BJean

When hell freezes over. LOL

I know this is true phil, having witnessed that very thing on numerous occasions. I'm pretty sure that if you're not someone with a fundamentalist religious rant, they're pretty sure that you're the boogie man and going to hell and they're willing to start the process here. On the other hand, if you're a "Christian" in the right wing sense of the word, they don't want to mess with you because God will surely strike them down if they do. Us U.S. Americans are totally pitted against one another and some of us don't even have maps. This makes total sense if you ever saw the very right wing Miss Universe (I think it was) spouting one of her brilliant pearls of wisdom.

You've done a bang up job of proving my point. Thanks. No mistaking what you use for brains. And you just keep getting meaner by the day. Not even feigning an ability to really understand the issues or what's going on in Washington. Simply a collossal brainwashing job, thanks to the mom and pop tea baggers, Fox entertainment news and all the rest. Keep it up. You're doing a great job of helping the Democratic party in general and Obama in particular. You people are traitors to the American cause and the American way. And this kind of stupidity is dangerous.

I'm curious. Are you deaf and dumb or just stupid? You've posted a lot of the usual lies and misdemeanors perpetrated by the tea baggers, fox hounds and limbaugh lug head, but this is genuinely ridiculous. The biggest shame going on this country is the derision, discontent and outright blind obedience to the right wing extremist rethoric of those who are unable to broaden their media horizons beyond the Rupurt Murdoch machinery. Buck up kiddos, do think hard about how your leaders have impossibly stalemated themselves into a corner and standing in the way of America's rebuilding. Any way you look at it, you lose unless you try to understand and work with your president and leaders in some kind of conciliatory manner. We won the elections and until things turn, you're stuck with us. We disagreed with nearly everything Bush had to say but we worked with the idiot as best we could. We complained but we didn't refuse to do what we could to make this country safe and better for everyone. They sold us down the river and we kicked the bums out - why are you nut balls thinking that you're the majority who knows best. You had your chance and you blew it big time. And unfortunately you continue to blow it with comments like yours above.

I love the car stuck in the mud analogy.

Good information. But don't expect it to hold any sway with the religious fanatics and right wing tea baggers. They have been fully endoctrinated and please don't confuse them with the facts. It infuriates them to have facts in front of them because it means they have to spend more time finding out how they're supposed to respond from their very fundamentalist/right wing/extremist sources. And don't worry, these things have been mapped out ad infinitim for them and they will be able to sort it out so that they can use the buzz words and rethoric to "prove" how right they are when they post a highly offended sounding retort eschewing the facts and insisting that this is a "Christian Nation" and was from the day it was founded. If I sound negative it's because we've been down this path on several previous occasions.

Excellent, excellent post! Well done.

leroy it boggles the mind doesn't it? Socialism is a buzz word that the right wing has gommed onto that makes them feel all warm and fuzzy and patriotic toward capitalism. We're learing that many people who are so right wing that they have become exclusionary are now fixated to the extent that they are extremists in the worst sense of the word. Sometimes they spew the same things that extremists in the Middle East spew. Yet they say they hate Muslims and have insulted our president (in their eyes) by calling him a Muslim. The right wing crazies are drinking the Limbaugh/Fox kool-aide and nothing any real free thinker can tell them will convince them to stand back and reasses their abandonment to the kool-aide fix they crave everyday. For one of them to stand up with tears streaming and say, "I want my country back" it is obvious that they are a real threat to our democratic process and our American way of life. Because if you don't join the Tea Party bandwagon and drink the tea party kool-aide, they'd probably just as soon shoot you as have a debate with you.

You are the one who flipped out about his use of that word. It's you who I asked to define it because you seemed to think that it was the equivalent of someone calling the president a "nigger." tdslf the thing that is so confounding to anyone who has a truly fair and civil bone in his body is why people like Rush Limbaugh and the incredibly unfair and biased Fox network commontaters are given any credibility at all, ever. Rush Limbaugh is a bald-faced liar. He has always lied but only in the past few years has he been able to amass such a following of people who apparently believe that he is speaking truth. He is a very dishonest, very clever and devious mad man. And he's laughing all the way to the bank - on the backs of the poor ignorant bastards who think he's the second coming. Rupurt Murdoch is similarly motivated and dishonest and although he only directly controls his Fox empire (as far as I know) he indirectly affects all the other networks because they spend time having to deal with the load of crap that he's dishing out. He's also laughing all the way to the bank and the power he wields is unbelievable in light of the fact that he's such a blatantly dishonest and biased person. Of course we have to discuss it. It's outrageous and it is affecting our lives as free Americans in a very bad way.

Yay Stacy! Who knew a little refried beans could be so darned good!!

Ok I went to out to lunch with the man about half an hour ago and ordered a cup of clam chowder. I ate about a fourth of it and felt fine at first. Now I feel really yukee. I only had like one or two pieces of clam. I think the whole thing was just too rich. Ugh! No pain or anything like that. Just an overall feeling of wantiing to lie down.

Is it just me or do all the posts by us bleeding hearts sound a little different? You know, different perspectives, different wording, different reactions to the neocon's posts, etc.? Whereas the extremist right wing posts all seem to reek of Fox's buzz words/talking points?

Wow congratulations Phil on your retirement to the land of enchantment (so to speak.) I've always enjoyed visiting but wouldn't want to live there because of the heat and humidity. Of course I lived in Orlando which is chock full of G-d and Guns and Disney dancers and singers with the heat and humidity but absolutely no ocean breezes. So I dunno, maybe I would like living in Key West better. It is definitely a whole 'nuther very laid back lifestyle. I hope you love it and are living the good life.

Why yes, blush, I'm quite clever. At least you're smart enough to recognize that. Thanks.

Wow I'm confused... My doctor will not allow me to take Prevacid or Tums or any pills or chewable antacids. I had some burning after I drank Water especially and he said that I can take a little Mylanta. So that's what I started doing if I drank anything before bedtime and tried to lay down to go to sleep. If the burning begins, now I take a tiny teaspoon of Mylanta and can drop right off to sleep. I don't know why water is such a problem. Makes no sense to me. But my doctor defnitely has not prescribed anything to take like that on a regular basis. I will have to ask him why not since so many of you are taking antacids all the time. P.S. Try sleeping in a chair instead of laying down when it gets really bad. I have a long history (before the sleeve) of acid reflux from a hiatal hernia and spent many a night sleeping upright.

I too had refried Beans when my menu plan said I could have black beans. I didn't have a good ready source of black beans so I went for it. The refried beans are the only thing I've gone astray with and I was only eating about 400 cal per day even with the beans. I had absolutely no problem with them the first time I tried them but the second time I couldn't eat as much - only about 2 ozs. But they were absolutely wonderful. I watched Barefoot Contessa make lentil soup that looked awesome. Maybe I'll try making some of that and freezing some for a few weeks down the road. Today I was allowed salmon and although I couldn't eat much it was absolutely the best thing I believe I've ever had. And I'm not much of a fish person. Let's revise that I USED to be not much of a fish person. I'm changing my ways!!

I came home from the hospital and immediately put on 4 lbs!! I couldn't understand it but I knew not to get too upset because with all I'd been through and only eating liquids, etc., that it must be a temporary situation. I guess like someone said here, my body was retaining Fluid because of the trauma and swelling. If your incision sites were a bit irritated, you could definitely be retaining fluid. It's your body's way of helping deal with any toxins and with the healing process itself. It makes me feel better and I hope it makes you feel better Tiffany that there are actual reasons why the scale wouldn't reflect you eating so much less than normal. And if you are like me, I've been on so many diets that worked and then they didn't, no matter what I did. So it's hard to stay confident when we've been through things that just didn't turn out well. This time it will. I'm convinced that this is different and we aren't just dieting. We actually do have help - a large portion of our stomach is gone and our body composition has changed forever. Also, our stomach produces hormones and all that changed with the surgery too. I don't know how many stories I've read about people becoming depressed after the surgery. I'm trying very hard to keep that from happening to me and to stay upbeat no matter what. The people who are so supportive here help with that. I am glad you've seen a drop in the scale now - be happy that you have a plan and you're headed in the right direction. We're all pulling for you!

I'm confused. Who're we talking to here ariscus or patty? We were debating with patty then she disappeared and then ariscus took up the cause. Are they tag teaming us?

I have no way of knowing how someone who is developmentally challenged feels about hearing the word "retard" so I certainly accept your word on the subject. However, there's a difference between someone using the term to denote someone who is seeimgly not very bright when they are spouting politics, and someone who is actually developmentally challenged. Not that it is an acceptable term for anyone to use, admittedly. But for someone to call the president or other black person a "nigger" is truly a different can of worms. The way I know this is because of the common usages of the word today. For someone to call another person a "retard" they are accusing the person of not being very bright. For someone to call another person a "nigger" means that they are literally less of a human being, one who is inferior not just intellectually but also in every other way imaginable. So I while I think your point is well taken, I disagree that the term "nigger" is on the same insult scale as some of the other slurs you listed. But then I don't use racial or intellectual slurs as a general rule. By the way, what's a pape? Did you mean pope?

You hang out with patty I presume?

Now give us the background on the word 'retard' and how it was originally used and what it has come to mean today.

I blame the greedy mortgage lenders who came up with the outrageous programs that allowed people to own homes they couldn't afford. The congressional law makers did not think those up. In fact, if they knew it would go that far, they would have imposed regulations instead of trusting that the lenders would do business in a morally upright fashion.

I am not against gun ownership at all. And I get it about the "right to bear arms" and "keeping the the government in check" mantra. But I have to strongly disagree with you here, Leigha. If we weren't such an open nation it might be different, but we have so many people here illegally, some who are terrorists making plans as I type, and true gangster Americans who are willing to kill and be killed for money and power. None of them should be able to buy any kind of weaponry here. And how can we stop them unless we law abiding citizens are willing to fill out the forms and have our names cross referenced and even our finger prints taken and checked out (what's wrong with that?) before we buy a gun? Too many murders are committed in the heat of passion and waiting until it is confirmed that you are a law-abiding American citizen should not cause any gun purchaser any grief if they have don't have plans to do something illegal. Most of the NRA and gun lobbies are controlled by the weapons manufacturers. So once again, big business is controlling our safety in this country. When are we going to stop allowing greed to influence us? Bottom line: we can own guns and still have checks and balances to protect the innocent.

You peeps crack me up!!! I thought it was fortuitous that this BP disaster right off our shores followed the president's announcement that he was endorsing offshore drill, baby drilling. I don't know why they didn't call Joe. Maybe he was out of touch because he was off playing with somebody's plumbing. He was his own disaster just waiting to happen. So are the tea baggers.

I think I had enough experience with the band that I recognize that feeling in my esophogus and so far, knock on wood, that hasn't happened to me. I added up the calories in the tuna, low-fat mayo and a tiny bit of pickle relish with 4 crackers and it is less than 300 calories. What a great treat for that number of calories.