we are - sinners - and then die and go to heaven. If I am wrong I have nothing to lose, if you're wrong you lose everything.

You probably can't imagine what this one post reveals about who you are. It explains why you think people can't be good and if they're a born again why they don't need to even try. It explains why you would turn someone away from a food bank just because they're smoking a cigarette. It explains why you hate the government... you hate the fact that you took assistance when you knew you really were capable of taking care of yourself and you think that everyone who gets help from the government is just like you. And you think the government is wrong for taking your tax dollars to help someone like you, who didn't really need it. A person often turns to religion to be able to live with all the things that they've done and continue to do that makes them desperately need the extreme fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. They need it so that they can be assured of God's forgiveness and his promise of a grand life hereafter in heaven. patty, there is more to be had here on earth than what you've resigned yourself to. There is better. You can get the peace and love and happiness that you so desperately need. But true peace comes from within yourself not from the outside. Not from what others have taught you about sin and heaven, not even what the Bible tells you. It's bigger than all that. You just have to stop being so tied up in such a neat little package of religion that you closed off to something much bigger. And I'm not saying you have to give up your religion - not at all. You just have to understand that you personally are better than what you think you are. And you need to understand that other people are capable of goodness without any religion at all. YOU are capable of goodness. YOU are capable of not committing the acts that you must ask God forgiveness for. YOU are the answer to so many of the things that you're struggling with. It's within you. I only hope that one day you can find the kind of love and peace that you are capable of feeling. It would be wonderful indeed if you could go through what you have left of your life in harmony with others, extending unconditional love and the emotional rewards that it would give you.